THOUGHTS ON A TROUBLING SECTOR

REVIEWED BY SHAHID ALAM 

Most developing and transitional democracies have experienced colonial rule and gone through one or more authoritarian periods. Bangladesh is no exception to this experience, with the triple whammy of having gone through it under the British Raj, then Pakistan, and, finally, as a sovereign independent country. This is a recurring theme, explicitly or implicitly stated in several of the seventeen chapters that constitute 40 Years of Public Administration and Governance in Bangladesh. As the editor, Nizam Ahmed (who has contributed three of the chapters) states in the Preface, "To understand and explore reasons that account for the development and decline of public administration in the first four decades of Bangladesh's independence, a three-day International Workshop was held in Chittagong…in January 2013…. Most of the chapters in this edited volume are revised versions of papers presented in the…Workshop."

The concept of Public Administration, as the book indicates, has undergone changes over time in keeping up with the changing times that have been so strongly influenced by the rapid advancement in information technology. In Bangladesh's context, though, the editor contends (Ch. 1, "Public Administration and Governance in Bangladesh: In Search of a Paradigm") that, as an academic discipline, even after forty years since it was introduced as a separate subject at Dhaka University, Public Administration "has not yet crossed the "adolescent" stage…. No serious effort has yet been made at theorizing Public Administration or exploring links between theory and practice." This may be so, but, so often theory, especially pertaining to the social sciences, gets thrown out of the window, or becomes inadequate or obsolete, in the face of practical reality. And the practice of public administration has been going on in Bangladesh since the British colonial times, when the government in London instituted the elite ICS (Indian Civil Service) to essentially further its own colonial interests. 

Several of the writers discuss at varying lengths the gap that exists between theory and practice in general (including in the advanced countries), as well as the imperative of matching practice to the reality of social structure, political culture and form of government, cultural norms and traditions, and economic conditions of a particular country. In an erudite article (Ch. 4, "The Study of Public Administration in India"), Bidyut Chakravarty reasonably insists:  "…one-size-fits-all syndrome does not appear to be a meaningful theoretical formula insofar as public administration is concerned." In the process of delving into what he thoughtfully perceives as the root causes of a failure at developing a meaningful methodological package to study public administration, he finds, "Of all the restraining factors, the prominent among them is a blind imitation of the western conceptualization while seeking to understand our public administration." Nonetheless, he feels encouraged that a group of analysts have questioned the hitherto uncritical dependence on western models and have undertaken the building of models by "adequately emphasizing the prevalent socio-economic circumstances." He, though, continues to lament that, "What is most disappointing is the neglect of the dialectics that always exist between the text and context." In this country's context, Habib Zafarullah (Ch. 6, "The Governmental Machinery in Bangladesh") observes: "The cult of personality reigns in Bangladesh's political culture; statecraft is influenced by partisan loyalty rather than rationality." Public administration in practice has suffered as a result, with negative ripple effects on the country's governance.   

Momtaz Jahan and Mobasser Monem (Ch. 7, "Human Resource Management in Bangladesh Civil Service") note the multiple negative impacts on the bureaucracy and governance as a consequence of poor political culture:  "Most of the civil servants have been serving their own bureaucratic needs or those of politicians instead of serving the citizens.  As a result the bureaucrats suffer from a loss of public face in terms of honesty, sincerity and responsiveness." Quamrul Alam and Rizwan Khair (Ch. 8, "Development of Human Capital in Bangladesh Public Service:  Its Drivers and Consequences") elaborate on the one-size-fits-all formula, which has created problems in implementation in face of  the political, cultural, economic, and social realities and traditions of the country:  "The policy prescriptions of World Bank, UNDP, the DFID and the ADB…focus…on small government, decentralization, transparency, accountability, governmental integrity, public sector efficiency and performance, improved civil service management, explicitly defined administrative and financial procedures and greater involvement of the private sector in the economy…. For developing countries, this has resulted in a lack of recognition of the importance of the crucial area of utilization of human capital.  Most of those reform efforts have tried to provide technical solutions and neglected country-specific conditions." They go on to claim that the requisite skills and capabilities exist in Bangladesh's public sector, but problems arise as a result of the absence of appropriate mechanisms to effectively utilize them.

In terms of Public Administration as an academic field of study, Mohammad Mohabbat Khan (Ch. 2, "Global Public Administration and Developments in Bangladesh"), while discussing the challenges faced by the discipline, observes with much concern: "…more alarming is that promotion has now become a "right" in all public universities.  It is now automatic. Once one has joined as a Lecturer, he/she has to spend "designated time periods to be eligible for promotion" to the next rank and the process is repeated throughout his/her career.  Certain numbers of "homemade" "publications" are required. It does not matter what is the quality of the article and the professional standing of the journal."  In terms of public administration in practice, Najmul Abedin (Ch. 12, "District Administration, Decentralization and Politics in South Asia:  A Comparative Perspective and a Counterpoint") is aghast at the apparent degradation of the Deputy Commissioner's (DC) hitherto superior position in a district vis-à-vis all other district-level officers in Bangladesh in terms of his (there were no female DCs then) position in pre-1971 Pakistan or in the British Raj.  He cites the case of India where that position with its erstwhile status and privileges have remained intact, and argues for the reintroduction of the "elite cadre service like ICS/IAS/CSP" in order to better manage a district's overall administration. 

John Halligan, an Australian academic, on the contrary, argues in favour of civil service structural reforms (Ch. 15, "Governance Reforms and Public Administration in Old Commonwealth Countries: Lessons for Bangladesh") leading towards public management. His paper primarily addresses aspects of governance reforms to public administration in Anglophone countries (Australia, New Zealand, and UK specifically) that "have been great modernizers and provide reference points for other reforming countries internationally.  However, their systems are far from perfect and their approaches do not necessarily transfer readily to other systems, either old or new Commonwealth." On the tricky matter of the ultimate aim of reform agendas being bringing about cultural change, Halligan cautions: "The question of sustaining cultural change, long an Achilles heel of reform, depends on whether the rigidities of an existing system can be breached by tangible requirements that affect behaviour."

Ferdous Jahan and Asif Shahan (Ch. 11, "The Shifting Role of Judiciary in Bangladesh:  Re-defining the Checks and Balances in a Transitional Democracy") have written a convincing paper where they argue "that the overemphasis on one factor (structure) and negligence of the others (agency and culture) has a significant impact on the way the role and performance of the judiciary is being evolved." They have penned some interesting thoughts in developing an alternative framework towards attaining total independence of the judiciary. Public administration in praxis is for all to feel around them, consciously or unintentionally, almost every day throughout their lives.  Public Administration as an academic discipline, though, has a far more limited audience, usually restricted to the students of the subject as taught in institutions of higher learning, scholars of that area of study, and a few interested persons wanting to know more about the topic. 40 Years of Public Administration and Governance in Bangladesh is more for the second group, and they will find it a handy read.  

The reviewer is an actor and educationist.