Sordid commentary on 8th parliament

The 8th parliament that began on October 28, 2001 passed 185 laws during its full tenure. It also disposed of 10,707 notices under Section 71 of the Rules of Procedure and brought an amendment to the Article 65(3) of the Constitution to elect 45 women lawmakers to reserved seats in place of the earlier 30. Considering all these things, Prime Minister Khaleda Zia has termed the 8th parliament "a milestone" for democracy.

Some important bills passed in the 8th parliament are the Speedy Trial Tribunal Act 2002, Gram Sarkar Act 2003, Constitution (Fourteenth Amendment) Law 2004, Anti-Corruption Commission Law 2004, Jatiya Sangsad (Reserved Women Seats) Election Law 2004, Bangladesh Pure Food (Amendment) Bill 2005, the Tax Ombudsman Act 2005, Copyrights (Amendment) Act 2005, and Public Procurement Act 2006. The Tele -tapping Law and Bangladesh Labour Law 2006 were made against the interests of the people at large.

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The leader of the opposition, Sheikh Hasina, in her winding-up speech, labeled the 8th parliament as a failure that has frustrated the people. "We submitted 2,511 notices for holding discussions on different public problems, but none of our notices were accepted for discussion," said Hasina.

The Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) released a sensational report on the 8th parliament a few months back saying that the present parliament had failed to ensure the accountability of the government, and the parliamentary standing committees on different ministries had also failed to investigate corruption and irregularities in different organizations under the ministries concerned. The report also criticized excessive boycotts and walkouts from the House by the opposition MPs.

In his concluding speech the Speaker, who was badly criticized for his partisan role, defended the parliamentary committees saying that they had worked tirelessly to ensure accountability and transparency of the government activities. But the reality, as reported in the survey report of the TIB that keeps tab on the workings of parliaments in emerging democracies, however, is sadly different.

The TIB report on the functioning, or rather malfunctioning, of the 8th parliament revealed that a total amount of Tk 2.35 crore was wasted in three (4th, 5th, and 6th) sessions, and Tk 2.91 crore was wasted in five (15th to 19th) sessions of the 8th parliament due to quorum crisis. The amount was computed on the basis of an expense of Tk 15,000 per minute for running a session. The aggregated waste due to quorum crisis in all the 23 sessions of the 8th parliament may be around Tk 20 crore.

The time lost in quorum failure amounted to 26.15 hours of the total (4th, 5th, and 6th) session time of 127.50 hours, and 32.23 hours of total (15th to 19th) session time of 184 hours. Only 22 hours were spent on legislative business in the 4th, 5th, and 6th sessions. Interestingly, the MPs uttered the names of their party leaders at least 493 times during their deliberations in the 4th, 5th, and 6th sessions, and 146 times in the budget session of 2005. Such a report on our parliament has created a deep sense of concern among the patriotic citizens of the country.

The speaker, on the concluding day, has declared the names of 21 MPs, who attended the maximum number of the 373 workdays in the 23 sessions, for rewarding them to encourage others to attend the house. This is quite a silly invention of the speaker which is being practiced in the schools among the tiny tots. Neither the leader of the house, Khaleda Zia, nor the leader of the opposition, Sheikh Hasina, can get this reward as Khaleda attended on 195 of the 373 workdays while Hasina attended on less than 50 workdays. The nation expects enactment of a law to castigate the MPs for their recurring absence in the house, instead of rewarding them.

The nation witnessed so many sordid dramas in the 8th parliament, turning it into a venue for character assassination and tainting its sublimity. Sometimes it even turned into an exclusive club of the downfallen. Such a state is a clear reflection of the quality of the politics and leadership we are burdened with. Indeed, the nation is greatly frustrated with this sort of people occupying an august body meant for deliberation.

A paramount truth that we cannot afford to brush away is that there is a need to change the political culture foisted on us. This is mainly because politics is fast becoming a profitable business, and the nexus between politics and criminality is corroding the democratic character of the polity. This sort of people, or others of their ilk, would be voted again to parliament if the civil society movement for clean candidates does not bear fruit.

The 8th parliament has, however, ended its five-year journey, mostly as a dysfunctional body with continuous boycott by the opposition, a crucial component of the parliament. When there had been an occasion that the opposition was present in parliament most of the time was wasted in polemics, vilification, and angry exchanges of words that had absolutely no bearing on national affairs. Given its lack-lustre and deplorable performance the 8th parliament never emerged as a legislative body worth its name.

One thing we can be sure of is that there is a shocking lack of maturity, morality, and even quality, the ingredients needed for deliberation in a body of utmost honour and dignity, in many of our lawmakers. The budget session is surely of crucial importance for the nation. When an MP is given the floor for budget discussion he must not be allowed to embark upon character assassination of his rival. But this has become a regular practice.

The history of our national parliament has essentially been a story of dashed hopes and aspirations all these years after democracy was restored in 1991 following the collapse of the autocratic regime of Ershad. So far, we have not been satisfied that parliament has been able to answer public concerns. Prime examples are the terrorist attack on August 21, 2004 on an AL rally, and the country-wide violence perpetrated on August 17, 2005, which have never been deliberated upon by the parliament.

It indeed makes a sad and sordid commentary that AL MPs, who did not attend the sessions for a long time, submitted as many as 169 notices for discussion on issues of national importance including price spiral of essentials, power crisis, and corruption.

All the notices came as adjournment motions, but the speaker rejected all the notices. The nation feels quite vexed at this partisan role of the speaker who has the responsibility for initiating a meaningful debate in the house on such significant public issues.

The nation's aspiration for a vibrant and effective parliament will remain a mirage unless both the ruling and opposition MPs are given equal opportunity to ventilate their points of view, which is the point of view of the people. Sadly, such impartiality has not been witnessed through the whole tenure of the 8th parliament.

ANM Nurul Haque is a columnist of The Daily Star.