Are we too Dhaka-centric?

Metro-Chittagong Mayor Mohiuddin Chowdhury's 40 point election manifesto, going all the way up to the development of a deep sea port at Kutubdia, are signs that the people of the region are feeling deprived, neglected, and consequently becoming restive.

In the wider context, having been independent twice and tried just about every form of government, the much-desired smile is still eluding the people of Bangladesh. They are yet to find a system of governance through which to take the fruits of their hard labour home and tame their frustrations. The people do not desire a government vested with absolute power, but the government has not cared much about their feelings.

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The structural malady of the government has created a system of immensely powerful vested interests in Dhaka that defies correction from within. In practice, democracy is reduced to rituals where the constitution and electoral process are thoroughly abused.

The unicameral parliament, with a unitary form of government that the constitution steel-framed, has strangulated the wishes and aspirations of the people along the way. The unprecedented power that has been concentrated in the hands of the government within sovereign parliament would have satisfied the descendents of Nero, but not the people.

The founding fathers of the US created the pillars of power and then shared these between the federal and state governments, further dissipating into counties to satisfy the people. In democracies, there are layers of elected governments to appropriately conciliate the needs of the electorate.

Bangladesh has been illusively beating about the bush of democracy, hiding behind parliamentary, presidential, and neutral governments without addressing the core issue of decentralisation of power.

There is neither responsibility nor accountability, but only one vote in five years if one dares to cast it. In theory, we may be called a democracy, but in values we are a kind of dictatorship propounded by a sycophancy of oligarchs. It's a value-deducted and anti-people democracy.

Dhaka is overflowing with neon signs, waste, and extravagance. Rulers and their accomplices are profligately overindulgent in metropolitan Dhaka, while the vast majority of the people are ignored the same way they were by the colonial masters in earlier days. While people do not have drinking water or deliverance from the curse of arsenic, lack adequate schools and colleges for their children, teachers need more pay for subsistence, youths are hard put to find employment, the poor have no food, shelter, or treatment, Dhaka is overflowing in luxuries and beautification.

How many times has the road from the airport to Bangabhaban been enlarged, extended, beautified, dividers erected, demolished, and redone during the last two decades? With the accumulated expense on this one road alone at least 10 million rural people could have got drinking water, schools for their children, and minimum healthcare facilities. When absolute power resides absolutely within Metro-Dhaka, who cares for the welfare of the people outside?

People have been struggling since the British days for economic freedom, changed masters, centre of governments, even flags, and constitutions. But the elusive prosperity never came. In the absence of economic freedom, political freedom not only is deceptive but thoroughly abusive and exploitative. The vast multitude outside Dhaka and in the endless slums within are living witnesses to what is being said. The capital city of Dhaka has taken hostage the entire people of Bangladesh by the constitutional trappings. Not people but Dhaka has become the all-important vital ground in the politics of Bangladesh.

Centre of all political parties and activities, abode of leaders of politics, trade, commerce, judiciary, bureaucracy, armed forces, intellectuals -- name anything: it is overwhelmingly concentrated in Dhaka. With that kind of grip on the reins of power, Dhaka will shed nothing more substantial than crocodile tears, unless challenge comes from outside. Only people can challenge such a totalitarian and brute democracy.

As popular Upazilla elections are never allowed by the combination of vested political and bureaucratic interests, it would be hara-kiri for Dhaka-based political monolith to voluntarily go for power sharing with regional centers. Democracy is never perfect or complete, demands continuous creativity on the canvas of people's needs and wishes. The time has come to share people's power with Chittagong, Rajshahi, Khulna and other regional centres.

During British days, the port city of Chittagong was a hub of activities, more than many provincial capitals. Today, while political leaders go to Chittagong on the first flight to make firestorm speeches at Laldighi Maidan for the so-called commercial capital, they return to Dhaka on the last flight for dinner with family and friends.

Meanwhile, there has been a continuous flight of business from Chittagong to Dhaka, retarding the port city further into a commercial irrelevance. Bangladeshi politics is richly endowed with hollow political vocabulary and "commercial capital" is one such hoax. What is a capital without political power?

It is time, perhaps, to consider bringing in changes in our administrative setup on regional basis for the sake of better managing the development programmes with greater autonomy for these smaller units.

Political parties will have to be formed and organised to mobilise public opinion for winning national elections on regional basis and from outside Dhaka. Only the mandate of the people can decentralise political power in Bangladesh. Besides the concept of a regional administrative setup, there is still a great vacuum at upazilla and district level local self-governments to bring politics near to home and unleash the energy of the people.

I conclude by saying that it is a vast and controversial area, which demands more discussion.

The author is a freelance contributor to The Daily Star.