The middle government is missing in Bangladesh
GOVERNMENT is the tool to implement the wishes and aspirations of the people mandated through the election under the stern eyes of the opposition and the accountability institutions of the state. With one tier steel-framed government the reality is Bangladesh has no democracy. It is abused and reduced to bribe-taking and toll collection; check and balance is simply missing. Accountability is only in the rolling tears of the hapless victims. We inherited a repressive administration that served two specific purposes for colonial extension - iron grip over the subjects and maximum profit. The colony had political appointments at the highest level that were actually super bureaucrats, the Lord of India in New Delhi and the provincial lords down the command chain of hard-nosed bureaucracy in divisions and districts and a matching judiciary to legalize the reign of fear. They needed raw power in various disguise with the ulterior motive to perpetuate their grip over the subjects. They were smart enough to understand if the grip was strong profit would follow; they had done a good job for their purpose. We are independent twice and have periodical elections in Bangladesh, but the style of governance in reality has not changed. We had votes under dominion status under British rule; one vote in five years is neither independence nor democracy. Bangladesh needs to redefine purpose and redesign political administration to undo the colonial grip on the people; to strive for a truly democratic and egalitarian society or remain mired in conflict and confusion that is the result of a flawed democracy. No matter which system, democracies anywhere have three layers of elected governments. Bangladesh also needs three layers of elected governments for a population of 140 million to bring democracy at home. The local government is going to be the real government for the people for the day-to-day affairs, a government within people's reach. We must empower a local government, may that be upajilla, to the level of the county government of advanced democracies. Law and order, health and hygiene, education, water and electricity, local communication, judiciary, etc. should be promptly accessible. Unfortunately, a service provider, local government was never allowed to grow for fear of losing the grip over the people by the monopolists of democracy. Upajilla, with all necessary authority can meet the requirements and it must also have revenue independence. Worst still is the state of middle government, one that exists between the central government and the local governments, which has never been allowed in Bangladesh. Every democracy has a middle government in the name of states, provinces or regions. The mid-level governance in Bangladesh is ruled by the super bureaucrats in the districts and divisions. Democracy will never be complete or stable without a middle government. It is absurd to conceive existence of two layers of supervisory bureaucratic administration in districts and divisions over elected upajilla. The present day divisions should become elected regional governments with all the powers and responsibilities of state/ province or region practiced in the democracies. Name it whatever we may and call it even a divisional government, what we urgently need for a functional democracy is an elected middle government that is missing today. The democratization of district and divisional administration in the middle frame of democracy is of the utmost necessity. We cannot have more than one middle government. It would be best to have regional governments at divisional level and dilute the district administration between elected governments of upajilla and division. Alternately, we can revive the elected district council in old districts not in the overlapping locality but in the middle frame of democracy. The well-defined autonomous middle governments will strengthen the link between the local government and the central government by responding more to the needs of the people. Finally, the central government in Dhaka should only deal with the affairs of the state that is not within the capacity of the middle or local governments. Whichever model of democracy we follow, function of the governments are well known and well defined. Debate on the system of democracy is a matter of choice only but the three layers of government is essential for democracy. The judiciary, like a patriarch, should remain guardian of the provisions and spirit of the constitution including residue affairs and unfathomed areas. As all the governments are elected by the people no elected government is allowed the guardianship of another. People remain the real guardians of all the governments at all times. This has been the thinking of the political scientists and the practice of democracies around the world. There is no conflict among the governments except in the fabricated mind of those who want to usurp the right of the people in centralized administration to perpetuate the exploitation without taking responsibility. With that purpose in mind, it is understood, why the successive elected governments denied the upajilla elections even when it was not threatening, like someone with a heavy stick after a baby snake; politicians ran after it as if it is the enemy in the making. Most of the politicians in Bangladesh want to be in the cozy remote control mode, the connectivity to the people made available once only in five years in a franchise to continue politics as the most profitable business in Bangladesh. Time has come for a thorough remodeling of our faulty political system. The main difficulty is the unusual concentration of the vested interests in Dhaka that include the best brains in all fields. They simply do not want to go out of Dhaka nor want to share anything that they have usurped from the people. Everyone loves power; its not only politicians but also every other field - businessmen, bureaucrats, intellectuals, artists, and even the underworld; Dhaka has monopolized the leadership. Our elites in all fields are enjoying it most and are not willing to share it voluntarily with the people subsisting in the vastness of Bangladesh. It does not matter if elections are fair or unfair, as long as the capital maintains the monopoly grip of politics, business and brains, the anti-people setup will not allow people's democracy to grow in Bangladesh. Only constitutional reforms can dismantle the monopoly of Dhaka cartel. The various systems of democracy is not really important; the change of parties and the rulers did not make any difference either. All systems of democracy are flourishing and meeting the needs of the people. If the diagnosis is parochial and hidebound, the treatment and change of medicine will not produce the desired result. Rather it would take the governance from bad to worse. Thirty-seven years have gone by since independence; more than half a century away from the colonial rule and many hopes and nightmares elapsed. We are forced to ask how long people are going to wait for real democracy! We need to reverse the gear now through decentralization of politics or more suffering is awaiting us. The author is a freelancer.
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