Opinion
Enhancing efficiency of police
A B M S Zahur
In the last national election campaign BNP committed for perhaps too many things. We assume that its party leaders were fully aware of extreme difficulties in fulfilling these commitments, among the commitments the most difficult were rooting out corruption, improving law and order and separation of judiciary from the executive. Corruption is nothing new in this part of the world. It existed even during the British rule. Difference is that it was only administration which was corrupt to some extent, not the whole society. Now we see the whole society is corrupt. In regard to police personnel there was a joke in those days. Once an old woman was told by her son that he got the job of a judge. The woman was unhappy to learn this because her son could not become a police inspector instead. Because police inspector's job was both powerful and lucrative (because of ample opportunity for grafts). In those days the number of committed crimes were few and reported numbers were fewer. There was not plenty of unlicensed fire arms, no indigenous manufacturing of arms and ammunitions, no 'mastan culture,' no money laundering.Today the police personnel who showed extreme courage and love for their country against Pakistani forces in 1971, are, unfortunately, having a very bad period of their existence. They have lost power (because of interference and indulgence) and prestige (because of politicisation). Their efficiency or prestige can only be raised through a well planned and well concerted effort. In fact all the major users of police personnel must cooperate in making the job of police more effective. Disjointed and patchy work of the ministry of home affairs cannot be effective if the government, non-government and private sector users fail to appreciate the necessity for an effective police force. They must try to give up the habit of making only uncharitable criticisms about police's performance without ascertaining the truth. Let us accept the unpalatable truth that there is no magic wand to bring high efficiency in police administration quickly. As corruption is directly related to deterioration of law and order we may discuss about eradication of corruption (or bringing it to a minimum level). People are talking loudly and clearly about anti-corruption commission. Only setting up of commission cannot bring any appreciable change in a 'most corrupt country'. No appreciable improvement can be brought without consensus among major political parties. The administration will automatically be free from heavy corruption if the political leaders agree not to spare any corrupt official. Possibly we need some moral regeneration. We may have to change our attitude toward corruption. So long we surrender ourselves to money or wealth, so long we refuse to sacrifice for building the nation, so long we over look the need of the people in absolute poverty, hardly we can reduce corruption to any appropriate extent. If the party in position is afraid of losing its popularity with the monied class its statements for eradicating poverty will be a sham. Political statements to befool the public is indeed extremely shameful for a country which attained independence through the sacrifice of an estimated 3m lives. Battle against corruption has to be started from the top through setting up of examples by leading politicians and policy makers in the country. In a corrupt society how can we expect an honest policeman because he is very much a part of the society. A policeman knows that he cannot bear his expenses from his pay and other allowances if he has to match the living standard of his other colleagues. If the cannot he will be regarded as a fool and a worthless fellow by his own family. Moreover, he knows that he is known to the society as a corrupt man simply because he is a police man, no matter whether he is an honest or a dishonest fellow. The alarmingly deteriorating law and order situation cannot be effectively checked only by police force. To make the police really effective the political parties, particularly the major ones must come to an agreement that they would refrain from depending on muscle power for their political games. They will have to find some better way to utilise their party activists. If 'mastan culture' goes there will not be any need for politicisation of police force. If police force is not allowed to remain neutral law and order cannot improve to any appreciable extent. Bangladesh needs foreign investment, particularly for pursuing her policy of export-led growth. Without peaceful environment she cannot attract foreign investment, because her domestic market is small and she is regarded as the most corrupt country. During the last two and a half years we have heard lots of statements about various steps taken or to be taken by government to assure the people of good governance. Unfortunately we have not seen any improvement in governance. We do not know how long we continue to see manipulation of executive branch by the party in position. Without separation of judiciary from executive the possibility of neutrality in administration will remain an outlandish dream. In fact this separation will restrict the power of executive to use police for its own sake (instead of people's sake). For improving police administration we only see good recommendations from time to time. People make scathing remarks about failures of home ministry to control crimes. The criminals are indiscriminately attacking journalists who report about their activities. Journalists are also disliked by police because the police do not like to expose their failures. Criminals know that police can be controlled either through bribe or through political power. Thus the only problem remains are journalists who should either be controlled or killed. If police force is to be made efficient, broadly speaking, the following measures may be considered: (a) The police force may be provided with adequate logistics, their facilities comparable to other security/armed forces;
(b) The police force should be kept free from politics.
(c) The police force may be given adequate medical care so that they remain fit to give their best to the nation. It may be pointed out in this regard that according to certain estimate a large number of police personnel are suffering from. For cities like Dhaka and Chittagong "traffic help centres" may be set up. Electronic traffic signals may be set up at all traffic points where there are heavy traffic to reduce their stress.
(d) On entry they must be advised properly that they are people's force and they are to serve the people and not be their master and as such they should be ready to serve the people at any time without any grudge or grumbling. They must be careful about attaining people's love and respect.
No body should ignore the fact that Bangladesh is a natural resource -- poor country. However, she is rich in human resource. If we fail to develop our human resource and concentrate more on spectacular projects we commit serious blunder. At this stage our priority should be to reduce lawlessness, vagrancy, crime and social disorder. To attain this we need foreign investment. For foreign investment we need peace and stability and no political unrest. To bring such a situation our internal security must improve quickly. We must be cautious and steady. Too much of foreign advice or finding too much dependence on foreign aid usually prove costly. In a democratic rule all decisions should be in public interest. Under the British or Pakistani rule police force was considered necessary mainly for maintaining law and order. In the present situation it has become one of the critical components of social security and economic development. A B M S Zahur is a retired joint secretary
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