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AT HOME AND ABROAD

Do We Work Hard Enough? Let Us Avoid a Simple Answer

S M Ali
SOME yean ago. during lunch at a Oul-shan residence. my Australian boat looked out through the window and drew my attention to a building under con alructlon It was drizzling, but rone men were working without much a protection over the heads.
It is Incredible how hard they work, without much of a tea break and only wtth a sort lunch hour, in rain or In scorching sun." he said Then, he added. "My people in Australia or In any other developed country would not work so hard."
Then on a short vtott to Dhaka on a mission for UNESCO, the agency that my friend also worked for, I had little lime to study the sub Ject tn any details: Do Bangladeshis work hard? II so, which class would earn that distinction and which class would not?
However, the observation by my Australian friend remained In my mind
Now. some five years later, we notice that a number of our contributors have returned to the subject in the columns of this paper They have made several cogent points However, by and large, the discussion has followed one common theme, as summed up in the headline of the article by the paper s regular guest columnist. Shah AMS Klbria. published on August 16: "Do We Work Hard Enough? Let Us Be Honest About It". The implied answer to the question is obviously tn the negative. Klbrta'a stimulating piece ends with a simple but a poignant plea, "I do not know of any magic which can change our condition except hard work."
Conscious as our contributors are that the whole population of Bangladesh cannot be condemned. in a sweeping generalisation, for Its failure to work hard, they have made passing references to our hard-working farmers and to the labourers In factories. Unfortunately, little. If anything at all. has been said about the gruelling lives led by three lakh or so rickshaw drivers In our cities and towns, and by the day labourers who gel a pathetically poor return for the long hours of hard work they pul in every day. With this marginalised, slum-dwelling class which is continually adding to the population of Dhaka and other cities, the question is not whether this class works hard enough for the country. The question Is, what does It get in return? Or how many people in this category get enough work to make even a meagre living?
If we evade these obvious questions, we may be looking at the whole scenario in a distorted perspective.
For one thing, tn Bangladesh where nearly a majority Just survive below the line of absolute poverty and an additional sizable number of people are landless peasants, the basic challenge facing the country still remains what it was decades ago, how and where to find more-work for the people? Unless we have tackled this basic challenge, the question whether people work hard enough would refer only to a small minority, the so-called white collar workers employed In government offices and in some commercial organisations.
On the other hand, when we create a new avenue for employment and offer Jobs to peo pie, like to women from the suburb of Dhaka, who once never expected to find any employ ment, we also create a new work culture, based on some limited security for employees, overtime wages and incentives. This is. in effect, happening in the garment Industry. In shoe-making factories and in electronic plants, among others
During one of our conversations in Bangkok a few years ago. Klbria who had Just returned from a trip to Dhaka told me how pleased he was to see fights burning In a garment factory late at night, as It would be the case In a coun try which was ready for an economic takeof
Then, In an optimistic tone, he had said. "We have started developing an industrial culture. thanks to what the private sector Is doing in Bangladesh
The new work culture will gain ground here faster than we expect 1| only employers In all different categories of organisations ranging from private financial Institutions and trading houses to semi autonomous public corpora tions and transport services, promote modern management techniques, especially In dealing wtth the staff New incentives will make the employees work hard. That has happened in other countries in Ast*. Why shouldn't It hap pen In Banglade sh?
