Academics and civil society members at a seminar in Dhaka on Wednesday said that the country’s governance was passing through a legitimation crisis as the government was focusing more on development agenda subverting the fundamental aspirations of the nation.
Centre for Governance Studies organised the seminar on ‘Governance: A Critical Examination’ with its chairman professor Ataur Rahman in the chair.
The speakers said that corruption was being institutionalised and the rule of law was on the back seat in contrary to aspirations of the founding fathers of the nations.
They said that the people nowadays seemed to be reluctant to cast votes as they did not find their wishes reflected in the policymaking.
In the keynote speech, Illinois State University of the United States government and politics professor Ali Riaz said, without referring to any country, that ‘legitimation capacity’ was one of the core capacities the state must have for its functioning.
He said that the capacity of state in terms of legitimacy had been disregarded or marginalised over the years in Bangladesh.
He underlined the need for political negotiation between the elite and the non-elite in the state governance system.
‘The state must have four capacities: legitimation capacity, coercive capacity, extractive capacity and administrative capacity,’ Ali Riaz said.
Asked for qualifying the term, he said the moral legitimacy was at the centre of his understanding while speaking on the issue.
Former minister Mizanur Rahman Shelley, also former bureaucrat, said that the country was developing as much as it was falling morally.
Former caretaker government adviser Hossain Zillur Rahman said that the incumbent government had brought development and democracy face-to-face.
‘The ground reality is chronic capitalism and corruption is being institutionalised…the rule of law takes on the back seat.’
He deplored that the basic principles of the nation were now being subverted.
Local governance expert Tofail Ahmed said, ‘We are having a legitimacy crisis now. People are not getting their representations in the governance and losing their interest in the system.’
New Age editor Nurul Kabir said that ‘popular legitimacy’ and accountability at all levels were important issues in the state governance.
He underlined the need for bringing back the state to democracy so that it could be governed democratically.
Dhaka University development studies professor Rashed Al Mahmud Titumir said that Bangladesh had now unelected lawmakers and even deans of his university were not elected.
The speakers pointed out that there was a political settlement between the elite and the elite and the masses were being alienated from the governance process from the grassroots level to the top administration.
News Courtesy : http://www.newagebd.net/article/8298/governance-passing-through-legitimation-crisis-seminar#sthash.cLQiUqDV.dpuf