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Two Decades of Democracy in Bangladesh (1991-2010):
Disillusionment with Practice
Dr. M. Nazrul Islam
1: Introduction The global discourse on and understanding of
democracy reveals that democracy enjoys an unparalleled admiration
as a norm. The survey carried out across all the continents in
2005, appears that nearly 80 percent of the men and women
considered that democracy is the best available form of governance.
The survey further concludes that there are two interesting
variables or perceptions of democracy. One of the variables is the
free and fair elections and the other is the rule by the will of
the people. Most of the countries under survey opined very high on
free and fair elections and low on the rule by the will of the
people. The gap between these two variables about the inability to
achieve the desired outcome of democracy of the rule by the will of
the people despite going through its rites and procedure of free
and fair elections reflects the degree of disillusionment with
democratic governance1. Many of the Third World countries in the
early days of their experience with democracy and or democratic
movements had a high expectation of democratic governance, but
practically, in most of the cases, it utterly failed to maintain
negotiated methods of decision making and that created the degree
of disillusionment with democracy. For instance, the elections in
Bangladesh since 1991 are seemingly close to norms and procedures
of democracy which may be considered as "free and fair", in
practice it could hardly achieve the desired outcome of democracy
of the rule by the will of the people- is a question of great
disappointment. In the light of this simple and brief thematic
framework, it may be argued that there are about nineteen countries
of the world are democratic2. Among the smaller countries,
Bangladesh since
her emergence in 1971, has been struggling valiantly in quest
for democracy. It is not the intention
Dr. M. Nazrul Islam is a Foreign Professor and Dean, Faculty of
Social Sciences, International Islamic
University, Islamabad, Formerly Professor & Chairman,
Department of Political Science, University of Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Email: [email protected]
_________________________________________________________________________________
1 The Voice of the People,
London: Gallup International, 2006, pp. 37-58 2 Kenneth Janda
et. al., The Challenge of Democracy: The Government in America,
Boston: Honghton
Mifflin Company, 1992, pp.44-53.
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to malign the smaller countries where their nascent democracy is
in crisis. It faces considerable challenges both in the larger as
well as smaller countries. Challenges of democracy have many
dimensions. It may come from ethnic, religious and other social
cleavages or, it may originate from economic depression like
unemployment, economic recession or political instability; and or
from a widespread feeling of discontent among the people of
powerlessness over their own lives. No attempt has been made to
offer any ready-made solution to these problems, but we do
recognize their importance and make people understand the gravity
of the situation for the survival of democracy in Bangladesh in
particular and the contemporary third world in general. Unlike
Pakistan or even India, Bangladesh took only ten months to present
a Constitution to her nation which finally came into force on 16
December 1972. The 1972 Constitution provided a fairly
parliamentary system of government similar to the Indian model but
comparable to the Westminster type. Undoubtedly, this was one of
the greatest achievements of the newly elected Government headed by
the Father of the nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
Although Bangladesh succeeded in framing a Constitution within the
shortest period of time, yet its capacity for democratic governance
as a nation-state has been under constant political strain, such as
fostering the transition towards democratic governance since her
birth in 1971. On the economic front as well, immediately after
taken-over State power, the newly elected rulers could hardly make
any room for economic progress of the country while the political
stability and economic necessities and possibilities were
inextricably linked with the governance3. Although Bangladeshs
commitment to democracy and the UN Human Rights was clearly
reflected in its 1972 Constitution4, the people of Bangladesh soon
witnessed the defeat of their long cherished parliamentary
democracy to authoritarian rule on 25 January 1975. The failure of
the new rulers to resolve the clashes between the centripetal and
centrifugal forces of social, economic, and political cleavages
clearly demonstrated their inadequacy as agents for solving the
economic as well as political development problems facing the
country.
This paper is an attempt to analyse, in brief, the
post-independence political measures of the ruling authority which
not only marked the end of parliamentary democratic governance but
also set forth the authoritarian process in the country. The
revival of parliamentary polity and its functioning since 1991
reflect the degree of disillusionment with democratic governance
in
3 John Dunn, (ed.), Democracy: The Unfinished Journey, Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 1992, p.x
4 Zillur Rahman Khan, Bangladesh Documents, New Delhi: Ministry
of External Affairs, 1971
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Bangladesh. A summary of discourse on and practice of democracy
in Bangladesh will form the last part of the paper.
2: Death of Democracy and Emergence of Autocracy Immediately
after the assumption of the State power, it was maintained that the
newly elected populist Government headed by the Father of the
nation, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur, was beset by the enormous
socio-economic and political problems arising from the deep
divisions between segments of their populations and the absence of
a unifying consensus5. The Mujib regime6 neither could involve the
masses in its efforts to solve the endemic economic problems of the
country nor they had the capability to address the socio-political
problems from pragmatic perspective. The subsequent transformation
from perceived democratic norms to authoritarian rule on 25 January
19757 clearly reflected the degree of incapability and incapacity
of the Mujib regime to address the problems of the people. To the
regime plantation of the parliamentary democracy in the soil of
Bangladesh had become the democracy paradox8 The violent change of
the populist Government by the bloody military coup, and the
5 Please see, Arend Lij Phart, Democracy in Plural Societies,
New Haven: 1977,p p.16-21
and also S.M. Lipset, Political Man, New Delhi, 1973, and Myron,
Weiner and Samuel P. Huntington, Understanding Political
Development, Boston: Little Brown, 1987. Norberto Bobbio, The
Future of Democracy, Cambridge: Policy Press, 1987
6 Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was popularly known as
Mujib
7 M. Nazrul Islam, Consolidating Asian Democracy, Dhaka: Nipun
Printing Industries, Ltd., 2003, p.196
Infact, on 22 September 1973, the Constitution (Second
Amendment) Act was passed. It substituted the original Article 33
of the Constitution by Act No. XXIV of 1973 to accelerate the
passage of Special Power Act of 1974, as well as to make provision
for the proclamation of emergency and suspension of the fundamental
rights. Also see J.C. Johari, M. Nazrul Islam, et.al. Government
and Politics of South Asia, New Delhi: Sterling Publishers Ltd.
1991, p.380 and also see Moudud Ahmad, Democracy and the Challenges
of Development: A Study of Politics and Military Interventions in
Bangladesh, Dhaka: University Press Ltd., 1995, and also see Hamza
Alavi, The State in Post-Colonial Societies: Pakistan and
Bangladesh, in K. Gough and H.P. Sharma (eds.), Imperialism and
Revolution in Asia, New York: 1985
8 Samual P. Huntington, Democracy for the Long Haul, Journal of
Democracy, vol.7, (April 1996), p.6
__________, The Third Wave: Democratization in the Late
Twentieth Century, Norman: University of Oklahama Press, 1991.
