[sustran] Re: (fwd) [UTSG] transport strategy transfer

Craig Townsend townsend at central.murdoch.edu.au
Mon Apr 26 13:06:05 JST 2004


Jonathan,

I agree, but the lack of attention to political factors by consultants has a 
lot to do with who they are working for. Also, discussion of political 
questions which could lead to an examination of who holds power and how (and 
questions about winners and losers) is generally excluded from consultancies 
which involve bilateral or multilateral development assistance. In the case of 
the World Bank, Article IV of its Articles of Association clearly states this:

"The bank and its officers shall not interfere in the political affairs of any 
member; nor shall they be influenced in their decisions by the political 
characteristics of the member or members concerned. Only economic 
considerations shall be relevant to their decisions, and these considerations 
shall be weighted impartially"

It is also very difficult to conduct research on a topic like the politics of 
bus service costs in Bangkok because there are powerful people who collect 
rents from each route and identifying them could be dangerous for the 
researcher!

> I think that BRT could have an important role in improving bus
> functionality in Bangkok, but I also think that much more of a basic
> nature needs to be done first to bring discipline to bus operations and
> basic levels of quality to services as a whole. Political issues do have
> to be incorporated into planning -- they are generally neglected by
> Western consultants, and that is a prime cause of dysfunctionality in the
> implementation which ensues. My concern is for the lowest-income users,
> who constitute the largest group but who are the most liable to be left
> out when any kind of modernization program comes into effect --Jonathan
> 

Craig


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