Inequality, corruption blocking nat’l progress: Jamaat

Staff Reporter :

In an uncommon appearance on a mainstream economic platform, Jamaat-e-Islami Ameer Dr. Shafiqur Rahman on Saturday used a national business conference to deliver a sweeping critique of Bangladesh’s economic architecture, arguing that inequality, corruption and bureaucratic paralysis are preventing the country’s human resources from becoming a “true national asset.”

Speaking at the Bangladesh Economic Conference 2025 — an event organised by Banik Barta, one of the country’s leading business dailies — Shafiqur presided over a session titled Fairness in the Economy at the Pan Pacific Sonargaon Hotel. His remarks signaled a broader attempt by the party, still navigating its political marginalisation of recent years, to recast itself as a voice in national economic debate rather than only political contestation.

“The economy cannot move forward unless fairness and equal opportunity are ensured for all,” Shafiqur told the audience of economists, bankers and business leaders. Even the poorest citizens, he said, bear the burden of the state’s fiscal decisions.

“A beggar pays tax when he buys something from a shop. A newborn baby also pays tax when someone purchases a product for the child,” he said — a rhetorical device aimed at underscoring how regressive taxation touches every layer of society.

He argued that foreign loans, too, are effectively a shared liability. “From babies to the elderly, everyone carries the burden of our borrowing,” he added, insisting that the economic system must therefore be built on a foundation of fairness.

Shafiqur’s speech devoted significant attention to structural impediments faced by Bangladeshi entrepreneurs, including procedural delays, land acquisition hurdles and harassment by agencies. These problems, he said, inflate project costs and often push bank loans into default — contributing to a cycle of non-performing loans that has plagued the financial sector for years.

Corruption and bureaucratic red tape, he warned, continue to sap confidence from both domestic and foreign investors. While businessmen are frequently portrayed as opportunists, he argued, many cooperate with governments “out of compulsion” to keep their enterprises alive. “There is no economy without politics,” he said. “When political leadership is healthy, the entire system functions properly.”

The Jamaat chief also touched on the steady outflow of talent, saying skilled Bangladeshis who migrate feel their abilities are not valued at home. The country, he warned, cannot afford continued brain drain if it seeks long-term growth.

Shafiqur outlined three priorities he sees as essential for national progress: a reformed education system capable of producing skilled manpower across sectors, uncompromising action against corruption, and justice and fairness embedded at every level of the economy.

If these principles can be achieved, he said, Bangladesh would be better positioned to stabilise socially and advance economically. Change, he added, will not come overnight but must begin with “firm commitment” from political and economic leadership alike.

A political message beneath the economic argument
While framed as a technical diagnosis of the economy, Shafiqur’s remarks carried a political subtext. By positioning fairness as inseparable from governance, he implicitly tied Bangladesh’s economic challenges to its political structure — echoing a view shared by many economists that entrenched inequality and rent-seeking have distorted the country’s growth trajectory.

For Jamaat-e-Islami, a party often excluded from formal political spaces, Saturday’s session offered a rare platform — and a chance to argue that economic reform cannot be discussed without confronting deeper issues of governance and political accountability.