__________, Political Order in Changing Societies, New Haven, 1969
and also see, Anthony, Arblaster, Democracy, Buckingham: Open
University Press, 1994; D. Beetham, (ed.), Introducing Democracy,
Cambridge: Blackwell Pub. 1995. Sandeep Bhardwaj, Bangladesh in
2009: Challenges After Elections, New Delhi: Institute of Peace and
Conflict Studies, January 2009, pp. 1-4. Robert Dahl, Democracy and
its Critics, New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1987
Larry Diamond, J. Juan Linz and S.M. Lipset, (eds.), Democracy in
Developing Countries: Colorado, 1992. Samuel P. Huntington, The
Third Wave: Democratization in the Late Twentieth Century, Norman:
University of Oklahama Press, 1991. ________, Political Order in
Changing Societies, New Haven, 1969
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assassination of the Father of the nation by a handful derailed
army personnel on 15 August 1975, left the whole nation bewildered
and perplexed9. For the next 16 years, the country was run by the
civil-military-bureaucrats left behind a section of demoralized and
inefficient bureaucracies that were used to ensure regimes
survival. During the army autocracy, there was no scope of the rule
by the will of the people nor the democratic rites and procedure of
free and fair elections received any fair play. The disgruntled
people of all strata of social life were utterly helpless but to
launch an anti-government movement which finally turned into a mass
upheaval. Following the prolonged and violent anti-government
agitation, the last autocratic regime of General Ershad ultimately
had to step down in early December 1990, surrendering power to a
Caretaker Government headed by Justice Shahabuddin Ahmed, the Chief
Justice of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh. 3: Transition to
Parliamentary Polity Under the Caretaker Government of Justice
Shahabuddin Ahmed, the nation went to the polls for the Fifth
Parliament of 300 general seats in February 1991. The elections
were highly acclaimed as free and fair, the rites and procedure of
democracy. The election results show that the Bangladesh
Nationalist Party (BNP) led by Begum Khaleda Zia emerged as the
single largest party with 140 seats in the Fifth Parliament polls
while the Awami League, the party
instrumental to the Independence of Bangladesh, returned as the
second largest party capturing 92 seats. The Jatiya Party headed by
the former military dictator, General Ershad stood third in the
race with 35 while Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh became fourth with 19
seats. The remaining seats were shared by the five leftwing parties
and Independent candidates. In March 1991, Begum Khaleda Zia,
leader of the majority party (BNP) in the Parliament formed her
Government with the tacit approval of the Jamaat-e-Islami
Bangladesh. The most remarkable achievement of the Fifth Parliament
was to have the passage of the famous Constitution (Twelfth
Amendment) Act in September 1991 which paved the way for
parliamentary democratic norms to flow after long 16 years of its
absence.
9 Rounaq Jahan, Bangladesh: Problems and Issues, Dhaka:
University Press Ltd., 1982.
M. Nazrul Islam, Problems of Nation-Building in Developing
Countries, Dhaka: Dhaka University 1988
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4: The Government of Khaleda Zia (1991-1996) The first three and
a half years of the Government of Begum Khaleda Zia was a very
brief period for a parliamentary democracy to take shape, in spite
of the fact that the nation had come a long way in asserting itself
through the democratic means. One notable feature of the
parliamentary democracy was the formation of various parliamentary
Committees and sub-Committees, which were overseeing the activities
of various Ministries. Though structurally the Committees seemed to
be quite sound, operationally they failed to be effective. For
instance, the Committees on curbing terrorism in the University
Campuses, administrative corruption, as well as the Committee on
Indemnity Bill could not come out with positive recommendations
owing to the lack of any consensus on their modus operandi. The
opposition seemed also indifferent to parliamentary norms and
practices by their frequent boycotts of the parliamentary sessions.
In addition to the continuance of the Special Power Act (1974), the
Khaleda Zias Government passed the Antiterrorism Act without the
participation of the opposition parties, was, however, branded as a
Black Law. But as times rolled on with its implementation, the
opposition's fears seemed to be waning and the Act earned the
confidence of the people as a deterrent measure against violence
and physical damages to life and property. The bureaucracy, though
made constitutionally subservient, seemed to have remained dominant
functionally due to the lack of administrative experience of the
Ministers. For the same reason it seemed that the Ministers were
suffering from the initial hesitancy of taking or not taking
decisions which allowed a scope for the Opposition to discredit the
BNP Government, as a government of indecision, inaction, and or
inactive. Nevertheless, the Khaleda Zia's Government was seen to
have been confronting the political as well as economic challenges
with calm and patience and without much repressive measures as had
been the cases during the previous regimes in Bangladesh. 4:I
Challenges in the Economic Front The shattered economy inherited
from the previous regime was getting much better gradually under
the BNP Government (1991-96), in spite of the catastrophic cyclone
and tidal waves that swept over the eastern as well as the southern
part of the country early in 1991, killing thousands of people,
destroying more than eighty percent of the crops, and many more
homes. It was the natural disasters of 1991 caused major
infrastructural damages and did make negative impact on the
economy, especially in the aftermath of the earlier floods and
cyclones of 1987 and 1988.
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Thus, the first part of Begum Zias Government was dominated by
the management work in relation to crises following the cyclone and
tidal wave of 1991 as well as the economy recovery programs. Any
assessment of Bangladesh economy during her regime must, therefore,
be made in the context of economic constraints resulting from
endemic natural disasters. Yet, there had been significant economic
gains over the 5 years tenure of the Regime. For instance the per
capita income, GDP, and the GNP marked creditable improvement. 4:II
Political Challenges Despite the commendable achievements in the
economic front, the subsequent political developments were not any
better than before. Moreover, it seemed that the developments as
such were getting from bad to worse because of a grand boycott by
all Opposition members in the Fifth Parliament since the middle of
1994. The issue for boycott was a constitutionally guaranteed
Caretaker Government under whose supervision all the up coming
parliamentary elections to be held. While all the Opposition
members were very vocal in their demand for a Caretaker Government,
the ruling BNP's uncompromising attitude on this vital issue was
astonishing. The demand for a 'Caretaker Government10 was a unique
one in political context, yet some prominent political leaders in
the country were seemed to be skeptical about the efficacy of this
new type of government11.
However, the prolonged boycott and subsequent en masse
resignations of the Awami League led Opposition members from the
Parliament left no option for the BNP Government, but to go for
elections for the Sixth Parliament which were held in February
1996. All the major Opposition parties boycotted the elections.
Naturally the ruling BNP had no difficulty in securing the two
thirds of seats in the Sixth Parliament, and which in effect
enabled it to enact the Constitution (Thirteenth Amendment) Act,
1996 to hold all future national elections under a non-party
Caretaker Government. Soon after the enactment of the Thirteenth
Amendment, the Sixth Parliament was dissolved, and the nation once
again went to the polls in June 1996 for the Seventh Parliament. In
the June 1996 elections, the Awami League bagged 146 seats out of
the 300 general elected seats, and with the support of Jatiya Party
(JP) and the Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (JSD), formed a ''Consensus"
Government on 23 June 1996. The BNP retained 116 seats and emerged
as the single largest Opposition party in the Seventh
Parliament.
10 M. Nazrul Islam, Consolidating Asian , op.cit., p.202
11 For details, please, , ibid., pp.201-202.
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5: The Government of Sheikh Hasina (1996-2001) After a
protracted movement for long 21 years, the Awami League (AL) under
the Prime Ministership of Sheikh Hasina formed a sort of' Consensus
Cabinet of 44 members. Like most of the previous governments, the
newly elected Government had to face challenges from three fronts.
First, how to institutionalize the revived parliamentary democracy?
