Stepping towards Good Governance
Friday, 27 July 2007
Khan Ferdousour Rahman
FOR establishing good governance, transparency, accountability, efficiency and rule of law are the prerequisites, which have for long been far from practice in Bangladesh. Here several issues are constraining the very process of good governance and working as barriers to that. The major issues are corruption, inefficiency and politicisation of bureaucracy and non-observance of the rule of law -- the big obstacles to good governance in Bangladesh.
A democratic constitution was enacted in Bangladesh in 1972 within a year of its independence of 1971. But democracy was hindered to a large extent because of the authoritarian practices on the part of the democratically elected leaders and by other interventions in politics from time to time. Parliament was denied its befitting place in governance. Judiciary was not guaranteed its independence from the executive.
The party system has been and still is fluid, split into factions, personality-centered and undemocratic in its internal operations. However, there is no denying fact that there is no alternative to democracy, and sustainable economic development with a forward-looking vision for Bangladesh will not be achieved unless good governance is ensured.
Our recent politics became a hostage in the grips of few greedy dishonest and incompetent people, who served their own cause or that of the vested interest groups. Worldwide any reform, based on time and space, is considered and accepted for achieving good governance. Any legislation also warrants revision periodically. Therefore, reform is inevitable in various related sectors for achieving good governance.
Independent Election Commission (EC): The EC must be independent from the executive. The selection of Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) and other Commissioners should be made on their competence and moral character. Their integrity should be beyond any question. Major political parties should be consulted before their selection. Election is a process through which people participate in governance. The EC must review the electoral rule and necessary amendments to be done so that pro-citizen candidates get elected through election. Honest, clean and competent people so far kept outside the mainstream politics by vested interest groups must be brought into the main-stream of politics, emerging as a new dynamic political force.
Political parties must be brought under registration for ensuring their internal democracy and financial transparency. Proper electoral roll with photographs of the voters has to be prepared by the EC and the voters have to be issued with voter ID card.
Efficient House of Nation: Parliament should truly be made the centre of all activities and needs to be strengthened by strong parliamentary leadership and institutional capacity building. Various committees must perform their watchdog functions in true sense as most effective instruments. The head of various committees must be competent and leadership thereof may be shared among all parties, having representation in the parliament. The head of Public Accounts Committee (PAC) must be selected from the opposition. Time has come to review Article 70 in order to bring flexibility in members' performance.
Independence of Judiciary: Judiciary is the last resort of the common people. It is the institution that actually protects and harmonises the varying interests of the members of the society and ensures rule of law. It has been the major recourse of the human rights community for enforcement of human rights. However, in a landmark move, the present interim caretaker government is taking steps to separate the judiciary from the executive.
Professional and non-partisan bureaucracy: Bureaucracy is an inseparable part of any organised society. But the bureaucracy of Bangladesh is not efficient in terms of service delivery. It is not prepared at all to participate in global negotiation. They generally lack bargaining competence and vivid diplomacy to tackle any diverse situation. Only efficient and neutral bureaucracy can play a major constructive role in the political process and save a democracy from debacle. But our bureaucracy is highly politicised. So the civil servants need to be imbued with a great sense of collective national welfare -- which alone can lift them from party bias -- to play such a role conscientiously.
Independent Anti Corruption Commission (ACC): An independent and strong ACC can play a vital role to eliminate corruption. The recently-formed ACC has initiated the much talked-about anti-corruption drive, which has brought a lot of influential 'corrupt' people to task. The present ACC drive has proved that nobody is beyond law. The same drive must continue without being biased and with the same speed even during the tenure of future elected governments.
Human Rights (HR) Commission: HR Commission to be formed as a possible solution to the human rights violations or problems existing in the country. It is expected to be a watchdog by monitoring, advocating and promoting human rights.
Office of the Ombudsman: Its need arises for undertaking avoiding preventive and corrective actions with a view to containing bad governance, being practised by some sections of the officials or employees of the public administration.
Right to Information Act: Existing laws restrict peoples' right to access to information. Enactment of the right to information law would stop bureaucrats getting away with corruption and ensure transparency and accountability in government in both political and bureaucratic functions. Functioning with the support of this law, the corrupt officials cannot hide behind the cloak of secrecy and escape punishment.
Consumer Protection Act: The price-hike of essential commodities and adulteration of food items are raising an alarm in the market. This law has to be enacted immediately and should cover the food safety standard and pricing of commodities. Service of public agencies (like T & T, DESA, DESCO, Titas Gas, WASA, Radio, BTV) should also be brought phase-wise under this law.
Regulatory bodies: In any market economy, the government is having more role to play in regulating various sectors. Those regulatory bodies, i.e. Bangladesh Bank, UGC, BSTI, SEC, BTRC, BERC etc., have to be made more effective and functional.
