Transparency comes through cleaning the filth in officialdom

After waiting for four years to see that their days of suffering, woes, and deprivation would come to an end, people watch and experience every day the unbridled rise of corruption and rampant terrorism in the country. The BNP-led coalition government has been feeling the pinch of public restiveness over its apparent inactivity, especially in containing terrorism and corruption.

In a meeting marking the fourth anniversary of the election victory, LGRD Minister Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan's proud claim of the BNP-led government's successes could hardly have been comforting to the general populace. After completing four years in office, the BNP-led coalition government has failed to deliver on its two main election pledges, namely rooting out corruption and terrorism from the society. In reality, the situation has further worsened. Corruption, like democracy is so spectacular, so accommodative, so elastic. Its ways and means these days boggle the mind. Look at the latest edition of the country's scandal book, the size of it, the greed and the gumption of its protagonists.

Sadly, in Bangladesh corruption is not an isolated horror. It is just another reminder. As far as this country is concerned, however, the attitude after the initial shock and revulsion that greets revelations of corruption is that others have done that, what is new except the face and the method? This is an attitude, not so qualitatively different from the successive governments, that would be tantamount to abdicating responsibility.

But the reality is not nationally uplifting at all: Bangladesh has one of the most corrupt and oversized bureaucracies in the Asian region. The rot spreads from the lowest clerk to the highest echelon in the government and autonomous departments The argument that it is the underpaid public servant who falls to criminal temptation is not valid. The most shameful cases are from the top echelon, which is certainly a privileged lot. The immediate aim should be drastic administrative reforms with a workable anti-corruption mechanism from within. That may not be the end of corruption, but that will bring an end to the inherited bureaucratic immunity.

With parliamentary standing committees on various ministries formed during the last two years to probe the alleged corruption and irregularities in different ministries not making any headway, with parliament sidelined as a mere rubber stamp and never discussing any burning issues, and with split over the reintroduction of the upazila system in the policy making cell of the government, there has been a lack of transparency in the functioning of the government.

The government, however, has reintroduced the gram sarkar, a non-elected body to assist union parishad, the lowest tier of the local government. But as the move widely claimed as politically inspired and motivated drew flak from every corner, the High Court issuing rule on a writ petition declared it unconstitutional.

Then we have now the ruling BNP-led coalition so vocal in its condemnation of the AL for their alleged role in ship purchase scandal, so passionate in their crusade against corruption, also seen to be allowing its party functionaries, cadres, and loyal officials to collect funds in a sleazy fashion.

When the present coalition party came to power it knew the Ershad government got the boot because the voter was sick to death of the corruption that confronted him every time he dealt with the government. The party stalwarts knew that everyone was sick of the old system of governance in which nothing moved without the greasing of the right palms. The party knew that change was desperately required at every stage, from the purchase process to administrative appointments, and yet they did nothing at all to change anything.

It has been the same story of commissions on government contracts, the same story of power brokers in various ministries, the same story of relatives and party henchmen exercising extra-constitutional powers. Anybody who believes that it is only the power sector or food grain purchase or defence deals in which this sort of thing happens is sadly mistaken. Every government department functions only when it is well oiled with the grease of corruption. That's why the Transparency Index consistently ranks Bangladesh among the most corrupt countries in the world.

And now when the World Bank and IMF has stopped disbursement of development grant until such transparency was visible, the Finance Minister is crying hoarse for enactment of such Transparency Act.

Could the government really have changed things? Yes. By implementing or at least trying to put in place administrative reforms that would have made government functioning more transparent, more visible. There are hundreds of convoluted rules and procedures that need to be junked, hundreds of departments that need no longer exist. In others like customs and excise, income tax, and police departments, everyone knows there is so much money to be made that postings and transfers are auctioned to the highest bidder. Successive governments have done nothing to change things, not even in the area of judicial reform, so crucial to real change. As long as it takes an average of ten years for a case to come to court, we can be sure corruption will continue to flourish. The slow judicial process and shoddy investigation are the main reasons why corrupt officials and politicians simply disappear instead of being publicly brought to justice.

Governance is at stake at every stage. People believe the government should have taken stern measures against officials in the law enforcement agency who flouted the PM's order to arrest Bangla Bhai when he created almost a reign of terror in the northern part of the country. Most worrisome, with serial bomb blasts in 63 districts on August 17 followed by more forceful blasts on October 3 last at courts in Chittagong, Chandpur, and Laxmipur, that left two people killed and injured 38 others, including a district judge and a policeman, triggering widespread panic The hand-written leaflets of the Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) confirms peoples' belief that the ugly face of religious extremism has come to haunt Bangladesh, a land where Muslims practiced and spread the peaceful message of Islam.

Devout Muslims are shocked to see that the name of their faith, which means submission to Allah, can summon up such images of violence. The message that these well-coordinated blasts gives is that the country has become a hub of religious extremism, with or without the knowledge of the ruling coalition party government. Unless these blasts that are killing people and spreading fear and panic in the public mind galvanise the PM into finally taking enduring actions against the extremists in our midst who are giving Islam such a bad name, the future of the country, it appears, will be extremely gloomy.

With all these incidents like the Chittagong arms haul of April, 2004, preceded by another big weapons haul at Bogra in 2003, getting quietly buried, because in all these cases, influential persons and top echelons of the country were allegedly involved, public faith in the working of the government is plummeting. The opinions expressed in the length and breadth of the country also speak volumes about peoples' attitude towards the government, which seems terminally incapable of solving the nation's problems. With such horrifying prospects casting a pall of gloom over the nation, the BNP is no longer a party that inspires. Not only are its ties with the voters sliding, but opinion on its quality of leadership is also divided.

What is required is a visible attempt to change the system, to rein in the administration and police investigation with steadfast zeal and transparency. If the government resorts to usual excuses of instituting commissions, checks and counter checks, and the law taking its own course, then we know it will simply be business as usual.

The serial blasts on August 17 and October 3 reveal the very long reach of the militants The two blasts served as a belated wake-up call for the ruling coalition party long in denial about the threat of terrorism. The question that looms large in the public mind is why does Bangladesh, a moderate Muslim state, as often claimed by the government, harbour terrorists and serve as a hotbed for religious extremists.