State action, civil society and human security

The state is the primary actor in international relations and territorial security of the state is privileged over the security of the individual. As such, genuine concerns of human development and human rights have often been cast aside to accommodate the interests of the military in the formulation of national security policies.

Conceptual notions
Human security concepts identifies and considers environmental pollution hunger, poverty, violent social and political conflict, economic imbalances, drugs, organised crime, discrimination on grounds of gender, religion, race as threats to human security. Such approach does not always consider state as the sole provider of security. At times, the state has been identified as an adversary. The human security approach prescribes conflict resolution with inbuilt guarantees for freedom of expression, representation and action for all.

There is a need to seek a balance between the political and economic aspects of human security. Coherence in conceptualising human security will help in channelising research and action in related areas. Consequently, this would help in devising effective strategies for achieving human security. The Human Development Index and the Humane Governance Index formulated by Mahbub-ul-Haq enables an identification of problem areas for each country and is thus a valuable tool in addressing problems of human security.

There is perhaps a need to make distinction between issues that lend themselves to state action and those that fall within the realm of social reform. This is not to establish that state action and social reform are mutually exclusive but that they must play a mutually strengthening role in the achievement of human security.

In Bangladesh, gender discrimination is a major threat to human security as it results into economic and sexual exploitation, political exclusion and social marginalisation of half the population. In solving the problem, in addition to legislation, there is a requirement of an interface between social reform and state action for effectively addressing the issue. The state can legislate laws for equal employment opportunities for women but if there is social resistance to girls being educated, the legislation will not translate into economic equality for women. Without integrated approach only specific aspects of the problems will be addressed with the result that the phenomenon of gender discrimination will remain a grave concern despite exhortation of gender equality in state policy. Similarly, the problems of human security and personal security have a dimension that can be effectively dealt with only through a combination of social reform and state action.

Human security and state security
Since there are differing priorities of human security in different regions, the debate on state security versus human security becomes pertinent. While elsewhere there is a stress on mechanisms of managing political and economic issues through cooperative approach, in Bangladesh the issues of territorial sovereignty still predominate. Unfortunately, the processes of nation building are still in progress in our situation. However, human security is entwined with state security and each becomes an aspect of the other.

The strategies for ensuring human security and state capacity are interlinked. There is a direct link between good governance and achievement of human security. The Human Development Report for South Asia, 1999 identified misgovernance and lack of governance as major threats to human security in South Asia. Especially, in Bangladesh, the politician-criminal-bureaucracy nexus has hijacked processes of governance with the result that the common people's access to resources and justice are denied with impunity. In such a scenario, the state itself becomes a threat to human security perpetrating crimes against its citizens. Here, the state is unable and often unwilling to cope with the market forces. The incidence of increasing rural poverty and the income gap between urban and rural areas is a problem. Such a position has given rise to a human security debate that demonises the state and makes an argument for moving away from the state.

State and civil society movement
The anti-state and pro-civil society debate originates from the lack of faith in the capacity and intention of the state to ensure the security of the individual. While the anti-state discourse expresses the popular discontent with the state of affairs in the country, the accompanying argument or posture of moving away from state needs closer examination. Those in favour of moving away from the state, however, do not offer any alternative structure to replace the essential functions performed by the state. The proposal for a vigilant civil society constituted by non-governmental organisation in the areas of best electoral practices, development, health etc and people's groups is too diffuse an entity with no specific sense of purpose.

Economic development and security management are essential ingredients of governance and while good governance is a prime requirement everywhere, it is a key element in a volatile environment. Since the ultimate battle is for the hearts and minds of the people and deprivation is the core, therefore, major areas of concern for governance are provision of basic civic amenities, public distribution system, health, communications and transportation, housing, education. People must feel and see government and not just hear of it. This is where political will and governance are seen by the common man.

The main concern should be to established the credibility and legitimacy of the state and its institutions. This may be achieved by a pragmatic and implementable policy, institutionalised approach and a sincere and transparent implementation by credible people.

There is no denying that politics have eroded the law and order machinery, law enforcement capacity and the legal framework to deal with security situation. The state needs to arm itself adequately to confront organised crime, subversion, terrorism and threat posed by narcotics. At the same time, political parties must not permit a state of anarchy under the garb of political propriety and democracy.

Management of security situation
Our response to every internal security situation must not be an escalation in the type or number of security forces. The point to be understood is that increase in numbers or types of forces is no substitute for efficiency. Diverse forces with varying capability, ethos and charter handling internal security situations may cost cohesiveness and enhanced capability. There is a need for long term professional assessment on the employment of forces to prevent transborder terrorism and for confronting the insurgent-smugglers nexus.

Our strategy in tackling internal security has been purely of crisis management. Structural changes are required in decision making process to ensure independent functioning of law enforcement agencies and a holistic policy incorporating political, economic and law and law and order aspects.

The desired course
In the absence of an alternative arrangement, the argument to move away from state capacity can actually be counter productive as it may result in the breakdown of existing structures of representation and governance. While these structures and their processes may be flawed they do afford the citizens a voice, however marginalised, and rule of law, however, compromised. The preferred strategy in this case would be to strengthen the existing structures of governance by introducing greater accountability and transparency. This would empower people with the tools to demand better use of state capacity and also to monitor the progress of the same.

State sovereignty is a reality of the contemporary international order and strategies to achieve human security must contend with this reality. Debates that ask for distancing away from the state do not contribute much either to the concept or strategies of human security as they predicate the achievement of human security on the marginalisation of the state. Simultaneously, governments have to recognise that the individual is the prime referent of security, and strategies and policies that endanger human security ultimately endanger the state. State security and human security can actually be mutually reinforcing if the strategies of achieving security are cooperative and non-violent.

Muhammad Nurul Huda is Former Secretary and IGP.