Constitutional appointments: Judges of Supreme Court, Election Commissioners, Chairman and members of Public Service Commission (PSC) and University Grants Commission (UGC) and other key functionaries of similar constitutional bodies have to be selected through the standing selection process without influence from the ruling party.
National Security Council (NSC): National security process of Bangladesh has been neglected since independence. The long-time insurgency in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT), frequent devastating natural disasters, repeated border skirmishes and grenade attacks in various times including coordinated countrywide explosions and bombing by suicide squads of JMB would bear this out. So NSC must be formed immediately.
Freedom of media: Citizen's rights and democracy have not flourished in the country at the expected level due to control on media. All the past governments also failed in formulating a policy on mass media, in absence of which control of private satellite TV channels has gone in the hands of alliance of businessmen and politicians. BTV and Radio Bangladesh must be given full autonomy immediately.
Police reform: Police should be made true friends of the people through massive reform. They must not be utilised for political purpose and their incentives also need to be practically increased. Disciplinary action must be taken against indisciplined police officials and the police must be regulated through a commission, which will be represented by civil society members.
Dependence on donors: Bangladesh can very well avoid foreign aid if it can remove corruption as amounts of money that are eaten up by corruption are much more than foreign aid received. Thereby conditionalities of donors can very well avoided.
Review of Constitution: The Constitution needs to be upheld through democratic practice. We have already passed 35 years after adoption of our constitution. Though there is no disagreement between political leaders regarding basic spirit of the constitution, i.e. no alternative to democracy; people are the owner of all power; government should be formed by the elected representatives by direct vote cast by voters over 18 years of age; government should be accountable to the parliament that should enact all legislation; independence of judiciary has to be guaranteed; and no legislation against basic theme of constitution should be enacted. But in the recent past there was clear disagreement between politicians regarding explanation of various articles of constitution though it is written in Bengali. Now time has come to review it to remove any disagreement on explanation of any matters in a easy language so that in future no such confusion arises.
Good governance will not be achieved in one day. It is a step by step process. All parties in governance -- the government, the opposition, the bureaucracy, the armed forces, the civil society, development partners and all others having a stake must sort out the differences and develop a model by concerted efforts which will be the most appropriate one for the country that will ensure attaining good governance.
It is necessary to sensitise people about their social responsibility and thus to increase their receptivity and ability to respond to good governance. Let Bangladesh be developed as one of the hunger- and poverty-free country in the world, where there will exist true democracy, human rights and good governance.
The writer is a freelancer and can be reached at e-mail:
[email protected]
FOR establishing good governance, transparency, accountability, efficiency and rule of law are the prerequisites, which have for long been far from practice in Bangladesh. Here several issues are constraining the very process of good governance and working as barriers to that. The major issues are corruption, inefficiency and politicisation of bureaucracy and non-observance of the rule of law -- the big obstacles to good governance in Bangladesh.
A democratic constitution was enacted in Bangladesh in 1972 within a year of its independence of 1971. But democracy was hindered to a large extent because of the authoritarian practices on the part of the democratically elected leaders and by other interventions in politics from time to time. Parliament was denied its befitting place in governance. Judiciary was not guaranteed its independence from the executive.
The party system has been and still is fluid, split into factions, personality-centered and undemocratic in its internal operations. However, there is no denying fact that there is no alternative to democracy, and sustainable economic development with a forward-looking vision for Bangladesh will not be achieved unless good governance is ensured.
Our recent politics became a hostage in the grips of few greedy dishonest and incompetent people, who served their own cause or that of the vested interest groups. Worldwide any reform, based on time and space, is considered and accepted for achieving good governance. Any legislation also warrants revision periodically. Therefore, reform is inevitable in various related sectors for achieving good governance.
Independent Election Commission (EC): The EC must be independent from the executive. The selection of Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) and other Commissioners should be made on their competence and moral character. Their integrity should be beyond any question. Major political parties should be consulted before their selection. Election is a process through which people participate in governance. The EC must review the electoral rule and necessary amendments to be done so that pro-citizen candidates get elected through election. Honest, clean and competent people so far kept outside the mainstream politics by vested interest groups must be brought into the main-stream of politics, emerging as a new dynamic political force.
Political parties must be brought under registration for ensuring their internal democracy and financial transparency. Proper electoral roll with photographs of the voters has to be prepared by the EC and the voters have to be issued with voter ID card.
Efficient House of Nation: Parliament should truly be made the centre of all activities and needs to be strengthened by strong parliamentary leadership and institutional capacity building. Various committees must perform their watchdog functions in true sense as most effective instruments. The head of various committees must be competent and leadership thereof may be shared among all parties, having representation in the parliament. The head of Public Accounts Committee (PAC) must be selected from the opposition. Time has come to review Article 70 in order to bring flexibility in members' performance.
