Developing countries now think less about poverty eradication, universal primary education and so many things that have been primarily focused in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). In Bangladesh, with the growth trend of more or less 6 per cent annually, people are now less worried about poverty. Rather we are worried about inequality. In the same way they are less worried about universal primary education and health issues, their main concern now becomes the quality of those. This is clearly one step ahead in thinking and the government, non-government organisations, development partners and also the hard-working people of this country deserve credit for this.
But now the way different institutions of the country are collapsing, it will really be difficult to sustain the growth and also to make its benefits accessible to all. Everyone is well aware of what is the common perception of people regarding our administration, judiciary, law-enforcing agencies, the Anti Corruption Commission, the Election Commission, the Public Service Commission, etc. It is very unfortunate that rarely does any person have faith and confidence in these institutions because of massive corruption and inefficient people running these.
Even the most trustworthy institutions i.e. the financial institutions like banks are supposed to hold highest customer trust as people give all their assets, especially money, to the banks without any question. But these banks have also lost their credibility in recent times. Millions of dollars have just evaporated even with the help of high officials. Universities, which are supposed to generate knowledge and create human capital, are hardly being able to do so. The university teachers are now busy earning money and being involved in politics. Professionalism and sense of justice are gradually becoming foreign to people heading all these institutions.
Does an average person have a place to seek justice if he or she is victimised ? People are simply afraid of these institutions as they know it well that it is all about spending money and time when they get some more harassment. In the last few years, it has been seen how the people in law-enforcing agencies are being involved in almost all illegal activities and now there are allegations of killings for some monetary benefit even against one of the most prestigious institutions of the country. But very surprisingly neither the government nor the institutions themselves have been able to do something with which people can regain their faith in them.
Even the civil society itself is divided into two parts. Some are nakedly busy justifying whatever is happening and others are trying to raise their voice against all these evils. Recently, we have seen some of the so-called academic civil society members blindly supporting and justifying all the unexpected things occurring in this country. Everything looks surprisingly odd and threatening.
But who is responsible for all these unusual happenings in this country? This is nothing but politics. From the day non-politician businessmen started entering our politics with no sense of responsibility and professionalism, our politics has started getting polluted. Unfortunately, these evils are always being patronised by the top leaders who are now no more dependent on the common people. They rather rely on arms and money.
This political leadership has decided to weaken all these institutions by appointing their political supporters who even do not have the minimum quality of holding those positions. And if the country does not get the right people in right position, it will never prosper.
Under these circumstances, it has become mandatory to strengthen the institutions. For this, a combined pressure not only from the development partners but also from the common people is a must. After all, it is we, the common people, who pay for all these people running all these institutions.
The writer is a development researcher and a post-graduate
fellow at the Asian
Institute of Management.
mithunmds07@gmail.com
