Beyond the state of the bonsai
WE keep talking about democracy, about building it and strengthening it at the grassroots. That is a fine thing to do, a manifestation of sharpened political sensibilities. Every now and then we go back to the anodyne thought of how liberal we as a people have always been, of how democratic aspirations have regularly been an underpinning of our collective societal thought. And while we have been busy with all this, we have seen a whole caravan of undemocratic elements run riot over the years and come to commandeer the state in ways that have outraged the civilised and the sophisticated. Beginning with the early years of Pakistan and going up to the Ershad coup of the early 1980s, we have seen our much vaunted democratic aspirations take a bad mauling, and repeatedly, at the crossroads of time.
That has been a tragedy. The bigger tragedy has been the rise of elected governments which have swiftly made it clear that democracy is what they think it ought to be. Parties have ascended to power through the exercise of the popular ballot and have then moved towards putting in place what Irene Khan correctly describes as a kleptocracy.
In the guise of democracy, Bangladesh has been a witness to the rise of a particular class of power agents beginning to act like a neo-feudal tribe. The state has been squeezed to a point where its energy has ended up in its becoming an enervated symbol of gasping politics. Democracy has dwindled into loud expressions of illiberality; and political dynasties have seen to it that pluralism does not grow beyond the state of the bonsai.
But that is not how a state functions in these post-modern times. There must be something more, something of substance that will make Bangladesh the image of unfettered democracy its people have consistently yearned for. Minus that substance, we are at risk of throwing up something of the kind Mobutu Sese Seko and Suharto produced in the Congo and Indonesia over three decades of corrupt rule.
With that substance, we can emulate Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Choudhry and his fellow jurists in present-day Pakistan and go on to make sure that our political classes live in patent dread of the law. If the law can make President Zardari quake in his shoes, it might well do a similar thing for grasping politicians and bureaucrats everywhere.
So here is an idea of how we can go about transforming the scene in Bangladesh.
Begin with what really matters. Go back to the constitution, to Article 70. That is one bit of it which needs to be excised if democracy is to serve as the base of parliamentary activity. If the Fifth Amendment, the Seventh Amendment and the Indemnity Ordinance have made a joke of governance, so has Article 70. You cannot expect lawmakers to forfeit their ability to think independently and simply agree to do what their leaders command them to do.
Unless you give members of parliament the right and the opportunity of crossing floors, you will not have a vibrant democracy. What you will end up with, as you have already ended up with, is democracy in the hands of control freaks. Ayub Khan had his Basic Democracy. Ayub Khan's ghost yet haunts us in these present times.
Move on. The existing provision of a lawmaker staying away from sessions of Parliament for ninety days without fear of losing his seat must be readjusted as a way of forcing parties and parliamentarians not to take the nation for granted. Have that ninety-day framework shortened drastically, to perhaps a fortnight? Boycotting MPs will then come back to work. Let them then stay out for another fortnight and then see them come back once more.
But then, if they seek a third fortnight of boycott, see to it that there is a provision which divests them of parliamentary membership and, accordingly, has their vacated seats up for bye-elections. Think about it: if a child at school or college can be routinely penalised for repeated absences, similar penalties can be applied in the case of MPs who have made a laughing stock of democracy by not doing what they were elected to do.
Keep moving. Bring the Election Commission, a fully and truly independent one, into the scene. It has done a good job so far of compelling parties to register with it. It has forced them to go for internal elections. It must do more, which is to have these parties make those elections meaningful. Scrap the provision for unopposed elections, especially in the case of the party president or chairperson. Lean on the parties to do away with the authority given to their leaders to choose their deputies and nominate members to party executive committees. A party in authoritarian hands in time leads to the nightmare of a nation in arbitrary control.
The Anti-Corruption Commission and the Election Commission must be strengthened, to an optimum level, if governance is to be ensured at the level of decency. No attempt to clip the wings of these bodies and similar organisations should go unchallenged. And that is a job only civil society can do. Civil society will be shouted down or get maligned day after day by the self-serving. Pay no attention. Only remember that positive pressure groups and purposeful civil societies have across the world injected vitality into democracy. The same can be done in Bangladesh.
We rest our case.
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