Bitter Truth
Success of dialogue can ensure democracy
THE necessity of a meaningful dialogue between the CTG and the political parties at this moment of the nation's history can hardly be overemphasized. With Sheikh Hasina's temporary release, AL circle is now willing to participate in the dialogue. But the unrelenting attitude of the Khaleda-led BNP to join any dialogue without Begum Zia's unconditional release tagged with her two sons' treatment abroad has almost stalled the dialogue process, going as far as stalling the prospect of an election through participation of all the parties.
Believably, the image of the BNP and its allies Jamaat-e- Islami is at stake because of the performance of the past alliance government. Pathetically true, for the last five years immediate past prime minister Begum Khaleda Zia headed a government and a political party that ran with her own whims and dictates. And with loud claim of being a political party rooted in masses, BNP led the country to almost darkness and obscurity. For a government that assumed office with soaring expectation, the fall was abrupt. While in power Begum Zia's son Tarique Rahman was promoted openly as heir apparent and nobody protested. It was bad politics and bad business. On the national front the rot had spread too far and too deep and a radical surgery was needed to eradicate the cancerous cells.
Some very senior ministers of the past government now admit that because of lack governance and for intervention of the alternative power house in state matters things could not move and corruption flourished. The art and virtue of sycophancy cultivated with utmost care paid off enormously for them and reaped a bitter harvest for the nation. This is more or less the model of democratic culture the party nurtured during the years of alliance rule.
People don't want to witness the drama being repeated. In a country ridden with political conflicts, chaos, money and muscle power, election scenario was only a pathetic reminder of the strength of wealth and weapons. In the light of the experiences of the grim past, the necessity of holding a dialogue to rebuild a transparent political culture and reforms within the party and modalities of conducting a fair election has assumed such importance.
Despite the reservations both the mainstream political parties may have, there is no denying the fact that politics in the country is sick to the core and politicians have always nurtured the disease without ever thinking of healing it any time in the past. One might recall that other than transfer of power to the elected representatives through a free, fair and credible election under the aegis of a neutral caretaker government agreed upon in the joint declaration of three alliances after the fall of Ershad regime in 1990, other issues like the establishment of the rule of law, preservation of the fundamental rights of the people, effort to make the administration accountable to the parliament and scrapping of all laws that infringe fundamental rights of the people got sidelined. Shockingly, ever since the alliance came to power in 2001, anarchy has been on order of the day with lawlessness and terrorism gripping sectors of the society.
True, elections held in 1996 and 2001 could neither heal the malaise nor could pave the way for a peaceful transition to true democratic rule in the country. Rather it heated up the political fever to a dangerous extent. Now the need of the hour is for the parties to display maturity and statesmanship, and ward off political confrontation. Bangladesh has already an overdose of political strife. We can do without more.
Now the wheel of history seems to have come full circle in the country. People cannot take any more pain and they cannot see their lives totally ruined just to feed a section of unscrupulous politicians who have triumphed over the mute majority. The dialogue, as such, through the consensus of the parties could chart out a new path and a new direction for the nation and it should start with the conduct of election in a free and fair way with candidates having no record of corruptibility and imbued with the spirit of public service participating in. Without a shadow of doubt, if the contentious issues like nomination business, manipulation of election result and parliament boycott after election continues after such a bitter experience, that may mean a death knell for democracy. The stakes are too high to leave all these contentious issues unresolved in the dialogue between the parties and the CTG.
People remember how the blueprint of an election by the past alliance government that would ensure its re-election was chalked out with bogus voter list far exceeding the number of actual voters, politicization of civil administration and judiciary, induction of election officers mostly drawn from the student wing of the party. Based on such grim experiences, there should be a meaningful dialogue and consensus reached between the political parties and the present CTG about the pattern of deployment of law enforcement personal (Police, BDR and Army), polling officials and magistrates before and during polling so that no untoward incident can influence voter turn out, voting pattern and result.
Even with money and muscle power likely to be on the wane this time, there is hardly any room for complacency. More than any time in the past, people this time have to be very vigilant so that election victory of any sort going in favour of any party through properly conducted polls cannot be snatched away either by administrative manipulation or conspiracy. Chittagong mayoral election during the past alliance rule is an example as to what vigilance and alertness exerted all around the polling centres can achieve. With volatile situation erupting at different corners of the country in recent times through the evil designs of group of extremist elements and members of outlawed party and terrorist groups engaged in surprise attacks and street battles even with the elite forces RAB, the CTG and EC might think about a staggered polling instead of holding it on the same day for 300 seats around the country.
With a sincere attempt to right the wrongs there is perhaps need to initiate some fundamental changes in the constitution in a bid to ensure smooth flowering of democratic culture. For instance, the article 70 of the constitution apparently goes against the spirit of a vibrant democracy. As per this article, the P.M. is not accountable to the Parliament, rather the members elected on the same party tickets have to have unstinted loyalty to the PM and have to endorse every action the P.M deems fit to run the statecraft. The maladies that affected the nation during these years of so-called democratic governance have resulted from such an article incorporated in the constitution. The constitution of the country, as sensible citizenry and experts say, should not be amended too often, so also they opine that it is not anything ordained that it cannot be touched at the worst of times for the best of times.
Md. Asadullah Khan is a former teacher of physics and Controller of Examinations, BUET.
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