People know where the shoe pinches
The most important delivery point of services and development activities is the district administration. If one goes to a district headquarters one has the feeling that we are still at the mercy of the East India Company officials. One government in Dhaka is too far, remote, and unreachable to most of the people. Only a directly elected District Council will inject a sense of belonging and accountability to the people. The immediate need is to rationalize and democratize the layers of civil administration to open the window of services to the people. They want an elected and accountable administration at the district level for the vitally important services that has been choked by hardnosed bureaucracy. If the District Chairman is like city fathers, helpless even to the mosquitoes, purpose will not be served. The District Council should have authority over the service agencies, revenue right and subservient bureaucracy. One must also expect a serious vilification campaign by the vested quarters against the elected District Council, if there is one, the way upajilla council was tarnished immediately after their first election to office. The jurisdictions of three hundred parliamentary constituencies do not match with the boundaries' administration. Some Upajillas are divided in two to three constituencies. The tug of war among the MPs of Jilla and divided Upajillas makes the uneven distribution of resources and generates corruption. Democracy can travel down only if local governments are installed in all layers of administration. The CTG will do a lasting service to the people if administrative boundaries are redrawn and election of local governments at districts and upajillas are held before the national election. A classical example of whimsical administration is Dhaka cantonment itself. The small cantonment area has been divided under three thanas - Kafrul, Gulshan and Cantonment. When the address is Dhaka cantonment for passports, police verification, nationality certificate etc. all inquiries invariably go to the cantonment PS. Only faster way of getting out of the frustrating experience is speed money. I have recently met a young man living in Dhaka cantonment but under Kafrul PS desperately trying to get verification certificate on time, and finally resorting to money for speed of action. If it is happening inside Dhaka cantonment due to the anomalous jurisdiction the condition of the rest of the country is left to your imagination. Much of the cantonment environment has been polluted when dubious people are allowed to buy and reside within the restricted cantonment area. In many cases they make payment of the properties but cannot get clearance for registration due to unaccountable source of money; they happily reside in their own houses recorded as tenants waiting for an opportunity for registration in the future. The legal and administrative procedures should be simple to eschew corruption, and most importantly, deny the escape route to the corrupt people. National photo ID is a welcome development that will axe the ghost voters. A person cannot vote except at the centre where he is registered. Why then one should be allowed to be a candidate anywhere for a public office. It was done centuries ago in Europe, as a compromise to ensure elected offices for the aristocracy only. We were colonies then. If we can ensure minimum residency and compulsory local voter enlistment for seeking public office, much of our problems of absentee leadership, multiple candidacy, money and muscle will vanish from the elections. The grassroot leadership will grow to know where the shoe pinches. The rural leadership may lack experience and sophistication but no less intelligent than the townsfolk; they will soon learn and would be far better than the absentees. The highest bidders must go; constituencies should be represented by the indigenous people. If residency is made mandatory for representation, Bangladesh will achieve a participatory democracy of sharing and caring. Shuttling the Chief Adviser routinely from residence to office and back on the busiest artery of Dhaka city - the VIP road is a nightmarish task for the security organizations. If you happen to use that part of the road you are a regular victim of the traffic jam in front of the CA's office. If a computer can calculate the security related expenditure and traffic dislocation, it will be more than a million taka a day; the amount enough to restore a much needed dilapidated primary school or a union health centre in rural Bangladesh. The sad part, most of it is unnecessary waste - a luxury affordable only in a third world country. As the founding DG of the PSF, now SSF I had to study and institutionalize the security needs of the VIPs. I am glad the VIPs have been safe and sound ever since. But the security needs must not be lumped with the waste that thrives on 'sacred cow wisdom'. If the Chief Adviser's office and residence is combined in the Ganabhaban which is on a link road, much of the security hazard and dislocation of traffic get resolved. The Chief Adviser should consider shifting to Ganabhaban, the world renowned architect Luis Kahn originally planned for the office cum residence of the chief executive within the vicinity of the Parliament House. It is the most spacious and secured fortress for the chief executive, idling for decades. The Chief Adviser should set the trend for future prime ministers to move to Ganabhaban complex for use as office cum residence. The interest of the politicians is in an election to whitewash their past, threatening to launch movement soon on pretext of their choice. They do not need democracy in their parties; accountability is the virtue of lesser beings. The university teachers and students cannot be tried because judges do not know that honorable people cannot commit offence. They are also threatening to launch a movement. The businessmen are serious about a truth commission to sustain their rock solid innocence. The gallant sector commanders of the liberation war are calling for the trial of war criminals. But what do the people want? The people also want to try those who have been collecting booty on one pretext or another that made freedom and democracy meaningless in Bangladesh. Of course people want election if only administrative reforms make all layers of government accountable, transparent and reachable. Without reforms Dhaka is like a fortress, too far, remote and anti-people. The author is a freelancer.
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