The system works

I am getting off a jet plane, coming home. Soon I will be collecting my bags. If I am lucky, "soon" will be a matter of 15-20 minutes, otherwise two and a half hours to three is not an unexpected wait. The latter was my experience a couple of months ago. The time between getting off the jet plane and picking up the bags is spent at the immigration line. Yes, this is at the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka.

Most people these days have machine-readable passports - Bangladeshi or foreign - and it is merely a question of scanning the passports to digitally record the data of the person entering the country. What can possibly take so long to scan a passport? While waiting in line, it is almost customary for the passengers, otherwise unknown to each another, to start up friendly, but somewhat edgy conversations, on the real life drama being enacted in which they are unwilling actors. Dialogues centre on how some people don't realise that they are waiting in the wrong queue. When they do realise it, they think it's fine to jump to the front of the actual line. Newsflash! No, it is not 'alright' for another person pay for your mistakes by letting you to push yourself to the prow. The supervisory officers do nothing to correct such behaviour, until screaming and fighting reaches its peak. 

At times, the officer at the immigration counter discovers that the passenger has not filled up the immigration card and allows the person to stand at the counter to do so, rather than taking on the next person while the said person fills up the required information. Isn't this simple logic? 

There are times when frequent power failure result in shutdowns of the computers used by the officials, which take way too long to reboot as the generators come to life. At times, the system cannot handle it when too many flights land simultaneously, bringing in thousands to get their immigration clearance. By now, the sense of excitement of coming home is in shreds, and the tiredness of many hours of travel, coupled with the tension of how much longer one has to hold it in till the use of a decent toilet, starts to set in. One just wants to get out of there. Most of the problems faced by passengers at the immigration counter at the airport are due to lack of discipline at individual and systemic level. If systemic discipline can be introduced, individuals will have no other option but to follow the rules, just as we do the moment we step out of Bangladesh and into countries that is governed by actual rules. 

The objective of my latest trip to Dhaka was to collect articles written by my deceased father, which he published in various newspapers over a span of 15 years. I was already feeling overwhelmed about the magnitude of the task. I would have to go to different newspaper offices and government libraries to achieve my aim of collecting around a thousand articles. I was advised to find contacts who could request the head of the government institutions to extend me help. The suggested contacts were ministers and government secretaries. Apparently, nothing else would work in getting me access to documents which are supposed to be public.  As if I were a foreigner in my own country, I was told that this was how things worked in Bangladesh. I am a strong believer of citizens making their demands in a systematic way, so that the other end is given an opportunity to respond. The demand side of a system has its social responsibility in making the demand, just as the supply side does in responding to it. 

I decided to approach the government institutions with a standard written request which outlined the purpose of my work. That was all that was necessary to get permission from the Public Library, Central Library, Press Institute, and National Archives. Some places required a fee that would enable me access to the archives over a period of time. Others had the requisite of a nominal membership fee. I was more than happy to pay for the invaluable services I got to avail. I was impressed by the systematic way the newspapers were archived, bound and categorised. This made my task of thumbing through almost 15,000 newspapers smooth and efficient so say the least. Every single individual at these government institutions provided genuine assistance in helping me to get access to the material I needed. They even suggested places I could check out, if I could not get everything that I required from their respective organisations. 

The system worked for me. I needed to believe that the system would provide me my rightful access to the services without having to pull any strings. It is up to us to take the straight path of using the system and not abuse it.

The writer is Associate Professor of Public Health, Karolinska Institutet, Sweden.