Clean politics versus nasty politics: The use of referendum

Politics holds the tremendous promise for contributing to human development and welfare. It can also aggravate miseries, conflicts, confrontations, and sometimes lead to large-scale killings, among the people in a society as shown by historical records. Politics is a word that has a vast and wide dimension as has been maintained by both modern and ancient political sciences. However, some common definitions of politics could be: politics is the exercise of power and influence; politics is the resolution of conflicts and forging of cooperation; politics is the public display of values; politics is the competition among individuals, groups, societies or states; politics is the art of the government; politics is compromise and consensus; and, finally, politics is the power behind equitable distribution of resources. But we, the general people, understand politics as being an 'activity' which the politicians carry out in managing and administering a country. If the politicians do the best for the welfare, peace and prosperity of the general people of a country sans personal gains, personal fame, political scientists and scholars call their politics 'good' or 'clean'.
On the other hand, if the politicians don't care about the people's opinions, their welfare, peace, security, justice and prosperity, and prefer their personal gains, whims, power and influence at the cost of the people and the nation, political scientists and scholars term their politics 'bad' or 'nasty'.
The word politics comes from Greek and its roots lie in the word 'polis', which began to be used 2800 years ago to denote a self-governing city-state. In a practical sense, politics is about power, status and influence. These three need some further consideration. Politics "being about power" is probably aptly used. Power is a very emotional thing. It is also often based on comparative power. People feel great when they have it and feel really bad when they don't. These may include gaining wealth or treating others in a way that would not be acceptable generally. For many, power is little more than a brutal weapon. Power in this sense is the most base of the three elements.
Status is the recognition of others. It is often closely aligned with power, but can also be inversely proportional - especially among those who are well-educated and financially comfortable. Status is often self-indulgent and the companion of pride and arrogance. Status is also personally appealing to many - but seeking status is not admired. Status is a common perception of politics. Influence is the most subtle of the three ways of having politics defined. Influence may be achieved through power - in the short term. Genuine long-term influence is unlikely to be achieved in that manner. Striving for influence may be totally self-motivated. However, striving for influence may be totally selfless. At least, in this respect, politics may have one honourable motive. Political definitions referring to influence are not as common as the reality.
GAME OF POWER: Clean politics is rarely found in ancient times as well as in the present 21st century. That's why some political scholars term politics as a whole "nasty politics". According to them: whatever the textbooks may keep saying about politics, the ground reality is that politics is the game of grabbing power that the mighty play to hold their absolute domination and control over the weak and powerless people. The very scientific answers to the questions like 'what is politics', 'why is politics', 'concept of politics', and 'analysing politics' expose its evil spirit that goes 360 degrees against the spirit of freedom and democracy. How can a game of power be a democratic one? The game of power is bound to be a dirty game. Whenever the people find something wrong and unethical in offices, the media, organisations, etc. they generally to say that politics is everywhere -- like office politics, media politics, organisational politics, gender politics, religious politics, social politics and even family politics.
It is politics which beguiled the political leaders into starting and engaging in the brutal Second World War, which killed millions of innocent people including children, and destroyed properties worth trillions of dollars. World War II was the deadliest military conflict in history that occurred between the year 1939 and 1945. Over 60 million people were killed, which was over 2.5 per cent of the world population. It was politics that acted as a curse to the millions of people around the world during the World War II, although it worked indirectly as a cure to the colonial countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America by expediting their freedom and independence. The most heavily affected countries in the war were Germany, Japan, the UK, and France. These countries had been able to rebuild and restructure their nations by the wise planning and decisions of their respective political leaders.
SOUND AND CLEAN POLITICS: The politics of a country plays the dominant role in economic development, peace and progress. Without sound and clean politics, no country can develop economically, financially and socially. The vision and quality of political leaders are very important for accelerating economic development. Upon focusing on the Korean Peninsula, we can see the difference - in terms of education, health care, standard of living, GDP (gross domestic product) growth and other economic factors between South and North Koreas. One country enjoys higher standard of living with a per capita income of USD 35,000, while the other suffers from the pains of impoverished life with a per capita income of USD 500. It's not due to the race, blood or culture of the peoples in the area but because politics and political leaders are responsible for the economic disparities between the peoples of the two countries in the same geographical location.
Many resourceful countries in Africa and Middle East have failed to advance keeping pace with the developed and emerging nations due to unclean politics. "First of all, I ask you to ponder a perplexing paradox.  Africa is the world's richest continent in terms of natural resources and yet by all measurements, developed by the United Nations, its peoples are the poorest.  In terms of education, health, and most standards of living they lag behind the rest of mankind.  Why, oh why, should this be so?  A few Africans may indeed be rising, but too many others are falling.  The old maxim that the rich get richer and the poor get poorer seems all too true as the gap between Africa and the rest of the world grows ever wider," said US diplomat Walter Carrington.
The most important characteristic of a dictator is that he/she wants to stay in power for ever by using the obedient military and semi-military forces without taking cognizance of the opinions of the people. It is politics, the everlasting greed for power, influence and wealth that makes the political leaders, the dictators and the autocrats blind about ethics, morality, integrity and duties to the general people. These political leaders, unfortunately never take lessons from history. History tells us that many tyrannical kings, queens, autocrats, dictators and political leaders vanished from the scene under the curse of the people.
PREREQUISITES FOR DEVELOPMENT, PEACE AND PROGRESS: When we come to the context of Bangladesh politics, the Constitution guarantees freedom of speech and expression. There is no doubt that during all these years after independence, the country has made a lot of progress and advancements in some fields. But if we compare the progress and advancement with the contemporary world, especially with our neighbouring countries and other East Asian countries, all these gains give a pale look. Many reasons are there for the poor economic performance. Quality of politics, political leaders, political maturity, political culture and the state of political accountability of the leaders, along with the consciousness of the people, are the most important prerequisites for development, peace and progress.
Our country has been suffering continuously due to political instability, anarchy, conflicts, confrontations, social unrest since independence. The Constitution of the country is nicely drafted vesting all powers in the hands of the people. Article 7 of the Bangladesh constitution says: "(1) All powers in the Republic belong to the people and their exercise on behalf of the people shall be effected only under, and by the authority of, this constitution. (2) This Constitution is, as the solemn expression of the will of the people, the supreme law of the Republic, and if any other law is inconsistent with this Constitution and other law shall, to the extent of the inconsistency, be void".
But the political culture of the country doesn't allow the people to get involved in the decision-making process, especially in changing or amending the provisions of the Constitution. Mature and clean politics in  many developed countries allows the people to express their views on any sensitive or important issues. The European countries, for example, take recourse to referendum for joining in European Union (EU) and accepting Euro as the currency in EU countries.  
Unfortunately, Bangladesh does not have such systems or practice. The Constitution of the country has had amendments for fifteen times since independence but never were the people involved by way of referendum.
This political culture is responsible for the ongoing political impasse which has been causing the loss of innocent lives of the people, loss and destruction of valuable public and private properties, loss of businesses, and the creation of political antagonism and acrimony among the people. All this because of differences between the government and the opposition on the issue of election-time government.
The huge loss of lives and destruction of properties could have been avoided had a referendum been held before abolishing the system of election-time non-party, neutral caretaker government and re-introducing election-time interim party government.
The writer is the Group Financial Controller of a Private
Group of Industries.
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