Our bureaucracy does need a check

Will Durant in his introduction (he has titled it as ‘Invitation’) to the book, The Pleasures of Philosophy, says,“…Without total vision which unifies purpose and establishes the hierarchy of desires, we fritter away our social heritage in cynical corruption on the one hand, and in revolutionary madness on the other; we abandon in a moment our pacific idealism and plunge into the cooperative suicide of war; we have a hundred thousand politicians, and not a single statesman. We move about the earth with unprecedented speed, but we do not know and have not thought, where we are going or whether we shall find any happiness there for our harassed souls…”

In about six weeks from now, we shall be celebrating our 79th anniversary of Independence. That isn’t a small time period.

By this time our Nation’s compass of direction should have been set. We should have developed clarity of vision, particularly the steps required to be taken for realising it. We struggle even today to seek an answer to where we are heading, and where we should actually be heading? Even the headline numbers of growth and achievement remain obscure both by lack of clarity and failure to achieve. Revenue targets is a case in point.

We embarked upon a vessel in 1947 with some high sounding values and goals as our targets of pursuit and achievement. The founding father and his comrades disembarked rather quickly through the design of nature. The boat (read, Pakistan) was without a navigator…all occupants rushed to be the navigators. It was a moment to hit Eldorado. This led to destructive competition. All pillars of the state sought to lead. In this journey of nine plus seven decades we jettisoned half the country.

And the unpardonable began to find roots into the vessel…nepotism, corruption, favouritism etc., to make room for these and other inglorious aspects, we threw overboard our values, creed and culture.

Since Independence we are at sixes and sevens in trying to find ways and means to “set the sails”. Independence was simultaneously achieved by our Eastern hostile neighbour. They set their course with clarity and continuity. They have traversed a long distance in the path of economic growth and development. This they achieved despite being a large country with burgeoning population.

Our FX reserves stand at $22 billion and India’s in excess of $650 billion. This is just one measure of comparison. Even if we contextualise the “size of economy” as a differentiating factor, even then the disparities are astonishingly glaring.

Finding or setting the course of direction is an insufficient strategy. Even Christopher Columbus made an error in navigation…he had set the sails to reach and discover East Indies. Instead, he landed on the shores of America. History will ultimately judge and decide if Columbus should be pardoned for this mistake. The lesson here is: if we make a mistake, it must be recognised and corrected. All these years our errors are captured on the pages of history, but we fail to read and correct those erroneous moves.

The reasons for unity of purpose get challenged, day in and day out. Every now and then a spanner is thrown to derail by raising debate on what political dispensation suits us…Westminster-type parliamentary democracy or the presidential form of government, with either the French or American flavour.

The lynchpin for successful democracy lies in the independence of the State institutions that, however, must work in harmony. These organs of the state require to be strengthened through institutionalisation of the code of good governance and the adoption of internationally best accepted practices. Both need implementation with no excuses or exceptions. For far too long, we have lived with this overarching policy of making exceptions, to the ultimate peril of the country….adhocism cannot add value to growth and development efforts. All privileges of “subsidies” and “grants” to the various segments of the economy and society are a direct reflection of this malaise of adhocism and exceptions.

An effective and efficient bureaucracy is an imperative need for the successful implementation of the political vision of the government. The bitterness of disillusion about our bureaucracy leaps into the perennial disgust at the lack of improvement. Every political government made honest and serious attempt to bring in reforms for the bureaucracy, in order to make it a well-oiled machinery that remains coordinated. All such initiatives were killed by the bureaucracy itself. All attempts to tame have failed.

It is the bureaucracy of any country that makes or breaks the government. The fatal alliance between politicians and bureaucrats has led us to this decay. The Quaid was clear and emphatic about the role of the civil servants.

Regrettably, bureaucrats yielded and gave space to politicians to interfere in administrative matters. They surrendered their independence and autonomy. Consequently, civility has been consigned and servants have become masters of the destiny of the nation.

There has to be recognition that no single element of government and bureaucracy can on their own deliver results. The fundamental principle for economic growth pivots upon harmony between all elements. All units have to forge cooperation and work in unison with unified intentionality. Resilience to face and surmount challenges is dependent upon this strategic alignment between various organs of the State.

It is time bureaucracy stepped out of the mindset of its own inevitable defect, where there is focus on the ‘routine’ than ‘results’. By the time the civil service has finished drafting a document to give effect to a principle, there may be little of the principle left (Lord Reith). The notes on file must serve the cause of the file and shouldn’t be only to protect oneself. The bureaucracy must stop telling politicians that the camel is the horse!

Singapore, the tiny city state, has a cabinet that has two PhD degree holders, MBAs from Harvard, Cambridge and the National University of Singapore (NUS). To appreciate the governance standards, one has to look at the over 89,000 civil service officers…all are graduates and Masters from world renowned universities which is backed up rigorous training in leadership and administration.

Politicians must stop flirting and romancing with the bureaucracy because that promotes nepotism, favouritism and ultimately corruption in its several manifestations. The need is for merit only to prevail.

Since all reforms recommended by various committees have either been cold stored or rejected, it would be best if the prime minister sets up a cabinet committee to sit and work out with the bureaucrats the much needed reformation of the bureaucracy.