Revamping the railway
A M M Abad, Dhaka
Bangladesh Railway (BR) might get international aid of around USD 500 million (half a billion) on fulfilling certain preconditions (press report). One idea is to convert BR into a public sector corporation (or, is it a private corp?). Naturally, the powerful NNCs are eyeing the project lustfully. A powerful neighbour could supply most of the technical hardware. This type of experiment had been tried before with the electric power sector PDB (DESA, DESCO, and others). It does not work, as the top executives are the same officials transferred to the new agencies; with the same top masters dictating policies and occasional ad hoc exemptions through the backdoors. Replacement of trained and experienced local human management resources is not that simple or easy. How to ensure change of heart and mentality, to introduce the right type of APPROACH to public utility services? Under-developed societies have under-developed minds, with small, subjective footprints. Materialistic temptation is the enemy number one, wherever the 60 million votes go. In the LDCs, cultural lags cannot keep pace with modern BMRE concepts. What works in the industrialised countries cannot be replicated fully in the developing countries. Any code of practice available for application in the Third World? When the national leaders need remote-controlled steering to set sight on the right national goals, the outlook and the output are bleak. The rich nations, under the UN system, donate less than one percent of their gross national incomes; and the guidelines are drafted by seniors living in affluent societies. How to be in tune with the local cultural environment? Where is the interface, and how these are corrected constantly through a proven negative feedback system? The latter (feedback system) cannot be implemented successfully, as there are many points (black boxes) within the master flow chart operated through human interfacing (less automation). The human systems losses start at these points. Add nepotism at the top policy levels, and the picture is gloomy and grim. The above concept is one of the presumed reasons for Amartya Sen winning the Nobel Prize for his different approach to development economics. Now the UN and the UNSC are not working normally, due to undue pressures from the superpowers. The present UN is facing the same fate as the former League of Nations after the First World War (1914-18). The perennial problem is eternal : save the self first, or save the poor (two-thirds of the six billion human beings).
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