THE new Minister for Public Administration Syed Ashraful Islam has promised the nation for neutral administration. He is admitting that there is need for making the administration non- partisan so that they implement government policies impartially without political bias. Not only that they will also advise the government how best to serve national interest as against party interest.
He has expressed his good intentions honestly but he is in for big disappointment to find that it is not the policy of the government to tolerate officers not working as party loyals. Syed Ashraful Islam is not new in the government and he is aware how partisan the government is. His thinking is right that the administration should be serving the people no matter who belongs to which party.
In fact, the entire bureaucracy has to act and function now as party followers if they have to enjoy the trust of the government. They have no opportunity to give the government different opinion in the light of their long experience about what is good for the government in upholding public interest. The result is the government has become too dependent on loyal public servants.
The government has allowed its trusted public officials to run the government. The power is used to control politics through police cases. Surely, Syed Ashraful will perhaps not consider police power as politics but that is the kind of politics the government favours.
Prime Minister’s adviser on civil administration HT Imam left no secret how he managed to win the January 5 election using the bureaucracy. As he claimed, he had deployed newly recruited police officers and magistrates at upazila level on mobile courts, who in their turn allowed the ruling party to rig the polls. He also advised the ruling party students to sit for the BCS exams; and the government would see the rest meaning they would successfully enter the bureaucracy. This is what our public administration is at the moment fully demoralized and constrained.
It is essential for good governance that public servants should not be treated as if they are party workers and their duty is to protect the government as party workers. We wish Syed Ashraful Islam all success. But seemingly we see no success for him.
