
Bad governance and poor management practices
Saturday, 16 April 2011
Ever since this regime took the reins of the government, many of its major decisions on key issues facing the country have been marred by innumerable controversies. We have seen where the much propagated and promised 'Chamak' (miracle) has landed us. There are innumerable instances where instead of being a people-friendly government in reality it has been a government that has ignored and sidelined the interests and concerns of the majority of the population. Nearly all of its major acts and decisions are not only ill conceived but also fail to address peoples' concerns. Too many times people have been deceived in more ways than one.
There is too much of rhetoric and double talk. It promises the world to the people and ends up in giving nothing. If you take a close look at the way it is administering the country you will soon discover that one of its major characteristics has been creating confusion on purpose. Clearly this is done to hide its lack of management skills that are not only extremely poor but also absent in many instances. Putting the cart before the horse is yet another hallmark of this administration.
Much valuable time and resources have been lost on road-shows, extravaganzas of all kinds, name-change games, mudslinging, one wonders as to where are we heading? We now have come down to this business of character assassination of the worst kind that of the dead. In this regard however both major parties are guilty; however, the ruling party has to shoulder the major burden of the guilt. We often hear that the problems facing the country today are the creation of the previous regime. Be that as it may the fact remains that people elected the ruling party and not Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) with the hope and aspiration that it would do better. Has it really succeeded in doing so, if so we see no signs of that as yet?
The question is not what the opposition is doing or did in the past; the question is what the ruling party is doing here and now. At a discussion meeting some eminent jurists and members of the civil society had opined that even the present regime's exercise in multiple amendments of the Constitution is directed towards preservation and benefit of a political party. On the other hand, look at the game the ruling party is playing with the probe report on the recent debacle that took place at the share market. Clearly protecting its people and party interests dominates its every intervention. Look at the Parliament what a mess it is in. Remember some time back, a session of the Parliament had to be cancelled due to lack of Quorum. This is unprecedented since the ruling party has the absolute majority in the Parliament. Why then blame the opposition for absenting itself from the Parliament? For all practical purposes it has turned the Parliament into one that resembles the Party's Central Office. One gets the impression that it suffers from the psyche that it is here to govern the country forever.
For quite some time, the administration being high on, "eradication of corruption" is now actively engaged in clipping the wings of the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) and other measures that in reality would result in giving corruption a kind of legitimacy. Its claims on poverty alleviation and being poor friendly also appear to be nothing but cheap propaganda. Look at the conditions of those Aila victims for the past two years or more. This administration routinely engages itself in major issues of governance without doing adequate in-house study. Surely we have the required technical expertise both within and outside the regime capable of undertaking thorough study of a project or an important venture prior to its launching.
We were shocked beyond measure by a recent statement made by none other than our commerce minister where in he had said that journalists too resemble the (ashat), dishonest and immoral business community of the country. This is a sweeping remark that is not only shocking but also demeaning and tantamounts to making a mockery of the ruling party as a whole. Somewhere in the media student cadres of the party had said that whenever the commerce minister makes any remark indicating measures for curbing prices the market gets all the more volatile.
Frankly we are not only engaged in self deception of the worst kind but also going in circles. As the famous saying goes we are, "behaving like the frogs of a shallow well".
We as people are poor both body and soul. We have lost our self-respect and dignity. It is evident from the continued deteriorating state of our Human Rights. Yet all said and done survive we shall, but will that be our only achievement? At times we have this feeling that we are advancing at a pace where we are going one step forward and two steps backwards. If we do not improve upon our pattern of management and governance, we are going nowhere whether in 2021, 2030 or even beyond. Will sanity ever prevail?
The writer can be reached e-mail : chowdhury.shamsher@yahoo.com