A major problem here relates to the state of the economy If a privately-owned business house is a victim of an economic downturn, unable to meet Its financial commitments, even to pay the staff on time a moral problem can hit the whole organisation. Including Its employees down the line It is only the fear of a cutback on the staff, not a sense of genuine motivation, that can make a section of the em pfoyees work well But this Is also the time for unions to move in
In this complex picture, the worst offend Crs are the employees tn government officials and public sector corporations. By and large, they are disinterested in their work, lazy and corrupt. Taking full advantage of the ridiculous office hours, from H am to 2:30 pm. In Dhaka and Chittagong, they show little concern for punctuality. Klbria has dealt with this dismal situation tn details What's more, he has also been bold enough to point out that we cut ourselves off from the outside world, especially tn trade and commerce, by observing Friday, in stead of Sunday, as a weekly holiday, unlike two Muslim majority countries in the Asian region. Indonesia and Malaysia
Where does the fault lie? Undoubtedly, with the system or, to put It plainly, with the gov emment. Not surprisingly, even cabinet minis ters and secretaries feel disgusted with the "working" of the system so much so that Finance Minister M Salfur Rahman was prompted to tell The Daty Star during a long Conversation some time ago that the less we have of the government the better for the country. Ironically enough, while some one In the position of Rahman would go Into a rhetorical outburst about the inefficiency of the ad
ministration, we do not even hear of any official move to set things right, apparently for fear that a disgruntled section of the public may consider ft as an unpopular decision It would perhaps embarrass a lot of people tn the administration to agree that their reluctance to take such an unpopular decision ts a legacy In herited from the previous ousted government of Hussain Muhammad Ershad. So. it seems, we arc stuck with the ridiculous office hours, with Friday as a weekly holiday and lack of punctuality among office employees. Members of the public dealing with government offices must also accept that most secretaries and I heir deputies spend endless hours In meetings" which often mean long chats over tea among colleagues and friends as well a.s a slow-moving decision making process which operates, when It operates al all. from, one control point to another.
The longer an unproductive system remains In place the harder it is to change It. Thou sands of office employees. Including even senior most officers, have now become used to the prevailing system from taking late lunches to working on a second Job in iat< evenings to supplement their earnings Many have also worked out a routine, usually taking turns with their spouses, for personally escorting their kids to and back from their schools, a safety measure that provides some protection, per haps not much, to children and wives of our middle class families. Then, there is the chaotic transport system which obliges normal ehMtosd men and women to tr^ from one part of the city to another in sub human conditions. As an office employee once told me. this to Mfl better than being caught in a hartal, when one must walk miles to get to the office.
To quote a reader who recently spoke to me on phone, in a mixture of sadness and anger. While your enlightened experts accuse us of not working hard enough, they may not realise how our vitality ts continually sapped, almost drained away. under our existing living conditions which are getting worse " Before ending the telephone call, the unidentified reader made two more disturbing points. 1 am scared of going for a medical checkup for fear of knowing hoW much damage this life has done to my system inside." he said "Again, if my output is tow. you should blame my immediate superior who never supervises my work. Just as no one checks on his performance "
To many of these people, perhaps even to my unnamed caller, any suggestion of changing the system evokes one immediate response: It la bound to be worse."
In comparing the work habits of people tn Southeast Asian countries which have made phenomenal economic progress tn the last two decades with ours and then blaming the people here for not working hard enough, we may overtook the importance of improving our living conditions first and dealing with the problems touched on tn this article
Having lived in several Southeast Asian countries from mid-six tics to the end of the eighties, virtually for 25 years, I can now recall that, at one time or another, people tn most Southeast Asian countries had also earned the reputation of being indifferent to hard work, if not being downright lazy, with the exception of Chinese minorities. Right through the decade of sixties and even until the beginning of the seventies. Thais. Indonesians. Malays and Fil Iplnos came under strong sneering criticisms for not working hard enough to resist economic domination of Immigrant groups or even expatriates.
With the change of economic policies and priorities In most of these countries, with a new emphasis placed on the private sector and the role of foreign investments, these countries entered a new era of prosperity which, in turn, produced the motivation for hard work among all sections of people, including Bangladeshi residents In Malaysia and Singapore
It is all very well to ask our people to work hard But let us first make our case. as strongly as possible, for the adoption of right policies, however unpopular they may be. in different fields which touch lives of our people and thereby create tn them the urge and the motivation to put in their best in their Jobs. If there is anything we can learn from South East Asia. It is simply this: There are no short cuts to progress.