The need for reforming the EC and the CG has been recognised by the political parties, including the BNP-led ruling alliance. In her winding up speech to the 20th session of parliament on 28 February Prime Minister Khaleda Zia proposed forming a committee with representation of the ruling and opposition parties to reach a consensus on the main opposition's reform agenda on the CG, EC and electoral laws. But the discussion could not be held as yet due to the difference of opinion between the ruling BNP and the main opposition AL on the formation of the committee. Time is running out and the nation expects that the dialogue is held early to arrive at a consensus on the issues concerned.

This article, therefore, makes an attempt to discuss as to why the civil service has lost its inherent qualities and how a regenerated civil service with qualities of professionalism, continuity and neutrality can help bring stability in the administration and 'make democracy work.'

During his trip to Australia, Zafar Sobhan was impressed by the "professionalism, continuity and neutrality" of the Australian civil servants and felt the "need to re-establish this principle" in Bangladesh in the interest of the administration and democracy.

Mention may be made that professionalism, continuity and non-partisanship are the hallmarks of the British Civil Service that we ultimately inherited at the time of independence. A follower of Westminster style of parliamentary democracy Bangladesh needed professionally capable and politically neutral civil servants for the stability of her administration as well as for aiding the effective functioning of her democracy. But the successive governments resorted to the game of dividing the bureaucrats in terms of freedom fighters and non-freedom fighters to control and use the bureaucracy to their advantage.

Second, the Services (Reorganisation and Conditions) Act, 1975 effective from July 1, 1973 empowered the government to reorganise the services, and prescribe grades and scales of pay and other terms and conditions of services for persons in the service of the Republic or of any public body. Experience of the last 30 plus years shows that successive governments have used this law to make and unmake rules for appointing activists of the student-wing and the relatives to the cadre and non-cadre posts in the civil service, promoting 'their men' to key posts in the administration and giving contractual appointment to such retired civil servants who shall exist only to carry out the orders of the political masters.

Third, hardly three years elapsed after independence when the parliament passed the Public Servants (Retirement) Act 1974 which empowered the government to retire a civil servant on completion of 25 years of service without assigning any reason. This black law continues to hang like the sword of Damocles over the heads of the senior civil servants and discourages them to act with professionalism and neutrality. The successive governments, in particular the present alliance government, have used this law to prematurely retire hundreds of civil servants on political considerations.

Fourth, since reintroduction of parliamentary democracy in 1991, the governments of the BNP, the AL and the BNP-led alliance have successfully divided the civil servants into separate camps. For the last one decade or so, many of the civil servants have, in violation of their service rules, become active supporters of any one of the three political parties namely, the BNP, the AL and Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh. The non-partisan civil servants have been cornered. It is a real disaster for the civil service when the High Court issues a rule on the government to explain why it should not be directed to terminate the contractual appointment of the incumbent cabinet secretary, the highest ranking government official, for his political links with the ruling BNP in violation of service rules.

Fifth, many civil servants succumb to political pressure or indulge in partisan politics to hide their inefficiency and corruption. The former leads them to become partisan to save their job and the latter makes them corrupt.

Considering the above factors, Public Administration Reforms Commission in its report (June, 2000) observed that the predecessors of the Bangladesh Civil Service --the British Indian Civil Service, Central Superior Services of Pakistan, and the erstwhile East Pakistan Civil Service -- were regarded as efficient and effective in dispensation of their business. But due to lack of knowledge and necessary managerial skill to accomplish their assigned tasks, the members of the Bangladesh Civil Service have come to be designated as inefficient and ineffective.

Now the question arises as to how the civil service with the qualities of professionalism, continuity and neutrality can help bring stability in the administration and 'make democracy work.'

Firstly, our system of administration makes heavy demands on civil servants. The execution of policies embodied in existing legislation, formulation of new policy, formulation and implementation of development programmes, management of international relations, the wide range of research on commercial and other economic policies have imposed a heavy burden on our civil servants. The civil servants who have professional capability, continuity and impartiality would be able to handle such complex problems.

Secondly, democracy has not yet taken a deep root in the country. Rather the confrontational politics of the two major parties--- the BNP and the AL---have created a volatile political situation and the fate of the nascent democracy is at stake. Such a situation demands efficient and non-partisan civil servants for implementation of our national policies and programmes and for the overall stability of the administration.

Thirdly, for all national and local level elections, the EC appoints returning officers (ROs) who are invariably civil servants. The ROs with the assistance of the presiding officers, polling officers, law enforcers etc conduct elections within their respective jurisdictions. From this point of view, a returning officer is the most powerful person for conducting elections within an area under his jurisdiction. Only professional, efficient and non-partisan civil servants can discharge such onerous responsibilities successfully and impartially. This greatly serves the cause of democracy.

Now the question is: how to re-establish professionalism, continuity and neutrality in our civil service in the interest of the administration and democracy?

First, it needs a strong support of the political parties, whether in power or in opposition. Such a support will not be coming easily. But the political parties must realise the role of civil servants in our system of administration and come forward to build up a corps of professionally capable and non-partisan civil servants for the stability of the administration and for the continued functioning of democracy.

Second, academics, researchers, civil society leaders and others feel that time has come for the legislature to revisit the aforesaid acts of 1974 and 1975 to enable it to exercise some sort of control to prevent politicisation of the civil service by the successive governments.

Third, there must be an end to political victimisation of civil servants.

Last but not the least, while merit should be the only criterion for recruitment to civil service, the civil servants should be imparted proper training to prepare them to cope with the tasks of adopting modern management techniques and knowledge and to face the challenges of the 21st century.

M. Abdul Latif Mondal is a former Secretary to the Government