GOOD governance means policy frameworks conducive to social justice and responsible use of political power and public resources by the state authorities. This calls for capable public management: Policymakers and the administration need to grant civil society and the private sector scope for participation. They need to ensure the availability of information, and provide transparency. And they need to guarantee public accountability both internal and external of their actions. The rule of law and justice, especially concerning the principle of equality before law, must be guaranteed. There can be no good governance without abiding by basic democratic principles and human rights; indeed, democracy and political participation, which goes with it, are what generate "good" governance in the first place.

Different international organisations and donors interpret the term good governance, its concrete implications for promotion, and the criteria that distinguish it from other areas of promotion, slightly differently, according to their own particular objectives, mandates and focal areas of work.

The question of bureaucracy, corruption and aid, on the other hand, is a big one now-a-days and one of the buzz words in the field of development is "governance." Increasing politicisation of bureaucracy, gross corruption and inefficiency are the three major stumbling blocks to good

governance. Lack of proper recruitment and training has resulted in the bureaucracy being out of tune with the need of the globalised world and its highly competitive environment. Many bureaucrats succumb to political pressure or indulge in partisan politics to hide their inefficiency and corruption.

The country needs a more efficient bureaucracy in the 21st century to face the challenges of globalisation. Bangladesh still lags behind in building a modern administration and it is not prepared to participate in global negotiations. The political appointments and affiliations of the bureaucrats with particular parties sealed the fate of those decisions, making them foregone conclusions. It is as inevitable as death after birth that the public officials under the spotlight would not and could not rise above partisanships.

The public servants of every cluster -- administrators, judicial officers and law enforcers remain politically neutral or at least they are supposed to in most of the developed countries. This happens just because of the statutory requirement of their nonpolitical status and on the basis of tradition. Their appointment through constitutionally established neutral machinery mandated to act free from political pressure lays the foundation of bureaucratic neutrality. Not only enacting new laws, it is the application of laws that prevent or at least drastically minimise the scope of discretionary powers of politicians to dictate the postings, transfers and promotions

arbitrarily. It provides the public officials the environment to conduct business transparently following rulebased procedures. Though we are not very much satisfied with the current state of the bureaucracy, it must have the authority to function independently under prescribed rules. Not being appointed by a political party or held in hock to them, the public officials do not have to curry favour for

reward or preferential treatment.

Politicisation of bureaucracy started during the Pakistan period, especially during the military regimes. However, the trend acquired greater intensity in post-liberation period and posed a serious problem in the last decade or so.

In recent years, promotions in the civil service have seen more and more partisan approaches, which further politicised the administration. The politicians are the masters and bureaucracy must be subservient to a political government, but there must be a limit to the degree of interference by the latter. Political leaders must spell out what they expect from the bureaucracy and must not interfere in areas beyond their jurisdiction. And to ensure this it is inevitable to ensure participation of efficient and learned

individuals in the mainstream politics. The political parties have immense and unavoidable responsibilities to ensure an efficient leadership within the party. But they have not discharged as such. Political change e.g. the loss of legitimacy of traditional political parties, low electoral turnouts, disengagement from traditional forms of politics further indicate the lack of people's confidence in the political •

parties and leaders.

The nomination process, which is the primary phase of selecting the future policy makers, has to be made transparent and the political parties should follow a stipulated set of criterion in selecting the contesting candidates who will run the general elections with the respective party mandate. But unfortunately politics in our country is marked by lack of democratic practice within the political parties and among their activists, which has a serious reflection on country's governance policies. To come out of such circumstance and establish a good political culture the political parties should be brought under certain rules and regulations. A strong consensus among the political parties, certain reforms in the existing electoral laws and proper implemen-

tation of those laws can only ensure a well represented, responsive and effective parliament without which, in a parliamentary form of government it is quite impossible to establish the rule of law in the society.

A strong local government system is a must for ensuring good governance and decentralisation of administration. In this regard the local govern-:ment system should be strengthened

up to the lower tier. Creating an effective and efficient leadership at the grassroots level helps in the process of ensuring a sound decentralised effective administration. The capacity of the local elected representatives, particularly the women, should be enhanced so they can contribute in implementing the national development programmes. With a view to freeing the entire decision making process from the clutches of bureaucracy and the traditional practices, the exiting operational structure of the local government institutions should be vigorously reorganised so that the elected representatives specially the women can more proactively involve in the development activities. The Constitution also recognises the empowerment of women at the local government institutions stating: "The

State shall encourage Local Government institutions composed of representatives of the areas concerned and in such institutions special interventions shall be given as far as possible to peasants, workers and women."

Under the constitution, which provides for parliamentary system, bureaucracy must be made independent having its own chain of command. Under this system, political leaders

will formulate policy and the bureaucracy will implement it. Clear distinction needs to be maintained between the two roles. The three organs of the country -- the Parliament, the Judiciary and the Executive should be facilitated to work independently maintaining well cooperation with each other. The members of Parliament should be kept out of the development programme leaving the local government institutions performing their duties independently, without any form of intimidation and political interference. The local government institutions should be strengthened enough with the local elected bodies adequately empowered. Skill of the local elected representatives especially the women members of the Union Parishad should be developed through proper training.

Bureaucrats as often blamed by the politicians create special obstacles to the functioning of elected governments. In such a situation the civil society should come forward with more boldness to establish bureaucracy as a separate entity independent of political interference. The civil society initiative helps bridging the gap between the political parties and the civil administrators, which can be ensured through various collaboration between the two.

The government should ensure recruitment of quality people at the entry, improve terms and conditions of service, inspire and boost the morale of officials and regularise promotion system and keep bureaucracy free from politicisation. A politicised bureaucracy can only serve the interest of the parties not of the mass people. The standard of the defence services training institutions is better and our defence services impart better training than in many other countries, which has already been recognised by the United Nations. We should also provide at least the same level of training to our civil bureaucracy. Massive reforms in the education system are must because the existing one 'cannot produce quality administrators'. To ensure that only skilled and meritorious people are recruited for public services the traditional system of recruiting process has to be changed.

We have experienced a neutral bureaucracy during the short tenure of caretaker government during the last three general parliamentary elections. But unfortunately the behaviour of the same group of people changes dramat-

ically at the time of political governments. The changes most of the time reflected as inefficiency and inability of the bureaucrats.

There are several countries with dubious distinction of corruption, lack of democracy and frequent changes of government. But the bureaucracy in most of those countries more or less remains stable because the civil administration functions under its own chain of command led by the cabinet secretary. We have almost similar rules and regulations but these are not followed because of frequent interference by political leaders. We must ensure that promotion, posting and recruitment process are free from interference by the political government.

The Public Service Commission should be made fully and genuinely independent and changes to its recruitment system be brought to draw properly qualified persons. The changes should be brought within the earliest possible time to arrest qualitative deterioration of bureaucracy. Damaging erosion in the country's important driving agency can be greatly checked if the existing watchdogs and parliamentary standing committees operate properly. To make the Parliamentary Democracy really functioning with an effective bureaucratic system in place the Parliamentary Committees should be made more responsive and accountable.

Sadrul Hasan Mazumder is a development activist.