The finance and commerce adviser to the interim government Dr Salehuddin Ahmed on Saturday last told the media that the government is going to crack down on the corrupt tycoons in the financial sector. Earlier, on September 5, too, in a similar vein, following a meeting with buying house representatives at his office, he told journalists that a task force would be constituted to retrieve the money stolen, laundered and taken overseas. Like all the advisers of the one-month old interim government headed by Nobel laureate Dr Yunus, the finance adviser, too, talks tough when it comes to dealing with the financial irregularities and crimes that gained notoriety in the past and demand matching action to address. Obviously, it is the revolutionary mandate thrust upon them by the August 5 student-led uprising that has given them the strength of their conviction. Also, since, unlike the public leaders and bureaucrats of the past government, they have no personal axe to grind; they are able to take a tough stance on various issues of concern. No doubt this is a plus point for the cabinet members of the interim government. But given the nature and magnitude of the challenge they are faced with, they need more than just good will and honest intent to fulfil their missions. For instance, the possessors of ill-gotten wealth they are promising to take on are also powerful people. The source of their power is, again, money- the dirty money they amassed through corruption. They can always use the same dirty moneys to vitiate efforts to hold their owners to account. So, how is the interim government going to catch these big guns as many of them are not fugitives, but well-known public figures active in society? Needless to say, the instruments to be used to apprehend them are the same old ones such as the Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU), the Anti-Corruption Commission and the police that the immediate past government also used in its so-called drives to tackle graft, money laundering and financial crimes, etc. But these instruments did not work in the way they should have in the past. Why did the members of these corruption-fighting bodies fail to do their bit in the past? The easy argument in support of their past failures is that their previous political bosses did not allow them to perform their duties properly. But the uncomfortable truth is, barring a few exceptional cases, most of them proved to be willing partners of their administrative or political bosses in their corrupt practices. One may recall at this point the overenthusiastic police officials who dealt with peaceful street protests with disproportionate force. Their argument, as always, was that they had to obey their superiors! That is a lame excuse to justify the homicides they committed. For, no government servant is bound by law to follow any order from their superiors that is morally reprehensible. The principle applies also to the operatives of the government bodies formed to fight graft and other financial crimes. In that case, one can assume that the functionaries of these different crime-busting outfits have not meanwhile been able to transform themselves into incorruptible and efficient officials overnight following the political changeover. That is an undeniable truth, even if some may like to claim otherwise. So, the leaders of the interim government will be required to be more circumspect about the promises they would make from time to time. The government machinery they would use to implement their challenging tasks has to be foolproof. To see some degree of success, the interim government will be required to do some housecleaning before these apparatuses for fighting corruption and graft can be used to fulfil their lofty goals.
Under the circumstances, the leaders of the interim government will also have to first find out the officers in these orgnaisations who are known for their professionalism and integrity. Ironically, the biggest challenge before the interim government is to implement a revolutionary agenda with the help of a government machinery, the bureaucracy, to be particular, which is a legacy of the past they want to change and build a new nation!
However, to start with, they will have to depend on whatever resources they have in hand at the moment. They also need to develop fresh tools including training manpower to be up to the challenge they are faced with. It is, of course, commendable that there is a sense of urgency in their utterances about the tasks to be done. They should take their time to develop the required manpower and hone their skills, if necessary, with the help of external training resources. The mass people who put them in power are willing to give them the time they need to complete their mission. So, there is no reason to hurry.
Given our past experience, elected governments often serve the vested quarters they owe allegiance to and not their actual constituency, the mass people. Small wonder that the phantoms of the colonial past never left them. So, before it is business- as-usual under an elected government, the nation should not miss this revolutionary opportunity to make some structural changes in the administrative machinery so that it becomes efficient, can deliver and is people-oriented.
So, more than undertaking to meeting the long-term goals of ridding the administration of corruption, graft and various systemic irregularities, which will require a prolonged crusade, the immediate task before the interim government should be to restructure the administrative machinery so that the future governments may accomplish the remaining reform to the system.
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