Removing the spoilers

At present, the population of the country is about 150 million which is nearly half of US population. But the US has a land area which is nearly 200 times larger than Bangladesh, with enormous resources. The viability of Bangladesh to survive as a functional economy appears bleak considering the scant resources and an unusually large population.

However, this was not to be the fate of the country. It should be agreed that the shortage of resources has not been the only cause of failure to achieve the desired economic development. To my mind, the lack of able leadership has been also a cause. It must be mentioned that it is not a recent phenomenon. In the past, also, the country was deprived of able and visionary leadership which led to the failure of spreading education, health measures, agricultural breakthrough and other sectors of development. The cumulative bad effect of all these has now cropped up.

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We have had parliamentary democracy for nearly 20 years. It was hoped that this system would bring us the desired fruit of development. Instead, our democratically elected leaders have failed us miserably.

The level of talent, wisdom, patriotism and dedication expected of the politicians was not forthcoming. Many of them could get elected only due to criminalization of politics and use black money and muscle power. The country becomes a hostage in such hands while they plunder and misuse public funds and property. The situation that we are in at present proves that the country has been bled white due to their corruption. When such people obtain position as most of them fail to perform their duties efficiently, and as a result the innocent ordinary people suffer.

The present depressing situation prevailing in the country casts doubt over whether parliamentary democracy will be at all viable for us. The success of democracy depends on the existence of an educated citizenry so that they are conscious to realize their demands and ask for accountability from the elected representatives.

But with nearly 90 million illiterates who are understandably incapable of participating in the election process, it cannot be expected that democracy will function properly. These poor people are so gullible that whatever the candidates tell them they believe without question and are easily befooled.

Under these circumstances, perhaps now is the time to think about an alternative to save ourselves from the present predicament. Some specialists have opined that if our two large political parties fail to come to an agreement about the suggested political reforms and take the path of confrontation, a third power may crop up.

The question is who will be this third power? Perhaps they have the army in mind. But if the army does not venture (and, anyway, we have already been down that path with no success), then who?

In my mind, a national government consisting of eminent and dedicated educationists, not very large in number, may be formed. Recently a civil society consisting of such people has been formed.

These people have professed that they will educate and raise the consciousness of the voters so that they vote for honest and qualified candidates in the election. But there is a snag. It may be difficult for them to go to every village of the country do the needful.

It may be mentioned here that immediately after independence, there were proposals to institute a national government, but they went unheeded. Perhaps it would have produced better results.

Now that the system has failed miserably to deliver the goods, the idea of a national government may again be mooted.

The proposed national government may run the country until desired development is achieved and then the country may return to full parliamentary democracy. The people in the political circle may think that this will be a retrograde step, but if we intend to salvage the country there seems little other alternative.

Dr. M. Ashraf Ali is retired professor of IER, Dhaka University.