Second, how to attain the target rate for a sustainable economic
growth for development? Finally, how to improve the fast
deteriorating law and order situation in the country?12 5:I
Political Challenges In all these three areas, the success of the
AL Government headed by Sheikh Hasina, seemed not plausible after
the completion of 2 years of its 5-year term. On the political
front, one notable feature of Sheikh Hasina's Governance was the
formation of a government of Consensus with
the support of its one time archrival, military dictator,
General Ershad's Jatiya Party (JP), seemingly an interesting
development in the history of parliamentary democracy in
Bangladesh. Yet, the fact remained that the BNP, with as many as
116 elected members in the Seventh Parliament, was well poised to
be the greatest challenge for the AL Government. In fact, it was a
unique government Opposition setting in the Bangladesh Parliament.
The resultant development was that the AL Government, within two
years of its taking office, was facing a series of boycotts of
Parliament by the BNP parliamentarians. The BNP seemed much unhappy
with the June 1996 election results and threatened political moves
ever since the AL Government took office. In fact, their longest
boycott began since August 1997 against the backdrop of such
specific charges as the a) BNP parliamentarians were denied
proportional representation in the Parliamentary Committees, that
b) the Government was tempering with the electronic media coverage
of the parliamentary proceedings, and c) that the Speaker was
biased towards the Treasury Bench members. However, early in 1998,
the AL Government took an initiative to end the impasse through the
good offices of the Speaker. In response, the BNP put forward three
preconditions for participating in the proposed Speaker mediated
dialogue with the ruling AL. These conditions were; i) unilateral
withdrawal of the well known political cases against BNP lawmakers
and other leaders; ii) allowing at least two main roads for holding
public rallies against which the authority imposed "ban"; and
finally, i ii) reinstallation of the floating
12 M. Nazrul Islam, Bangladesh: New Threats and Old Insecurities
in Lee Edwards (ed.) The Global Economy:
Channing Politics, Society and Family, Minnesota: Paragon House
Publishers 2001.
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bridge leading to the tomb (mazar) of late President Ziaur
Rahman. It may be mentioned that the temporary pontoon bridge which
had been used earlier by the visitors and tourists to pay their
homage to late President Zia (founder of the BNP) was withdrawn by
the Government on the pretext of meeting the communication need in
the district of Sylhet. This might have been a sentimental issue
for the supporters of the BNP. However, the three preconditions of
the BNP for participating in the proposed dialogue with the ruling
party were not rejected altogether. In the mean time, the induction
of two BNP law markers into the ALs Consensus Government further
deteriorated political situation vis-a-vis the strained relations
with the BNP when the time of the dialogue between BNP and AL was
about to begin. Indeed, the appointment of the two BNP lawmakers
into Sheikh Hasina's Cabinet did create a constitutional crisis.
The Clause (1) of Article 70 of the Constitution stipulates in
clear terms that an MP of the Parliament will lose his seat in
Parliament if he resigns from or votes against the decision of the
party which nominated him for his election. The BNP Secretary
General Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan, accusing the ruling party for
alluring two of their MPs to its side, termed the "tactical move"
devoid of parliamentary norms as well as inconsistent with the
constitutional provisions. Obviously, the AL Government's political
horse trading had weakened the bases of party politics in
Bangladesh, on the one hand, and the tactical move might have given
rise to inevitable dysfunctional trends in political development
processes, on the other.
Nevertheless, despite the occurrences of incoherent political
developments, the, historic ''Ganges Water Sharing Treaty"
concluded on 12 December 1996 with India and the Chittagong Hill
Tracts Peace Accord with the Parbatta Chattagram Jono Sanghati
Samiti (PCJSS) on 2 December 1997 were some of the AL Government's
success stories. Although the critics, both of political and
apolitical variants, had raised profusely politico-economic as well
as constitutional issues to reinforce their arguments against the
Water Treaty and the Peace Accord, the fact remains that the Treaty
with India at long last ensured Bangladesh's right over the Ganges
Water and the Peace Accord with the members of the Shantibahini
marked the end of bloody two-decade long conflicts between the
Government and the rebel tribal in the Chittagong Hill
Tracts13.
13 Ibid, p.204
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5: II Economic Challenges In spite of some improvement in the
country's law and order situations and achievements of foreign
policy decisions, the AL Government's economic performances during
its tenure in office seemed not all praiseworthy. In respect of
savings and investment, country's domestic savings declined to 7.7
percent in 1997 from 8.2 percent in 1995, and similarly the gross
national savings marked decline in 1997 from 1995 position. Of
course, the total investment marked slight increases; except for
the agricultural sector, which recorded an all time high growth
rate of 6 percent in 1997 against 3.7 percent in the previous year,
all other sectors, including industrial, construction, electricity,
gas, water and sanitary services, declined considerable in terms of
productivity. Soon after the Government took office, the country's
stock market got bogged down because of its faulty policy. The
downward trend in share price index began since November 1996 with
no sign of improvement whatsoever as yet. On the other hand, the
capital city's Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and Industries
(MCCI) did react when the Bank rate was raised early in 1998, for
they thought this would make the Bank credit costlier, and
thereafter would vitiate investments opportunities leading to most
serious economic crisis in the country. Thus, it seemed, not
unlikely for any one, to visualize a gloomy picture of the
Bangladesh economy.
However, the AL government's economic diplomacy for attracting
the foreign investors was
somewhat to be a noteworthy effort, and its policy decisions in
this regard were acclaimed both at home and abroad. The Government
took quick decisions to restructure certain agencies entrusted with
attracting the foreign investors as well as those charged with
providing necessary service to them. As a result, foreign
investments in the country increased considerably during the first
term of the regime.
5: III Nepotism, Favouritism and Corruptions Despite some
success in the political, economic and diplomatic arena, the regime
seemed to have been bogged down by the free style crimes and
corruptions of its political cronies. It was alleged that even the
constitutional institution like the Public Service Commission (PSC)
was turned into the depot of corruptions, nepotism and party
parlour. The University campuses and residential Halls of the
students turned into safe heaven for the terrorists and hijackers.
For the last five years' tenure of the regime may be characterized
by terrorism, unabated corruption, politicization of
administration, governmental facilities and opportunities. Against
this backdrop, the Eighth
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parliamentary elections were fought mainly between the ruling AL
and the BNP led 4-Party Alliance.
6: Begum Khaleda Zia Returns to Power (2001-2006) The Eighth
parliamentary elections, the third national elections under the
Caretaker Government since 1991, were held on 1st October 2001. The
election results show that the BNP led 4-Party Alliance secured 214
seats (more than two thirds) while BNP alone bagged 191 seats out
of 300 parliamentary general seats. The AL headed by Sheikh Hasina
captured 62 seats while the remaining seats were shared by the
'Independent' candidates and other smaller parties. Begum Khaleda
Zia was sworn in for the second time as the Prime Minister on 10
October 2001 and formed a "JUMBO" Cabinet of 6014 members with 13
State and 2 Deputy Ministers. In her election manifestos and
campaign, Begum Zia made pledges to the nation:
a) to build up a self reliant Bangladesh, free from hunger and
poverty; b) to improve the law and order situation; c) to curb and
control terrorism; d) to control corruption; e) to improve foreign
exchange reserve; and f) to put the wheel of government in its own
track after reviewing carefully including the
development agenda.
