Good governance in Bangladesh: My thoughts

---

Tasnuva Islam
The terms governance and good governance are being increasingly used nowadays. Governance describes the process of decision-making, and the process, by which decisions are implemented (or not implemented).
Good governance defines an ideal, which is nearly impossible or difficult to achieve in its totality. However, to ensure sustainable human development, actions must be taken to work towards this ideal. Major donors and international financial institutions, like the IMF or World Bank, are emphasising good governance.
The governance issue precedes all other issues so far as economic development of a country is concerned. It is needless to say that unless there is good governance in a country, ensuring people's welfare and achieving its development objectives remain a far cry. Good governance can be understood as a set of certain major characteristics: participation, the rule of law, transparency, responsiveness, consensus-oriented, equity and inclusiveness, effectiveness and efficiency and accountability. The characteristics assure that corruption is minimised, the views of minorities are taken into account and the voices of the most vulnerable in the society are heard in decision-making. A country of great potential such as Bangladesh could make its administration more effective and proactive by improving governance.
Participation could be free where gender mainstreaming and pluralism comprising ethnic and religious groups should be the main thrust. Freedom of association and expression are required for the development of a well-balanced civil society to ensure participation. Good governance requires fair legal frameworks that are enforced impartially. Transparency is needed so that information is open to all. Institutions and processes try to serve all stakeholders within a reasonable timeframe ensuring responsive governance.
In these days of turbulence, there is a need of continuous mediation of different interests in the society in order to reach a broad consensus on what is in the best interest of the whole Bangladesh community and how to achieve the same. It also requires framing up of a long-term perspective for sustainable human development.
We need to ensure that all members of the society feel that they have a stake in it and do not feel excluded. All groups and especially the most vulnerable should have the opportunities to maintain or improve their well-being. Processes and institutions produce results that meet the needs of the society while making the best use of resources at their disposal. It also means sustainable use of natural resources and the protection of environment.
Governmental institutions as well as the private sector and civil society organisations must be accountable to the public and their institutional stakeholders. In general, organisations and institutions should be accountable.
Public Opinion: We should strongly assert the importance of public opinion. Anything can be done if public opinion is favourable. Understanding how to mobilise and sustain public opinion which works as an effective tool is an important element of good governance. Change is inevitable in any society but it should be analysed to understand what the change implies and why and how it has come about. Change can be harnessed for positive actions.
Governance: The fundamental or basic problem of a state usually lies with governance, which is also a fact in Bangladesh.
This country has made remarkable strides in development at the grassroots level and made impressive inroads into tackling of the problems like population, education, child mortality, and particularly gender mainstrearning. Despite all these achievements, there are enormous problems such as deteriorating law and order due to an incomplete security system.
There is a lack of understanding and necessary dialogues to deal with the root causes that have led to serious problems within the country. While the description of the problems by us or the diagnostic is extremely rich, the reforms are always distracted with a set of measures also termed reforms, which serve rent-seeking purposes only. This is a serious threat to good governance.
The Press: The media, both print and electronic, play an important role in moulding public opinion and in preempting actions. Transparency and accountability cannot be achieved without an informed public.
The Supreme Court is an institution, which can play the most important role in the area of governance. If not taken care of, this is going to pose a serious threat to this country where people are aware.
Areas of concern: Every concerned person has agreed that Bangladesh has huge potentials for economic growth and stability. However, a number of factors continue to slow down the country's development. No effort has been made by the government to attract investors in a positive manner but still Bangladesh has emerged as the best global investment haven. Telenor, the Norwegian Company with Japan's Marubeni and the US company Gonofone, became the best example of foreign direct investment in mobile telephony. Tremendous growth of textiles by domestic investors and textile products and sub-materials by both foreign and domestic despite the MFA phase-out is the best example. These are happening, as Bangladesh is the most densely-populated country. The government and donor agencies have failed to visualise the potentialities in foreign and domestic investments, which are already happening in Bangladesh. Another great achievement is in the cement sector which uses fast depleting global fossil: Limestone from across the border with India with rapidly growing market of cement in India. The government was never able to understand the potentialities of so many cement factories cropping up in Bangladesh. With the rise of price of crude oil, cement price is also bound to rise, because the supply of Limestone, a fossil (stock of which cannot be renewed, during the period of our civilisation), is depleting globally with rapid rise in consumption. Though the export of depleting natural gas could be blocked by both the current and immediate past governments, but they almost forced export of coal, another fast depleting fossil fuel, which is used to produce synthetic fuel for running automobiles, instead of petroleum in many countries. Local people, irrespective of political affiliations opposed, and one of the coal companies is now at the stage of running away. To remove the load-shedding in industrial units, the commercial sector and for irrigation in agriculture, we need to stop immediately the use of electricity in rural households.
