Waiting for democracy that delivers

M Shahab Uddin Democracy means better electoral practices and greater opportunities to elect parliament's members and others, freely. The media can realise its full potentials in a truly democratic polity. The relatively wider socio-economic opportunities and other advantages that democracy provides, benefit the middle and upper classes. They would under no circumstances like to see such advantages taken away or controlled under any new strongman in uniform issuing decrees and ensuring subservience of all to them under the threat of force. However, it is also important to understand how democracy is perceived by the rank and file of the people or by the teeming millions of ordinary Bangladeshis. Surely, they would expect that democracy would fetch to the masses multi-dimensional gains. They aspire for rapid gains in the struggle against poverty in a democratic system, diminishing of corruption, widening of economic opportunities and a sustainable direction for the better in all spheres of national life, under a well-functioning democracy, more in substance than in appearance. In sum, the general people equate democracy with good governance. A small section of the people but having great influence on national life, the intellectuals want the democratic system to function in a liberal way. From democracy they expect the establishment of the rule of law not in semantics but in reality, effective checks and balances between the three pillars of the state for preventing power concentration and tyranny, assured enjoyment of fundamental human rights, fuller exercise of individual freedoms and political liberties, true independence of the judiciary and practice of the liberal democratic culture and values. But can anybody say that their expectations -- the expectations of different classes of people -- about democracy in the way it has been functioning over the past two decades, barring the interlude of the authoritarian caretaker government under a state of emergency, have been fulfilled in Bangladesh. Neither the expectations of the common man for good governance which he equates with democracy has come even anywhere near to fulfillment, nor the hope of the intelligentsia for liberal democracy is yet being met. But the expectations of the people on the whole should be the main force driving the political process for a real democratic system rest on the consent of the people. Our politicians need to ponder these issues deeply . People are becoming more and more disgruntled by the illiberal democracy in practice in Bangladesh-today -- which is mainly perceived to be a ruling system to pave the way for satisfying, what many critics term, dynastic ambitions, for perpetuating the rule of coteries, the plunder of state resources by vested interest groups and suppression of democratic values and norms by coercive physical powers, in successive turns by two major parties contending for power the routine periodic electoral cycle. The country has been made the happy hunting grounds for group interests. Real democracy can have nothing to do with such selfishness, devoid of the public good. On its part, the present elected government did undeniably receive unalloyed massive mandate from people for reducing the woes in their life such as from rising prices of essential goods and worse inflation, growing unemployment, underperformance of utility services, declining law and order conditions, etc. But it has not been able to accomplish much during the last two and a half years or more of its tenure in mitigating such woes of the people. The present government appears to be quite muddled in the determination of its priorities although it came to power by making clearly a stance before the people that it would go to work from day one in office to address problems which are found too tormenting by the people. But it is seen more engaged in ideological and peripheral and yester-years' issues, relegating those which concern the people most in the present day, to the back-ground. Thus, it has not been able to feel the pulse of the people in order to solve the present-day problems which are painfully proving to be too distressful in their existence. Job creation, arresting the prices of essentials that have gone beyond the purchasing power of the preponderant number in the population, improvement of law and order situation, removal of infrastructural constraints that are putting a damper on new investment activities, effective separation of judiciary, reducing the costs of doing business, institutionalizing democracy, manning the constitutional bodies and statuary organizations with qualified, independent-minded people, improvements in governance etc., are yet to drew the priority attention of the government. That is the most unfortunate thing to happen under a government had that received such a massive mandate of the people during the last general election for its otherwise forward-looking, positive electoral promises and pledges.