6:I Challenges to the Begum Zia Regime 6:I (a) The Law and Order
Situation After assuming the State power, the 4-Party Alliance
leadership declared a 100 days program to improve the fast
deteriorating conditions of the country specially the law and order
situation which was but mostly the legacy of past regimes. In fact,
during 5-year's tenure of the regime, the law and order situation
did not improve rather deteriorated further. The violation of human
rights or sending of opposition workers under the bar had been a
common phenomenon since the introduction of the parliamentary
democracy in the country. The cases of extra-judicial murders
increased alarmingly. The measures or steps taken by the regime to
arrest the on going situation were ineffective if not inadequate.
Common people had to live under a vicious circle of uncertainty and
constant threats to their life and property.
14 In 1991 BNP started with 33 council of Ministers and in 1996
Sheikh Hasina with 44. For details please see
M. Nazrul Islam, Consolidating Asian , ibid., pp. 199-217
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6:I (b) The Sluggish Economy It was alleged that during the past
regime, the foreign currency reserve was sunk to its lowest
recorded level. The Alliance Government succeeded, to some extent,
in salvaging the trickling down economy of the country. Yet, the
overall economic condition was not encouraging. The much-coveted
objectives of Millennium Development Goals and turning Bangladesh
into an Emerging Tiger were frustrated by the powerful vested
interests if not the perpetrators enjoying political as well as
State patronage. 6:I (c) Terrorism and Corruption The most vexing
problem facing the Government was terrorism and corruption. In
fact, the defeat of the AL Government in the October 2001 elections
was greatly attributed by terrorism and unbridled corruption in
almost all sectors of the State. The 4-Party Alliance Government
could do a little improve to this situation rather in some cases it
worsen further. It was alleged that the Government of Khaleda Zia
miserably failed to contain terrorism and corruption, and for this
worsening situation none but ineffectiveness, inefficiency and in
certain cases insincerity of some of her "JUMBO" Cabinet members
were held responsible. The survey carried out by the World Bank,
Transparency International, Bangladesh (TIB) and other agencies
surveys shows that the corruptions in customs and income taxes,
police and judiciary (mainly in the lower level), had been a common
phenomena. On the other hand, transport, public corporate sectors
and city-corporations' administrations became a den of corruption
during the 5-year tenure of the Beghum Zia regime. It was alleged
that the corruption and inefficiency at the State's highest levels
destroyed the moral legitimacy of the regime to rule the country.
The people lost their trust on the regime owing to its failure
to
ensure public safety and to check unbridled corruption. Instead
of making Bangladesh corruption and violence free, the regime
carefully established corruption by criminalizing politics and
violating human rights. Among the corruption-ridden countries of
the Globe, the regime topped the list of the corruption. It was
alleged that the political leadership of the BNP failed to deliver
perceived outcome of democracy in her second term of 5-year rule.
In fact, brute majority of the 4-Party Alliance made them
overambitious, callous, confused and irresponsible and thereby they
appeared to be a possible threat to democracy in Bangladesh.
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6:II Abrogation of the Public Safety Act Among the success
stories of the Government, the abrogation of the infamous Public
Safety Act was noteworthy.
6:III Political Challenges In the political front, the Alliance
Government had to face continuous boycotts of the Eight Parliament
by the AL MPs. However, the AL led by Sheikh Hasina, the leader of
Opposition Bench in the Parliament joined the 2001 Summer Session
of the Parliament for a brief period but later on continued its
program of boycott for not finding congenial atmosphere for them in
the House. The main opposition AL later on changed its mind and
expressed their determination to join the Autumn Session of the
Parliament even their expected congenial atmosphere was not created
there. The AL seemed to be more concerned about the formation of
Parliamentary Standing Committees on different Ministries. In fact,
it was surprising to note that the Eighth Parliament completed its
first three Sessions without forming the Committees deemed crucial
in a parliamentary system. Undoubtedly, AL's changed attitude could
have created condition to help institutionalize parliamentary
system in Bangladesh. Meanwhile, Professor Dr. lajuddin Ahmed was
sworn in as the Seventh President of Bangladesh on 6 September
2002. The main Opposition party AL and some other left-wing parties
minus Workers' Party neither attended the swearing in ceremony nor
congratulated the President of the country. In the parliamentary
tradition in Bangladesh, particularly, after revival of the
parliamentary system in 1991, Presidents were rarely welcomed by
the Opposition parties. Today, the country had rolled through long
39 years, yet it could not develop a minimum political culture of
toleration and mutual respect. The negative attitudes of the
political actors and their poor political culture, may not be
conducive to institutionalize the system in the country. 7: The
Ninth Parliamentary Elections (2008) However, against the back drop
of unbridled corruption, failures, inefficiency and in
effectiveness of the regime, the Ninth parliamentary elections were
held on 29 December 2008. Earlier it was scheduled to be held in
January 2007, but due to the unprecedented protests, agitation and
movement led by the main Opposition party, AL, against the Khaleda
regime's heavy corruption and specially elections engineering
mechanism devised to favour her regime prompted the military backed
Caretaker Government to postpone the elections for an extended
period of time. However, the Ninth parliamentary elections were
fought, between the two diametrically opposite
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notions. The Awami League (AL) led Grand-Alliance fought the
election from the point of view of secularized Bangali nationalism
while the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) led 4-Party Alliance
contested the election from the "Bangladeshi" nationalist stand
point. It was interesting to note that for tactical reason both the
major parties, AL and BNP, have considerably moved closer to the
conservative Islamic parties.
The 2008 elections results show that the AL headed by Sheikh
Hasina had a thumbing majority with 230 seats out of 300 general
parliamentary seats while the AL led Grand-Alliance secured 263
seats. The BNP headed by Begum Khaleda Zia captured 30 seats while
her Alliance partners namely Jamaat-e-lslami Bangladesh, bagged
only 2 seats and Bangladesh Jatiya Party (BJP) one and the
remaining 4 seats went to Independent candidates and others. It may
be mentioned here that in the parliamentary democracy in Bangladesh
since 1991, no sitting or immediate past regime scored so low. The
poor performance of the BNP and its 4-Party Alliance in the 2008
elections may be ascribed by various reasons, nevertheless, the
election results stunned the BNP and its supporters and at the same
time, it was assumed that it should have shaken the leadership of
Begum Khaleda Zia in her party as it was evidenced in the case of
U.K and other advanced democracies. The recently concluded general
elections of 2010 in UK, the Labour Prime Minister Gordon Brown
failed to get for his party requisite number of majority to form
the Government and as a result, respecting the verdict of the
elections, he declared his resignation as leader of the Labour
Party. Although similar situation created in the case of the AL
supremo in 2001 parliamentary elections when her party fielded
poorly. It was expected that after the elections result the
democratic norms would be set in to choose its party leadership
election. Unfortunately, it did not happen in the case of party
politics in Bangladesh. It seemed that the democratic culture of
respecting the verdict of the electorate is yet to find a
favourable climate in country. 8: The Government of Sheikh Hasina
(2009-2014) Sheikh Hasina, the leader of the majority party in the
Parliament and the newly formed Grand-Alliance was sworn in for the
second tenure as the Prime Minister on 6 January 2009. and formed a
Coalition Cabinet with 31 Cabinet members among them 23 are
Ministers and eight State Ministers. Immediately after taken over
State power, the Government of Sheikh Hasina renewed her electoral
manifestos of the Charter for Change (Din Bodolerpala) to the
nation15.
