Fighting Corruption: What are our Tools?

There is an unrealistic amount of faith that is pitted on the digitization of services (through BAL's much drummed 'Digital Bangladesh' ventures) as a way of relief from corruption by our present government. The Finance Minister admitted recently that corruption has just spread to all nook and cranny of public services and also cited the digitization of services as THE way out. That may be the case in certain areas or aspects, but if anyone has been to public offices with hopes of receiving services, they'll remember those uninterested faces, those blank stares, those lifeless creatures behind the counters and desks who seem quite bothered to have seen you, who state their (unlawful) prices quite frankly, even with anti-corruption posters hanging around them. You cannot expect to digitize everything and there will ultimately be servicemen and women you will have to deal with. The government seem to be suggesting that until we get those software development cycles complete and services up and running - a decade possibly, we keep on going about it the same way. Digitization doesn't happen with the snap of Jewel Aich's fingers!

What I find really lacking is an easy way to report when a public office declines to provide someone a service, fails to provide a service, or asks for unlawful funding from the public (recently, there was an extra charge under "Miscellaneous" for re-issuing my wife's license even after all the due payments have been made). At the point these happen, you are standing at a public office, quite possibly having traveled through Dhaka's usual high traffic, sweating, uneasy, and also having to spend time away from your actual day job, and you may ponder what is the way to get what you came for. I assume the beings behind the counter know these all too well, and that is what gives them the courage and pleasure to put you in a tight spot, where you'd rather pay that extra charge than having to risk not getting the right papers. Imagine driving without a license, or going for that business trip without a passport, or not being able to pick up your Tax Certificate, or not getting to register your new born child!

These officers have too much leverage on the public that they use to their gain, and the way out is to take away that leverage. Digitization IS a possibility for that, but immediately actionable consequences to these officers' way of working is also a quickly implementable counter to it. If those anti-corruption posters had along with those high sounding advice, a hotline that handles complaints for that specific office, and you could launch a direct complaint against the handler, or the office. It could be a mobile court, or there could be an overseeing officer responsible for action against malpractices within that office. Even while writing this, I can see how it falls into a cycle, since somewhere within our systems, we need people we can rely on.


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দুর্নীতি দেশের সব জায়গায়

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Movement of the People

Firstly, I am here to discuss the issue of mobility, and not a revolution or politics. Just in case ...

Dhaka's population is now at a very bad size. I don't know the number exact number, but the effect of it is not invisible. The government is taking and pondering drastic and desperate steps, such as not approving any more power lines for new apartments or houses, or gas lines (which would be used for cooking), where as there are many people moving into this city and waiting to move into their new apartments or houses. Construction work all over the city is rampant, since that demand is ever increasing with the movement of people into Dhaka. The roads, transport systems are all insufficient at the moment to support this many people.

Long term plans to avoid a deadlock situation someday in this city is however not clear to me. My feeling is that "labor mobility" could be one answer. Dhaka, as the capital, has justly become the place for commercial enterprise, education, entertainment, etc., and also has the largest international airport.

So far as I can see, any suggestion for industries to move out of Dhaka has meant to move to Gazipur or Ashulia, somewhere adjacent, and not really going that far out of Dhaka. As things are going, those places could one day be part of Dhaka City. I think the government should take a more active effort to develop other parts of the country to specifically serve one or two industries and improve communication to those parts with major cities such as Chittagong and Dhaka.

From the top of my head, two industries come to mind -
1. Education (Honors and higher), and
2. IT

Both these industries could be lured in with simple incentives. The government could scope out land that would be suitable for universities and keep them priced low, provided, that a university will be set up with the proper measures. The land's development could also be controlled by dictating what amount of land goes into playing fields (considering university level development of future athletes, footblallers and cricketers?) and parks, and what into buildings for classrooms, offices and lodgings. This should be accompanied by a ban on further development of universities in the cities of Dhaka and Chittagong. The capital possessed by anyone preparing to invest to build universities in Dhaka should be more than enough to carry on with the phased development of universities elsewhere. Research in those universities should be directed around potential sectors of its locale.

For IT companies, in this day and age, deliverable items are most likely transferrable online. Technology companies need good infrastructure, and the prime one is good connectivity. The government should consider building up a massive region with proper ground up planning of infrastructure considering consistent power and connectivity. Silicon Valley might have gotten its reputation as a place for technology companies by natural turn of events, but Malaysia used it as a learning experience and built Cyberjaya and its Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) from it. The government actively pursued companies to be part of it, and also universities who specialize in technology to go there and set up. Its a beautiful place, with the proper infrastructure, with everything people need in proximity. Being in the IT industry myself, I am pleased just imagining myself living and working somewhere from where Cox's Bazaar is an hour or hour and a half's drive and all the roads to there and Chittagong or Dhaka are so well made and well kept that the drive back to my hometown of Dhaka is a breeze and even enjoyable! If anyone wouldn't be pleased by the thought of that, then I don't know what! I have seen many signs of "IT Park" or something close to that in the city, where its really just one building! I think if we had a whole expanse of land where office buildings (already constructed) or land (for those with the capital to construct their own) was offered up by the government for a real and true "IT Park", it would have to be something like Cyberjaya, possibly scaled down in different aspects.

We obviously have lots of construction companies working in Dhaka now, and an undertakings such as these could utilize a lot of their expertise, and related industries would also flourish in making this a reality. Once complete, other business opportunities would naturally open up around these areas to support both the companies and the population that reside there.

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