Let's be Democratic - Within and Without
For the last twenty years our politicians are virtually keeping the entire country hostage for their own selfish interests. They like to stay in power and get all the privileges the country has to provide the politicians. They never gave any thought as to how terrible their lives would have been had they not been where they are today. The situation remained unchanged irrespective of which political party is in power because once they get to the power they forget the fact that they took oath to serve the people rather than serving their self interests. Let us now identify what these problems are and suggest some solutions to each of these problems. We want to lead a nice and peaceful life which is our right as citizens of this country.
The major problem lies with the practice and understanding the concept of democracy. Let us first define the term "democracy" for which we have fought for centuries, say starting from the British colonial rule, and we are still far from achieving our goal of a truly stable democratic government of our own. According to the Webster's New World Dictionary, democracy is the government by the people, directly or through representatives. In other words, it is a form of government in which the people govern themselves or elect representatives to govern them, of course, with due respect for minorities and people from other cultures!
Keep in mind that dictatorship or any other form of authoritarian rule will lead any society backward because the human nature is driven by profit making incentives that society has to offer. Besides, human beings are not angels to lead a utopian society. But we can fix all of these with our knowledge and wisdom.
In our highly respected Parliament, the voting that takes place on various sensitive bills that are introduced in the House are called open ballot voting. This open ballot voting was designed by our past ex-military leaders so that their puppet MPs (Members of the Parliament) in the parliament could not change floor when voting on various bills take place there. As an important example, a no-confidence motion moved by the opposition party (after meeting all the necessary legal requirements) against the government will never succeed in removing the present government from power until and unless the MPs from the ruling party also vote against their party leader. This is because it needs the majority vote of all the MPs in the House in order to be a success. All the major political parties in the country realize this major flaw in our parliamentarian proceedings but they never amend these dictatorial laws which were imposed by the ex-military rulers to consolidate their grip on power for eternity. In fact, if this law can be amended, then there would be no reason for opposition political parties to call strikes (Hartals).
The 30 additional seats in the parliament is making the democratic processes even worse so that any government can function on its own without the participation of the opposition party in the parliament just because the ruling party have the needed majority in the parliament. It is better to have a hung parliament rather than a parliament that advocates one party rule with the help of the 30 reserved seats for women. Women in Bangladesh are not lagging behind in politics as one can see both our Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition are female. Also, it is in the interest of all the political parties including the one in power that our leaders get rid of these 30 permanent reserved seats for them to succeed in major democratic issues like the no-confidence motion.
Once a person becomes a party leader he/she remains the leader even if his/her political actions are not right, if one analyses it from a neutral point. A person may be a great political leader at a certain point in life for a given situation but he/she may not remain so forever in discharging his/her duties. This is because it is a natural fact that no human being functions at the same potential throughout his/her lifetime so we must make the way clear for other people with more leadership skills. Let's not forget the fact that man is mortal and even though experience is important we must pave the way for the young people to take the leadership effectively.
This is very true from the political perspective of the subcontinent that when a political leader dies then one of his closest relatives becomes the leader of the party, then the question is - where is democracy? Why not we select out leaders by a democratic process within the party starting with the most prospective candidate for the position? The democratic institution within the party should be maintained at all times and only then a party can perform well in a democratic parliament. Of course there will be some ups and downs but the objective should be to put the right person for the right job. Many of our political party leaders got their job because of their blood relation with their predecessors - a shame in the name of democracy!
When a political party other than the one in power is elected then the party in power must accept the defeat for that term and it does not mean that the self-esteem of the losing party has gone down. It takes courage and wisdom to accept the honourable defeat. One can always try for the next election or a chance to call for the no-confidence motion against the government if it (the government) fails to achieve the objectives it promised the people. Once you have created the proper democratic atmosphere it should be the either one of the largest political parties to rule the country.
As a matter of fact, the elected president in the United States, who is also the head of the government in that country, cannot run for more than two terms even if the same party is elected more than twice. Why cannot we do the same for our country? We also have a rule that the president cannot run for the office for more than two terms but the fact here is that the president in Bangladesh is not the head of the government. He is simply the head of the state with no administrative power when the prime minister is in the office. The prime minister is the head of the government in Bangladesh. So as it turns out, once again our own politicians are cheating with us! They exploited the situation to make the law for the president not to run for more than two terms while making sure that the prime minister can run for office as many time as he/she wants to!
