Respecting public opinion on national issues

The need for sustainable political stability has become the talk of the nation as the country is getting out of its bad image due to political violence in the recent times. Needless to say, the political turmoil not only has disrupted normal life of the people, but also hit the country's economic growth badly. Owing to the crisis, Bangladesh is now ranked one of the most violent countries of the world.
In fact, there is a close relationship between political stability and economic growth. If we look at developed countries of the world, it will be clear that they hardly face any political unrest spilling over to the streets. In sharp contrast, due to political instability most of the poor countries fail to achieve the expected progress as flow of foreign investment, remittances etc. is regularly interrupted.
 For this reason, most of the governments of developed democratic countries value their people's opinion with a view to curbing political anarchy and keeping pace of development uninterrupted. They seek public consent, which is the foundation of democracy, over any disputed matter and thus resolve political crises amicably.
The practice of a democratic solution is indispensably needed to be applied in our country. Because, the people have been witnessing a series of political crises in the last few years and still the impasse is going on. And in all cases of disputes, the ruling party could not respect public opinion. Rather they tried to suppress people's movement adopting different tactics. The latest was the poll-time government just before and during the 10th parliamentary election. Most of the surveys conducted by various organisations and newspapers showed that the majority of people were in favour of a non-partisan caretaker government. But the ruling party was adamant to hold the national polls under a party government. As a result, the main opposition BNP boycotted the election and stepped up a movement that caused massive casualties of life and property.
Democracy connotes people's power. It is based on consent of people while dictatorship is reliant on power and brute force. So, for the sake of democracy, the government should work for a democratic solution, that is, the government should assess public opinion in case of crises in order to avert unwanted political turmoil and thus accelerate the country's development. That is why political stability is a precondition for economic development.
The writer is a senior lecturer in Social Work, Centre for General Education, Northern University, Bangladesh.
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