Of Sir, Madam, absent respect and gender mangling

The Deputy Commissioner of Rangpur has expressed her regret at having asked an academic of Begum Rokeya University to address her as 'Sir'. It is not quite clear if she will from here on refrain from asking or expecting other citizens to use the honorific 'Sir' when they speak to her.

Be that as it may, the incident, for the exposure of which we are grateful to the academic in question, raises some interesting questions. The first of course is one of when we in Bangladesh decided that a woman in a powerful position, meaning within the political and administrative structure of the state, should be looked upon as an individual who could appropriate what naturally belongs to a male in our society. 

In our social life, we address women as 'Miss' or 'Ms' or 'Mrs', depending on the position they happen to be at a given time. With men, it is 'Master' (at a very young age) and 'Mr'. How is it that we are getting everything wrong in our Bangladesh context? 

There are instances of even our women diplomats abroad being addressed as 'Sir' by those working below them, which raises the next question - do these women in influential positions of the state prefer to be called 'Sir' or do those serving under them spontaneously resort to the use of the term when addressing their female superiors?

The next question is quite simple: when did this queer trend of women in the state administration being spoken to as 'Sir' come in? 

Whatever has happened to 'Madam'? In the United States, no one will ever address Kamala Harris as 'Sir'. She will always be 'Madam Vice President', in public and within the confines of her office. So far we have not heard of Indian President Draupadi Murmu requiring people to use 'Sir' before they begin a conversation with her. How is it, then, that in Bangladesh we are getting the rules of gender upside down?

And now comes the question of the behavioural instincts of men as well as women in the service of the republic. But do all of them feel that they are servants of the people, of the republic in that constitutional meaning of the term? 

In the old Pakistani days, those who were part of the CSP structure remained sadly removed from the public and were happy to be part of what gradually came to be known as an elitist group of people. Even so, there are hardly any instances of any CSP officer or for that matter any ICS officer in India demanding that s/he be shown due honour by being addressed as 'Sir'.

For a good number of civil servants here in Bangladesh, things have turned out differently because they have made things different. It should have been for the Rangpur DC to address Professor Umar Farooq, the academic she sought to humiliate, as 'Sir'. She should have been on her feet when the academic entered her office through a proper display of respect for the teaching profession. 

In a country where the Father of the Nation, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, lost little time in getting to his feet when academics went to see him and addressed them as 'Sir', it is pretty mind-boggling to experience lesser mortals placing themselves on high and making demands that are plainly laughable. Comedy should not be part of politics or the civil service. Civil servants must not be uncivil.

Let there be a return to normal life through a normal way of addressing individuals at every level of society. Our male teachers will always be 'Sir' while our women teachers will forever be 'Madam' for us. 

Our journalists should speedily discard the genuflecting habit of addressing politicians as 'Sir'. We will address the nation's incoming head of state as 'Mr President' and the head of government as 'Madam Prime Minister' (in English, of course) and simply 'Sir' or 'Madam' when not referring to their formal positions. There are of course those moments when we do not have to be gender-specific. A senior woman officer in the army will always be 'General X' in the way her male colleague is 'General Y'. Similar are the circumstances when it comes to 'Professor' and 'Doctor'. 

And how should civil servants address citizens? A simple answer: they should be instructed once they undergo training before formally assuming their assignments to use 'Sir' and 'Madam' --- and this applies to every citizen at every level, from the poorest to the affluent and powerful, of society. Civil servants should not expect the public to grovel before them and call them 'Sir'. Citizens can use, in Bangla, 'DC Shaheb' or 'DC Shaheba' and the like.

Let's call it a day, then, Sir/Madam. Yes, we are speaking to you, our readers, with the respect you deserve. 

Syed Badrul Ahsan. Illustration: TBS