Published in The Asian Age on Monday, 19 February 2018
Due importance to leadership quality emphasized
Tapan Khan
Speakers at a discussion stressed the need for giving due importance to leadership quality immediately for a peaceful participatory development in the statecraft of the country. They said without the participatory processes of the mass people, the development of the country will not be materialized.
The speakers were addressing at the discussion sessions of the third SANEM (South Asian Network on Economic Modeling) Conference at BRAC Centre Inn Auditorium in the city yesterday morning.The function was presided over by Dr Sultan Hafeez Rahman, Country Director of International Growth Centre Bangladesh and Executive Director of BRAC Institute of Governance and Development.
It was addressed, among others, by Professor Dr Rounaq Jahan, Distinguished Fellow of Centre for Police Dialogue (CPD), Dr Atono Rabbabi, Professor of Economics Department of Dhaka University, Professor Ms Serena Cocciolo of Institute for International Economic Studies, Stockholm University, Dr Mirza M Hassan, at BIGD, BRAC University, Dr Sayema Haque Bidisha of Dhaka University, MS Anna Minj, Director of Community Environment of BRAC Integrated Development, BRAC Gender Justice & Diversity, Dr Kazi Maruful Islam, Dr Syeda Salina Aziz, Mr Sultan M Zakaria of BRAC University.
The two key-themes of the discussion were read out at the morning sessions of the conference. Professor Dr Mirza M Hassan of BRAC University read out a paper on ‘Institutional-izing Deliberative Demo-cracy and Citizen Engagement in Patron-Clientelistic Settings’ while Ms Serena Cocciolo read out paper on ‘Mechanisms of Partic-ipatory Develo-pment : Fairness Norms and Value of Partici-pation’. In his paper, Dr Mirza M Hassan said that the democratic process in the country has been radically changing to cope with the present problems.
Professor Rounaq Jahan, criticizing the key-papers, said that the democratic process since 1991 has been changing radically leading to a bipolar politics in the country. She called for tolerance in politics based on logically acceptable parameter to all parties. She hoped that all the political parties would exercise rational politics acceptable to the mass people in the country.
Professor Rounaq Jahan, by not mentioning the names of the parties, said that these two parties have been behaving like autocrats destroying the democratic values and norms in the country. These parties were not accountable to the mass people over the years.
Dr Sultan Hafeez Rahman said that the politics of the country is now in trouble. The academicians need to play role for removing the impasse for the greater interest of the country, he opined.SANEM is one of the leading think-tanks in South Asia initiated to build a network of economists and policy makers in South Asia.