Good Governance

How to ensure good governance in Bangladesh

Published : Tuesday, 11 December 2012 in Financial Express

Md Matiur Rahman

Good governance is a much-talked-about issue of the day. It has been defined as 'the exercise of economic, political and administrative authority to manage a country's affairs at all levels'. Governance and development are inextricably linked with each other. Good governance is a prerequisite for sustainable development. There are some important components of good governance.

Legitimacy: Good governance presupposes a legitimate government i.e. a government elected through free and fair election. An autocratic or illegitimate government can notch up spectacular economic development but in the absence of free expression of thought and freedom of speech, good governance will remain an elusive goal. Hence an autocratic or illegitimate government is an anathema to good governance.

Rule of law: The rule of law implies that all citizens irrespective of their race, religion, sex and political affiliation are equal in the eye of law and are entitled to equal legal protection.

Protection of human rights: Another important component of good governance is protection of human rights. Custodial deaths, torture, degrading treatment of victims by law enforcing agencies, illegal detention and engaging somebody in any unethical profession or in any profession against his/her will are examples of violation of human rights.

Accountability: Accountability is the hallmark of good governance and lack of it breeds corruption and encourages highhandedness and excesses on the part of the executive organ of the state.

Transparency: Transparency means that the government must share information with the people and ensure its wide dissemination to them. People should have access to all the documents of the government except those which have bearing on national security. Lack of it results in misuse of power and breeds corruption.

Efficiency: Efficiency, an important component of good governance, depends on proper recruitment, training, posting and promotion on the basis of merit and not on any extraneous factor. Speed of work is also a hallmark of efficiency.

Bangladesh context: Though an electoral democracy, Bangladesh lacks in many of the components of good governance. A democratic culture is yet to take its root in Bangladesh. Politics has been confrontational instead of being consensual. State machinery is characterised by pettiness, ill will and use of resources in personal and party interests. Transparency is poor and accountability is almost non-existent. The administration is dubbed corrupt and inefficient. The civil society is fragmented. Establishing good governance demands a policy package which should incorporate the following:

Political culture: Political culture has important bearing on good governance. Success of a democracy is not a matter of having the most perfect institutional structure that we can think of. It depends inescapably on our actual behavioural patterns and the working of political and social interactions (The Idea of Justice, Amartya Sen). The politicians must be honest and committed. If they can rise above corruption and set self-sacrificing examples, it will help establish good governance. The process of decision-making has to be consensual, as in the contemporary political philosophy, democracy is seen as a government by discussion and as the exercise of public reason through deliberations by citizens on public political questions.

Administrative culture: If appointments, transfers and promotions of government servants are made on the basis of well-defined criteria and their jobs are well protected by law, there will be no scope of using them in party/personal interest. Public servants must maintain neutrality, which is the fundamental characteristic of bureaucracy. Stern action should be prescribed in law if CBAs (collective bargaining agents) attend political meetings during office hours and shirk their duties.

Watchdog: Print and electronic media, a vibrant civil society and responsible opposition parties can create public opinions to check the misuse of authority by the rulers and their cohorts. Journalists' right to freedom of expression can be protected if the journalists become united and thwart any covert or overt attempt of the government to muzzle their voice.

Institutional system: Good governance depends on the proper functioning of three organs of the state-the executive, legislature and the judiciary. For ensuring good governance, one organ of the state should not encroach upon the domain of the other. The head of the government, the head of the party in power and the leader of parliament should be three persons for the sake of ensuring check and balance in exercising powers. There should be a constitutional provision against involvement of law-makers in selection of development projects and distribution of relief which should be left to the local bodies and administration. Constitutional provisions should also be there for review of appointments to constitutional posts and to the Anti-Corruption Commission and the Human Rights Commission by a Parliamentary Committee consisting of an equal number of members from both treasury and opposition benches.

Culture of political vengeance: Good governance demands that citizens should be ruled by laws and rules and a government must take decisions in the light of set criteria and not on the basis of whims and caprices. The ruling party alliance must get rid of culture of political vengeance against the opposition. Otherwise, every party/alliance will be victim of it by turn.

Judicial activism: For the sake of good governance, the higher judiciary should come forward on its own volition to enforce in public interest the rights of a person or authority.

Office of Ombudsman: In order to ensure good governance, an ombudsman should immediately be put in place to investigate the wrongful action taken by any person/authority.

Human Rights Commission: It can serve as an effective check against any abuse or misuse of power by any authority and can help establish good governance. It should be given more authority to play an effective role so that it can meet the expectation of the people. Otherwise, it cannot justify its existence.

Decentralisation: Maximum powers in terms of planning and implementation of development projects and mobilisation of resources should be decentralised at different levels of local government bodies. Restoration of the Local Government Commission is the crying need of the hour. The decision-making processes (powers of Local Government Engineering Department and the Public Health Engineering Department) are highly centralised and hence these two departments should be abolished and the functions of these two departments should be vested in the district and sub-district (Upazila) councils. The district councils must be run by elected representatives as per Article 59 of the Constitution. The provision of appointment of administrators for district councils should be immediately rescinded.

Transparency: For establishing good governance, the government machinery should be transparent and people should have easy access to information.

Reduction of corruption: There cannot be a co-existence between corruption and good governance. The Anti-Corruption Commission must be manned by honest and courageous people so as to daunt the corrupt elements. It should have its own intelligence unit to collect information on corruption and should not merely depend on allegations.

Other tools: The system of reporting, auditing, monitoring, supervision, inspection and parliamentary committees' hearing should be strengthened to establish accountably and thereby good governance in Bangladesh.

Since governance has its impact on the society as a whole all concerned should assiduously contribute their mites towards implementing the package referred to above.

Md Matiur Rahman is a former secretary of the government of Bangladesh