Let's draw the best lesson
Tuesday, 19 June 2007
Qazi Azad
THE recent mudslides from some hills in Chittagong city and its suburbs, which killed 126 persons, both young and old, again exposed the reactive nature of our traditional management behaviour. After the disaster had struck, some government leaders and high officials rushed to the city to comfort the distressed humanity with relief materials in cash and kinds. They have also comforted them with reassuring words of future support for the rehabilitation of the affected and the vulnerable people in the battered localities.
But the vulnerability of those who have perished and those who have been affected did not build up overnight. Massive rains on the day of occurrence of the disaster-reportedly 408 mm, only accentuated that vulnerability to spell the disaster. Indiscriminate hill cutting for collecting sand and soil and for purpose of creating flat land for housing, which also resulted in denuding of the forest on the hills, are said to have melted the steep and sandy hills in massive rains to collapse as avalanches to plough through the adjacent areas and demolish poor people's houses and kill many of their residents. Some people have angrily described the tragedy as nature's revenge. They blamed mindless urbanisation in the particular port city without regard for retaining its topographical conditions, for triggering the disaster.
Generally, people are categorised into two groups, the proactive and the reactive, on the basis of their management behaviour. We are a nation whose management behaviour perhaps places it in the second category. The people belonging to the proactive group will take the anti-tuberculosis vaccine and will thus ward off the risk of having the deadly disease. The second group, who will not take the vaccine, would play host to the disease and then spend a lot of money on their treatment. They also have to bear with all the bad things and other adverse consequences that result from the disease.
Those who have blamed mindless exploitation of nature for the particular tragedy in Chittagong are indisputably right in their observation. One professor of the Chittagong University, who has had earlier done an extensive study on the radical changes brought about in the conditions of the local hills, has claimed to have forewarned the authorities about the possible ill consequences of indiscriminate cutting of hills and raising settlements at their basements. But the import of his rare pro-active exercise was lost in the reactive nature of our management behaviour.
Meanwhile, the government has reportedly formed two committees to estimate the extent of loss in the landslides and to identify those who paved the way for the disaster by cutting, slicing and deshaping the hills. While the estimate of the loss may be helpful in planning the rehabilitation effort, the likely purpose of identifying those responsible for the bad job could be bringing them to book.
If these tasks are honestly done, yet another aspect of the mismanagement, which made the disaster inevitable, will remain unattended. Until it is checked what pertinent officials had done to stop the marauders from cutting, deforesting and deshaping the hills while all these activities were carried on, it cannot be identified who among them should also be blamed for the tragedy. Unless those among them who virtually acted as willing cohorts by not invoking rules to stop the hill cutters, our national-level management behaviour will not improve acquiring the desirable proactive nature.
Bulldozing elected officials and government leaders previously marginalized a few executives in this country for standing firmly on official rules and principles. Their instances could successfully terrorize others to be conformists. If some of the elected officials and former government leaders could be as corrupt as being reported these days, they could be so because the conformists among the permanent executives or public servants helped or colluded directly or indirectly with them in their unprincipled actions, geared to self-aggrandizements or advancing the causes of their cronies. The purpose of having the permanent bureaucracy was thus betrayed.
The Americans once fitted nuts and bolts made with reinforced plastic in some aircraft in place of the alloy-made ones in order to reduce the weight of the vessels to create scope for them to carry more passengers and goods. But it was later found that reinforced plastic gradually softened with repeated exposure to higher temperature due to air friction during frequent flights. The renovated aircraft had to be grounded to ward off likely disasters.
The interim government, now seeking to eliminate corruption and to raise the management standard permanently, should recognise that bureaucrats should be tempered by setting examples of sound accountability to become obedient to rules. If they are coerced only by occasional circumstances to behave temporarily as firm instruments of governance, many of them may be as reliable in running the state apparatus as reinforced plastic substituting hard alloy in aircraft.
Since the causes behind the disastrous landslides in and around our major port city were man-made, the establishment should ask for explanations for the official passivity that permitted creating them. A proactive management style, which can be thus encouraged, will help preclude many a future disaster in our national life and smoothen our journey into prosperous days.
It is not that only supervision of the hills of Chittagong was slack. Many of the hills in some of the districts of the Chittagong Hill Tracts have been reportedly subject to cutting, deforestation and deshaping. The local administration and the ministry of forest and environment have committed themselves to stop these harmful activities. They have pledged to conduct mobile courts to stop these activities and punish future offenders. It has been stated that the existing environment protection law is not sufficient for serving its objective and that the law would be updated. It would have been immensely useful had the lacuna of the law been detected earlier. Perhaps, the updating could preclude the recent disaster. But did any body previously care for studying the law seriously to identify whether it required updating or improvement?
Rivers and canals in this country are not also being properly maintained and supervised. The slackness in this respect is more visible in the rural areas than in and around urban centers. Whenever abnormal floods occur or a drought hits, we all raise our voice in chorus against this mismanagement. The passivity of the past spells colossal damages in each disaster. These losses always outweigh the investment in maintenance and reconstruction that could have forestalled or at least reduced the fierceness of any disaster. The end-sum has always indicated that restraining from desirable activities and non-performance of some tasks due to scarcity of resources were unwise or acts of foolishness. The Chittagong disaster may be cited as one example where passivity, which is a kind of foolishness, is frustratingly costly in terms of losses and the subsequent spending on rehabilitation. It is thus desirable that we avoid through prudent planning the recurrence of similar disasters.
