The state of our democracy and democratic practices

For a while, we forgot that this is the land where Sirajuddowla and Mir Jaffar both lived. This land thus epitomises both the tragedy of Sirajuddowla and the treachery of Mir Jafar. It is said that democracy has been regained or re-established after a long and heroic struggle by the people, but have we really? In reality, what we have so far been able to achieve is running in circles around the illusion of democracy. Let us face it, how democratic were we during those post-Independence days, from 1972 through 1975? What was the nature of our democracy and democratic traditions from 1975 through 1980? They call him Shoirachar (dictator) and yet they are in an ugly contest to see as to which political party is able to goad him to join their party. The decade of 1980 through 1990, saw the rule of the Shoiracher, but can any one sincerely tell us as whether the situation has improved since then? As far as we are concerned, these super defenders of democracy is no better than those self-styled protectors and propagators of Islam. Forgive our saying so, at least these fierce Islamists have a clear agenda for good or for worse, but do our politicians and political parties have one? Guess they have one; "cling to the seat of power at any cost". People are getting weary of these so-called champions of democracy. All these people seem to be running like those of the 'wild, wild, west' that existed about two hundred years ago in the US. Remember the popular slogan of the cowboys, "Have gun, will travel". Our democracy today is full of violent drama and adventure. Our politicians say one thing in the morning and another by the end of the day. We no longer know as to what they really represent and where they are leading us to? While such is the sorry state of our politicians and political parties, the so-called intellectuals and the high-profile members of the civil society are behaving like a bunch of cheer leaders in a game of football or baseball. We have been witnessing unprecedented violence, killing of people, raging and orchestrating organised mayhem, ugly rhetoric, and the use of indecent and abusive languages by our senior politicians and their activists against one another including systematic destruction of our economy that had just begun to take off. The politicians and the political parties continue to hold us hostage. The scourge of 'aborodh' (blockade) continues to take its toll. Our children continue to be confined within their homes, they are unable to go to schools and appear for their examinations, sick and the ailing people continue to suffer since they cannot reach hospitals for urgent or routine medical services, and shops and businesses often close down. Often roads are blocked and vehicles torched, people are unable to commute between cities due to horrific conditions of the roads, poor railway services etc. All this and many more are forcing the country to incur losses to the tune of thousands of crores taka in lost business and trading. To make matters worse, a bunch of ruthless politicians-cum-businessmen continue to denude the country of hefty sum of money through grafts and other illegal means. Can any one tell us as to what is the qualitative difference between the days gone by and today? Interestingly enough, amidst all this, the CEO of our administration had told the people quite some time back, "you have to undergo a little more sufferings". They say that they are doing all these to restore the voting rights of the people and institutionalise democracy. Is this the way to establish our voting rights or for that matter democracy? The manner in which our senior politicians speak in public meetings and public forums, to say the least, are poor and degrading. Our politicians have eternal problems with the content of their speeches. For God's sake, let us have some decency when we refer to opposition parties and their leaders or people holding high offices of the state. The other day, I saw them celebrating anniversary of our "victory" with roads blocked, huge festoons and arches built right on the middle of the main thoroughfares, causing problems in the free movement of traffic and general members of the public. There are areas which are often turned into no entry zones. Indeed, the problem with our politicians is that they continue to live in the past, lack vision and have a frame of mind that is too narrow and fiercely selfish. To all this is the added curse of senseless violence, arrogance and militancy. This writer said before also that today we have too many politicians amongst us and very few patriots. Our law enforcing agencies, over a period of time, have become instruments of torture and terror. Yet another face of democracy, Bangladesh style. Along with the politicians and the law enforcing agencies there is yet an emerging brand of high-profile lawyers who are continuously desecrating the sacred environment of the highest seat of our judiciary. We are sorry to say that these stalwarts of the legal profession who often claim that they belong to that exclusive class of intellectuals who are neutral and independent and the sole defenders of democracy, beyond doubt have proved themselves to be nothing short of cheap political activists. There is simply too much display of cheap politics in the country. We have family politics, party politics, politics in the mosque, politics in sports, politics in hospitals, politics in educational institutions; you name it, the curse of politics is everywhere. The politicians have been "taking us for a ride" for too long a period of time. We have turned the parliament into a virtual living room of the ruling establishment's party office. We urge that the parliament be made more functional even without the presence of the main opposition. Parliament is weighed down by too much of partisan thinking. Too much of time is spent on such unproductive issues like name changing, blaming the opposition for anything and everything under the sun. To date, there has been no real debate or discussion on critical issues of public interest like the unprecedented hiking of power tariff, the scarcity of water and gas for domestic use, stalking and raping of young school and college going girls, the unruly conduct of the MPs and ministers, freeing the university campuses of violence and vandalism where the ruling party cadres lead the way so on and so forth. We should all remember that in the final analysis, the performance of a government will be evaluated not on the basis of how effectively and forcefully it criticised its opponents but its acts on mitigating the sufferings of the people at large. After all, democracy is all about peoples' welfare, here or anywhere else in the world. Email: chowdhuryshamsher@yahoo.com