Concerns beyond the election
Monday, 15 December 2008
Enamul Haque
We have seen it time and again that, contrary to the democratic norm that prevails in other societies, the losers always cry foul no matter how free and neutral the election is. Khaleda Zia has done it, so has Sheikh Hasina. This undemocratic behaviour has resulted in the boycott of parliament, which the BNP and AL have done in the last 16 years wholeheartedly, making the parliamentary system ineffective and dysfunctional. There were times when the opposition was not allowed to talk on the floor, which, along with the personal hatred that Khaleda Zia share with Sheikh Hasina have brought politics to the streets. It cost the country dear. Our economy suffered, in our social life, we have seen the birth of a culture of thuggery and violence.
The student organisations of both the major parties are full of leaders, who had long passed their studentship; some even have known to have private businesses, and head of big families and who are more thugs than anything else. It is natural that students will raise their voice about issues of national and international interests; student life, after all, is about preparing oneself for the future life as a politician, businessman, civil servant; students, there is no doubt about it, are the nation builders of tomorrow. Having said that, it is necessary to save student politics from the clutches of the family based, narrow minded and corrupt partisan politics, which use the students as cannon fodder.
The same is applicable to our labour organisations. The front organisations, as they are known, must be freed from their mother organisations. In fact, our economic growth would have been much higher if Chittagong Port were not closed for so many days and if the universities did not have to be shut down because gun-toting factions of student organisations had tried to capture dormitories at the university for their respective parties.
Even though leaders of all the major parties have talked of reforming their rank and file, in reality, they have so far not done anything substantive to materialise them. While it is not the job of the government to force the parties to bring reform, the leaders of the main political parties do need to rise above their petty interests, and, for the sake of the country's democratic future, must seriously think of bringing democracy to their folds.
Another issue that has remained unresolved is the funding of the political parties. How the political parties fund themselves is a mystery. It has been alleged that the parties take a huge amount of donations from crooked businessmen and criminals in exchange for giving advantage to them when they get elected. In fact, the scrapped general election of 2007 witnessed such shameless displays of nomination buying and selling: dedicated and loyal leaders were ignored and criminals and shady businessmen were given nominations. Similar allegations have been made also about the nomination process for the current election. But this culture must change. The new elected government must aim to change it during its tenure. Otherwise, elections will not bring true democracy if such incidents repeat themselves.
The parties should also decide to carry out institutional reforms as an on-going process when they get elected. It will be unfortunate if the new government fails to do the reforms it is expected to do after the coming election. There will be a lot of things at hand to do for the government, which, we expect, will take office in the beginning of January next year.
Besides the issue of economic and structural reforms, the next government has to think of ways to make the country more governable. Local government bodies must be strengthened; they should have independent budgets. The local government bodies have to be armed with more power so that everything does not remain Dhaka-centric, which alienates the people's participation in governance. Given that Bangladesh has a population of 150 million, which makes it a country bigger than France or Spain, demands the need for decentralisation. In this way development will be more homogeneous and the fruit of our economic growth will trickle down to those who need it the most. Proposals for multi-tiered local government have been prepared long ago. In fact, local government legislation should have come into force a long time ago. Only the vested interests of the local MPs, who do not want to let go of power, have prevented the creation of local bodies.
It is true that ours is a parliamentary democracy, where the Prime Minister is the head of the executive branch. In our form of government, the Prime Minister's power remains unchecked, and, more dangerously, unbalanced. There is a need to make the PM more accountable. There should be a system of checks and balance.
The ultimate accountability of the PM should lie with the parliament. Important legislations should be passed before consulting with the leader of the opposition; in this spirit, vital standing committees should be chaired by opposition MPs to make the system more functional. It must be mentioned here that the President should not be put as a rival to the Prime Minister, if this happens, the whole idea of parliamentary democracy will fall apart.
Bangladesh today is at a crossroads. Different stakeholders of our country's business, politics and media will have to reach a consensus on the burning issues Bangladesh is facing today. The post-election period must be a constructive one and must not be allowed to fail. A bright new beginning lies before us; history will not forgive us if we try to revert its wheel in the wrong direction.
