National Failures and their International Consequences

National Failures and their International Consequences

• Human & Immigrant Rights
• 1 Comments

By Dr. Reza Kibria

Dhaka, August 3, 2021

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere”. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

“To those people in the huts and villages of half the globe struggling to break the bonds of mass misery, we pledge our best efforts to help them help themselves, for whatever period is required…If a free society cannot help the many who are poor it cannot help the few that are rich.”   - John F. Kennedy

Overview

This paper sets out the case for a global perspective on the failures (due to corruption or incompetence or inadequate resources) of national governments. The global community’s interests cannot be adequately dealt without considering cross-border effects of national policies. The necessity for international cooperation will be considered in the context of three pressing global issues: illegal and forced migration; the Covid-19 pandemic and environmental degradation and climate change. It will be argued that the demands for national sovereignty and self-determination that defined much of the last century must give way to the imperatives for regional and global cooperation. The problems that poor national Covid-19 policies in Bangladesh and, (to a lesser extent) India will be used to illustrate some salient issues. It is a mistake to believe that badly managed countries such as Bangladesh can be reliable or effective partners in any joint global endeavor.

“The necessity for international cooperation will be considered in the context of three pressing global issues: illegal and forced migration; the Covid-19 pandemic and environmental degradation and climate change. It will be argued that the demands for national sovereignty and self-determination that defined much of the last century must give way to the imperatives for regional and global cooperation”.

The Covid-19 pandemic that began in early 2020 has not only changed the way many people live and work but may bring about a sea-change in how we view global issues. We suddenly have time for introspection and taking stock, not just of our own lives but our societies. Is this really the world we want to live in and leave to our children? Wealth is concentrated in a few hands while the poor are faced with the soul-destroying choice of which child they can afford to feed. Futile wars profit only armaments manufacturers, harming millions and depleting precious resources needed in education and healthcare. Refugees flee violence and hunger in failed states and are greeted with police batons in havens of peace and prosperity populated by otherwise decent people. In the face of compelling evidence that we are destroying our environment, Governments fail to achieve consensus on corrective actions, thereby betraying our collective responsibility to future generations. The state of the world even before Covid-19 does not seem to warrant smug satisfaction anywhere.

The Impracticality of Isolation

In the corridors of power of the nations “that matter” there is an unspoken understanding that some countries and people just “don’t matter”. The premise is that the prosperity and lifestyles of richer nations can exist in isolation, their populations untouched by suffering elsewhere, except by media images of hunger, misery, and genocide in distant lands. One questions this view given the fact that we breath the same air (granted the difference in air quality between New Delhi and Auckland), swim and fish in the same oceans, regard international travel for work or play as an essential part of our lives, and profit from the specialization in production and trade in goods and services that raise overall well-being. Moreover, with aging populations and huge unfunded pension liabilities in the industrial nations, their growth and fiscal stability cannot be sustained without immigration or “guest workers” willing to do jobs no resident is willing or able to do. The refugees now trying to enter Europe and the United States are testimony to the impossibility of remaining oblivious to what happens elsewhere. Building walls appears to be a simple but expensive response to the problem of keeping people out, but will it really be effective?

“Moreover, with aging populations and huge unfunded pension liabilities in the industrial nations, their growth and fiscal stability cannot be sustained without immigration or “guest workers” willing to do jobs no resident is willing or able to do. The refugees now trying to enter Europe and the United States are testimony to the impossibility of remaining oblivious to what happens elsewhere. Building walls appears to be a simple but expensive response to the problem of keeping people out, but will it really be effective?”

The United States, its confidence shaken by a series of unfortunate foreign adventures, in recent years seemed to have moved away from the globalist ethos of the post-World War II era. The United States resiled from some international commitments and for a time was seen as no longer willing or able to take up the mantle of global leadership. The coronavirus may strengthen isolationism in the United States, but It would be unjust to blame just this one country for turning inwards. Most OECD nations (Germany, the Netherlands and the Scandinavian countries being partial exceptions) mouth vaguely comforting platitudes about being “partners in development”, but these statements mask basically similar attitudes. As for the United Nations and other international agencies, they merely mimic the attitudes and actions of the richer nations who largely fund and control them.

The richer nations (the “North”) may need to rethink their strategy towards the rest of the world (the “South”). This should be not out of any sense of philanthropy, post-colonial guilt or in terms of being a source of raw materials, market for their manufactures or investment destination, but with a view to protecting their own interests. The Covid-19 crisis has exposed some critical fault lines in countries of the South that threaten the well-being not only of their own people, but of the entire world. Perhaps this crisis, being more “urgent” and immediately felt than the consequences of global warming, may lead to a better appreciation of the fact that corruption, inefficiency, and the absence of democratic accountability anywhere affects us everywhere. A much more pro-active stance towards governance reform in the South may turn out to be the best and most sustainable “defensive” strategy for the North.

“The Covid-19 crisis has exposed some critical fault lines in countries of the South that threaten the well-being not only of their own people, but of the entire world. Perhaps this crisis, being more “urgent” and immediately felt than the consequences of global warming, may lead to a better appreciation of the fact that corruption, inefficiency, and the absence of democratic accountability anywhere affects us everywhere. A much more pro-active stance towards governance reform in the South may turn out to be the best and most sustainable “defensive” strategy for the North”.

