The people of our country do not give much importance to the election manifesto of the ruling part, after the election. After each victory in the elections, the winning parties do not comply with their election manifestos. The biggest obstacle in the path of economic development of the country is corruption and lack of good governance. Unfortunately, in the 48 years of independence of Bangladesh, no government could take effective measures to stop corruption. During the 2007-2008 military-backed caretaker government, for the first time in the history of independent Bangladesh, the Anti Corruption Commission triggered tremendous fear among the government officials, businessmen and politicians.
The ACC seems to be tougher and more active than the earlier term of the Awami League's government. However, corruption epidemic has not reduced or stopped in our country; rather the epidemic has increased. Bangladesh has gone down from its previous ranking in the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) for 2018. In this article, I endeavour to pen a discourse on corruption in the context of Bangladesh.
The Awami League won a landslide victory in the election on 30th December although BNP and its allies rejected the election. We hope that the incumbent government will fulfil its full tenure. After taking the oath as the Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina reiterated the government's stern position against corruption. We came to know from the media source that Sheikh Hasina exchanged views with senior officials at her first office and said "The fight against corruption will continue to keep the country's progress and uphold the achievements". At the same time, she requested the government officials to work to fulfil the promises made to the people in the elections. In her first address to the nation, she emphasized the concern of corruption and called upon all political parties to help to develop "a prosperous Bangladesh" and to maintain "national unity".
Does the Prime Minister's message touch all employees of each ministry, department and division/section of the People's Republic of Bangladesh? There is a proverb for our government officials: "There are no bribes, there are no services". Sadly speaking, in most cases citizens cannot get proper services from any government official without bribe. Obviously, there are some officials, who are honest and loyal to his/her positions and duties. There is still the uncertainty to get the answer of a question: are all employees serving their duties, sincerely and honestly?
In the last January, a TV channel undertook an observational report on health complex centres. According to the TV channel, most of the doctors remained absent in many upazila-based health complex centres as the team visited. The minister of health or the director general of health department is only responsible for monitoring its sub-ordinate departments/branches.
In the last year, I visited my home district Chuadanga and I, along with my father, went to meet an executive engineer in a government department. He was absent in his office. Normally, he attends his office at 11 am or 12 pm as his office assistance informed us. This is not any isolated incident. It is true that most of the government employees, especially in district and upazila levels, do not attend their offices on time.
I want to exemplify the situation with another incident. According to the Prothomalo on 27th January, the ACC Chairman Iqbal Mahmud on Sunday visited suddenly a school in Chattagram where he did not find seven teachers out of eight at work. The government employees get salaries and other privileges from our taxes. This is not an isolated incident; this situation signals the overall state of the responsibilities of our government employees. It is believed that there is impunity for the corrupt government employees that nobody can dismiss them due to any malpractices. Only Prime Minister or only Anti Corruption Commission cannot curb or reduce corruption alone if there is no government mechanism or system that identifies corruption. All the ministers, secretaries and the heads of other departments must carry out their due responsibilities.
Nowadays, the government employees are properly paid. However, it is apparent that there is the inverse relationship between the level of wages of the government employees and the incidence of corruption in the various sectors of this country. Corruption in government sectors still exists even after salary reshuffling. It is also true that corruption also touches the non-government sectors in this country. There must be an assurance of exemplary punishment.
If a corrupt person is not punished, the wide-spread thread of corruption cannot be cut or torn. Over the years, we have failed to upgrade the image of Bangladesh and to come out of the basket of corruption. According to TI's recent report, the position of the country is still very low and Banladesh has gone down six notches in the Transparency International's global Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) 2018 for a lack of effective government measures to fight corruption. In South Asia, Bangladesh ranked the second lowest, only ahead of war-torn Afghanistan.
The ACC is apparently trying to carry out its roles. Some government officials (both of former and incumbent officials) are being arrested by the members of the ACC. It seems to us that the Prime Minister may be withdrawing from the strategy to keep the ACC ineffective. In earlier term of Hasina's government, the chief of the ACC regarded the commission as "A toothless tiger". Therefore, if Sheikh Hasina really exercises all power in implementing this election pledge for the next five years of her tenure, she will definitely be praised and remembered in the history of this country. If this hope is true, we must thank the Great Almighty Allah that corruption may be reduced.
Corruption should also be discussed in the societal aspect. Apart from the necessities of the government's stances and measures against corruption, we, as the sincere guardians and members of this society, must educate our children to be honest and sincere in all aspects of life. The teachers have the great role in educating their students to practice honesty in every aspect. In this concern, I would like to mention the famous quote by late Indian President A P J Abdul Kalam. He said, "If a country is to be corruption free and become a nation of beautiful minds, I strongly feel there are three key societal members who can make a difference. They are the father, the mother and the teacher."
In conclusion, merely, creating people's awareness against corruption, ministers' excellent speeches against corruption and other erroneous beliefs or fallacies are not enough to this 'epidemic'. Rather, all-out effective monitoring system of the government can deter corruption in all sectors. Last but not least, if the incumbent government is incapable of preventing or reducing corruption, the development saga will result in worthless to the people of this republic.
The writer is a professor of English and chairman, Department of Languages, International University of Business Agriculture and Technology (IUBAT), Dhaka.
