Editorial
Election Commission becomes
party to a political crime
In reiterating that the Election Commission made the right decision in inviting the controversially appointed secretary general of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, Hafiz Uddin Ahmed, to its reforms dialogue with the political parties, the chief election commissioner, ATM Shamsul Huda, has surely mired himself in further controversy. There is little scope for debate that Hafiz’s appointment as the secretary general and Saifur Rahman’s as the acting chairman of the BNP came under dubious circumstances. That the ‘standing committee meeting’, which confirmed their appointments, was orchestrated by the military-driven interim government, was also evident, given media reports that many a committee members had been escorted to the meeting by members of the state’s intelligence agencies. One senior member of the committee even told the media that his presence at the meeting was sought under false pretences. All of this falls in line with the current administration’s agenda of political restructuring evidenced time and again by a series of actions to this effect since it took over in January this year.
Worryingly still, the Election Commission, which is supposed to be a quasi-judicial body, seems to have become complicit with the government’s agenda by rubberstamping the decision of the dubious standing committee meeting. It is a travesty not only of justice but also the promise the commission made that it would make the decision on who should represent the BNP at the dialogue upon a close scrutiny of the BNP constitution, which specifies that only the chairperson can convene a meeting of the standing committee and also appoint the party’s secretary general. While the commission may have been entitled to the benefit of doubt over its first mistake in choosing the Saifur-Hafiz faction as representative of the BNP mainstream, its attempt at justifying the decision certainly makes it guilty of committing a crime of political nature.
Moreover, the chief election commissioner has invoked the ‘doctrine of necessity’ to justify the commission’s decision. The question is: Whose necessity is the commission talking about? The ‘doctrine of necessity’ is historically associated with authoritarian rulers who would use ‘the well-being of the people’ as a convenient excuse to defend typically anti-people actions. Will it then be too far-fetched to conclude that the commission may well be serving the necessity of an unelected government that is attempting to impose a pliable leadership on a political party, replacing recalcitrant leaders who did not serve such necessities?
Our concern is that the chief election commissioner may have exposed himself and the commission to a serious political controversy, raising doubts about its neutrality, which it is constitutionally ordained to maintain. The efforts by the chief election commissioner to toe the government’s line will lead to a people’s movement demanding his resignation or removal for the sake of credible elections to the ninth Jatiya Sangsad as and when the state of emergency is withdrawn.
People’s reps should get oversight
authority at every tier
We do believe that the primary responsibility of the members of parliament should be to enact, modify or repeal laws, as and when necessary, besides their active involvement in policymaking. However, since local government institutions remain weak and often dependent on the lawmakers’ whims and wishes in Bangladesh, as in most developing countries, the members of parliament have come to play significant roles in the development activities in their respective constituencies. Moreover, the role of the local government functionaries and the lawmakers has never been clearly demarcated in Bangladesh, thanks to the failure of successive governments to address the issue decisively. The authoritarian mindset of the lawmakers has also been responsible to a great extent. Consequently, the distinction of roles between the elected local government functionaries and the members of parliament has blurred to a point when the parliamentarians have become the main actors as far as development in their respective constituencies is concerned.
Their increased involvement in the affairs of their constituencies, which should have been ideally left to the local government, is also one of the causes that such a high number of lawmakers are currently being charged with financial corruption. The authority to disburse funds for development and public works has added to the lawmakers’ incentive to spend heavily on election campaigns because with election to the parliament comes the opportunity to acquire large allocations of development funds, which are typically vulnerable to mismanagement and misappropriation due to the lack of monitoring at the central or local level.
As such, the current initiative to restrict the lawmakers to their functions in the parliament stripping away their authority over initiatives that should be conducted solely by the local government institutions is a move in the right direction. But the formation of an inter-ministerial body to make recommendations was unnecessary since a commission on local government during the last Awami League regime had submitted a report recommending public representation in four tiers of the government fully explaining their roles and responsibilities, functions and jurisdictions. Also, such an arrangement is clearly defined in the constitution.
As we have stated before, we do desire a genuinely empowered local government structure that would be effective and meaningful for the people. But in order for that to happen, the elected public representatives must be given the authority to assess the performance of the civil servant heading the corresponding administrative unit. In other words, the public representatives must have the necessary authority and mechanism to command the obedience of the public servants.
Enslaved to self-preservation
It is unfortunate for the thousands of people who are forced to live in abject poverty and hunger that their servants, the bureaucrats, are only interested to further selfish interests. Perhaps it would not be imprudent for the civil servants to do away with such attitude and truly commit to the welfare of their masters – the sovereign citizens,
writes Tanim Ahmed
THE photograph was printed on the back page of the Bengali daily Shamokal on November 2. A young man sat amid mud and dirt tied to an electric pole. His shirt front fell by his sides baring his chest. It looked like the shirt had been ripped open. He apparently lowered his head when the photographer was about to take his picture while people looked on. He had stolen a loaf of bread the night before and had been tied there for the entire night through the rain. The young man admitted that he had been hungry. The photograph could remind one of the fate that Jean Valjean meets in Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables. It could also remind one of the opening lines of Charles Dickens’s A Tale of Two Cities: ‘It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…’
***
Domestic investment has fallen drastically since the military-driven interim government of Fakhruddin Ahmed took over in January this year. To make matters worse, the incumbents have decided to pursue a contractionary monetary policy, jacking up the cost of credit and worsening the investment climate further. The subsequent squeeze on the job market has only been compounded by the government’s decision to lay off thousands of public sector workers. Meanwhile, the prices of essential food items have continued to spiral beyond the affordability of even the middle-income groups. Food inflation has already touched the double digits and food inflation is said to be double that. In such circumstances, any group of people with fixed income would face serious problems to make ends meet. Since there is no consumer protection, competition policy or any sort of price control mechanism in the country, these groups of people would naturally be hard pressed. Surely, even worse is the fate of those thousands who do not have employment or those who have not been paid their monthly salaries for months on end.