The Costs of Bad Governance at the National Level: Bangladesh

The North has acquiesced in the emergence of outright dictatorships and autocracies masquerading as democracies.  Bangladesh is one example of such a “fake democracy”. Kleptocratic rulers, blatantly rigged elections, the stifling of dissent and the harassment of the opposition and the media present a familiar pattern. The Bangladesh elections in December 2018 were marked by remarkable turn-out numbers – figures in the high 90s were not uncommon and one enthusiastic election official initially declared a turnout of 104% in a southern constituency. The Government and its allies “won” 294 out of 300 parliamentary seats. The use of ruling party thugs, police, and security forces to intimidate and brutalize opponents has so far ensured the absence of any major displays of public disaffection, so far. Forced disappearances are not uncommon, opposition leaders face numerous trumped-up legal cases and the recent murders and torture of university students, bloggers and cartoonists making anti-Government posts on the internet are symptomatic of the risks faced by those who oppose the regimes. There were some mildly disapproving statements from development partners after the elections and oppressive Government actions and then it was “business as usual”.

There is vast and obvious corruption throughout the Government, as reflected in the defaulting on loans taken from state banks by political cronies and the inflating of infrastructure project costs by large “commissions”. This has been associated with widening inequality, the build-up of debt without a matching accumulation of assets, the weakening of the financial system, capital flight, high costs of doing business, and glaring inefficiency in administration. The absence of democratic institutions, free and fair elections and a free media preclude any real accountability. Without political and judicial accountability there can be no incentive to improve governance. All this is seen by some outside observers as the price of political and economic “stability”.

The Bangladesh Government, widely perceived as illegitimate, has failed to win the confidence of the public due to mismanagement, corruption, and inefficiency in its handling of the coronavirus crisis. The public health system has been quickly overwhelmed by Covid and testing has been minimal. Official statistics on infections and deaths are regarded with disbelief. The Government failed to introduce a strict lockdown reinforced by a curfew. Instead, a “general holiday” announced at the end of March 2020 represented a confused and half-hearted response to the coronavirus. Subsequent partial lockdowns have severely damaged the economy without containing the outbreak. The delayed and inadequate Government response has caused great consternation and anger as it is believed to have resulted in needless suffering and deaths. The lockdowns have reduced the poor to destitution and hunger. In such a situation the very poor in Bangladesh do not face a “decline in net worth” or “financial losses”, they face hunger and starvation. The Government, mired in a culture of graft, has found it impossible to develop a reliable system for relief distribution. The Government’s response has been to arrest journalists and even private individuals who draw attention to such activities. The sheer incompetence of the Government has been highlighted by its delayed and failed efforts to procure vaccines (reflected in its failure to procure vaccines contracted from India with advance payments and its initial refusal to accept help from China and other countries) and vaccinate a significant portion of the population, a policy regarded as the only reliable way out of this pandemic.

The Global and Regional Consequences of Good National Governance

The honest answer of some observers in the North to all this will be, “how does this matter to me?”. The response should be, it will matter, probably sooner rather than later. The effects of incompetent government in such countries must eventually spill over to the North. Even before Covid-19, there were a large number of states in the failed or failing state category, most of them corrupt and non-democratic. The current crisis will add quite a few more to this list.

“The honest answer of some observers in the North to all this will be, “how does this matter to me?”. The response should be, it will matter, probably sooner rather than later. The effects of incompetent government in such countries must eventually spill over to the North. Even before Covid-19, there were many states in the failed or failing state category, most of them corrupt and non-democratic. The current crisis will add quite a few more to this list”.

India is a pertinent example. By largely leaving this large nation (which until recently had pretensions of being a global power) to its own devices in recent decades, the world has watched in consternation how the Indian claims to development and economic progress have been eviscerated by Covid-19. A premature declaration of victory over Covid made by the Indian Prime Minister at Davos in early 2021 and the subsequent revelations about its unreliability as a source of medicines and vaccines have not served to boost the image of India. Examples of individual brilliance and competence of Indian nationals internationally led to false perceptions of the administrative competence of the Indian political establishment. The Modi regime’s (whose motto has been “Make in India”) lack of understanding of the issues at hand or helplessness in controlling the outbreak have resulted in the wide circulation and ultimate mutation of the Covid virus into the extremely virulent “Indian” or “Delta” variant which now threatens to overwhelm the whole world. The entire South Asian region has been adversely affected by Indian policy failures in this area. International attention should have been focused much earlier on providing help to India, recognizing the weak health infrastructure and weak administrative capacity of the Modi regime.

Good governance everywhere is desirable due to negative “spillover” effects of dysfunctional states and the positive effects of competent management. Corruption, for example, is often the cause of unsustainable debt burdens, with assets created not being matched by outlays, creating debt crises that strain global financial markets. Reducing the economic and social factors that encourage people to migrate would also necessitate less expenditure on discouraging illegal immigration to the North. Moreover, with more efficient governments, capital-poor nations with high rates of return for capital, strong demographics, and high propensities to consume could be even more attractive destinations for investment. A final consideration is that corrupt and incompetent governments make poor partners in any international initiative, from tackling Covid-19, to eliminating terrorism and dealing with the problems caused by global warming. The forthcoming COP26 Summit in Glasgow in November 2021 highlights the need to address some of the issues of effective framework for international cooperation raised in this discussion.

“A final consideration is that corrupt and incompetent governments make poor partners in any international initiative, from tackling Covid-19, to eliminating terrorism and dealing with the problems caused by global warming. The forthcoming COP26 Summit in Glasgow in November 2021 highlights the need to address some of the issues of effective framework for international cooperation raised in this discussion”.

In the final analysis, any improvements in countries of the South must come through internal forces for change. What is needed from the North and the development agencies it controls is a more nuanced approach to promoting economic growth and stability in developing nations. Sometimes what seems like self-interest merely reflects the choice of timeframe. Taking a longer view may make sense, however difficult this is in countries where policy perspectives are limited by the election cycle. Supporting or facilitating a failed but This would support the process of developing responsible and accountable political structures everywhere that will yield efficient governance as well as sustainable and more equitable social and economic outcomes. This will not only be in the interest of the people of such countries but would ultimately benefit the global community.