When bureaucracy is a question or controversy
Dr. Forqan Uddin Ahmed :
Bureaucracy plays dominant role in the development of the society and it is the cornerstone of modern society. Bangladesh has seen bureaucrats a continuous role in policy formulation and policy implementation. The bureaucracy, in present Bangladesh originates from the bureaucracy in British India. The bureaucracy in this portion of the subcontinent has experienced several ups and downs throughout the three distinct periods of British, Pakistan and Bangladesh era.
The bureaucracy in Bangladesh is repeatedly apparent with the issues of corruption, nepotism, inefficiency, lack of accountability and transparency, etc. It is sometimes represented bureaucracy as an undesirable rather progressive facilitator to the progress of the country. Still bureaucracy plays traditional role and calls for a better system to meet the changing needs of the society.
Are the bureaucrats in our country preforming in a befitting way? Are they above questions of controversies? Are they efficient and capable enough? So why do they fail to earn peoples’ satisfaction? When position, liability and accountability are supposed to be upgraded with position and office or people desire more effectiveness towards betterment. But the scenario in our neighboring developed nation depicts some other picture in tern of quality in civil service and corporate jobs. They are outstanding. Their system of recruitment and promotion are questioned less.
Our counterparts are always missioned and vision based whereas we have to be always accommodative with the standard and the existing range of qualifications. So we are being dropped and disqualify with a race of survival in the world only. If we want to fly parallel to the sky with dream or imagination, life will be in the mazes and we will be far from realities. So if one wants to fly upward planets and want to cross the sea, we should be serious and sincere in efforts to ascertain quality to run the race.
In this world, there is no shortcut way to prosper. One requires to sail a long way for desired destination. It is not only the high ambition but diligence, passion and commitment towards duty along with required quality will help one to be winner. Only the practice of good merit, ideal and balanced thinking may promote an upstream and constant flow of progress. We should be clear that, behind every success it is not the chair but the person who handles and who really makes the chair effective. On the contrary, chairs matter a little make a person.
Some recent incidents apparently depict that the politics-administration interface is convoluted and non-cooperative one way or another. However, the argument of this issue is not new, rather comes from the British period. Excessive control of bureaucracy and politicization of administration have evidently been seen in our country. On the one hand, politicians hinge on the bureaucrats for making and executing policy. Conversely, bureaucrats also hold a strong loyalty to the politicians for their betterment. This is an academic discussion obviously, no way to deny it; but also, a crucial issue for the country, because in a state mechanism, they are both united, integrated and stable.
Politicians lose their significance when the influence of bureaucracy cultivates in a country. The political government must promise itself to reform packages, as per they are assured to yield both high political and economic settlements to the regime itself. The regime must act promptly to reestablish discipline in the governing arrangement through positive tools of direction, defense, delivery and regulation before boarding on micro level changes in the organizational arrangement.
According to UNDP and World Bank, good governance has eight principles/characteristics. These are: – Participation, rule of law, transparency, responsiveness, consensus oriented, equity and inclusiveness, effectiveness and efficiency, accountability. The current situation shows that without effective leadership and good governance at all levels in private, public and civil organizations, it is arguably virtually impossible to achieve and to sustain effective administration, to achieve goals, to sustain quality and deliver first-rate services. There is a direct link between good governance, effective leadership, time management and economic prosperity. Managing changes in times must be emphasized and prioritized. Effective leadership and good governance are two sides of the same coin. The two have many elements in common. Without an effective leadership we may not envisage good governance in its totality, in fact good governance may not be achieved in its totality because of cultural, psychological, social and sociological impacts and differences.
So bureaucracy needs to be reformed. In this regard, the field administration should have a new set up for a short tenure. The post or appointment like DC and TNO should be changed. These names may have substituted as Upazila coordinating officer and District coordinating officer and they should belong to any efficient and effective cadre officials. Besides, the Upazila Parishad should have a setup of representatives coming from different political platforms. If the administration system is properly reformed, the country will achieve the desired goal and development will be ensured.
In fine, we can say that to develop the country as well as the nations, the conscious citizen and the government should come forward concertedly so that we can get a corruption free state. In this regard, dishonest bureaucrats should be punished with an iron rod. It is the duty and responsibility of all sorts of people to tackle the political crisis. Then it would be possible for us to stand upright in the global atlas with due respect and veneration. Finally, we can say that, bureaucratic complex are the barriers of national interest. Moreover, present bureaucracies do not have much the capabilities to face the modern challenges of development. Even the present bureaucracy is not able to bridge with people.
(The writer is former Deputy Director General, Bangladesh Ansar and VDP).
