Dr. Md. Shairul Mashreque :
The present government would step into 3rd year of governance with the advent of the New Year. A cumulative effect of running the show through wear and tear during the last two years generated a lot of challenges and the government needs to be circumspect thinking to try something new to bring sanity to governance and try to redeem pre-election pledges as much as possible.
Distressingly the beginning of 2015 was inauspicious. Confrontational politics reached a dizzying height. Politics was beginning to reach a dead end. From 5th January turmoil started with the announcement of hard programmes like hartal and blockade by the BNP-Jamat-led oppositional forces. Citizen’s life became perilous with many becoming victims of arson. Vehicles were attacked by petrol bomb causing many suffer a lot in hospitals. A number of the victims succumbed to burning injuries. Highway turned into a death valley. Railway sector witnessed irreparable losses due to derailment despite security measure like setting some compartments to scot the passenger trains.
The massive victory of AL-led grand alliance in 2014 parliamentary election conducted thorough ‘docile election commission ‘enabled it to retain power. The electors would have liked to vote for a change. The hall mark of the January election 2014 was non-participatoriness. Voters’ turn out was far from impressive despite the claim of some siding with winning party that 40 per cent cast vote. Most observers termed it as a staged managed one-sided show -scoring massive victory in a field without players of the major opposition.
Then local government election was a case in point. It was rather participatory. Both BNP and Jamat took part in it. At the initial stage BNP supported candidates bag a large number of positions -a close contest with ruling AL. Then at the last phases AL supported candidate captured most position due to alleged manipulation.
Even Mayor Elections were alleged to be anything but fair. So even local government elections were far from fair compared to Narayanganj and Comilla Mayoral election 2012. The one-sided mock in 2015 Mayoral election in Dhaka north Dhaka South and Chittagong conducted under docile Election Commissioner (EC) was really mind boggling. As news paper reports most centers were captured by the musclemen, muscling out the genuine voters; some disturbed centers being cancelled. Vigilance was reported to be not proper and befitting. The whole show in terms of security and watch was a mere eye wash.
Plus point seems to the democratization of Paurasava election (Mayoral position) along party lines. Schedules have already been announced and campaign was at the last stage. It should be introduced at the rural-local level.
Performances of some Ministries hold promises. They showed much potential from the beginning thus creating some rays of hopes. Among them are the Ministries of Food, Electricity, Agriculture and Education, Road Communication and Railway and Sports. To mention it our cricket showed a remarkable sign of rising to scale banglawashing Pakistan and Zimbabwe and series victory against India and South Africa in one day. The rise of wonderful boy like Mustafizur Rahman was fantastic with a spell of bowling magic.
The major events were execution of some war criminals like Qamruzzaman, Salauddin Qader Chowdhury and Ali Ahsan Mujahid (Social welfare minster during BNP rule from 2001 to 2006) in quick succession. Pakistan reacted heavily caring little for diplomatic norms and courtesy.
Challenges to come in the New Year (2016) include among others share market scam, highway hazards, unmanageable railway, fuel and energy, secret killings, local government, oil price inflation and war criminals. So ensuring good governance amidst a series of crosscutting challenges will not be easy. The government cannot afford to lose momentum after two hectic years of governance. It needs to be result oriented with forward looking strategies of implementing election pledges and the projected scheme-vision 2021. Already it has produced a lot of programmes to arouse mass expectations. If it loses momentum in the coming year of its tenure the programmes will remain paper tigers. Politico-bureaucratic governance continues to remain at the stage of non-implementation as its interface with vested interest groups may resist and sabotage schemes anchored in election vision 2021.
The country is now at crossroads. It is uncertain of its destination amid a score of insurmountable challenges. Such challenges are not difficult to combat if there is a consensus among the politicians. Political divide appears to be great threat to the desirable social transformation. Over passage of time the confrontational politics involving the two diametrically opposing forces-pro-liberation force and the force created by 2014 election under the ruling party. Changeover in terms of abolishing Caretaker government by 15th amendment was going to deter normal political development. This phenomenon strikes at the concept of unity-thanks to the politicians for locking us into two hostile camps concerning much about ideology than about human welfare.
The people cannot pin hopes on lofty goals of the populist politicians. They might have expected that Independence or Liberation would feed them in milk and honey. But the politicians and administrative elites had enjoyed much of honey and milk depriving the masses. The masses have been enmeshed into illusion trap. The situation exploits the myth of democracy as the politicized actors divert their attention to the basic problem of life by nourishing sentimental beliefs about values. Also some politicized intellectuals show up with their projection of progressive values just as ideologues. At this stage the challenge will be mounting to add to popular frustration if government turns a deaf ear to the burning issues mentioned above. In addition downward movement of the key micro-economic indicators especially shrinking foreign exchange reserve, widening trade balance, inflation, public borrowing and liquidity crunch and share market scam must be addressed. The government must respond to expert opinion about price hike of fuel despite decreasing trends in the price of petrol in international market. High inflation and price hike of daily commodities is due largely to increased fuel price four times. Diesel price hike will increase operational loss of railway. The consequence will be damaging in concluding years of the tenure. Ponder over the matter with due seriousness.