We have seen it time and again that, contrary to the democratic norm that prevails in other societies, the losers always cry foul no matter how free and neutral the election is. Khaleda Zia has done it, so has Sheikh Hasina. This undemocratic behaviour has resulted in the boycott of parliament, which the BNP and AL have done in the last 16 years wholeheartedly, making the parliamentary system ineffective and dysfunctional. There were times when the opposition was not allowed to talk on the floor, which, along with the personal hatred that Khaleda Zia share with Sheikh Hasina have brought politics to the streets. It cost the country dear. Our economy suffered, in our social life, we have seen the birth of a culture of thuggery and violence.
The student organisations of both the major parties are full of leaders, who had long passed their studentship; some even have known to have private businesses, and head of big families and who are more thugs than anything else. It is natural that students will raise their voice about issues of national and international interests; student life, after all, is about preparing oneself for the future life as a politician, businessman, civil servant; students, there is no doubt about it, are the nation builders of tomorrow. Having said that, it is necessary to save student politics from the clutches of the family based, narrow minded and corrupt partisan politics, which use the students as cannon fodder.
The same is applicable to our labour organisations. The front organisations, as they are known, must be freed from their mother organisations. In fact, our economic growth would have been much higher if Chittagong Port were not closed for so many days and if the universities did not have to be shut down because gun-toting factions of student organisations had tried to capture dormitories at the university for their respective parties.
Even though leaders of all the major parties have talked of reforming their rank and file, in reality, they have so far not done anything substantive to materialise them. While it is not the job of the government to force the parties to bring reform, the leaders of the main political parties do need to rise above their petty interests, and, for the sake of the country's democratic future, must seriously think of bringing democracy to their folds.
Another issue that has remained unresolved is the funding of the political parties. How the political parties fund themselves is a mystery. It has been alleged that the parties take a huge amount of donations from crooked businessmen and criminals in exchange for giving advantage to them when they get elected. In fact, the scrapped general election of 2007 witnessed such shameless displays of nomination buying and selling: dedicated and loyal leaders were ignored and criminals and shady businessmen were given nominations. Similar allegations have been made also about the nomination process for the current election. But this culture must change. The new elected government must aim to change it during its tenure. Otherwise, elections will not bring true democracy if such incidents repeat themselves.
The parties should also decide to carry out institutional reforms as an on-going process when they get elected. It will be unfortunate if the new government fails to do the reforms it is expected to do after the coming election. There will be a lot of things at hand to do for the government, which, we expect, will take office in the beginning of January next year.
Besides the issue of economic and structural reforms, the next government has to think of ways to make the country more governable. Local government bodies must be strengthened; they should have independent budgets. The local government bodies have to be armed with more power so that everything does not remain Dhaka-centric, which alienates the people's participation in governance. Given that Bangladesh has a population of 150 million, which makes it a country bigger than France or Spain, demands the need for decentralisation. In this way development will be more homogeneous and the fruit of our economic growth will trickle down to those who need it the most. Proposals for multi-tiered local government have been prepared long ago. In fact, local government legislation should have come into force a long time ago. Only the vested interests of the local MPs, who do not want to let go of power, have prevented the creation of local bodies.
It is true that ours is a parliamentary democracy, where the Prime Minister is the head of the executive branch. In our form of government, the Prime Minister's power remains unchecked, and, more dangerously, unbalanced. There is a need to make the PM more accountable. There should be a system of checks and balance.
The ultimate accountability of the PM should lie with the parliament. Important legislations should be passed before consulting with the leader of the opposition; in this spirit, vital standing committees should be chaired by opposition MPs to make the system more functional. It must be mentioned here that the President should not be put as a rival to the Prime Minister, if this happens, the whole idea of parliamentary democracy will fall apart.
Bangladesh today is at a crossroads. Different stakeholders of our country's business, politics and media will have to reach a consensus on the burning issues Bangladesh is facing today. The post-election period must be a constructive one and must not be allowed to fail. A bright new beginning lies before us; history will not forgive us if we try to revert its wheel in the wrong direction.