The New Nation - Internet Edition

Tayeb Husain

I am pleased to see that Mr. Md. Basum Billah, a specialist in Brac Education Programme, PACE, was kind enough to go through my write-up in the New Nation (Making the Local Government Strong) and has written a nice commentary on it (on 25th Nov 2007) supporting my idea with a few strong reservations. The problem arose, perhaps, due to lack of clarity in explaining different points in my write-up. I am sure that Mr. Billah's personal observation of the circumstances that prevail in our present local government administration may also have influenced his support against giving education, justice and policing to local government's authority. I shall once again try my best to put forward my idea in a nutshell and make the missing points available for Mr. Billah and other readers for better understanding of the concept of strong local government and the circumstances under which it can work in the best interest of a nation.

Local government is the most effective administrative unit in most of the developed countries of the world and its efficiency and usefulness can be observed candidly under certain circumstances. Those most important circumstances are, (1). Voting System, (2). A fully independent Judiciary and (3). A sound administrative system

Local and national government of a country work best where the government is elected by 'Proportional Voting system' and not by "majority voting system". Democracy is better respected in proportional voting system (or proportional representation system) where one votes to a party rather than an individual. Among advanced western democracies it is also the predominant voting system. The basic approach of proportional voting system is simple; legislators are elected in multimember districts instead of single-member districts, and the number of seats that a party wins in an election is proportional to the amount of its support among voters. So if you have a 10-member district and a party wins 51% of the vote, they receive 51% seats. If another party wins 25% of the vote, they get 25% seats; and if a third party gets 15% of the vote, they win 15% seats and so on. This system eliminates 'mushroom' growth of political parties by fixing it obligatory for a party obtaining a minimum percentage of popular votes in the election.

Proportional voting system was devised to solve the many ills caused by majority voting system. As a rule, proportional-voting system provides and guarantees more accurate representation of parties, better representation for minorities, fewer wasted of votes, a higher levels of voter turnout, better representation of women, greater likelihood of majority rule, and little opportunity for vote buying and of using muscle power.

Decent people are attracted in politics by this system because they need not spend money or to run after the voters to be elected. The political parties list their candidates serially in this system and voters know in advance who would win the election if a party is expected to get a certain percentage of total votes. A party who nominates thieves and thugs would be rejected by the decent voters and thus, more decency would prevail in the election process. By this system, the government of the ignorant, to some extends, also could be eliminated. (Anybody interested to know little about proportional voting system can read the election system of Germany or any of the Scandinavian countries).

The Judiciary is expected to be fully independent to safeguard a true democratic system of a country. A fully independent judiciary makes the executive branch careful and fearful to engage in unlawful activities. Rule of law must prevail while governing a country and the judiciary must look after and defend it as a sentinel of justice and fair play. Law and order must be respected by everybody and none should be above law. Personal rule, the dominant scenario in almost all the 3rd world countries, should be made an offence and punishable by law for well functioning the administration of a country including the administration of the local government.

No doubt that electing a government and local government by proportional voting system would put the politics of any country in the right direction but again, it would not function as we desire if real and fundamental reforms were not brought into the present administrative system of the country.

The Indian sub-continent was a British colony until 1947 but even today the colonial administrative apparatus are almost intact and seems infallible in the countries of this region. Lord Cornwallis (Governor-General of India, 1793-1798) was the first to divide the country into districts and the origin of the post of today's DC started rightly in 1787. Lord William Bentinck (1828-1835) divided the districts into "Sub-division" and also formed the "Divisions" containing a few districts. It was in 1829, exactly 178 years ago and the same administrative system prevails in the Indian Sub-continent almost in the same way.

British rule in India was for the British colonial interest and it is unfortunate that almost 1.5 billion people can not think of any other way to rule them but moving round and round around the old British colonial structure. What I want to say is that, for democracy and development, we need to establish a government through election and that election should be on the basis of proportional representation system where judiciary would be fully independent and administration shall be totally overhauled making the Local government strong and fully independent. Strong local government, once again I would say, means all power should effectively lie with this tire of the administration for local administration, including education, justice and policing and, in spite of the fact that our Local government leaders, at the moment and as Mr. Billah has rightly observed, are mostly illiterate and equally and horrendously corrupt.

But who is not corrupt in Bangladesh? From a village tout to a distinguished intellectual or a vice-chancellor of a university or a cabinet secretary, how many honest people we have in our country? Is an honourable member of the parliament or the person who leads him/her less corrupt than a member or chairman of a Union Parisad? Is it not the system that makes people corrupt and encourage corruption further?

Mr. Billah expressed fear that members and chairman of the union council would interfere in school activity, in local justice system or in policing if full power is given to them to look after these departments. Mr. Billah is right and all those problems will come if the local government's constitution and the frame remain as it is now. Before giving local government full power, the system, right and responsibilities of the local government must be framed anew and clearly defined. And that is that a Local Government must have two bodies: (1). The Local government assembly (or the decision making organ) and (2). The Executive office of the administration (that would execute the decisions of the local assembly). Members of the Local government assembly will be elected by the local people whereas the members of the Executive committee would be the appointed permanent staffs of the Local government. Decision making and execution of a decision would not be executed by the same body. That is how it works in a developed Western democracy. The system offers a check and balance. Mr. Billah, can the Chairman of a Union Parisad (UP) do corruption and steal UP money if he is allowed to make law only whereas the execution of the law is performed by someone else? Here I am talking about the permanent officials who are fully independent to run and execute decision taken by the elected public representatives.

The UP will get money to run the local schools and hospital but money will be spent by the Executive Committee of the UP while the UP Chairman and members may have a careful eyes on the Executive Committee while the spending takes place. The basic and fundamental rules and regulations, of course, are always framed by the national legislature which local government follows faithfully adjusting to local needs and circumstances. They can also frame their own laws that may be necessary to make life of the citizens of their locality better.

Mr. Billah opposes the idea of abolishing the post and office of the DC and Upazila Nirbahi Officer. I do not know if Mr. Billah overlooked the fact that there is no mighty DC or Upazila Nirbahi officer in the administration of any developed country. These good for nothing white elephants have no function in a modern state. There jobs are done at local level by the local administration. Officers of the cadre services, to suit our situation, can start their job in the Executive office of the UP with less show off and performing more useful works.

A Secretary is a powerful official in any government but does he need to be super human to execute the decision of the government? A public servant whether he is a Cabinet Secretary or the OC at a Thana is a public servant and his job is to obey and execute decisions of elected representatives of the people following the rules and regulations of the state. The abolition of cadre service would be also a nice action. Who needs cadre service and for what? It is training that makes a good officer of anybody who has some education and enough basic human qualities.

But most importantly, no country can develop and achieve prosperity and peace without good and strong local government. Local government is the backbone of all the democratic developed countries. Britain and USA do not have proportional representation system of voting and their national politics, especially that of USA are corrupt and faulty for that reason but luckily they have strong local governments and that is why their societies function and they are still prosperous countries.

Finally, we need not judge our local government leaders just as touts; they can be efficient and honest representatives of the people too provided we are ready to give them full responsibility to take care of and to run our affairs. It is also a sad and unfortunate scenario that "clean and educated people hardly come to politics particularly in local politics" in Bangladesh as Mr Billah said. It does not however confirm that "politics is the job of the scoundrels" only. It is the political leaders and their right political decisions and proper execution of their right decisions by the honest and faithful officials of the administrative system that uplift a nation. No nation can develop and prosper without good political leadership.