15 For details, see The Daily Star, (Dhaka), 29 December
2008
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The "Charter for Change" or Din Bodol was aimed at bringing
about changes in the existing socio-political and economic
conditions of the country along with the change of political
culture and behavior of the stakeholders. In fact, political
landscape of Bangladesh has gone through dramatic changes over the
last few years. It is now the turn of the regime to change their
attitude to meet the changing needs of the time.
8:I BDR Mutiny-2009 Within its first month in office, the
Grand-Alliance Government led by Sheikh Hasina had to confront the
mutiny of the Bangladesh Rifles (BDR). Without going into details
(because the case is still under trial), it may be maintained the
BDR mutiny could lead to an unprecedented bloody war between the
two major security establishments of the country, each equipped
with sophisticated weapons of war. The armed clash between the two
security forces could have engulfed not only the Dhaka, capital
city of Bangladesh, but it could have spread throughout the
country16. The Prime Minister demonstrated her political sagacity
and that saved the nation from an imminent blood shed and civil
war. 8:II Epilogue of the Regime However, less then two years life
of a 5-year tenure of the regime is too a short period to evaluate
its achievements or failures compared to the colossal task of Din
Bodol for better governance. However, in most cases, the
performance of the Grand-Alliance is seemed not to be persuasive or
its progress is not encouraging except in few cases. It is alleged
that the regime miserably failed to improve the fast deteriorating
law order situation in one hand, and on the
other, it hopelessly lost its control over its own unruly
supporters who were/arc mostly engaged in tender-trading,
terrorism, corruption, hijacking, kidnapping, chandabazi
(extracting money by force) and in all other vices. And for all
these declining situation, the Hasina regime cannot escape
responsibility. In the wake of regimes' post-"Grand" victory
euphoria of excitement of the people may soon begin to wither away.
History records all the recordable events happening in the horizon.
Unfortunately, the ruling circles and for that reason the political
leaderships of Bangladesh could hardly conceive the reality of
history that it repeats. The literature on the working of democracy
in Bangladesh shows that the stakeholders of the State powers have
some how ensured peoples' access to free and fair elections by
means of the Caretaker system of Government but the people have not
yet been empowered to rule the country according to their hopes and
aspiration and that reflects the
16 Ibid., (Dhaka)., 30 December 2008
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degree of inability of the ruling authority to establish the
desired outcome of democracy in Bangladesh.
9: Indexes of Disillusionment with the Practice of Democracy 9:I
The Parliamentary Committees Parliamentary Committees are the sine
qua non of a democratic system. It is often called a "Mini
Parliament" as it assists the House in the efficient discharge of
its function by making detailed examination of Bills and other
matters that require expert views17. In Bangladesh, the structure,
scope and jurisdictions of the Committees are stipulated in the
Article 76 of the Constitution and the Rules 187-266 of Chapter 27
of the Rules of Procedure of the Parliament. Article 76 empowers
the Parliament to appoint Standing Committees following the Rules
of Parliamentary Procedure. Additional committees are appointed by
the Parliament for the purpose of considering draft Bills,
examining legislative proposals, reviewing and proposing measures
for enforcement of laws and investigating or inquiring into the
functions of the Ministries and administration. The size of the
Committee of The Parliament varies from 8 to 15 members. 9:II
Ineffective Parliamentary Committees, the Fifth, Seventh, Eighth
and Ninth Parliament As many as 1258 meetings of the forty-nine
Standing Committees and sixty-three sub-Committees were held during
the tenure of the Fifth Parliament. However, the reports and
recommendations came from those meetings remained ignored. For
example, in its third report, the Standing Committee on Public
Accounts categorically mentioned that in most cases its
recommendations were not given due importance and in some cases not
implemented at all. Ministers seldom paid any heed to audit
objections and thereby ignored the instructions to have their extra
expenditures approved. The Standing Committee on Pubic
Undertakings, which did a commendable of examining mismanagement in
different Government organizations met the same fate. In this way
most of the important Committees of the Fifth Parliament (for
example the Committee for investigating the corruption of the
Agriculture Minister, the Committee for Zia
Parishad etc.) remained ineffective and was moribund. During the
Seventh Parliament a number of remarkable changes were brought
about in
17 Charles O. Jones, The United States Congress: People, Place
and Policy, Ontario: The Dorsey Press, 1982. and
Alexis De. Tocqueville, Democracy in America, New York: Harper
Perennial and L.W. Paye, Aspects of Political Development, Boston,
1966 and James W. White, The Government and Politics of Japan,
Tokyo: University of Tokyo Press, 1990.
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regard to the Committee System of Bangladesh Parliament since
October 1997. One of the remarkable changes that was brought in the
system was that henceforth no Committee was to be chaired by the
Minister. Committee Chairperson was empowered to work
independently. Up to May 2000, 1016 meetings Parliamentary
Committees were held. More or less 5000 recommendations came out of
the 1016 meetings of the Committee during the Seventh Parliament,
but most of them remained unimplemented. During the 5lh and 6th
session of the Eight Parliament, the regime failed to constitute
any Parliamentary Committee. However, during 7th and 8th session,
the Parliamentary Committees were formed. Even though most of the
Committees were constituted, however, no lawmaker of the main
Opposition Bench was appointed Chairman in any Parliamentary
Committees. This had adversely affected active participation of the
main opposition party members in the Parliamentary Committees.
Nevertheless, it was alleged by the Chairman of the Committee that
the Ministers and high officials of the various Ministries did not
cooperate with the Committee moves or initiatives and thus,
recommendations of the Committees remained unheeded. The Standing
Committees may play the major role in ensuring accountability of
the Government to Parliament. However, like the Committees of Fifth
and Seventh Parliament, the Committees of the Eight Parliament were
not functioning properly as most of the Minister, Secretaries and
other high officials were reluctant to join Parliamentary Committee
meetings and to provide the Committees with necessary papers and
documents. It was also alleged that even though the Committees took
decisions and made recommendations while the concerned Ministers
were present, but yet the Committee recommendations were rarely
implemented.
It is worth mentioning that during the Fifth, Seventh and Eighth
Parliament18 most of the time the Members of the Opposition did not
participate in the session of the Parliament, but they joined in
the Committee meetings and made valuable contribution in resolving
problems. Despite the improvements, Committee system structurally
remained dysfunctional like that of previous regimes. In defiance
of legal, constitutional and conventional support, the ambiguous
interpretation of Rules, bureaucratic disposition of the executive,
lack in the authoritative command in the Committee, poor
implementation and monitoring system disappointed the virtue of the
Committee system of this Parliament too. Bangladesh can further
improve her situation if
18 Parliamentary Committees in the Ninth Parliament are yet to
take its shape. It may be premature to comment on
them. But the way things are moving, the political analyst and
observers may be skeptic about the outcome and functioning of this
vital political institution even in the Ninth Parliament.
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she utilizes experiences of the leading Parliamentary
democracies where Committees are treated with difference and their
suggestions and recommendations are seriously honored. The crux, of
the problem in Bangladesh lies in the reluctant demeanour of the
Executive towards the recommendation of the Committees.
