Senior civil servants and academics on Friday at a seminar said that the civil service was facing a huge image crisis due to the massive corruption and politicisation during the Sheikh Hasina-led Awami League regime of 15 years.
The Bangladesh Administrative Service Association organised the event titled 鈥楯uly uprising expectations and future civil service鈥� in the capital鈥檚 BIAM Foundation.
July uprising martyr Shahrier Khan Anas鈥檚 mother Sanzida Khan Deepti told the seminar that the letter Anas wrote before he had left home during the uprising was significant in many angles for the future.
She demanded incorporation of the letter in textbooks, saying that it would inspire others to stand against injustice.
Relatives of July victims alleged that civil servants supported Sheikh Hasina鈥檚 fascist rule and her murderous attempt to quell the uprising, killing people.
Bangladesh Public Service Commission Secretariat secretary Md Sanwar Jahan Bhuiyan in a presentation found several reasons for the failure of bureaucracy.
He said that many of the civil servants were misguided as they served the purposes of political party instead of people.
Politicisation and corruption left government institutions paralysed, while monitoring agencies abjectly failed in their stated role of checking public institutions from failing, he further said.
He called on the bureaucrats to uphold ethics, build people鈥檚 trust and strengthen institutions.
Dhaka University Public Administration Professor Syeda Lasna Kabir observed that the civil servants turned to master of the civilians over the years.
鈥楤ureaucrats are no more respectful person to the people. They took their position far away from people,鈥� she said.
She said that minimising the gap between people and servants could be possible by making the civil service merit-based, discrimination-free, non-political, and establishing accountability and corruption-free service.
She called for bringing the black sheep of the administration to justice.
Officers鈥� Club Dhaka general secretary ABM Abdus Sattar said that immediately after the ouster of Hasina he was so hopeful about the changes to come, but over time he came across many allegations of corruption and new political involvement against bureaucrats.
Dhaka University vice-chancellor Niaz Ahmed Khan said that people now learned to question and if the bureaucrats failed to reform themselves, they might face more difficulties in the future.
鈥榃e want professionalism in service, not political bias,鈥� he said.
Principal secretary to the chief adviser M Siraz Uddin Miah viewed that the civil service now at a crossroads.
鈥楾his is the moment to decide which direction civil service will head to,鈥� he said.
He said that for the new journey this was the best time because there was no political pressure on civil servants.
Dhaka Divisional commissioner Sharf Uddin Ahmed Choudhury said that over the years the bureaucrats failed to understand people鈥檚 expectation.
鈥楴ow our main challenge is to gain people鈥檚 trust,鈥� he said.
Among others, senior bureaucrats and relatives of other July uprising victims addressed the event in presence of several hundred bureaucrats of different levels.