Independence of Judiciary: Judiciary is the last resort of the common people. It is the institution that actually protects and harmonises the varying interests of the members of the society and ensures rule of law. It has been the major recourse of the human rights community for enforcement of human rights. However, in a landmark move, the present interim caretaker government is taking steps to separate the judiciary from the executive.
Professional and non-partisan bureaucracy: Bureaucracy is an inseparable part of any organised society. But the bureaucracy of Bangladesh is not efficient in terms of service delivery. It is not prepared at all to participate in global negotiation. They generally lack bargaining competence and vivid diplomacy to tackle any diverse situation. Only efficient and neutral bureaucracy can play a major constructive role in the political process and save a democracy from debacle. But our bureaucracy is highly politicised. So the civil servants need to be imbued with a great sense of collective national welfare -- which alone can lift them from party bias -- to play such a role conscientiously.
Independent Anti Corruption Commission (ACC): An independent and strong ACC can play a vital role to eliminate corruption. The recently-formed ACC has initiated the much talked-about anti-corruption drive, which has brought a lot of influential 'corrupt' people to task. The present ACC drive has proved that nobody is beyond law. The same drive must continue without being biased and with the same speed even during the tenure of future elected governments.
Human Rights (HR) Commission: HR Commission to be formed as a possible solution to the human rights violations or problems existing in the country. It is expected to be a watchdog by monitoring, advocating and promoting human rights.
Office of the Ombudsman: Its need arises for undertaking avoiding preventive and corrective actions with a view to containing bad governance, being practised by some sections of the officials or employees of the public administration.
Right to Information Act: Existing laws restrict peoples' right to access to information. Enactment of the right to information law would stop bureaucrats getting away with corruption and ensure transparency and accountability in government in both political and bureaucratic functions. Functioning with the support of this law, the corrupt officials cannot hide behind the cloak of secrecy and escape punishment.
Consumer Protection Act: The price-hike of essential commodities and adulteration of food items are raising an alarm in the market. This law has to be enacted immediately and should cover the food safety standard and pricing of commodities. Service of public agencies (like T & T, DESA, DESCO, Titas Gas, WASA, Radio, BTV) should also be brought phase-wise under this law.
Regulatory bodies: In any market economy, the government is having more role to play in regulating various sectors. Those regulatory bodies, i.e. Bangladesh Bank, UGC, BSTI, SEC, BTRC, BERC etc., have to be made more effective and functional.
Constitutional appointments: Judges of Supreme Court, Election Commissioners, Chairman and members of Public Service Commission (PSC) and University Grants Commission (UGC) and other key functionaries of similar constitutional bodies have to be selected through the standing selection process without influence from the ruling party.
National Security Council (NSC): National security process of Bangladesh has been neglected since independence. The long-time insurgency in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT), frequent devastating natural disasters, repeated border skirmishes and grenade attacks in various times including coordinated countrywide explosions and bombing by suicide squads of JMB would bear this out. So NSC must be formed immediately.
Freedom of media: Citizen's rights and democracy have not flourished in the country at the expected level due to control on media. All the past governments also failed in formulating a policy on mass media, in absence of which control of private satellite TV channels has gone in the hands of alliance of businessmen and politicians. BTV and Radio Bangladesh must be given full autonomy immediately.
Police reform: Police should be made true friends of the people through massive reform. They must not be utilised for political purpose and their incentives also need to be practically increased. Disciplinary action must be taken against indisciplined police officials and the police must be regulated through a commission, which will be represented by civil society members.
Dependence on donors: Bangladesh can very well avoid foreign aid if it can remove corruption as amounts of money that are eaten up by corruption are much more than foreign aid received. Thereby conditionalities of donors can very well avoided.
Review of Constitution: The Constitution needs to be upheld through democratic practice. We have already passed 35 years after adoption of our constitution. Though there is no disagreement between political leaders regarding basic spirit of the constitution, i.e. no alternative to democracy; people are the owner of all power; government should be formed by the elected representatives by direct vote cast by voters over 18 years of age; government should be accountable to the parliament that should enact all legislation; independence of judiciary has to be guaranteed; and no legislation against basic theme of constitution should be enacted. But in the recent past there was clear disagreement between politicians regarding explanation of various articles of constitution though it is written in Bengali. Now time has come to review it to remove any disagreement on explanation of any matters in a easy language so that in future no such confusion arises.
Good governance will not be achieved in one day. It is a step by step process. All parties in governance -- the government, the opposition, the bureaucracy, the armed forces, the civil society, development partners and all others having a stake must sort out the differences and develop a model by concerted efforts which will be the most appropriate one for the country that will ensure attaining good governance.
It is necessary to sensitise people about their social responsibility and thus to increase their receptivity and ability to respond to good governance. Let Bangladesh be developed as one of the hunger- and poverty-free country in the world, where there will exist true democracy, human rights and good governance.
The writer is a freelancer and can be reached at e-mail:
[email protected]