Consequently, the question of institutionalization of parliamentary
democracy remains as an impossible proposition. 10: The Speakers
Role The functioning of a vibrant Parliament depends largely upon
how the Speaker conducts the business of the House. The Speaker
seems to be timid and shaky because his position depends largely on
the mercy of the Treasury Bench. Article 74 of the Constitution
provides that Parliament shall at the first sitting after any
general election, elect from among its members, a Speaker. The
Rules of Procedure of Parliament (ROP) framed and adopted by
Parliament to conduct its business in pursuance of Article 75 (1)
of the Constitution have laid down detailed procedure on the
election of the Speaker and Deputy Speaker. The allegations leveled
against the Speakers of the Parliament (Fifth to Ninth) may be
summarized in following manner: 10:I Neutrality Syndrome As the
guardian of Parliament, the Speaker's behavior has not been always
neutral. He had to act in the interest of the ruling party that
nominated him for the office of the Speaker. The Opposition Bench,
in particular the main Opposition party, were seldom allowed
requited time to speak even on important national issues. Even
there were instances of switching off the
microphone of the Leader of the Opposition in the middle of her
speech in the House. 10:II Opposition Bench Ignored The main
opposition party members' notices relating to matters of general
public interest and notices relating to matters of urgent public
importance, etc. had in many cases, been disallowed by the
Speaker.
10:III Violating the Provision of ROP In 2005, the Law Minister
asked his party lawmakers in writing to take permission of the
Leader of the House or the party's parliamentary Whip before
placing a private Member's Bill in Parliament.
Sensing that the instruction was not compatible with the Rules
of Procedure of Parliament (ROP), the Speaker requested the Law
Minister to sit with his party lawmakers to resolve the issue. But
the Government in the Law Ministry stood by its own decision. This
amounts to the Speaker's inability to protect the rights of the
legislators from the executive arrogancy.
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10:IV Boycotting Parliament Session Prolonged boycott of the
Parliamentary session by the Opposition parties has become an
endemic problem in the parliamentary politics. It is maintained
that the Speaker could not take any serious initiative to end the
Parliament boycott by the main Opposition Party MPs nor it could
assure the Opposition MPs that their genuine grievances pertaining
to the conduct of business in the House or its precincts would be
removed. As a result, Parliament remained largely ineffective since
the early nineties. The question is whether the existing powers and
position of the partisan Speaker enable him to take steps to make
Parliament effective. First, a close look into the
procedure of the election of the Speaker reveals that only the
MP who is proposed and seconded by the majority party in Parliament
is sure to be elected as Speaker. Second, the Speaker's position is
not very well secured. According to Article 74 (2)(c) of the
Constitution, the Speaker may be removed by Parliament by the votes
of a majority of all the MPs. This means that the Speaker's
continuation in his office depends to a great extent on his
allegiance to the party in power. Third, the Speaker's neutrality
in the discharge of his functions and responsibilities in
Parliament may incur the displeasure of the Prime Minister, the
leader of the House, and other high-ups of the party in power. He
may not get party ticket to contest the next parliamentary
election. Thus, he stands a chance to lose his parliamentary
seat in his constituency and or displeasure of the party leadership
may mark the end of his political career if he sticks to his
ideology of neutrality.
10:V Quorum Crisis Article 75 (2) of the Bangladesh Constitution
clearly states that the Parliamentary Session cannot be run without
the presence of minimum sixty parliamentarians. It was found that
before the 15th session of the Eight Parliament, there was no
quorum problem. At that time, there was a practice of bringing the
requisite number of parliamentarians in the session by ringing the
bell. But it did not last long, and since then, the parliamentary
sessions have been facing the quorum crisis. It is alleged that
most of the parliamentarians, irrespective of their party
affiliations, have less or no eagerness to join the parliamentary
sessions regularly. Even passing of the Bills and opening of
sessions without quorum have been a common
phenomenon. Parliamentarians from the Treasury Bench are equally
responsible for quorum crisis in the Parliament.
The Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) in its report in
2005 titled Parliament
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Watch19 based on the proceedings of the 11th to the 14 sessions
of the Eight Parliament revealed, among others, that a) the above
sessions witnessed severe quorum crisis almost every day; b) of the
Taka 22.11 crores spent to run the four sessions of the House in
2005, more than Taka 5 crores had been wasted due to quorum crises
alone. A Bangla Daily (Jugantor) on 17 March carried a news item
which revealed that in the prorogued session of 2005 (15th Session
of the Eight Parliament) sittings started without quorum on 16 days
against 22 working days. This situation prevailed when the
4-Party-Alliance commanded more than two-thirds of the total seats
of Parliament. It was alleged that the Speakers lack of
neutrality was partially responsible for frequent quorum crises
in the Parliament. Parliamentarians apathy in the business of the
Parliament are mostly the outcome of the
neglect of the Backbenchers absence in the policy making process
of the Government. This may be an important variable for the
challenge of institutionalization of democracy in Bangladesh.
11: Unbalanced Institutional Development
Political institutions are indispensable to the success of
democracy. In Bangladesh, political institutions like civil
bureaucracies and armies are over smart, institutionalized and
developed compared to legislatures and political parties which are
relatively less institutionalized and underdeveloped20. 11:I
Ineffective Legislature
The story of the role of the legislative body in Bangladesh is
not palatable. Constitutionally, the Parliament was the only
authority to make a law or unmake a law, but in practice, it could
hardly exert or ascertain its constitutional position. Since 1972
the Parliament has been under the grip of the leadership of the
party in power. The Article 70 of the Constitution which is related
to the Membership Cessation Order (MCO) has made the MPs completely
subordinate to the party with which lickets they (MPs) contested
the election. In fact, Article 70 of the Constitution was designed
to undermine the rule (of the will of the people) although the
procedure of democracy (free and fair elections) were allowed to
continue. However, if the lawmakers are not allowed to speak for
the people who elected them, parliamentary democracy or rule by
the
19 For detail account, please see Dhaka Parliament Watch in The
Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB),
2005. 20
Ralph Braibanti et.al. Asian Bureaucratic System: Emergent from
the British Imperial Tradition, Durham: 1984, pp.7-8
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will of the peoples representatives will remain remote
possibility. 11:I (a) The Backbenchers Members of a Parliament who
are not the members of the Cabinet or some Opposition members
of a party usually occupy backbenchers' seats may be termed as
'Backbenchers'. Our data on the role of the Backbencher (both from
Treasury and Opposition Benches) show that they have very little
(if not at all) role in the decision-making process of the
Government. Their participation in the decision-making was strictly
limited due to the incorporation of the undemocratic clause,
Article 70 in the Constitution which restricts a backbencher or any
MP of a party to speak freely in the House without prior permission
of the party Chief or the party high-ups. During Begum
Zia rule, a senior MP of her party nomination lost his
parliamentary seat due to his noncompliance with party discipline.
In order to turn the Parliament from dysfunctional to functional
and to ensure the rule by the will of the people, all the elected
members of the Parliament are required to exercise their sovereign
authority of
speaking freely for his constituency or for the interest of the
nation and of getting themselves involved in the policy making
process of the Government, without any restriction or obstacles and
thus, make the Parliament effective. Disenfranchisement of the
Backbenchers invites parliamentarians apathy in the business of the
House and thus makes it a talking shop.
