In quest of reasons for recent outburst of civil servants

The file for separation of the judiciary from the administration had been gathering dust in a room of the Law Ministry for years. A High Court decision in 1999 caused the dust to stir, and the dusting continued till 2007 when the Supreme Court finally decided the fate of the file. It is now a settled issue, and the judiciary is poised to take over the charge of the magistracy from November 1. The dust would have settled down with this happy ending, but no, some people wanted to raise more dust to blur the vision of justice.
A few members of the Bangladesh Administrative Services Association (Basa) thought that they had been deprived of their right to dispense justice to commoners, and raised their full-throated voice against the Supreme Court decision. But, faced with the inflexibility of a government unlike the ones they were used to, Basa decided to withdraw from the battlefield. Since the matter has reached a satisfactory end we may leave the issue now, but not before scanning the causes of such an outburst to avoid a recurrence before implementation of any future reform.
Many TV and live viewers were thunderstruck, watching a group of government servants vehemently protesting the decision of the Supreme Court to take away the judicial power of the executive authority. One magistrate from the administrative service even invited his colleagues in civil administration to put up shutters of district administrations and the secretariat in the event of government's failure to listen to the advice of Basa members. This surprised many, including those who know little about Government Servant's Conduct Rules. Once upon a time, civil servants considered conduct rules to be inviolable. They were told so by their superiors and clung to the edicts. Now it appears that the government servants who have gone through these rules in the training academies or in the work place do not care to follow them.
We were not surprised by the audacity of the junior officers, but were surprised by the failure of the seniors to contain the outburst of juniors within the limits of conduct rules. Mr. Nazrul Islam, in his article of October 25 in The Daily Star, rightly pointed out that had there been any person other than a member of the BCS (Admin) cadre, s/he would have found her/his place in a prison cell. They could speak nonchalantly because they knew their saviours were waiting around the corner. In the past also they could get away with such effrontery. This had emboldened the government officers to go one step further and challenge the court verdict.
To find the root cause of the arrogance, flagrant violation of rules and procedures, and open challenge of government decisions by the civil servants we have to delve into the changing pattern of politician-bureaucrat relationship since independence, corruption of successive ruling parties, use of civil servants by the power hungry ruling party leaders to stay in power matched with the equal craving of the civil servants to boost their position with the aid of the party in power.
Attempts to strengthen the local government were frustrated every time by this party-bureaucracy hegemony. Along with these, we may hold the failure of senior civil servants to lead the juniors in the right path as another key factor responsible for decadence of governance. This decay is pervasive in the Civil Service of Bangladesh, irrespective of cadre affiliation, but it is glaringly present in the administrative service because of the position it enjoys. The haughtiness of the Basa emanates from these aspects of their service.
For the present misdemeanours of some members of Basa, the media cannot avoid its responsibility. Take, for instance, the case of magistrate X. He was doing a fine job -- digging out factories, drug houses and food stores packed with adulterated products. People loved to see the magistrate examining adulterated food with a stern face, and hauling the criminals in a prison van. But the media could not stop there. Events became more thrilling than an exciting mega-serial. His interviews were published in the newspapers, he appeared on TV shows, his likes and dislikes were talked about till he became a celebrity. As an honest and dedicated government officer, he was performing his assigned job as any other government officer with similar efficiency and honesty would have done. The media coverage continued to swell his head, till it burst out at BIAM auditorium.
Another instance is the case of secretary Y. He was playing his assigned role on the stage set by the government. He sweated to earn revenue for the government, and earn fame as a by-product of this effort. The government decided to move him from this ministry to another after nine months back breaking labour. Irked by the government's decision, he tendered his letter of voluntary retirement. Why? For the last nine months he was continuously being followed by the press. To the annoyance of businessmen and many others, his views on tax payers and tax dodgers were circulated every day by the electronic and print media. Because of media hype, perhaps he came to believe that he was indispensable in that position.
He would have done better if he had sent a letter of protest along with his letter of voluntary retirement/resignation. His colleagues would have known and appreciated the reason for his voluntary retirement, but he was not satisfied till he opened his heart to the press. He did not protest the unceremonious departure of his predecessor from the same post before he could even complete a week in that venerable office. A government servant may opt for voluntary retirement after twenty five years of service. In the past, many civil servants left government jobs in protest, but none of them appeared before press to ventilate their grievance in public while holding a government job.
Secretary Y was a government servant when he was speaking before the press, and the government servants' conduct rules demanded permission from the appropriate authority before holding a press meeting. While speaking to the press, he said his frequent appearances before the media might have annoyed the high-ups. So, he knew this was a misdemeanour on his part. The matter did not seem to bother him much, as it did not bother many other government servants who did the same, considering unhindered press appearance a privilege of government high officials. The root of the present eruption lies in all these unchecked and unauthorised activities of government servants.
Rezauddin M. Chowdhury is a former Controller General of Accounts, Government of Bangladesh.