Dysfunctional student politics is a formidable threat to good governance. Before the subsequent years of the tenure to come government must mull steps to combat negative student politics going through the stage of depersonalization.
Fingers are pointed at administration for not taking any visible action against the killers of the foreigners associated with NGOs and minority religious community to stem the rot. The whole campus was smoldering to take fire.
Communication sector is completely shattered despite reconstruction and repair. So the change of the two new ministers to bring it back to a right gear will be really challenging. The introduction railway ministry is of course a land mark. Nevertheless the onerous responsibility of managing this vast public organization is a great challenge.
So the New Year put the ruling part to a real test. It cannot afford to fail. The potent way to improve governance is to learn from the mistakes piled up during last three years. Only success stories during the concluding two years will enhance the image of the ruling party.
Movement against Bureaucratic manipulated 8th national pay scale generated much heat among the service holders including varsity teachers. Crux of the problem concerns the abolition of time scale and selection grade.
Overall performance during a last couple of years is a mix of success and failure. Electoral pledges for changes are difficult to be implemented so soon. In fact nothing is fully achieved to make it complacent. Good governance in terms of poverty reduction, elimination of corruption and terrorism, improving law and order situation and establishing rule of law still remains a far cry. Challenges are going to mushroom in year 2016. Steering the wheel of administration amid such challenges seems difficult to do. Padma Bridge was going ached with self-financing.
What is disquieting is the increasing marginalization and feminization of poverty. I admit the government has achieved something in the attainment of millennium development goals (MDG). Even then I cannot feel that much when I see destitute move in the street without food. Some emerging street mothers moving with their just born babies cannot manage a square meal daily. I think the extremely poor mothers and their babies should be put to welfare payroll. This will be new dimension to the contribution to poverty alleviation. Only attaining 6 per cent growth does not suffice. The real poor ought to be brought under social and economic safety net to ensure growth with equity and social justice.
(The writer is Professor of Public Administration, Chittagong University)
The present government would step into 3rd year of governance with the advent of the New Year. A cumulative effect of running the show through wear and tear during the last two years generated a lot of challenges and the government needs to be circumspect thinking to try something new to bring sanity to governance and try to redeem pre-election pledges as much as possible.
Distressingly the beginning of 2015 was inauspicious. Confrontational politics reached a dizzying height. Politics was beginning to reach a dead end. From 5th January turmoil started with the announcement of hard programmes like hartal and blockade by the BNP-Jamat-led oppositional forces. Citizen’s life became perilous with many becoming victims of arson. Vehicles were attacked by petrol bomb causing many suffer a lot in hospitals. A number of the victims succumbed to burning injuries. Highway turned into a death valley. Railway sector witnessed irreparable losses due to derailment despite security measure like setting some compartments to scot the passenger trains.
The massive victory of AL-led grand alliance in 2014 parliamentary election conducted thorough ‘docile election commission ‘enabled it to retain power. The electors would have liked to vote for a change. The hall mark of the January election 2014 was non-participatoriness. Voters’ turn out was far from impressive despite the claim of some siding with winning party that 40 per cent cast vote. Most observers termed it as a staged managed one-sided show -scoring massive victory in a field without players of the major opposition.
Then local government election was a case in point. It was rather participatory. Both BNP and Jamat took part in it. At the initial stage BNP supported candidates bag a large number of positions -a close contest with ruling AL. Then at the last phases AL supported candidate captured most position due to alleged manipulation.
Even Mayor Elections were alleged to be anything but fair. So even local government elections were far from fair compared to Narayanganj and Comilla Mayoral election 2012. The one-sided mock in 2015 Mayoral election in Dhaka north Dhaka South and Chittagong conducted under docile Election Commissioner (EC) was really mind boggling. As news paper reports most centers were captured by the musclemen, muscling out the genuine voters; some disturbed centers being cancelled. Vigilance was reported to be not proper and befitting. The whole show in terms of security and watch was a mere eye wash.
Plus point seems to the democratization of Paurasava election (Mayoral position) along party lines. Schedules have already been announced and campaign was at the last stage. It should be introduced at the rural-local level.