It is my understanding that we should amend our laws further for the requirement of running for MPs. It should at least be a two-year Bachelors degree for males and H.S.C. (higher secondary level) for females since according to the government statistics, women in Bangladesh are academically behind their male counterparts in higher education. This is important so that our legislators will understand the concepts of each and every piece of the bills that are proposed in the parliament before they vote on any such bill. I have checked the government statistics on higher education and by now we have enough people of higher education to support our government structure.
The people of Bangladesh suffered enough from colonial rule for hundreds of year and now suffering from the mistakes of our selfish or incompetent political leaders. This is a country of approximately 125 million people and I am sure we have people with better leadership skills out there. Perhaps by some irresponsible laws, we are giving a bad name to democracy. It is my appeal to the leaders of our country, please do not let us suffer for your misdeeds and you political shortcomings. Democracy teaches us respect and tolerance. If our beloved politicians want to fight for the country's leadership then they can do it on the floor of the national parliament, which is also the symbol of democracy. And, that way we can all lead our lives peacefully. Of course, among other things we need some responsible and efficient parliamentarians.
Our leaders often give us the common lame excuse that our democracy is a baby and it needs more time. Well then, it is our leaders who need more knowledge on democracy and meaningful politics. If they do not know how to handle things they should step aside from politics and let our bright young generation take over the leadership role. I sincerely hope that in future we, the humble citizens of Bangladesh, will not fall victim to our leaders' mistakes.
The legal system including the law enforcing agencies like police force should be allowed to function independently without any party affiliation and be better paid with modern equipment and communication system. In fact the government can earn revenues by enacting fines on illegal activities, say, parking, encroachment and many other things so that part of these revenues can be funneled to improve the budget for the law-enforcing agencies. In fact these agencies would thus become self sufficient from the financial standpoint and at the same time can provide better services to the citizens.
We, the people of Bangladesh are innocent victims of wars, injustice, anarchy, strike, and God knows what more lies ahead. Majority of our people live below the poverty line and politicians are destroying the economy to make it worse. These politicians do not realize that individual economic improvement will enhance overall economy of the country. The political leaders do not understand how to run the economy. Rather than dictating the economy of the country on their own, the political leaders may have better economic advisors, if they really want good for the country as well as for themselves, as citizens of the country. They should know that in fifty years time there will be no place to accommodate anymore people on the soil of Bangladesh if the current trend of population growth continued, not to mention we are the world's poorest country. And time is running out to prepare our country for a better future. To face these situation, the first thing that we ought to do is to educate our people and allow a thorough industrialization so that we can find alternative ways to tackle the situation. Places like Singapore and Hong Kong have more people per square kilometer than we do but they are highly industrialized with much higher per capita income.
They say history repeats itself and it is very true in case of Bangladesh even though our political parties are unwilling to accept this basic fact. If one party changes or improves the political situation the other fears that its grip on power would come to an end. But, such improvements not only strengthen the institution of democracy and leadership in the country but also all the parties get the most benefit. It does not hurt to do some good for the country but it does hurt to do something improper or unjust. Another important factor that our politicians and the valued government servants often forget is that a democratic government is there to serve the people, not to be served by the people.
Last but not the least, our politicians do not feed us two meals a day. The country still has to rely tremendously on foreign aid to run the government. And this affects everyone in Bangladesh because all the later generations will have to bear these foreign debts and repay with interest on these loans.
Only if we could implement proper democracy on the floor of the parliament then the menace of strikes will disappear because then the parliament will decide what to do and what not to. To tell the truth, there are millions of people who do not care whether AL or BNP is in power. All we care is to earn our own living so that we can have two square meals a day and lead a peaceful life. What these political parties do not realize is that by crippling the economy of the country with a series of strikes they are making their chance of staying in power very slim. Because, later when they get to power they will not have enough money in the exchequer to run the country except to beg for further foreign loan the burden of which we all share as citizens of the country. But the fact is that nobody would feed us unless we help ourselves. So we want to stand up not with someone else's help but on our own strength.
Today, the party in opposition is doing exactly what the party in power did while they were in opposition. Yet one hopes, we all can learn some lessons from our mistakes and correct these for our own benefit - after all we've one country to share with each other.
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