Political culture

First, personality cult has been dominating the arena of politics. Instead of "institutionalising" their charisma, the leaders started "a process of personalisation." The personality cult destroys cohesion and discipline within the political parties concerned. Empirical evidence shows that it has affected the growth of democratic culture within the major political parties.

Second, the political parties have a winner-take-all mentality. In other words, the political parties, in particular the ruling party, lack give and take mentality. Compromise gives in to confrontation. Egotism reigns over logic. For instance, the BNP-led alliance government could easily have avoided a confrontation with the opposition if it had consulted the opposition on the appointment of the Chief Election Commissioner.

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Third, the political parties and their leaders have always been intolerant of criticism by the opposition and the press. In his book Democracy and the Challenge of Development (1995) Moudud Ahmed has described the beliefs, attitudes, and behaviour of the leading leaders of the ruling parties during the first two decades or so of independence. He writes: " If we examine carefully the behaviour pattern of the leaders of any ruling party, their reactions and reflections, we find that it was a lack of tolerance that led them to jeopardise the growth of democracy in the country. For example, Sheikh Mujib became so intolerant of the opposition and so arrogant that he not only passed special laws to deal with it but had thousands of opponents thrown into jail. Ultimately, he dissolved all the opposition political parties, banned newspapers, eroded the independence of the judiciary and turned the country into a one-party monolithic system. We have seen how Zia punished and eliminated his political opponents through martial law courts, using the same repressive laws enacted by Mujib. The indiscriminate use of the same laws by Ershad, backed by even harsher martial law regulations, surpassed earlier actions."

The persecution of the opposition members of the opposition political parties has continued during the last fourteen years when Begum Khaleda Zia and Sheikh Hasina have held the state power in succession. The intolerant leaders have hated the free press and considered it their enemy.

Fourth, leading leaders of the political parties, particularly the major political parties, are not willing to go for a battle of wits. In the columns of an English daily it has been stated that in the past the politicians argued over the issues and mobilised the masses in their support. At the end of the day, though, they never forgot to be civil to one another. They laughed, they bantered, and they shared jokes, all away from the ideologies or principles they upheld in public. The present day political leaders of the country do not learn from the leaders in the west and India. The British Prime Minister and the leader of the opposition converse and laugh as they walk together to the opening of parliament. The President of the United States and the man he has just defeated in the race for the White House do not hold anything against each other. Atal Behari Vajpayee and Sonia Gandhi greet each other with folded hands. Bangladesh has reached such stage where the Prime Minister Khaleda Zia and the leader of the opposition Sheikh Hasina do not have the time or the inclination to speak to each other.

Fifth, boycotting the parliament sessions and sittings has been a "culture" since the reestablishment of the parliamentary system of government in 1991. In a parliamentary democracy, the parliament is the place for the discussion, debate, and settlement of important issues, national or otherwise. But both the AL and the BNP, when in opposition, have resorted to sustained boycott of parliament. The sole objective of boycotting parliament by the main opposition party from time to time has been to make parliament dysfunctional and thereby force the party or alliance in power to step down. The "parliament boycott culture" has put the nascent parliamentary democracy at stake.

Sixth, since the return to parliamentary democracy in 1991, the BNP and the AL in their role as the main opposition party have been active in using hartals (national strikes) as a means of protest. The opposition parties led by the BNP and the AL resorted to frequent hartals to bring the downfall of the Ershad government in December 1990. Even after the fall of the Ershad government in December 1990 and return to parliamentary democracy in 1991, hartals have continued to be used by the main opposition party more frequently. According to a UNDP report released in Dhaka in March last, the frequency of hartals has increased dramatically after reintroduction of parliamentary democracy. Between 1995 and 2002, for example, 611 hartals were called. The report dubs this "vicious spiral" as Bangladesh's "hartal culture," and concludes that this culture is hindering the nation's economic growth and development process.

Seventh, opportunism is pervasive in the political arena. Changing of colour by the politicians has been a regular feature. Here change in colour means change in loyalties involving shift from one party to another. Examples are there to show that some ministers of Ziaur Rahman's regime who were convicted by martial law courts later joined Ershad's council of ministers. One notable example is that of a minister in Sheikh Mujib's cabinet who resigned then but later joined Ershad as prime minister. Another notable example is that of the vice-president of the Ershad government who has joined the BNP and become a cabinet minister. More instances may be cited. According to many, the driving force is primarily to have a sense of security as well as the propensity to hang on to power.

Last but not the least, an important feature in Bangladesh politics is the hereditary nature of leadership developed in the party system, particularly in the AL and the BNP, the two major political parties in the country. Sheikh Hasina joined national politics in 1981 as president of the AL banking on the image of her assassinated father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, founding father of the nation. Begum Khaleda Zia joined politics a couple of years later banking on the image of her assassinated husband Ziaur Rahman, a liberation war hero. Although both of them are now well settled in their respective positions, yet they "are perhaps a bit tired and possibly pondering over abdicating to their successors."

Bangladesh has adopted a Westminster style of parliamentary democracy. But as democracy is a complex system of government based on a political culture of checks and balances and representation, it is always more than a mere form. The political scientists and analysts are of the opinion that the success of a parliamentary democracy depends upon the democratic spirit of tolerance, devoted sense of respect and relentless response towards the institutionalism of democracy. In a country like Bangladesh where democracy has made a fresh start, the political parties, particularly the ruling party or the principal leadership, must do everything towards developing a political culture that would contribute to the successful functioning of democracy. The onus primarily lies on the leadership of the ruling party. To attain the objective, the ruling leadership must, inter alia, respect the opinion of the public and the opinion of the opposition, resolve all political disputes with the spirit of democracy, take all steps to make parliament effective, and build up honest and devoted future leaders.

M. Abdul Latif Mondal is a former Secretary to the Government.