THE recent mudslides from some hills in Chittagong city and its suburbs, which killed 126 persons, both young and old, again exposed the reactive nature of our traditional management behaviour. After the disaster had struck, some government leaders and high officials rushed to the city to comfort the distressed humanity with relief materials in cash and kinds. They have also comforted them with reassuring words of future support for the rehabilitation of the affected and the vulnerable people in the battered localities.
But the vulnerability of those who have perished and those who have been affected did not build up overnight. Massive rains on the day of occurrence of the disaster-reportedly 408 mm, only accentuated that vulnerability to spell the disaster. Indiscriminate hill cutting for collecting sand and soil and for purpose of creating flat land for housing, which also resulted in denuding of the forest on the hills, are said to have melted the steep and sandy hills in massive rains to collapse as avalanches to plough through the adjacent areas and demolish poor people's houses and kill many of their residents. Some people have angrily described the tragedy as nature's revenge. They blamed mindless urbanisation in the particular port city without regard for retaining its topographical conditions, for triggering the disaster.
Generally, people are categorised into two groups, the proactive and the reactive, on the basis of their management behaviour. We are a nation whose management behaviour perhaps places it in the second category. The people belonging to the proactive group will take the anti-tuberculosis vaccine and will thus ward off the risk of having the deadly disease. The second group, who will not take the vaccine, would play host to the disease and then spend a lot of money on their treatment. They also have to bear with all the bad things and other adverse consequences that result from the disease.
Those who have blamed mindless exploitation of nature for the particular tragedy in Chittagong are indisputably right in their observation. One professor of the Chittagong University, who has had earlier done an extensive study on the radical changes brought about in the conditions of the local hills, has claimed to have forewarned the authorities about the possible ill consequences of indiscriminate cutting of hills and raising settlements at their basements. But the import of his rare pro-active exercise was lost in the reactive nature of our management behaviour.
Meanwhile, the government has reportedly formed two committees to estimate the extent of loss in the landslides and to identify those who paved the way for the disaster by cutting, slicing and deshaping the hills. While the estimate of the loss may be helpful in planning the rehabilitation effort, the likely purpose of identifying those responsible for the bad job could be bringing them to book.
If these tasks are honestly done, yet another aspect of the mismanagement, which made the disaster inevitable, will remain unattended. Until it is checked what pertinent officials had done to stop the marauders from cutting, deforesting and deshaping the hills while all these activities were carried on, it cannot be identified who among them should also be blamed for the tragedy. Unless those among them who virtually acted as willing cohorts by not invoking rules to stop the hill cutters, our national-level management behaviour will not improve acquiring the desirable proactive nature.
Bulldozing elected officials and government leaders previously marginalized a few executives in this country for standing firmly on official rules and principles. Their instances could successfully terrorize others to be conformists. If some of the elected officials and former government leaders could be as corrupt as being reported these days, they could be so because the conformists among the permanent executives or public servants helped or colluded directly or indirectly with them in their unprincipled actions, geared to self-aggrandizements or advancing the causes of their cronies. The purpose of having the permanent bureaucracy was thus betrayed.
The Americans once fitted nuts and bolts made with reinforced plastic in some aircraft in place of the alloy-made ones in order to reduce the weight of the vessels to create scope for them to carry more passengers and goods. But it was later found that reinforced plastic gradually softened with repeated exposure to higher temperature due to air friction during frequent flights. The renovated aircraft had to be grounded to ward off likely disasters.
The interim government, now seeking to eliminate corruption and to raise the management standard permanently, should recognise that bureaucrats should be tempered by setting examples of sound accountability to become obedient to rules. If they are coerced only by occasional circumstances to behave temporarily as firm instruments of governance, many of them may be as reliable in running the state apparatus as reinforced plastic substituting hard alloy in aircraft.
Since the causes behind the disastrous landslides in and around our major port city were man-made, the establishment should ask for explanations for the official passivity that permitted creating them. A proactive management style, which can be thus encouraged, will help preclude many a future disaster in our national life and smoothen our journey into prosperous days.
It is not that only supervision of the hills of Chittagong was slack. Many of the hills in some of the districts of the Chittagong Hill Tracts have been reportedly subject to cutting, deforestation and deshaping. The local administration and the ministry of forest and environment have committed themselves to stop these harmful activities. They have pledged to conduct mobile courts to stop these activities and punish future offenders. It has been stated that the existing environment protection law is not sufficient for serving its objective and that the law would be updated. It would have been immensely useful had the lacuna of the law been detected earlier. Perhaps, the updating could preclude the recent disaster. But did any body previously care for studying the law seriously to identify whether it required updating or improvement?
Rivers and canals in this country are not also being properly maintained and supervised. The slackness in this respect is more visible in the rural areas than in and around urban centers. Whenever abnormal floods occur or a drought hits, we all raise our voice in chorus against this mismanagement. The passivity of the past spells colossal damages in each disaster. These losses always outweigh the investment in maintenance and reconstruction that could have forestalled or at least reduced the fierceness of any disaster. The end-sum has always indicated that restraining from desirable activities and non-performance of some tasks due to scarcity of resources were unwise or acts of foolishness. The Chittagong disaster may be cited as one example where passivity, which is a kind of foolishness, is frustratingly costly in terms of losses and the subsequent spending on rehabilitation. It is thus desirable that we avoid through prudent planning the recurrence of similar disasters.