Enlightened choice will bring about the best in the polls

In retrospect, the 2007 election may be a mere episode in the country's development into a mature democracy but it will be an occasion for the voters to exercise some real options: (1) Is single party rule preferable to unstable and shaky coalition of parties with divergent ideologies? (2) Can pre-poll coalitions provide greater stability than post-election arrangement of expediency? (3) Is religious identity espousing mainly radical views, policies and actions more relevant than actual governance? (4) Can the country afford either a PM or ministers who lack mass bases and countrywide acceptance? (5) Should professed ideology take precedence over the cohesiveness of the country?

These are complex questions with no easy answers. But it was the inability of the electorate to address these questions in 2001 that led to the present government becoming a non-performer in governance as well as in all sectors of development activities.

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People are afraid that the repetition of the same drama in the forthcoming election will have a tell-tale effect on the body politic of the nation. With the parliamentary election due in about eight months from now, we will hear much in the coming months about “the people.” Every politician willing to contest in the forthcoming election including the incumbent MPs and those waiting in the wings with huge black money will be wandering about the country telling us how much his heart bleeds for the people, how it is only for them that he works, and how it is only their interest he cares about.

Alas! how can these politicians, almost all of them incumbent MPs, who will be contesting in the next polls, do it in such a critical period of the nation's history without the duty-free car or transport they were allowed to import to serve people's interest, to reach them without any hindrance. Sadly true, the cars, some of them costing even three crore taka without duty changed hands and the government lost revenue to the tune of 280 crore taka, as it was learnt from newspaper reports.

Well, let's us take a statistical look at what people of the country are like in this our 35th year of independence. Despite the flood of tears that has been shed on their behalf by their elected representatives, more than half of our people live below the poverty line as it is indicated internationally: one dollar a day. These people have no hope of rising above the poverty line since most them are illiterate and, therefore, incapable of getting what could be described as a proper job. Bangladeshis who live below the poverty line -- “the people” politicians claim to love so much -- have virtually no access to healthcare either. Less than 30 percent of the populace has access to sanitation and clean drinking water. In the absence of job opportunities either in the city or rural areas, the vast populace in the rural areas are dependent on agriculture for their living but the acute power crisis has put the agricultural practices to a grinding halt. Boro production in this season that is critically dependent on power for operating the well to provide irrigation water to the crop fields is constrained for shortage of power. Compounded by the fertilizer crisis that is essentially necessary to augment production, the farmers have been pushed to the wall.

The simmering frustration in having their grievances met through these long four years of alliance rule has forced them to come out in the street and press home their demand through agitation in some remote areas like Chapainawbganj and lately in Saidpur in the northern part of the country. Government action to silence the protesters by killing at least 17 innocent people in Kansat during the last two months when they were demonstrating for uninterrupted power for irrigation purposes is not only mind boggling but defy any sense. In our 35th year of independence there is no greater shame than the fact that nearly all our people live in such appalling misery in rural Bangladesh and they have to die by police firing when they either ask for irrigation water or power or fertilizer vitally linked to their survival.

Government must explain what prevented it from making investment in roads, electricity and the sort of agro-based industries that would have created jobs in rural areas. Tragically, these people died in a situation when they did not resort to armed revolt but demanded only that their basic needs be met. People believe that if our honourable members of Parliament from all regions in the country would have raised this stupendous issue of power problem to the highest echelon of the government, things might have been otherwise and all these poor and innocent people would not have to die in such a way that puts the whole nation to shame.

Conspicuously true, if these people were literate, the lack of these amenities would be the big issues in the forthcoming election and our politicians would have thought hundred times before they had allegedly laced their own pockets. The sad commentary is that Bangladesh is a poor country because poverty has become a constituency which is carefully nurtured by politicians of every hue. Think about the fact that our politicians and bureaucrats talk about 'alleviating' poverty and the spate of development activities sweeping across the country that sends lentil price shooting up to 56 taka per kg and sugar price to 72 taka per kg, to name only two most essential items!

People are curious to know what are the scales that measure wellbeing of the average Bangladeshi toiling hard in the remotest corners of the country who can hardly earn more than a dollar per day. On the other hand poverty-alleviation programmes leaked so profusely that some unofficial surveys assessed no more than 40 paisa of every taka actually reached the people it was actually meant for. Could the alliance government which promised us probably nothing short of heaven on earth tell us how everything from water to electricity went so horrendously wrong? Democracy may have given us some of the most useless politicians in the world but it has also given us what is best in the country -- vast population bubbling with energy and vigour, and resources, both natural and agricultural -- that could be harnessed with little effort.

A general election should be a time when the attention of ordinary people is drawn to the mistakes and broken promises of the past. At the same time a general election is a time for the nation to speak to its conscience.

With the country reeling under the trauma of bomb blasts and shortages of everything other than human misery, and government measures providing little succour, the prospect of a catastrophic situation looms large. The debilitating results are now showing up. Undeniably true, the country's politics-cum-bureaucracy is a blight on the nation. The dual tier now exists not to serve the people but to feed itself and, sadly enough, the poor taxpayers have the privilege of supporting this monstrosity. At almost every level of administration, there is a lack of recognition for delivering value for taxpayers' money. What is required is an act of bold political leadership which can wield the axe ruthlessly to the benefit of the suffering citizenry.

With that objective in mind, the nation is looking for an independent election commission with no partisan bias and fully neutral and non-party caretaker government that will take every possible measure to ensure a free and fair poll. People's concern about criminals entering the Parliament and hope that parties will field candidates who are persons of probity and excellence are also unexceptionable. People are looking for an EC that will make every possible effort to strictly enforce a code of conduct like the Representation of the People's Act now in force in India with the agreement of the political parties. The EC through enforcement of such act after scrutinising the related papers and the background of the prospective candidate will ban a convicted criminal and black money holder from contesting the election.

It must be recognised that cleansing the country's over-tainted polity is the primary task of the EC. Surely, the nexus of crime and politics is not reflected merely in electoral battles. For instance, the criminalisation of politics can be directly linked to politicisation of criminal investigation. It is an open secret that if a member of the parliament, political worker and party loyalist have a long criminal record but escape punishment in the law courts due to some lacunae in the law or lapses in the investigation methods, inept police action or manipulation of evidence. Unless the EC can be very tough in dealing with such people, things as usual will be messy.

But the battle is a larger one. To truly combat the criminals who rule them, citizens will have to address issues such as autonomy for bodies like ACC, EC, CID and Tax departments and the qualities of lower judiciary that seem to be eroding fast. The EC must be manned by people of strong morality, integrity, dedication and commitment with no further ambition for future posting or promotion after completing this stupendous job. The country now needs a vigilant EC and not a vigilante EC. This is not to suggest that the commission should give up their arms before the battle has begun. Let us look back to the events in the conduct of polls in India in the yester years. During his term as CEC, TN Seshan, despite his occasional over-zealousness, made it apparent that existing norms are enough to confront electoral malpractices. With the country mired in political squabbles, election commissioners are sentinels of the constitution. When they wield the big stick, politicians, otherwise used to having their way, cower. With the parliamentary polls eight months away, there is still time for the parties to discover the virtues of rectitude and ostracise criminals within. Nevertheless, if every party simply makes apparent its stand on a handful of crucial social and economic issues, the electorate will be better equipped to make its choice and save itself and the nation from further catastrophic situation.

Md Asadullah Khan is a former teacher of physics and Controller of Examinations BUET.