Polls today, main challenge lies ahead
Monday, 29 December 2008
The electorate will exercise their franchise to elect a new Jatiya Sangsad (JS) or national parliament, today. The parties or their alliances that will be able to prove their majority in parliament will form the next government. As in the case of any other parliamentary election in the different countries of the world, ours will also have its winners and losers. Naturally, it will generate strong emotions both among the followers of the winning and the losing parties. It is the expectation of the entire nation that the emotions will not go overboard, but expressed in a manner that befits a civilised people who have exercised their voting right to form the ninth parliament.
Such word of warning is not quite out of place given the bumpy road that the nation have been passing through since it won its independence at the end of a bloody war of liberation thirty-seven years ago. Like the struggle for an independent nationhood, our struggle for democracy has also its vicissitudes. And so far as our history goes, the task of holding a free and fair election and formation of a functioning parliament has also not been a smooth one in Bangladesh. If truth be told, like the war of independence, the people's struggle for democracy, too, has known its martyrs and the blood that is spilled to make a martyr.
The history of the present election, has not also been without its bitter sides. The major political parties and their alliances were in a state of complete deadlock over the previous attempts at holding the ninth Jatiya Sangsad elections. There were widespread violence and instability across the political spectrum before the present caretaker government with its 'extraordinarily long' term in office was sworn in. Evidently, the institution of caretaker governments, whether short or long, would not have been necessary, had the political system of the nation was free from confrontational divide and narrow partisan interests. Political and ideological divergences are but the essence of democracy. But the very spirit has often gone off track in our particular case leading to periodic, extra-constitutional or unusual interventions in the nation's transition to democracy.
Given its relative cultural and ethnic homogeneity, Bangladesh has otherwise been ideally suited to demonstrate its superiority in its culture and practice of democracy, so far as holding of parliamentary elections, functioning of Jatiya Sangsad and running of the elected governments are concerned. Thus far, we cannot claim that our march to democracy has been, albeit full of hazards, yet an enviable one. However, our tumultuous past in its efforts at placing democracy on a secure foundation notwithstanding, the redeeming feature of all our struggles to this end is that, the people had always taken the right decision whenever the time of reckoning came. The present election to the ninth Jatiya Sangsad, too, has again put the nation through its paces. Hopefully, armed with the correct verdict of the people, the ongoing polls will present the nation with a parliament that will function as it should in a fully working democracy. The winner of the today's election will be facing one of the most challenging times as far as economic management is concerned because of the ongoing global financial meltdown and domestic investment slowdown. Major parties have pledged to make the economy buoyant, create employment and cut poverty further. Whoever wins election would have to put in its or their best efforts to materialise those pledges.
Such word of warning is not quite out of place given the bumpy road that the nation have been passing through since it won its independence at the end of a bloody war of liberation thirty-seven years ago. Like the struggle for an independent nationhood, our struggle for democracy has also its vicissitudes. And so far as our history goes, the task of holding a free and fair election and formation of a functioning parliament has also not been a smooth one in Bangladesh. If truth be told, like the war of independence, the people's struggle for democracy, too, has known its martyrs and the blood that is spilled to make a martyr.
The history of the present election, has not also been without its bitter sides. The major political parties and their alliances were in a state of complete deadlock over the previous attempts at holding the ninth Jatiya Sangsad elections. There were widespread violence and instability across the political spectrum before the present caretaker government with its 'extraordinarily long' term in office was sworn in. Evidently, the institution of caretaker governments, whether short or long, would not have been necessary, had the political system of the nation was free from confrontational divide and narrow partisan interests. Political and ideological divergences are but the essence of democracy. But the very spirit has often gone off track in our particular case leading to periodic, extra-constitutional or unusual interventions in the nation's transition to democracy.
Given its relative cultural and ethnic homogeneity, Bangladesh has otherwise been ideally suited to demonstrate its superiority in its culture and practice of democracy, so far as holding of parliamentary elections, functioning of Jatiya Sangsad and running of the elected governments are concerned. Thus far, we cannot claim that our march to democracy has been, albeit full of hazards, yet an enviable one. However, our tumultuous past in its efforts at placing democracy on a secure foundation notwithstanding, the redeeming feature of all our struggles to this end is that, the people had always taken the right decision whenever the time of reckoning came. The present election to the ninth Jatiya Sangsad, too, has again put the nation through its paces. Hopefully, armed with the correct verdict of the people, the ongoing polls will present the nation with a parliament that will function as it should in a fully working democracy. The winner of the today's election will be facing one of the most challenging times as far as economic management is concerned because of the ongoing global financial meltdown and domestic investment slowdown. Major parties have pledged to make the economy buoyant, create employment and cut poverty further. Whoever wins election would have to put in its or their best efforts to materialise those pledges.