Missions abroad need overhauling
Thursday, 26 March 2009
Shahiduzzaman Khan
The cancellation of 55,000 calling visas by the Malaysian authorities points to the declining trend of migrants' movement to the receiving countries. Against the backdrop of global economic meltdown, this is a sad incident for Bangladesh -- a country striving for expanding its manpower export market.
According to reports, Bangladesh mission in Malaysia has been in a terrible mess. The government has recalled its High Commissioner from Kuala Lumpur. The person who is in-charge of the mission has no control over its staff. The labour attache, entrusted with dealing manpower issue, made some controversial remarks on visa issue in the print and electronic media. This drew sharp reaction from the Malaysian Trade Union Congress. It reportedly resulted in quick Malaysian decision to revoke the visas. When the country in question is heading for a recession as a fallout from the global economic downturn, it is not understood as to what had prompted the labour attaché to tell the press that 70,000 Bangladeshis would land in Malaysia soon! The inevitable had happened and the door is getting almost closed to the Bangladeshi migrants to that country.
In fact, the expatriate welfare ministry sends the labour attaches to the missions without any coordination with the foreign ministry, and without any policy guidelines. The Malaysian case has clearly demonstrated the folly of sending labour attaches, who have no knowledge of diplomacy and find themselves out of the depths when facing challenging diplomatic tasks in a foreign environment.
During the tenure of the last caretaker government, the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) attempted enquiries into allegations of corruption, irregularities and abuse of power against officials working at some Bangladesh missions abroad. The developments of such enquiries are not yet known for certain.
How the Bangladesh missions abroad are doing in projecting the country's image around the world -- is now a question being posed by many. Are they doing pretty well to promote the cause of the nation? What are they doing to help promote the country's trade and investment? Are they capable -- also serious -- enough to project the country in a way that helps it to graduate itself to the status of a developing nation from that of a least developed country (LDC)?
Questions are galore, yet answers to these are not that much easy. Those who are on overseas assignments remain mostly under a kind of veiled curtain. Their activities are not transparent as much as the press is concerned. The foreign ministry usually keeps mum on any untoward incident happening in any overseas mission. There is always a 'hush-hush' in the activities of the missions and an initiative to keep all happenings secret from the public.
Recent media reports that many overseas missions have failed to perform in achieving the export target are not a new phenomenon. In every six months, routine warning letters are issued to the commercial counsellors of those Bangladesh missions that fail to perform the export target set by the government. The letters usually warn those embassies that if the targets are not achieved, the counselors or the ambassadors would be summoned to the country for questioning. If they fail to explain their position properly, they may be brought back from overseas assignments. Well, there were some cases of summoning in the past. But it was not heard that whether any follow-up action was taken against any mission official for negligence of duty or of the sorts.
The members of the overseas missions should be a dedicated set of people deeply oriented to the promotion of the national causes. They should be smart enough to handle country's highly sensitive foreign policy matters and project the nation as a potential destination for foreign investment. Trade and economic matters must be given priority in their work plan. They should keep liaison with the developed nations for a fair share of trade and investment. With the phase-out of textile quota regime, the tasks bestowed on the embassy personnel have become onerous. Keeping a close contact with the private sector, they must look for alternative markets to export the country's products. Is it really happening? Perhaps not -- may be the answer.
Now the expatriate Bangladeshis' view about their missions abroad may be considered here. Most non-resident Bangladeshis (NRBs) are generally frustrated over the activities of the embassy personnel. Many Bangladeshis complained of 'inhuman' attitude of a section of embassy officials. The most common complaint is that they -- embassy officials -- are not friendly. They do not want to listen to anybody's problems. Reaching to the level of ambassadors is a rare occasion due to bureaucracy standing on the way. Cases relating to missing of passports and harassments in the hands of the law enforcers of those countries remain pending for months together. Yet if anybody wants to get his or her case settled soon, he or she can do it by allegedly greasing the palms of bribing the officials and employees concerned.
There are allegations that the officials in the embassies generally pass
leisurely hours without doing 'substantive' works. Most of the day's works are spent on finding out strategies on how they could raise their pay and perks. They file petitions after petitions to the foreign office and the finance ministry for fund release. Those who go on political appointments remain busy in keeping their jobs in tact. They maintain close contacts with the cadre service personnel to remain on the right track. If the ambassadors are seen to be active, everybody needs to be equally active. An inactive anchorman fails to head a vibrant chancery where national interests are deeply entrenched. The most interesting part of the story is that if second or third ranking officials want to do some good jobs, he may be immediately discouraged by his superiors.
Projecting the country's image is undoubtedly a sacred duty for every son of the soil. It is a task that needs to be performed meticulously and diligently. The missions abroad have cadre service personnel and a host of political appointees. A little motivation must lead them to work for the country's welfare. They have to understand the purpose for which they have been engaged in a job that calls for dedication and patriotism.
szkhan@thefinancialexpress-bd.com
The cancellation of 55,000 calling visas by the Malaysian authorities points to the declining trend of migrants' movement to the receiving countries. Against the backdrop of global economic meltdown, this is a sad incident for Bangladesh -- a country striving for expanding its manpower export market.
