Going Deeper
What ails Bangladesh
DESPITE assurances repeatedly being given by the interim government and other forces, there appears to be an apprehension in some quarters that elections may not be held on time (or may not be held at all) as the Election Commission is believed to have been unable to fulfill its works to suit the declared time frame.
This apprehension (and one would be hesitant to give any credence to it) would not be due to any "conspiratorial motive" alleged by the same quarters nor due to inefficiency that can be attributed to the institution. But, as many expected, the bickering among politicians, in this case between the two factions of BNP, could possibly delay the holding of the elections against the wishes of almost all the political parties and, of course, the general public of the country.
In case the holding of the elections are delayed or the major political parties' dialogues with the government were to fail, then an unpredictable situation may arise that may not be to the liking of the major global powers and the major players in the politics of the country.
The new US ambassador James Moriarty lost no time in declaring that "further role of the army will isolate Bangladesh from the region and from others around the world." He conveyed the feeling of Condoleezza Rice that Bangladesh, "a country in transition in a region of the world vital to US interest," could help to bring stability and strength in South Asia. Even those who are skeptical nevertheless would give ears to the words spoken by the envoy of the only superpower in the world.
It would serve us well to comprehend the evolving definition of sovereignty and territorial integrity. Though Bangladesh is nowhere as unstable as some countries in Africa and in the Middle East, we are faced with a myriad of challenges that seemingly appears to be impossible to solve.
The most immediate issue of concern is the price rise of essentials that has gone beyond the purchasing capacity of the middle and the poor class. One does not even consider the ultra-poor in this equation, as historically they have been victims of "hidden hunger"a semantic euphemism for near famine used by one of our policy makers. Faced with acute scarcity of food, and now joined by energy and water scarcity, many people may wish to give preference to solving their immediate needs than to give attention to intricacies of the governance that in the long run, given the kleptocratic rule of BNP-Jamaat alliance, could be of greater epistemological value.
The recent visit by the British home secretary and her public acknowledgement of links between British and Bangladeshi terrorists is significant. During the so-called democratic rule, the presence of Islamic militants was vehemently denied by then governmenta self-denial that was shattered by bomb blasts in almost all districts of Bangladesh and it is now public knowledge that the Islamic militants were under the patronage of some political bigwigs now in detention. We thought, wrongly, that the terrorists were anti-American and anti-Christian, though neither premise should have been of any satisfaction to the civilised world regardless of religion that was practiced or the state of development that the affected countries were enjoying.
As terrorism developed, it has become transnational and the terrorists spared no one of any particular religion or any part of the world. They were indiscriminate in killing victims in Africa, Asia, the US, and the UK. They did not fit historian Bernard Lewis's description of Muslim "deprivation" and consequent "revenge" or a reflection of Samuel Huntington's "clash of civilisations."
The hanging of JMB leaders and detention of HuJI(B) activists appear to have driven the Islamists underground only for a short while, as the violent protests by them has aptly demonstrated, in their view, to maintain the "purity" of Islam that is being allegedly violated by the authorities by proposing to give equality to women through enacting a women's policy.
Despite the fact that South Asia produced more female heads of government than any other region of the globe, gender equality remains a far cry in these countries, particularly where Muslims dominate, though this phenomenon is basically an indicator of underdeveloped society that is patriarchal and patrilineal.
Francis Fukuyama admits that democracy is not a universally valid or desirable goal. He asserts that "democracy is culturally rooted and that societies with other cultural background may choose other forms of government as they wish." Samuel Huntington while advocating liberal democracy for the US makes this kind of case in his controversial thesis of the clash of civilisations.
If one were to accept Nietzsche's argument that modern democracy is nothing but secularisation of Western values, then in that part of the Islamic world where religion is deeply rooted and greatly influences human behaviour, then President Bush's democracy promotion in the greater Middle East is likely to face problems.
But in Bangladesh, the people having experienced various forms of government that failed to live up to the expectation of the people, we are inclined to go with Winston Churchill's conclusion that democracy is a terrible system of government but still better than all others that have been tried in the past.
Perhaps a middle course of Francis Fukuyama's victory of liberal democracy over all other forms of governance experienced by mankind and that of Joseph Stiglitz's suggestion on "moral growth" could be an answer. May be Ambassador Moriarty's remarks, putting aside the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Practices, could be given an expansive interpretation.
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