IN all aspects of governmental policy, I have seen changes of policy with the change of power in Bangladesh. Can you even remember how many times our education system changed? Do we have a consistent industrial, privatisation or agricultural policy? We try to handle everything on an ad hoc basis rather than following specific policy. Though Bangladesh provides various favourable investment facilities and incentives under liberalised industrial policy, however, in reality, inconsistent policy implementation is discouraging to both foreign and domestic investors. If current government's policy is subordinated to the country's long-run interest, e.g., reducing poverty, this will create inconsistency whenever there is a change in power. But how does government policy adoption and implementation become inconsistent, and what are the solutions to the problem of inconsistency?
Though Bangladesh is a democratic country, top leaders of the two main political parties do not talk to each other for more than a decade! In addition, though there are parliamentary committees for every ministry to ensure good governance and accountability, but since inception of democracy in Bangladesh in 1990, opposiotion hardly participated in these parliamentary committies or even in the parliamentary discussion on a regular basis.
In absence of healthy democracy creates lack of faith among political parties. Healthy practice of democracy will strengthen relationships between policy-makers and providers which will increase consistency in policy making.
Inconsistency in the implementation of policies on the part of the successive governments accelerates incidences of poverty, thus people's life choices, i.e., freedom. Most of the time corruption plays a greater role in government decision-making. Since there is no check and balance within the government, policy-makers change their policy frequently.
Pressure from the development partners, including the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is another reason why government is not consistent in policy implementation.
Sometimes these donor agencies forget local reality and want to employ a policy which was successful in other countries. Since more projects mean more opportunity to indulge in corruption; the government accepts even some economically unviable projects from the development partners.
Like religion, language and ideology, another favoured approach to achieve consistency is to formulate, advocate and campaign for national frameworks so that agreement is ensured - and therefore consistency. Having a national vision is a must. We need to know where we would like to go after 10, 15 or 20 years and all the political parties should have their own strategy to boost the nation to achieve the goal within the aforementioned time-frame. Having a national goal and time frame to achieve the goal will reduce inconsistency in policy significantly; but all political parties need to come under the same umbrella for that.
In addition, Bangladesh needs to improve democratic institutions to monitor and oversee government policies and its credibility with national interest. For instance, the Auditor General's office should publish data on how much public money was wasted so that people will be more conscious and will put pressure on the political parties. At the same time, civil society should also push governments to be consistent with their predecessors.
Given inadequate resources, political parties need to develop new skills that will promote collaborative government so that partnerships can be formed to achieve nation's long-term goal.
Like Britain, having a shadow government in the largest opposition party will be helpful to take, at least, key policies through general agreement, regardless of political view, we can have consistent policy even after power change.
Most importantly, people should be aware of their right, and should advocate for good governance. Only access to quality education, which is the only sustainable solution to corruption, can ensure awareness among people.
Inconsistent policy carries an economic cost both to the poor in Bangladesh and to taxpayers in donor countries. Bangladesh has so many serious problems to concern about with limited resources, for instance: climate change, corruption, poverty etc.
It can't pay anymore price for inconsistency in policy making and implementation. Of course, government should review policies to keep up with time and expectation, but frequent policy changes give signals of instability in policy.
We need to ensure that the resources provided by one hand are not taken away by the other; both hands must push in the same direction of supporting development and reducing poverty.
*This article was published on the daily Financial Express in Bangladesh on January 7, 2009.
No comments:
Post a Comment