According to reports, Bangladesh mission in Malaysia has been in a terrible mess. The government has recalled its High Commissioner from Kuala Lumpur. The person who is in-charge of the mission has no control over its staff. The labour attache, entrusted with dealing manpower issue, made some controversial remarks on visa issue in the print and electronic media. This drew sharp reaction from the Malaysian Trade Union Congress. It reportedly resulted in quick Malaysian decision to revoke the visas. When the country in question is heading for a recession as a fallout from the global economic downturn, it is not understood as to what had prompted the labour attaché to tell the press that 70,000 Bangladeshis would land in Malaysia soon! The inevitable had happened and the door is getting almost closed to the Bangladeshi migrants to that country.
In fact, the expatriate welfare ministry sends the labour attaches to the missions without any coordination with the foreign ministry, and without any policy guidelines. The Malaysian case has clearly demonstrated the folly of sending labour attaches, who have no knowledge of diplomacy and find themselves out of the depths when facing challenging diplomatic tasks in a foreign environment.
During the tenure of the last caretaker government, the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) attempted enquiries into allegations of corruption, irregularities and abuse of power against officials working at some Bangladesh missions abroad. The developments of such enquiries are not yet known for certain.
How the Bangladesh missions abroad are doing in projecting the country's image around the world -- is now a question being posed by many. Are they doing pretty well to promote the cause of the nation? What are they doing to help promote the country's trade and investment? Are they capable -- also serious -- enough to project the country in a way that helps it to graduate itself to the status of a developing nation from that of a least developed country (LDC)?
Questions are galore, yet answers to these are not that much easy. Those who are on overseas assignments remain mostly under a kind of veiled curtain. Their activities are not transparent as much as the press is concerned. The foreign ministry usually keeps mum on any untoward incident happening in any overseas mission. There is always a 'hush-hush' in the activities of the missions and an initiative to keep all happenings secret from the public.
Recent media reports that many overseas missions have failed to perform in achieving the export target are not a new phenomenon. In every six months, routine warning letters are issued to the commercial counsellors of those Bangladesh missions that fail to perform the export target set by the government. The letters usually warn those embassies that if the targets are not achieved, the counselors or the ambassadors would be summoned to the country for questioning. If they fail to explain their position properly, they may be brought back from overseas assignments. Well, there were some cases of summoning in the past. But it was not heard that whether any follow-up action was taken against any mission official for negligence of duty or of the sorts.
The members of the overseas missions should be a dedicated set of people deeply oriented to the promotion of the national causes. They should be smart enough to handle country's highly sensitive foreign policy matters and project the nation as a potential destination for foreign investment. Trade and economic matters must be given priority in their work plan. They should keep liaison with the developed nations for a fair share of trade and investment. With the phase-out of textile quota regime, the tasks bestowed on the embassy personnel have become onerous. Keeping a close contact with the private sector, they must look for alternative markets to export the country's products. Is it really happening? Perhaps not -- may be the answer.
Now the expatriate Bangladeshis' view about their missions abroad may be considered here. Most non-resident Bangladeshis (NRBs) are generally frustrated over the activities of the embassy personnel. Many Bangladeshis complained of 'inhuman' attitude of a section of embassy officials. The most common complaint is that they -- embassy officials -- are not friendly. They do not want to listen to anybody's problems. Reaching to the level of ambassadors is a rare occasion due to bureaucracy standing on the way. Cases relating to missing of passports and harassments in the hands of the law enforcers of those countries remain pending for months together. Yet if anybody wants to get his or her case settled soon, he or she can do it by allegedly greasing the palms of bribing the officials and employees concerned.
There are allegations that the officials in the embassies generally pass
leisurely hours without doing 'substantive' works. Most of the day's works are spent on finding out strategies on how they could raise their pay and perks. They file petitions after petitions to the foreign office and the finance ministry for fund release. Those who go on political appointments remain busy in keeping their jobs in tact. They maintain close contacts with the cadre service personnel to remain on the right track. If the ambassadors are seen to be active, everybody needs to be equally active. An inactive anchorman fails to head a vibrant chancery where national interests are deeply entrenched. The most interesting part of the story is that if second or third ranking officials want to do some good jobs, he may be immediately discouraged by his superiors.
Projecting the country's image is undoubtedly a sacred duty for every son of the soil. It is a task that needs to be performed meticulously and diligently. The missions abroad have cadre service personnel and a host of political appointees. A little motivation must lead them to work for the country's welfare. They have to understand the purpose for which they have been engaged in a job that calls for dedication and patriotism.
szkhan@thefinancialexpress-bd.com