Divisive polity hinders good governance

There may be large stocks of food in the government godowns but if the poor people die from starvation, how it would be evaluated? so we have to think of a better distribution system". Hence the question of good governance comes. In Bangladesh, the catchword "governance" is being used widely in seminars and symposia and with no end to the rhetoric, but action is lacking.

The concept of "Governance" is not new. In general sense, governance means exercising political power to manage a national affairs.

According to World Bank booklet reports, governance is "the manner in which power is exercised in the management of a country's economic and social resources for development". Governance can be viewed both in positive and negative terms. Good governance and poor or bad governance. For better understanding of good governance, we should know what is poor governance. Because it has been claimed that bad governance is regarded as one of the root causes of all evil within societies.

A World Bank booklet cogently summarized the major symptoms of poor governance. These are:

1. Failure to make a clear separation between what is public and what is private hence a tendency to direct public resources for private gain.

2. Failure to establish a predictable framework of law and government behavior conducive to development or arbitrariness in the application of rules and laws.

3. Executive rules, regulations, licensing requirements and so forth, which impede, functioning of markets and encourage rent seeking.

4. Priorities, inconsistent with development, resulting in a misallocation of resources.

5. Excessively narrowly based or non-transparent decision making.

The other symptoms of poor governance are "excessive costs, poor service to the public and failure to achieve the aims of policy".

Now we can come to the point of "good governance". According to V.K. Chopra, good governance is "a system of governance that is able to unambiguously identify the basic values of the society where values are economic, political and socio-cultural issues including human rights, and pursue these values through an accountable and honest administration."

The Development Assistance Committee (DAC) of the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has highlighted several aspects of good governance. Some of these include:

the promotion of democracy and open pluralistic societies the strengthening of transparent, accountable, efficient and effective national and local government the promotion of respect for human rights
the reinforcement of the rule of law, including fair and accessible legal and judicial systems the promotion of independent media and the dissemination of information
anti-corruption initiatives and efforts to reduce excessive military expenditure.
The United Nations Development Program (UNDP- Governance and Sustainable Human Development, 1977) has identified five basic principles of good governance, which are as follows:

Legitimacy and voice - all men and women should have a voice in decision-making either directly or through legitimate intermediate institutions that represent their intention.

Direction - leaders and the public have a broad and long-term perspective on good governance and human development, a long with a sense of what is needed for such development.

Performance - Institutions and processes try to serve all stakeholders and institution produce results that meet needs while making the best use of resources.

Accountability - decision-makers in government, the private sector and civil society organizations are accountable to the public.

Fairness - All men and women have opportunities to improve or maintain their well being and legal framework should be fair and enforced impartially, particularly the laws on human rights.

Briefly speaking, good governance means an ideal governing system that is inevitable for political, economic, social and cultural development of a country. Good governance needs three things: (a) Capability of the state, (b) Responsiveness and (c) Accountability. This means citizens, civil society and government need to work together to build effective state and provide better governance.

Bangladesh -an overview

Bangladesh has made notable progress in both income and human poverty reduction since independence, with national poverty dropping nine percent in the last decade. Despite this decrease in poverty, the actual number of poor remains the same due to increase in population .Also the level of inequality has increased, widening the rich-poor gap every year. Every year many people die in monga ( famine-like situation) in northern part of the country. Human development report-2004 marked Bangladesh in the 174th position.

Corruption, defined as misuse of official position for personal ends, is a crime that is spread all over the country since independence in 1971. By an independent assessment of Transparency International, Bangladesh (T.I.B.), six consecutive years Bangladesh has become the no.1 corrupted country in the world which is a matter of shame and deep regret for us as a nation which had fought for independence in 1971.

Criminalized and commercialized politics with divisive polity are leading the country to a deeper hole inch by inch everyday. The difference between the two major political parties get translated into a social divide. Armed cadres have polluted government educational institutes. Political interference in administration helps turns the country into a "weak state".

Inefficiency of Bureaucracy: The capacity of policy implementation is very poor. Bureaucrats are not accountable and transparent to the people. Their greed and lack of making proper decisions have led to the rise in present price hike in the country.

Poor planning strategy results in deep effect in peoples every day life. Improper use of resources result in threatening scarceness in electricity, water and gas but effective measures are yet to be taken.

Lack of rule of law: In true sense laws are applied only in favor of privileged people or classes. As a result, justice is denied to the common people. And this environment affects the basic rights of the poor although this is an important aspect of good governance.

Besides , instable Chittagong Hill Tracts, discrimination with indigenous people, environmental degradation and many other problems surround this country. This problematic situation helps rise Islamist militants. So change is needed and change is inevitable.

(To be continued)