The country witnessed an unprecedented election in its history and through there is a parliament and a cabinet have already been formed. Who has actually benefitted, the AL, the BNP or the masses of the people of this land? People don’t have interest in politics and election. People didn’t respond to the call of the leader of the opposition to come out to the street to unseat the government, but they didn’t. Why? May be they felt they would not benefit from it. But people at the corridors of power don’t have any reason to believe that people rejected the opposition and they were in good situation. People were feeling like fishes out of the water but they are helpless and dejected. They just depend on God and make themselves for their miseries. They have seen what politics can give them. Masses of the people are peace-loving. They don’t want to embroil themselves in nasty games. Politicians are clever enough to understand this pulse of the people and stage drama accordingly.
The 49-member cabinet headed by PM Sheikh Hasina was sworn in on 12 January which included some ‘reformist’ AL leaders and excluded some controversial faces. As many as 35 influential figures of the previous government could not make it to the new Cabinet. The chiefs of Workers Party, Jatiya Samastantrick Dal, Jatiya Party Manju and three MPs from Ershad’s Jatiya Party. Tarikat Federation and BNF the two other parties having representation in parliament are not in the cabinet. They will have their seats in the opposition benches which will remain in name only The most interesting part of the whole drama is that Ershad has become a special envoy to PM and at the same time recovered from his mysterious ‘illness’ making it a double fun for him. He will enjoy ministerial status though 180 MP aspirants of his party had to withdraw from the polls race on his directives. .
The AL has won three-fourths majority with 232 seats in the legislature. It was learnt earlier that Rawshan Ershad was going to be the Leader of the Oppostion. Some of JP leaders said they would play a double role. “We will be the opposition party in parliament, but we will also join the cabinet.” How mysterious and funny it sounds! AN AL presidium member has rightly said they should not resort to ‘hotchpotch in name of playing the double role. The new government is said to have been formed on the basis of a national consensus. Has the nation given its consent? Who constitute the nation? It is learnt that some JP MPs would join the cabinet while some others would be in the opposition. Peculiar situation indeed! None can find such a record in the countries practicing parliamentary democracy. Countries like the UK birthplace of the Westminster style of parliamentary democracy, New Zealand, Australia, Canada go to general elections by dissolving their parliaments. So, the question of constituting one parliament keeping the earlier one in existence does not arise in those countries. India is only exceptional .Indian Parliament more precisely its lower house Lok Sabha, existed during the general election on eight occasions. Sometimes parliament was dissolved after the election process had begun. But none of the previous parliaments was constituted keeping the existing one alive. The rest of the time parliament was dissolved much earlier than its tenure ended. India’s first parliament was constituted on April 17, 1952 following a general election held in the same year. That parliament existed when the general election to the second parliament was held in 1957. But the first parliament was dissolved on April 4, 1956, paving the way for new MPs to take oath to constitute the second parliament the next day.
Many policy maker so the ruling AL and government had earlier cited the Indian instances in defense of holding the General Election without dissolution of parliament. But the abnormal record they created by having new MPs-elect take the oath of office does not conform to the tradition set through the Indian Parliament. So, their claim that they have done everything for the sake of upholding the constitution does hold good here. The nation has failed to understand why the ruling AL has gone ahead with swearing in of the MPs for the just elected JS, when the 9th parliament was still in existence. This amounts to having 2 MPS from each constituency at the same time. Clearly this violates the spirit of the Article 123(3)(b) of the constitution. Again, Article 148(3) of the constitution says that after oath-taking the new MPSs will automatically take charge. We have now 638 sitting MPs at the same time.
In real democracy, government and opposition are complimentary to each other. In no way it can be one what is being practiced now. The role of these the government and the opposition gives a strong basis to the democracy which prevents a democratic government from becoming autocratic. Humans are not angels. They are highly susceptible to flattery, nepotism, corruption, misdeeds and wrongs. We do everything for in the name of people, but they unfortunately remain absent from everywhere. Iftekharuzzamn, the executive directive of TIB has commented ‘Forming government without taking mandate from the people will ultimately lead to just power sharing government.”
(Masum Billah is program manager, BRAC Education Programme and vice-president, Bangladesh English Language Teachers Association (BELTA) Email: masumbillah65@gmail.com)
