Administration vs party activists. Photo(L-R):GettyImages, STARIt is surely a syndrome of bigger malaise when the officials in charge of district administration break out in tears in public for being subjected to assault by political cadres. The incidents that occurred recently in Pabna only served to expose an unforeseen scenario and the nation witnessed aghast the repulsive incidents centering round the recruitment test of some employees.
Both the newspapers and the electronic media were awash with reports of leaders and activists of the ruling AL running riot in their bid to have candidates with proven loyalty to the ruling quarters posted in the civil administration. It also had come in the wake of the arrogant assertion of the health adviser to the prime minister that none outside the ruling party would be among some 13,500 employees to be recruited soon for appointment in community clinics.
A group of pro-Awami League doctors from Swadhinata Chikitshak Parishad (SCP) and Bangladesh Medical Association (BMA) allegedly assaulted the vice chancellor of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University on September 25, after not being selected for the posts of medical officer.
A sense of insecurity has gripped the local administrations all over the country because of undue pressure from AL leaders and activists, especially in recruitment and tender process and the government's indifference to their plight. Many DCs and UNOs have reportedly expressed their worries to the higher authorities, but no effective steps have yet been taken to stop interference in the functioning of local administrations by the leaders of ruling party and its associate bodies.
The conflict between the MPs and upazila chairmen has crippled local administration in many upazilas, where the upazila officials find themselves helpless. Five officials of the Savar upazila have filed general diaries with the local police, seeking security after they had received death threats allegedly from local leaders of the ruling party.
According to an official of the establishment ministry, many UNOs, who represent the government at the grassroots, have already approached the establishment secretary for their withdrawal from the field, citing the conflicts between the local administrations and upazila chairmen.
A few months back, BCL activists attacked and injured the AC (land) of Kachua upazila in Chandpur after he reportedly tried to prevent them from building a structure on government land. Such types of incidents have increased alarmingly across the country, and the people are extremely annoyed with this disturbing development.
The DC and two ADCs of Pabna have been withdrawn and made OSD. The SP of Pabna has also been closed and the UNO has been transferred to a remote place. This type of action will be construed as punishment to the civil servants, which will not only give a wrong signal to the field level administration but also boost the brusque political cadres.
The activists of the AL and its associate bodies went on a rampage on September 17, forcing the administration to postpone the recruitment examination for appointing some employees in the DC's office of Pabna. They also set fire to answer scripts and admit cards and allegedly assaulted officials and staff of the district administration.
The old habit of denial also persisted in this case. H.T. Imam, an adviser to the prime minister for the establishment ministry, flatly denied involvement of the AL activists in foiling the recruitment test of employees in Pabna. He said that nothing like "sobbing" by the DC had happened though major dailies were awash with the photograph.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's remark, made from New York, on the Pabna fiasco frustrated both the government officials and the people, as it came as a defence for her party men. She reportedly uttered a Bengali adage "Ek hate tali bajena" (which roughly translates as, one cannot clap with one hand), indicating that only AL men should not be blamed.
The Pabna district administration filed two cases under the Speedy Trial Act in the Pabna Sadar police station, bringing charges against 32 activists of the Chhatra League and Juba League. They were sent to jail after they surrendered. The government must show the fairness in its action against these political goons as per the law of the land.
Recruitment to thousands of posts under various local authorities, including civil surgeon's office, has not been made in the 20 months of the incumbent government, either because of irregularities or because of interference by the AL activists. The Jessore and Panchagar civil surgeons' offices recently postponed recruitment of around 100 employees following attacks by AL activists.
The unwarranted interference by ruling party leaders and activists in the recruitment process has, however, raised the speaker's concern, and he called for the formation of a high-level inquiry committee. Surely, it tends to indicate that there are still some persons in the ruling camp who have not yet been either intoxicated with the arrogance that accompanies power or lost sanity and sense of purpose.
Politicisation of the administration, including the police, has become a hallmark for all the successive governments, and the incumbent government is not an exception. Immediately after its assumption of office, the government had sought to populate key positions of the civil bureaucracy with its perceived loyalists.
The ruling quarter needs to realise that their party will not be in power for ever, and the next change of government, whenever it happens, will entail yet another round of cleansing in the administration. The bureaucrats perceived to be loyal to the AL will invariably become the target of such cleansing. These sorts of activities are sure to destroy the backbone of the civil administration and deprive the people of good governance.
The executive branch, one of the three organs of the government, comprises an extensive bureaucracy manned by civil servants, who have their specific administrative functions and responsibility. The individual officials posted at districts and upazilas are administrators whose prime responsibility is to implement government policies in the field level and maintain law and order.
The civil servants are entrusted with the task of turning the government's polices and programmes into action. So a working relation between the civil servants and political leaders is crucially important. Hence, security and neutrality of public servants have to be ensured at all cost, so that they can remain true to their role and responsibility as servants of the Republic, not of any political party.
A.N.M. Nurul Haque is a columnist of The Daily Star.
__._,_.___
