Stepping into 35 the year in 2006 and looking back in history, we witness many odds that came in the way during the course of our journey as an independent nation. Every year since independence saw some good and some bad episodes. But to us the year 2005, that has just passed, would go down in history as a year of turbulence and tears, events unseen and unheard earlier but probably unlikely to unearth in the years to come. All that happened during the tenure of a government that promised, among other things, peace and progress for the people of Bangladesh. While the space is too short to delineate the developments, allow me to highlight few of them.

There is a saying that the morning shows the day. We cannot now recollect the morning we started with in 2005 but possibly deduce it by seeing the day. The year ended with two sad news. First, in the recently concluded WTO Hong Kong ministerial, Bangladesh's economic hopes were dashed to the ground with no commitment received for duty free access of its major exports to developed countries. The 97 percent "duty free access" dictum that our honourable Commerce Minister had been harping on, applies to commodities in which Bangladesh barely bears a comparative advantage. This is almost like giving Bangladesh a free access to the US and EU for export of air buses! Whereas, as revealed from the deliberations, the 3 percent 'negative list' contains its major export items e.g. garments. Allegedly, the present government failed to develop an economic diplomacy to foil the façade. It is true that Bangladesh progressed well over the years as far as export earnings are concerned. But to meet the growing challenges of global trade diplomacy, Bangladesh did very little in terms of upgrading the skills for tackling trade dispositions nor the country could come up with institutional arrangements to deal with the crisis. A government machinery that banks on contractual bureaucracy is unlikely to harvest a good crop as the bureaucracy spends most of the time in pleasing the government rather than pursuing policies for national interest. The experts on board Hong Kong hardly had the ability to grasp the calculus of WTO negotiations. The year thus ended with hypes for garments and other commodities than the hopes it was supposed to generate.

At home, just at the end of the year, the fertilizer crisis crippled the farmers. Imported fertiliser was stockpiled by importers on the heels of heightening demand at farm level on the pretext of non-payment of the so-called subsidy from the government side. Both parties have their own view points but at the end of the day, farmers suffered heavily.

The year 2005 was one of the worst years as far as the national image is concerned. Militants' activities and suicidal bomb attacks pierced through the heart of the nation. Judges and innocent people were killed. A reign of panic swept over the country with adverse impact on trade, commerce and civic life. But had the government acted on time, so runs the argument, much of the woes could be waned. There are serious allegations that a part of the government is directly or indirectly involved in manning the militants. But like a camel covering the head with sands, the government used counter productive arguments to face the devils that led to the worsening of the situation.

The economic growth rate ran at nearly 6 per cent. However, the expectation was that during the tenure of the government, the growth rate would hit 6 per cent plus. Nearly 6 per cent growth rate was achieved even during the Awami League regime when the growth rate jumped from an average of 4.5 per cent to an average of 5.6 per cent. In the year 2005, the foreign exchange market remained volatile and taka lost much of its value. Costs of imports went up with perceptible impact on inflationary situation. The inflation rate is estimated to be around 9 per cent, government borrowing from banks increased and investments did not pick up. The massive "election budget" impinged upon the nation's pockets of unproductive projects.

In 2005, Bangladesh continued to rank top in corruption. Talking to businessmen these days reveal that the costs of business reached an all time high due to massive corruption. From the farm to the fork, you cannot run your business if you do not pay extra money. The Transparency International continues to speak of the rampant corruption in every spheer of the government organs. The donors have repeatedly reminded of the evil impacts of corruption on economic growth. The Anti Corruption Commission (ACC) constituted under the pressure of the donors engulfed itself in legal battles and thus keeping it quiet for sometime. Even the legality of the appointments of the commission members are now in courts for a challenge. It means, supposedly, the commission was created to keep it quiet. Meantime, corruption crept and Bangladesh was dubbed as the most corrupt country in the world.

We welcome the year 2006. In fact it is the year when the preparation for the next general election would be completed. The nation is eagerly waiting for a change in the system of governance that would ensure people's overall freedom. Fundamentalist forces tend to forfeit the freedom of the people. The growth of the fundamentalist forces over the years and, especially, their "zihad" for religious state points to the perilous situation in the country. For a change to occur people must be allowed to cast their verdict freely under a caretaker government and an Election Commission duly reformed to deal with the situation. Let the year 2005 be only one such bad year in our national life. Let us for the moment forget the turbulent and tearful year that we just passed and prepare ourselves for a shining morning. We have a history of overcoming crisis, although many miles to go before we sleep, in peace.

Abdul Bayes is a Professor of Economics at Jahangirnagar University.