Most significant is the huge wastage of public resources. This is partly because of rampant corruption. We should correct the same even if it is difficult, or we should redefine corruption for bringing out underground economy. The human beings are rational individuals who will respond to incentives and we should list incentives that will influence people.
Lack of public accountability: One of the most important tools for good governance is accountability. Transparency in all matters of state and the right of the people to question actions are a fundamental right, a right that we do not usually assert. Public officials need to be accountable for their decisions and actions. Accountability has to start at the very top where power is held and go all the way down to the lowest rungs.
Good governance means holding public officials accountable. In addition to a system of public accountability, one also needs a system of accountability to one's own conscience. To cultivate accountability of this kind is not an easy process and dependent on factors such as education, training, reward, and punishment, overall socio-cultural development and financial values taught in the family and so on.
We should strive to achieve transparency even when it is difficult. There has to be accountability and transparency. Audit has to change its methodologies ensuring that all aspects of systems and functioning are examined in the cold light of reasons.
Public financial accountability in the country has been unsatisfactory even though it is an essential part of good governance. A sound system of planning and budgeting the state's financial resources, followed by reliable and prompt accounting and auditing and strong action when there is mismanagement is the ideal pattern in good governance. The challenge lies in fostering the mechanisms of accountability and strengthening them.
The leadership: The country is mired in political differences. For leadership to be effective in ensuring good governance, it should be motivated for the right reasons.
We should strongly assert the central importance of a well-motivated bureaucracy and political leadership. In the end, good governance depends critically on who the functionaries are, who the stakeholders are and how they are motivated while performing their duties. The practice of politicisation of administration, conflict between civil society and politicians can not be allowed to continue.
Responsibility lies on politicians and the system saying that the first to be responsible for bad governance are the politicians who refuse to use the tools available to them to improve the situation.
Reforms, however well thought out, might not succeed unless politicians have stakes in the programmes. In order to ensure successful reforms, the representation of politicians is necessary in a sustained framework.
If we cannot accommodate honest deficiencies, mistakes and human errors with compassion, valuable personal initiatives of resourceful persons within the system of bureaucracy and outside would be lost.
The continuity of a government is very important. It is important that government bodies, bureaucrats remain in position long enough to implement reforms. If not possible, we need to develop teams of local and foreign consultants for particular areas of disciplines. Mental attitude should remain favourable to reforms.
Decentralisation: Decentralisation is an important way to bring the government closer to the people, as well as to improve public accountability. This can work only if the government is willing to allow local authorities comprising private sector control over the finances and administration of their own personnel. Decentralisation is an important element of the process of accountability and transparency. The state should not engage in those issues, which the private sector will manage under government's regulatory measures.
The age-old systems of district councils are almost obsolete which is frustrating the process of decentralisation. A sub-district system is only good to create offices for bureaucrats. There should be realism in the process now, otherwise decentralisation will remain very different.
Incentive mechanism: People are rational human beings who respond to incentives. To develop a set of incentives we need to set reform programmes, which depends on change-agents, and identifying what are the change-agents. We need to point out the need of incentives for good performance of government servants. Government reforms need to be linked to incentives. Incentives can bring changes in each society.
Institutional management: Developing institutional capacity should get priority. A strategy is required for ensuring accountability and transparency, also suggesting introduction of performance-valuating systems for the institutions and incentives for good performance.
Private sector: In Bangladesh, the private sector has not been an effective voice against public sector mismanagement as because businesses have no time to waste by raising voice, as time is money. Moreover, there is a tendency amongst executives, the civil society to find everything politically divided, and, therefore, they conclude there is no basis for collective actions.
Public institutions are damaged due to poor management and ineffective public services. Basic collective actions are required in this context. There should be alternative dispute settlement methods.
We need to see again and again why the private sector does not stand together to become an active voice. As a matter of fact, interest groups are fragmented and collective class action does not exist in reality during the time of change with product differentiations and market segments. Once there was a consciousness among some cadres of certain codes of behaviour or ethics that they identified as a whole. This kind of class-consciousness worked well to bind the group together with a prescription of action. With the passage of time, we would not be able to figure out how one can regenerate this kind of a feeling. But already in the process, corrupt bureaucracy has led to regulatory capture by the private sector.
