Bangladesh — Asia Must be Proud and Achieve Economic Development Through the Spirit of Enterprise and Cooperation
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Why do YOU LET Bangladesh be Robbed and Humiliated by Foreign Aid Expatriates? People who behave like “Lords of Poverty”. And many who don’t even pay their taxes from the side business they do?
Over the last 2 and a half years I visited and lived in Gulshan 2 Dhaka, Bangladesh. During this time I also had the opportunity to travel outside the mega-city. On many occasion I had the discomfort of dinning and interacting with the expatiate community. Initially I felt sorry for them, as in my opinion, most are third grade personalities, in their respective countries and come to Bangladesh as development workers, business persons to make money in the name of alleviating Poverty or to take advantage to low wages.
I have been to dinner parties, where wives of diplomats, who talk about the low quality of the drivers and servants they have in Bangladesh, when these people use the bus and do their own washing and cleaning in their own countries, they are just too poor to have even a part-time cleaner to come to do any house work at home. Then we have many corrupt International Development Aid and Technical Assistance group of “Ex—Pirates”, being comforted in luxury of the Westin Dhaka, while they design Development Aid projects, which in reality only creates more poverty in the short, medium, and long-term. It seems to me most have a personal agenda. The agenda is the “LORDS of POVERTY AGENDA”. The longer they can show “evidence” of the incidence of poverty in Bangladesh the LONGER they get their FAT-CAT tax free Salaries, four-wheel-drive vehicles, Apartments in Gulshan 2 or Bharidara, Holidays to recovery from their “hardship”, children’s’ education paid for at international schools or abroad, medical insurance, and many other “hardship” allowances. It is all a SCAM in my humble opinion.
I was at a dinner once, with US, British, Dutch and German Development Aid people. One asked me so what do you do in Bangladesh? I said “Nothing, I am just observing how to do business with Bangladeshi people directly.” He said, “I am from Holland, I have a 5 million euro budget to help the poor in this country. And more is coming from other countries, including the EU. What does your country, Malaysia do to help Bangladesh?”
I laughed and replied. “I am a Nationalist, not a servant of neo-colonialists masters. My country Malaysia is small and poor. We do not have money to send fat-cat useless corrupt development aid people to come and live in Bangladesh. To have expensive dinners to boast about helping the Poor. From the 1980’s onwards, during the leadership of our former Prime Minister, Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohammad, with the reluctance of Malaysians to take up jobs in certain sectors, for instance construction and plantation, we welcomed migrant works to assist with the development of our economy and country. When the Petronas Twin Tower was built, the majority of the construction workers were from Indonesia and Bangladesh.
We believe that the poor know how to help themselves, we allow 1 million Bangladeshi to come and work in our country. Granted some of these workers are exploited. Many are exploited by the agents in Bangladesh who see it as an opportunity for human trafficking. But in the end, if one worker remits USD100.00 per month back to Bangladesh from Malaysia - and there are nearly 1 million workers - HOW MUCH do you THINK Malaysia GIVES in DEVELOPMENT AID that DIRECTLY goes to the POCKETS of the FAMILIES of the workers?”
When I first visited Bangladesh, I met with my former boss and mentor who I worked for at an Inter-governmental agency for a short-time in the early 1990’s. My mentor is a senior figure in the Government, told me this, “Here we have people who need poverty. They do not want Economic Development based on market forces, because that will reduce the dependency on AID money.” I initially disagreed with him. But now I am totally convinced that this is the AGENDA and Game Plan of those who want Aid dependency and promoting neo-colonialism.
It is my humble opinion, that the Miltonian Economic Model is best for Bangladesh and not the Development aid driven model promoted by the agents of foreign aid. Our best opportunities will be development through economic cooperation between SAARC and ASEAN+3 and the other BRICS nations, such as Russia, Brazil and South Africa.
The reality is that there will always be poverty in every country. But You don’t need Poverty created by the People who Claim to want to Stop Poverty, with a Hidden Agenda – THE LORDS of POVERTY.
The Author is:
Eugene F Arokiasamy
CEO, AOC-Razon Resources
