Dr. Forqan Uddin Ahmed :
Colonial legacy and Weberian concepts tend to block the sharpening of Bangladesh bureaucracy which has to meet the challenges of a fast moving transformational society of Bangladesh. Bangladesh is changing fast, as is clearly discernible, among others, in the fields of private sector, economy, technology, culture, values, attitude and hopes and aspirations of the people to meet the demands of the globalized fast moving knowledge based world. The felt need of the Bangladesh society today is to revamp the otherwise stereotyped bureaucracy that can look for vision and be more proactive, more positive, more responsive, able to challenge the status quo, and be creative, risk taker, better decision maker and harmonizer.
One of the most notable legacies of British colonial rule in South Asia has been the presence and persistence of bureaucratic elitism. The higher civil bureaucracies, the generalist administrators in particular, have manifested a remarkable resilience even under changing social and political conditions to maintain their ‘supreme’ status in state and society. The prestige, social esteem, influence, authority, and permanency of tenure in the prime civil service career provide the impetus for elitism to further endure in bureaucracies. A unique form of bureaucratic culture that developed in an environment of social, political and economic uncertainty helped reinforce elitism. While they may differ structurally and in their modes of operation, the bureaucracies in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh manifest some common attributes of elitism that have wide implications for governance and development. Against the backdrop of some theoretical postulates, this brief article focuses on the generalist civil service corps in Bangladesh, which has assumed an elitist position within the bureaucracy and in the structure of government. It looks at the genesis, growth and continuity of the elitist culture in the bureaucracy, bureaucratic autonomy, elite integration versus differentiation, the nature of elite recruitment and enculturation, elite indoctrination, elitist inputs into the policy process, and failed efforts in making changes.
Bangladesh is slowly and gradually turning itself into the mainstream of globalized world but is facing hiccups due to political instability, corruption and weak governance. Leadership and management skills, although better available in the private sector, are lacking in the public sector. Political leadership, however, does not fall within this ambit, since that is naturally homegrown; a kind of informal sector, coming from the grass root levels of Bangladesh. Political leadership, however, is intricately involved with the public bureaucracy in running the governance of the country. Political leadership is definitely more pronounced since they give the policy decisions and direction for running the state affairs. But the real challenge remains in the realm of implementing those on the ground, where there are almost insurmountable challenges and handicaps in different stages of implementation process. In both the tiers of leadership, there is a dire need of vision, charisma, creativity, changing and challenging the status quo, transforming the subordinates or the followers to get into the vision of the leaders or be able to look into their emotions and energy. It is, however, a sorry state of affairs prevailing in Bangladesh where especially in the formal tier of leadership, who also provides impetus to the political leadership for decision making, the bureaucracy is usually carrying out routine, stereotyped functions which, is otherwise, supposed to impact much in the change of the system of governance of Bangladesh.
The Administrative Cadre exhibits an uncanny abhorrence towards reform and innovation and feels more at ease with the status quo. The greater the challenge from other cadres or reform mongers, both governmental and international, to bring it down from the ivory tower, the more determined it becomes to protect its privileged position. In the past, bureaucratic intransigence negated several reform attempts including some by democratically elected governments. Often unrecognised and not always acknowledged, bureaucratic elitism has wide ramifications in administrative performance and governance and its effects are apparent in social behaviour and interactions. Bureaucratic venality and intemperance have been thriving often with political support, public servants work behind a veil of secrecy unconcerned about transparency, accountability mechanisms are inadequate or weak, the common people have limited access to government functionaries, public grievance procedures are almost alien to those who make decisions, and last but not least, public management operates without the public.
Despite the fact that the Administrative Cadre lacks the high degree of exclusiveness and internal coherence of the old CSP, its subsystem autonomy, its distinctiveness as a special group in the governmental structure and its hold over civil service management are all fused to protect it from political, economic and organisational vagaries. It remains the dominant instrument of government and a force in its own right. Unless well-planned initiatives are taken to correct the problems, bureaucratic elitism will maintain its presence and perhaps ascendancy. Public confidence in the bureaucracy will further wane.
The status-quo and streo-typed bureaucracy will hamper administration in Bangladesh. Again high handedness, flattery and blame game in bureaucracy is the root of all evils in administration. Moreover, only the skilled and digital bureaucracy can accommodate any crisis. Besides, bureaucratic elitism hinders the administrative transparency. So, bureaucracy must be made transformational, not transactional and nation’s interest needs to be given topmost priority.
(The writer is former Deputy Director General, Bangladesh Ansar & VDP).