In the current context, when there is no representative government, the bureaucracy, which still remains the only institution that has remained reasonably intact, is expected to act with utmost responsibility and prudence ensuring the welfare of the people they serve. It is the bureaucracy that has the necessary authority and expertise to act as the balancing factor in the state machinery. There are examples of ‘benevolent bureaucracy.’ Japan’s graduation to a developed country within a couple of decades is often ascribed to the prudence, sincerity and integrity of the bureaucracy. Regrettably, here in Bangladesh, the bureaucracy can hardly be called proactive, prudent or sincere. It is no less responsible for the situation the country is currently in. Moreover, the bureaucrats in general are also regarded, and perhaps not wrongly, as merely part of an evil trinity that perpetrates high-profile financial corruption and irregularities. There are no doubt exceptions; however, they are generally perceived as being too keen on furthering their selfish interests and that too through illegal means.
Such pathological compulsion for self-preservation and self-aggrandisement has invariably led to a division in the bureaucracy on partisan lines, which, in turn, has imperilled the efficiency of the civil servants, as many of them are either transferred or sent into forced retirement with the change of each political government. There are abundant examples of secretaries to crucial ministries actively engaged in ensuring purely commercial interests of the political establishment, and in the process ensuring monetary benefits for themselves as well. Although the politicians are squarely blamed for the blatant corruption and irregularities of the past decade, the civil servants are conveniently left out. But it could not have been without the connivance of the bureaucracy that the businessmen extracted undue concessions from the politicians.
It is anticipated that both Khaleda Zia and Sheikh Hasina will be implicated in the Niko scam. The small oil and gas company was awarded the Tengratila gas field claiming that it was ‘abandoned.’ But there was an exhaustive process that had to be adhered to, before the company could be awarded a gas field, which also had to be demonstrated as ‘abandoned.’ The bureaucrats in charge of the relevant ministries must have had a significant role to play in the entire exercise for it was these civil servants that had ensured legality of the entire process.
Even the rationale of the bureaucrats have become so twisted and skewed along political lines that their official recommendations hinge on the political interest of the party in power. For instance, on several occasions, there were proposals to raise the prices of fuel and the power, gas and water tariffs near the end of the tenure of the last elected government. Almost every time the Cabinet Division recommended against such a move. However, the reason was not that the price hike would seriously hamper the welfare of the people and increase their cost of living. Nor did the recommendations of the Cabinet Division suggest alternative means to address the problem of ever-rising international fuel prices. The bureaucrats opposed the move because national elections were looming and the decision would be unpopular. Such a move would have surely hurt the sensitivities of the people, which, in turn, might have reflected on how the public votes in the elections. This only points to the fact that the civil servants do not consider it wrong to ensure the political interest of a certain party whereas they should only be concerned about the interest of the state and its citizens.
Perhaps it is not surprising then that a number of top bureaucrats, during their meeting with the chief adviser to the interim government, Fakhruddin Ahmed, on November 7, demanded dearness allowance to cope with the rising prices and also asked for an increase of other benefits and payments. Most ironically, the secretary to the jute and textiles ministry, proposed for a dearness allowance, while there are literally thousands of jute mill workers living in misery for not having received their pending wages and thousands more who have been summarily terminated, sent into ‘voluntary retirement’, without payment of their retirement packages.
There are literally thousands of farmers desperate for urea, which according to a government statement is sufficiently stocked but quite evidently not being distributed in due time, a fault that should, once again, be ascribed to the callousness and lethargy of most of the civil servants. This inherent apathy and insincerity of the civil servants must be decisively addressed if the current regime genuinely desires to institute good governance for the bureaucracy is an indispensable part of the state.
It would not be challenged or contested that the pay scale for the civil servants is hardly commensurate with their status. Neither does the pay scale correspond to the standard of living that is expected of these bureaucrats. That they are also affected by the rising prices is surely beyond doubt. But by only demanding benefits and privileges for themselves, the civil servants have showed once again that one of the pivotal reasons of bad governance not only prevails but thrives.
It is rather unfortunate for the country that such people are charged with looking after its welfare. It is even more unfortunate for the thousands of people who are forced to live in abject poverty and hunger that their servants, the bureaucrats, are only interested to further selfish interests. Perhaps it would not be imprudent for the civil servants to do away with such attitude and truly commit to the welfare of their masters – the sovereign citizens.
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