Performances of some Ministries hold promises. They showed much potential from the beginning thus creating some rays of hopes. Among them are the Ministries of Food, Electricity, Agriculture and Education, Road Communication and Railway and Sports. To mention it our cricket showed a remarkable sign of rising to scale banglawashing Pakistan and Zimbabwe and series victory against India and South Africa in one day. The rise of wonderful boy like Mustafizur Rahman was fantastic with a spell of bowling magic.
The major events were execution of some war criminals like Qamruzzaman, Salauddin Qader Chowdhury and Ali Ahsan Mujahid (Social welfare minster during BNP rule from 2001 to 2006) in quick succession. Pakistan reacted heavily caring little for diplomatic norms and courtesy.
Challenges to come in the New Year (2016) include among others share market scam, highway hazards, unmanageable railway, fuel and energy, secret killings, local government, oil price inflation and war criminals. So ensuring good governance amidst a series of crosscutting challenges will not be easy. The government cannot afford to lose momentum after two hectic years of governance. It needs to be result oriented with forward looking strategies of implementing election pledges and the projected scheme-vision 2021. Already it has produced a lot of programmes to arouse mass expectations. If it loses momentum in the coming year of its tenure the programmes will remain paper tigers. Politico-bureaucratic governance continues to remain at the stage of non-implementation as its interface with vested interest groups may resist and sabotage schemes anchored in election vision 2021.
The country is now at crossroads. It is uncertain of its destination amid a score of insurmountable challenges. Such challenges are not difficult to combat if there is a consensus among the politicians. Political divide appears to be great threat to the desirable social transformation. Over passage of time the confrontational politics involving the two diametrically opposing forces-pro-liberation force and the force created by 2014 election under the ruling party. Changeover in terms of abolishing Caretaker government by 15th amendment was going to deter normal political development. This phenomenon strikes at the concept of unity-thanks to the politicians for locking us into two hostile camps concerning much about ideology than about human welfare.
The people cannot pin hopes on lofty goals of the populist politicians. They might have expected that Independence or Liberation would feed them in milk and honey. But the politicians and administrative elites had enjoyed much of honey and milk depriving the masses. The masses have been enmeshed into illusion trap. The situation exploits the myth of democracy as the politicized actors divert their attention to the basic problem of life by nourishing sentimental beliefs about values. Also some politicized intellectuals show up with their projection of progressive values just as ideologues. At this stage the challenge will be mounting to add to popular frustration if government turns a deaf ear to the burning issues mentioned above. In addition downward movement of the key micro-economic indicators especially shrinking foreign exchange reserve, widening trade balance, inflation, public borrowing and liquidity crunch and share market scam must be addressed. The government must respond to expert opinion about price hike of fuel despite decreasing trends in the price of petrol in international market. High inflation and price hike of daily commodities is due largely to increased fuel price four times. Diesel price hike will increase operational loss of railway. The consequence will be damaging in concluding years of the tenure. Ponder over the matter with due seriousness.
Dysfunctional student politics is a formidable threat to good governance. Before the subsequent years of the tenure to come government must mull steps to combat negative student politics going through the stage of depersonalization.
Fingers are pointed at administration for not taking any visible action against the killers of the foreigners associated with NGOs and minority religious community to stem the rot. The whole campus was smoldering to take fire.
Communication sector is completely shattered despite reconstruction and repair. So the change of the two new ministers to bring it back to a right gear will be really challenging. The introduction railway ministry is of course a land mark. Nevertheless the onerous responsibility of managing this vast public organization is a great challenge.
So the New Year put the ruling part to a real test. It cannot afford to fail. The potent way to improve governance is to learn from the mistakes piled up during last three years. Only success stories during the concluding two years will enhance the image of the ruling party.
Movement against Bureaucratic manipulated 8th national pay scale generated much heat among the service holders including varsity teachers. Crux of the problem concerns the abolition of time scale and selection grade.
Overall performance during a last couple of years is a mix of success and failure. Electoral pledges for changes are difficult to be implemented so soon. In fact nothing is fully achieved to make it complacent. Good governance in terms of poverty reduction, elimination of corruption and terrorism, improving law and order situation and establishing rule of law still remains a far cry. Challenges are going to mushroom in year 2016. Steering the wheel of administration amid such challenges seems difficult to do. Padma Bridge was going ached with self-financing.
What is disquieting is the increasing marginalization and feminization of poverty. I admit the government has achieved something in the attainment of millennium development goals (MDG). Even then I cannot feel that much when I see destitute move in the street without food. Some emerging street mothers moving with their just born babies cannot manage a square meal daily. I think the extremely poor mothers and their babies should be put to welfare payroll. This will be new dimension to the contribution to poverty alleviation. Only attaining 6 per cent growth does not suffice. The real poor ought to be brought under social and economic safety net to ensure growth with equity and social justice.
(The writer is Professor of Public Administration, Chittagong University)