11: II Lack of Democracy in Party Politics Like other modern
states, Bangladesh has political parties but it failed to develop a
party system.
The crux of the argument is that in Bangladesh, there are many
political parties, big and small, but there is hardly any emotional
or psychological attachment of the people with a particular party
or some parties on the basis of which some concrete rules of
political behavior may be discerned. Further, frequent
fragmentation of political parties and the polarization of
like-minded parties creates another baffling problem. Many
political parties came into being as a result of either splits in
their ranks or an alliance of various contending factions. Again
the charismatic personality of a particular leader may carry with
him a larger number of followers and float his political party. It
seldom allows or makes ways for a parallel leadership to grow.
It
is observed that with the death or eclipse of the charismatic
leader, the party suffers huge defection. The panorama of
Bangladesh party system is also vitiated by factionalism
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operating in every political party21. As a result, people have
hardly any attachment (emotional or psychological) with a
particular political organization(s). Almost all the political
parties in Bangladesh have been adopting authoritarian model to run
their organizations. There are a very few political parties in the
country which follow
democratic methods to organize their parties upto grassroot
levels. And this may be the single independent variable for making
obstacle to institutionalize democracy in Bangladesh. Tyranny of
the majority party prevailed immediately after the independence in
the 1971. As a result, the system could not bring about good
governance and failed to ensure the rule of law
in the country. It was maintained that the growing number of
peoples were skeptical about the sincerity of the politicians for
establishing democratic norms and values in the country as
they themselves failed to practice democracy in their own
political institutions. During the military backed Caretaker
Government of 2007-2008, some progressive minded senior leaders of
both the major political parties moved to reform and organize their
parties upto the lower levels following the democratic rites and
procedure. Due to the vested interests in the party cronies, their
move was frustrated and the reformists for change (Dinbodol) were
branded as traitors or conspirators. In this confused political
climate, many senior experienced carrier politicians felt
themselves marginalized, and thereby they may not have any
alternative but to retire from political life, which may create a
vacuum in the political
leadership in Bangladesh. However, the party leadership in
Bangladesh may be characterized as political dynasties, and or
elected autocracy. These practices hamper development of
democratic values and may bring about political instability, and
that may lead to the collapse of the system
11:III Leadership in Shamble Leadership is the most important
quality to organize the parties and lead the nation to a right
direction. Leadership evolves through democratic practices22.
Unfortunately, Bangladesh, and for that reason some other countries
of Afro-Asia, has a very poor tradition of having leadership
through democratic means. Here, personal influence and charisma
left no scope for the parallel leadership or collective leadership
in the party to grow up through democratic
21 J.C. Johari, M. Nazrul Islam et.al., Governments and
Politics, pp. 157-158
Also see Zaglul Haider, Parliamentary Democracy in Bangladesh:
From Crisis to Crisis, Journal of the Asiatic Society of
Bangladesh, vol.42, no.I (June 1997), pp.72-73,
22 Zillur Rahman Khan, Leadership, Parties and Politics in
Bangladesh Western Political Quarterly, Vol.29,
No.2(March 1976).
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means. Unlike India, it cared a little to respect dissident
opinions of the party rank and file members. During the first
elected regime, the seeds of authoritarianism was deliberately
sowed in the country. After the collapse of the regime, General
Ziaur Rahman and subsequently General H.M. Ershad emerged as the
most powerful ruling figures in Bangladesh politics, and during
their times, the dominance of the civil-military bureaucratic
elites was complete. And again after General Zias exit, his wife
Begum Khaleda Zia established Prime-ministerial autocracy in the
country and kept the party under her direct control. Later on
Sheikh Hasina, daughter of the father of the nation, emerged as the
strongest Prime Minister ever existed in the parliamentary polity.
None of the contenders of the State power left any scope for
democratic succession of leadership in their parties23. The
authoritarian trends in party leadership made a collateral damage
as to sail democracy smoothly. 11:IV Emergence of Coercive
Executive Unlike India, emergence of all powerful executive has
been a serious threat to democracy in Bangladesh since its very
birth in 197124. Almost all the elected Heads of the Government in
Bangladesh concentrated all State powers in their own hands,
subordinated or even suspended
the Parliament, or even mutilated the Constitution at their
wish. Most of the time, the elected executive availed the advantage
of getting things done through Decrees or Presidential/
Executive Orders by passing the Parliament or when the
Parliament is not in session. Apart from the infamous Constitution
(Fourth Amendment) Act 1975, the then regime, by passing the
Parliament, promulgated several Presidential Orders which empowered
the leadership and the Government to take any decisions as they
liked and even those decisions were kept beyond the control of the
Judiciary. After the collapse of the first elected regime, the
subsequent leaders followed their predecessor, General Ziaur Rahman
came to power through a Military coup in 1975 and established his
personal rule (like General Muhammad Ayub Khan in Pakistan) for
about 6 years25. During that time, the most hated Indemnity Bill
got its passage. However, he was
23 Mizanur Rahman Shelly Political Development and Nation
Building in Bangladesh, in Abdul Hafiz
and Abdur Rob Khan (eds.), Nation Building in Bangladesh
Retrospect and Prospect, Dhaka: 1986, p.181
24 Samuel P. Huntington Democracy for , op.cit., p.7
25 Hamza Alavi, The State in Post-Colonial Societies: Pakistan
and Bangladesh, in K. Gough and H. P. Sharma
(eds.). Imperialism and Revolution in South Asia, New York, and
also see in Kristen Westergaard, State and Rural Society in
Bangladesh (London, 1985).
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assassinated on 30 May 1981. Thereafter, General Hussain
Mohammad Ershad came to power through a bloodless Military coup on
24 March 1982 and kept the administration of the country under his
direct control for another 9 years until he was forced to surrender
power in early December 1990 to a Caretaker Government headed by
the then Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh. Later on
Begum Khaleda Zia and Sheikh Hasina emerged as the strongest Prime
Ministers of Bangladesh ever existed in the Parliamentary Polity.
They established Prime-ministerial system rather than parliamentary
system and kept the Parliament and their parties under their
personal control. During their rules, the executive arrogation
was complete. Due to Prime
Minister Begum Khaleda Zias arrogancy and uncompromising
attitudes, the most
experienced and democratically elected popular President,
Professor (Dr.) A.Q.M. Badruddoza Chowdhury had to leave the
Presidency unceremoniously. Again devoid of parliamentary norms as
well as inconsistent with the constitutional provisions, the
Awami
League leadership used officials and other agencies to lure two
BNP lawmakers to join her Consensus Cabinet might be a tactical
move to undermine the Opposition BNP, but undoubtedly, it testified
the executive arrogancy of the highest order. In fact, the whim of
the party leaderships inside and outside of the House had weakened
the bases of party politics in one hand and on the other,
dysfunctional trends in the Parliament had become inevitable.
