like pakistan, bangladesh experienced undiluted democracy in the 1990’s although unfortunately for our former colony, the nightmare did not end until 2007. as in pak, undiluted democracy proved to be a complete disaster for bangladesh. as in pakistan, the two main parties proved to be completely corrupt and incompetent and essentially ran the country into the ground while fighting each other kutta billee style for nearly 17 years. in the end, bangali army like pak army, had no option but to kick the politicians out. but while bangali army acted late, it is doing a much better job of cleasing the political system. tens of thousands of politicians and their cronies have been sent to jail while the leaders of the two main parties are facing lengthy jail terms.
in contrast to the actions of bangali army - an oxymoron if ever there was one - musharraf has proved to be a big khussy when dealing with politicians who are now biting him in the ass. both ns and benazir should have been thrown in jail and alternate leadership should have been developed which would now be in a position to offer leadership to the awam. instead we are now facing the prospect of being ruled once again by likes of zardari and naheed khan who will undo in 6 months, all the good work done by the government in the last 8 years. with oil at $80/barrel however, pakistan’s tolerenace for mismanagement is much lower than it was in the 1990’s. moreover with india currently sitting on $215bn of reserves, pak is already behind the 8-ball when it comes to countering india’s advantage in purchasing weapons.
sad to say but i am much less optimistic about pak than i was 6 months ago. in fact i would say that going forward, bangladesh is likely to be a better investment destination than pak will be.