Why are there so many political parties in Bangladesh?

Modern democracy needs strong and sustainable political parties possessing the capacity to effectively represent citizens; provide policy and timely decision-choices that demonstrate their capability to govern the state for the public welfare, development and progress. A political party is a political organisation -- a political platform that influences the government's policy and planning by nominating its own members either by forming an elected government or be in opposition party in the parliament. Many countries provide legal definition of political parties. For example, Canada Elections Act defines a political party as: "an organisation, one whose fundamental purpose is to participate in public affairs by endorsing one or more members as candidates and supporting their election". The Bangladesh Constitution interprets a "political party" as: "Political party includes a group or combination of persons who operate within or outside Parliament under a distinctive name and who hold themselves out for purpose of prorogating a political opinion or engaging in any other political activity". Parties are the vehicles by which citizens come together freely to campaign for public office to win a majority of seats in a legislative body, to express their own interests and needs as well as their aspirations for the society in which they live. Political parties in most of the countries play a pivotal role in a sustainable and well-functioning democracy. They generally perform some key tasks: (1) aggregating and articulating needs and problems as identified by members and supporters; (2) socialising and educating voters and citizens in the functioning of the political and electoral system and the generation of general political values; (3) activating and motivating citizens and converting their considered views into general policies; (4) balancing and modernising opposition parties' demands and converting them into general policies; (5) channelling public opinion from citizens to government; (6) recruiting and training candidates for public office; (7) playing a major role in political elections at local and national levels, and (8) devising individual policies to combine them into a coherent overall political programme to be implemented if the party is elected to government. The above mentioned tasks and functions need to be performed and executed in a functional democracy. The political parties and citizens need some rights, supports and legal obligation guaranteed or supported by the constitution or by law: freedom of organisation; freedom to stand for election; provision for fair and peaceful competition; freedom of speech and assembly; mechanism of plurality; inclusion in the electoral process; a level playing field and freedom from discrimination; media access and fair reporting; transparent and accountable political finance. How many political parties does a country actually need? There is no hard and fast rule in this respect but it depends on many factors, such as, population size, literacy rate, political conscience and political maturity of leaders, political culture, and history of the country and so on. In most countries, political parties are required to fulfil legal obligation for registration and recognition, including minimum number of membership, a written constitution, platform and election of the party members. A country may have two to hundred registered parties provided they can fulfil legal obligations set forth by the legal framework. However a stable, strong and sustainable system of a country can have ideally two to ten parties and the number should not exceed ten. How many political parties do we have in a tiny country with 147,000 square km area like that of Bangladesh? In 2002, it had 102 political parties and at present it has more than 50 active parties nationwide. Why are there so many political parties in Bangladesh? In the developed world, for example, USA has five active parties, the UK has six, Australia has five (central), India has seven (central) and no province in India has more than five parties, Germany has six parties; South Korea has eight. This shows that Bangladesh, in the 21st century, is still lagging behind in comparison with the developed and democratised countries and politicians remain divided and undisciplined, keeping their personal image, reputation, interest etc., on the top of their priorities. Political parties in Bangladesh are being formed and are emerging in the political arena like mushrooms. Here political parties are formed on basis of different ideology; for example, there are Islamic parties, left-wing and right-wing parties, students-affiliated organisations, nationalist Parties and so on. What is ludicrous is that there are again factions among the same ideological parties; for example, there are six Islamic parties, 16 leftright-wing parties, six nationalist (Jatiyo) parties. It is a clear and sombre sign of immaturity and division of the political parties. We, the common citizens of Bangladesh, feel embarrassed and fuddled by so many political parties and have over time become agnostic in decision-making on the choice among the parties. It has become a tradition in the political arena that one person with some political image or having been expelled from one of the big parties, forms a separate political party with only a few supporters. It is alleged that people are doing politics and form political parties for making money. At the time of parliamentary election, some political parties sell nomination to their members and collect money. "Nowhere in the world political parties give nomination to the candidates contesting elections or party leaders are chosen in lieu of money. It is possible only in Bangladesh" so said Syed Ashraful Islam, General Secretary of Awami League. Political parties possess a very strategic, sensitive and immensely important position in any democratic country. Their representatives become the members of parliament (MPs), ministers and Prime Minister and run the administrative, judicial, legislative, and defence functions of the state. The growth, development and progress of a country largely depend on the dynamic leadership, professionalism, honesty and sincerity of leaders of the parties and the elected representatives. If party leaders are undisciplined, divided into many factions, lacking in political vision and professionalism, how will they run the government of a country and lead the nation towards development, peace and prosperity? In such a state of constant skirmish between contending political parties, what are the general people of the country to do? Strong, healthy and organised political parties are committal, obligatory and prerequisite for a modern democratic country. Strong government is necessary for smooth running of the country; similarly strong opposition is crucial for counter balancing the power of the ruling party. Constructive criticisms are always welcome in the developed and modern democratic countries; this has become a normal practice and part of parliamentary or congressional proceedings. From the analysis of the last three general elections in Bangladesh, it is evident that five mainstream parties won the elections while others did not do well and many parties failed to elect even a single MP for the last three elections. There is no reason, logic or justification of having political parties for whom there is no support amongst the general populace of the country. It will be a wise and highly appreciable job if small parties dissolved themselves and joined one or more of the five mainstream parties and made efforts to influence through the democratic way to induct their ideologies, if any. The concept still stands -- "united we stand divided we fall", a notion that is accepted by common people in the country, but surprisingly why politicians fail to understand and apply the universal concept in their political activities is a mystery. If they did, we firmly believe that Bangladeshi democracy would be strong and stable; political parties, both ruling and opposition would be on a surer footing and Bangladesh's position, image and political culture would be heightened both nationally and internationally. Unless politicians act more boldly and wisely, united and strong in their beliefs and actions, the unfavourable political culture and environment in Bangladesh will remain and the peoples' confidence in political parties will continue to dwindle leading to a widening gap between the electorate and those who claim to be public representatives. (The writer can be reached at e-mail: m.jalal.hussein@gmail.com)