11:V The Culture of Distrust The term culture of distrust may be
drawn its origin from the legacy of the British colonial
rule during the Eighteenth century. It is evident in the history
of colonialism that, by and large, the colonial administration very
carefully sowed the seeds of mistrust between the Hindu and the
Muslim communities in India by devising a policy of devide and
rule- which enabled the British to subjugate the Indians for more
than 150 years. In the context of the political climate of
Bangladesh, the culture of distrust has got its own root cause of
rule against the will of the people. The incorporation of the
Article 70 in the Constitution attempts to cease the freedom or
liberty of a party MP to speak freely or cast his vote in the House
against the decision of the
party (ruling or Opposition) with which ticked he was elected in
the Parliament is an example
Also see C.H. Dodd, Political Development, London: 1972,
p.15
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of distrusting of its own party MP. A senior Opposition MP had
to lose his parliamentary seat due to his non-compliance of the
party leaderships directives. This was a syndrome of distrust26
that created a situation of apathy and distastes among the MPs
(ruling and Opposition) about the efficacy and utility of the
House. Again, the drastic change of the Constitution in 1975
without having fresh mandate from the electorates was another
symptom of distrust between the ruler and ruled. In fact, the
Fourth Amendment to the Constitution created a full-blown
constitutional crisis that enabled extra-constitutional elements to
keep the country under the clutches of their personal rule for
more
than 15 years. Again, the political communication between the
two major partners of the State power since 1991 are hardly
noticeable. Even at the critical juncture of the nation, like
natural disasters or national issues like water crisis, insurgency,
law and order situation, corruptions, etc., the two leaders were
not found sitting across the table to hammer out solutions of the
crisis facing the country. The country belongs to the people, not
to any individual, should
be the guiding principle to rule the country. Finally, the
question of impartiality of the Caretaker Government which
successfully managed to hold last three general elections in a free
and fair environment and earned national and international
acclamation, had been the subject of criticism mainly for the trust
deficit on the part of the loser parties. However, the elections
engineering mechanism, political intrigues
and corruption of the outgoing BNP regime triggered
unprecedented protest and movements in the country prompted the
military backed Caretaker Government to declare state of
emergency and to postpone the election for more than a year. As
a corollary to the Caretaker Governments action, the country
apparently plunged into another constitutional crisis of legitimacy
of the non-elected Caretaker Governments stay in power beyond the
90 days constitutional provision of limitation.
The need of the hour is to inculcate trust and discipline in the
body politic and to graduate from an elected to a
participatory-democracy (Iqbal Jafar, Dawn, 02 April 2010). Its
total absence in political culture of Bangladesh is at the root of
culture of distrust or trust deficit between the stakeholders of
the State and between the rulers and ruled.
26 See also, Iqbal Jafar, Culture of Distrust, Dawan (Islamabad)
2 April 2010, p.7
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12: Concluding Remarks Most of the South Asian countries
including Bangladesh and Pakistan have experienced democracy for
fairly a long period of time, but the way it unfolded since their
independence in 1947 and 1971 respectively disillusioned the people
and political observers. After a protracted movement for more than
a decade, people of Bangladesh were able to defeat the army
autocracy and return to a much-coveted parliamentary governance in
1991. It rekindled aspirations and expectations among the masses
for a Change for a better governance and economic opportunities.
The euphoria of democracy soon faded away due to the subsequent
regimes unabated corruption, terrorism, fast deteriorating law
and order situation, free style crimes, hijacking, kidnapping,
politicization of administration, governmental facilities and
opportunities. It was alleged that for all these vices and
declining situation, the subsequent regimes failures, inefficiency
and irresponsible attitude and ineffectiveness were largely held
responsible. The people of Bangladesh are highly politicized. They
are fully aware of their right to rule. They are committed to
establish participatory-democracy through free and fair elections.
Although democratic rites and procedures of free and fair elections
legalized the authority of the party/ parties to govern the
country, but the ruling elites inability or incapability to realize
the gravity of the rule by the will of the people (democratic
outcome), compelled the electorate to reject both the popular
leaderships of the country in the 1996, 2001and 2008 General
Elections respectively. The electoral debacles of the BNP and AL in
the 1996, 2001 and 2008 General Elections were a clear message for
the contending parties to change their authoritarian culture of
politics be at the party or leadership levels and thus, to pave the
way for good governance ensuring peoples participation. In the last
2008 General Elections, the BNP lost its mandate to govern the
country, and the voters verdict gave the Awami League legitimacy to
run the show and provided them another opportunity to substantiate
the desired outcome of the democracy that they rule by the will of
the people lest not they lose moral credibility to govern the
country. The balance sheet of the two-decade of parliamentary
democracy in Bangladesh presents a bleak picture where dividends of
democracy are few if not insignificant while the debit side of the
account is shocking and perplexing. The voting behavior of the
electorates in Bangladesh
indicates that the vast majority of them holds democracy to be
the best available form of
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governance, but at the same time, they are disillusioned with
the outcome of democracy as an insignificant number of them hardly
experienced the rule by the will of the people. The enormous gap
between the norms and practice of democracy in Bangladesh is
perhaps its greatest challenge or crisis of today. Thus, the
growing public disillusionment and resentment with the outcome of
democracy may be used by the extra-constitutional elements to
justify another spell of authoritarian rule in Bangladesh and that
may frustrate the long cherished goal of democracy in the country.
In the likely eventuality, Bangladesh needs a strong political
leadership that can build up a
progressive political party to help creating a corruption-free
society. Bangladesh is plagued with multiple crises. Any
half-hearted attempts may not resolve its problems. The
Bangladesh
leadership can deliver quick and effective results, first, by
empowering masses and increasing political communication between
the peoples (ground reality) and the Government; secondly by
building infrastructure for future development; thirdly by
developing agents of socio-cultural change like education
(Bhardwaj, Sandeep, 2009) and finally by improving relations and
cooperation with its SAARC stakeholders.
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2011
27
Selected Readings
Ahmed, Moudud, Democracy and the Challenge of Development: A
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Arblaster, Anthony, Democracy, Buckingham: Open University
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Beetham, D. (ed.), Introducing Democracy, Cambridge: Blackwell
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Bhardwaj, Sandeep, Bangladesh in 2009: Challenges After
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Bobbio, Norberto, The Future of Democracy, Cambridge: Policy
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Braibani, Ralph, et.al. Asian Bureaucratic System: Emergence
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Dodd, C.H., Political Development, London: 1972, p.15
Diamond, Larry, Linz, Juan J., Lipset, S. M. (eds.), Democracy
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Dunn, John (ed.), Democracy: The Unfinished Journey, Oxford:
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Gallup International, The Voice of the People, London: 2006, pp.
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Haider, Zaglul, Parliamentary Democracy in Bangladesh: from
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Huntington, Samuel P., Democracy for the Long Haul. The Journal
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_________, The Third Wave: Democratization in the Late Twentieth
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_________, Bangladesh: New Threats and Old Insecurities in Lee
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2011
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Jafar, Iqbal, Culture of Distrust, Dawn (Islamabad) 2 April
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Jahan, Rounaq, Bangladesh: Problems and Issues, Dhaka:
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Lij Phart, Arend, Democracy in Plural Societies, New Haven,
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Lipset, S. M. Political Man, New Delhi, 1973.
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The Transparency International, Bangladesh (TIB), Parliament
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White, James W., The Government And Politics of Japan, Tokyo:
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Dawn (Karachi) 02 April 2010.
The Morning Sun (Dhaka) 8 December 1993.
The Daily Star (Dhaka), 31 May 1994, 03 December 1997, 14
February 1998, 29-30 December 2008, 7 January 2009
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Dawn (Islamabad), 2 April 2010