The ultimate target
PEOPLE live in a society basically to ensure safety and security of life and property. But to guarantee the same, society, meaning people living together, in turn needs to follow certain rules of the game, individually and collectively.
The rules are, in broader perspective, based on principals like not being harmful to others in any way, and sharing the good and bad occurring in the society more or less equally. This may lead to avoidance of oppression, discrimination and inequitable distribution of resources, and also to standing together against any external threat, or rallying in unison for solving any mishap, and rescuing the distressed.
In short, the goal is ensuring social justice for all living together in the society. Social justice, thus, includes punishment to the bad and reward to the good in order to help develop a proper value system consistent with societal need. It also refers to equal distribution of wealth and other facilities without any discrimination based on cast, creed, religion or any other divisiveness. Leadership, individual and/or by a body, is a necessity for generation and implementation of the rules for good governance.
Social justice is the desired objective for development of a congenial social environment. Governance guided by rules to achieve social justice may be termed good governance. People living in a society basically look for good governance.
The state may be considered a wider version of society, with government to give leadership to governance. The citizens of a country primarily expect to get good governance from the government, with safety and security of life and property being at the center of priority.
A government is defined as a "political system by which a body of people is administered and regulated (Britannica. Ready Reference Encyclopedia, vol. 4, page 191)." There are different types of governments, like autocracy (a government in which one person has supreme power), democracy (a government in which supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly or indirectly through a system of representation usually involving periodic free elections), fascism (a government characterised by dictatorship, belligerent nationalism, racism, militarism etc.), monarchy (a government headed by a monarch), oligarchy (a government with the ruling power belonging to a few), plutocracy (a government by the wealthy), theocracy (a government by priests claiming to rule with divine authority), and totalitarianism (a government in which one political group maintains complete control under a dictatorship and bans all others).
After evaluation of the above mentioned forms of government at different times in history, and in various countries, it is now widely accepted that democracy provides the optimum level of sustainable good governance and is better from that point of view than other types of government. It is said that democracy is not a perfect system, but its imperfection is observed to be less compared to any other form.
While democracy is said to be the basis of governance for a country it is logical that there would be betterment of governance with the passage of time. Progress may be slow (not necessarily so) but would definitely be steady. In case that does not happen or, instead, the governance situation plunges from bad to worse every day, the system being followed cannot be considered democratic even if it is called so.
After the election of 1991, the constitution of Bangladesh was amended to put the form of government back to a parliamentary system, as it was in the original constitution prepared after the independence of 1971. But, while the same was practiced by the subsequent governments after the stated change, it was seen that the basis of their governance did not fit the definition of democracy.
Democracy is characterised by the fact that government would be a people's government, where it would represent the citizens in its formation and also in its actions. A government is representative in formation when it is elected by the people in an election free from any influence of greed, fear, manipulation and forgery. A government represents the people in its actions when its activities reflect the hopes and aspirations of the people. Free and fair election and accountability of government are the prerequisites for democracy.
Bangladesh governments lacked both characteristics after 1991. Every election was worse compared to the earlier in terms of freeness and fairness. The intending candidates, taking advantages of ever-increasing inefficiency, corruption and partisan attitude of the conducting authorities, used money, muscle power, bribery, and stuffing of ballot boxes in an ascending scale in subsequent elections.
The parliament is the institution for ensuring accountability of government as per the constitution. But the governments from 1991 till 2006 took advantage of the contradiction of constitutional provisions and, under the existing political culture and environment, made the parliament totally dysfunctional to escape accountability.
During the era of the so-called parliamentary democracy the system may, in fact, be termed as autocracy as the prime minister held supreme power. It also has resemblance to totalitarianism as, during the tenure of a government, the party in power maintains complete control under the dictatorial rule of the prime minister, ignoring the role of all other parties. Change of government through election could be considered the only sign of democracy, but that too was tarnished by the losing side not accepting the victorious party by making allegations of rigging against it.
The consequences naturally led to bad governance, or lack of good governance. In general, the bad got patronage while the good received punishment. The law and order situation suffered a continuous decline, causing threat to life and property. Corruption became all-pervasive, and the rich became richer while the poor went down the ladder of poverty.
The frustration of the people was demonstrated definitely when they not only accepted, but also welcomed, the additional time of tenure and extended agenda of the present unelected caretaker government before holding of the general election to hand over power to their elected representatives. The people even showed their relief when the government promulgated a state of emergency, as it was viewed as a step toward improving the sliding governance situation.
The people of this country desire good governance. Sustainable good governance can be best achieved through practice of democracy. The country is eagerly waiting to have democracy for that. But, democracy should not be a name only democracy. The people are anxious to get an effective unadulterated democracy, which would deliver good governance. A free and fair election is the first step toward achieving that goal.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel.
Comments