Hostage to the system: People are eventually hostage to the system in which they live. The escapees are the ones who possess individual resources which provide the means to escape the system and, therefore, they are the ones who could change the system.
These hostages can emerge as the real agents of change. If they have no alternative or no way of escaping from the system, then they should be the ones with the power or the voice to bring about changes. They will have the incentives to bring about change.
There was a third group other than the hostages of the system and the escapees, those who effect change; they are the change-makers. In this category falls Akhter Hamid Khan of Comilla, Prof Yunus of Grameen, Mr Abed of BRAC. Each of these change-makers has done a great deal to create public opinions and effect changes.
In an e-government there is a significant opportunity to explore and exercise good governance. The huge development in the information and communication technology (ICT) all over the world has left Bangladesh far behind. An efficient telecommunications sector is essential for exploiting the ICT potential in government systems.
Telecommunications should be expanded with total computerisation even across the villages. Given the initial conditions, good governance will not come easy, but, nevertheless, it is important to keep working towards it.
It will be possible through the effective use of information and communication technology to link up separate functions that range from the revenue collection to bill processing and separate organisations in government and private sector immediately increasing efficiency of governance. With the application of information and communication technology it will be possible to depersonalise the systems, formalise public management processes and reduce profit-seeking opportunities.
Social capital versus rule of law: Cultural Lags stand in the way of transfer of governance and institutional changes from the developed West to the underdeveloped nations. The old-fashioned system of values that exist in Bangladesh and many other developing nations makes changes difficult. Because of old fashioned, generalised and non-abstract moralities there is a lack of impersonality, a lack of professionalism, which makes it difficult for transfer of good governance or institutional changes.
Transfer of Western rules of business and conformity to rational legality of rules is basically a cultural process. It is expected that public resources will be used for private purposes of the public as the public are free riders on public goods. Keynesian theory of monetary expansion revived the human society as a whole with the threat of monetary exploitation and collapse to remain. A solution to avoid the threat might be a globally collective approach to re-design monetary regimes around the world in a synchronised manner. We must keep in our minds that monetary expansions and contractions force some people to become the gainers and some others the losers, where state and society has a role to play keeping free access of people to the capital or minted money and a simultaneous safety net for the vulnerable. Here, production, technological innovations, social redistribution of wealth can bring a balanced situation.
Banking institutions are required to be pro-business; otherwise the environment for Foreign Direct Investment will not be created. A strong and robust domestic business sector can provide necessary infrastructure with ready manpower to foreign business. Banking and monetary expansion are required to spur the businesses on the growth path. Global inflation due to oil price hike is inducing a monetary expansion. We need to structure a zero percent lending rate to boost up monetary expansion within the country for optimum investment. In Bangladesh default bank loans are created by way of inconsistent policy regimes one after another. The governments should purchase the default bank loans from the banks to save the business and investment experiences of the entrepreneurs for future generation.
To ensure strict law and order, we need a total security system comprising both external and internal security frameworks in order to safeguard investment. An intellectually rich civil society can be one of the positive outcomes of a strong national security system. Such a civil society can help develop a sustainable democracy to replace autocracy in true sense. In Bangladesh despite a tendency of development of democracy at national level, we never found democracy within the parties. Democratic norms are yet to emerge in all the parties which are threatening sustainable democracy in the country.
To improve the law and order was a pre-requisite to improve governance and for that the police force needs to be an integral part of a total security system.
Reform: The opposition to reform comes from vested interests. Despite much dialogue, discussion and recommendations, reform has been slow.
There are doubts as to whether administrative reforrn was really wanted in this country. Reform based on various reports so far generated is a long-term continuous exercise, which needs solid political support. If we cannot maintain momentum, the process is lost.
The prime need of the time is dedicated leadership with mission and vision, which can emerge any time.
Messages:
l Efficient and effective systems of public accountability needed.
l Develop a comprehensive and effective civil society with dynamism.
l Divide the country into economic districts with incentives for private sector-led activities.
l Keynesian Monetary expansion should remain to guide our economy and the people with free access of people to capital or minted money.
l A strong and comprehensive security system should protect investments.
l Enforce administrative reform with E-Governance.
l Create awareness for reform.
o Openness of the citizens to the governance mechanisms required.
l Re-distribution of wealth required as a recurring method to avoid poverty.
l Alleviation of poverty helps sustain democracy and good governance.

— NewsNetwork