-Rakibul Hasan
THERE are some inevitable questions, taken as proof for democracy, are yet to be answered in the context of Bangladesh. Like what is it happening in the political arena in the name of democracy in the country? Is it all about just the practice of universal suffrage? Where democracy, a rule of the people by the people for the people, always concerns whether people get political goods- those rights citizens legally pursue to get? Bangladesh experienced several marshal regimes and had to restart democracy in its forwarding pathway, still the circumstances do not favor rather the evil changes its forms stubbornly in the ‘dictatorial’ type of democracy what we see presently. However, it is very conspicuous that western liberal type of democracy apparently does not function properly in Bangladeshi context and the causes behind the hurdles to democracy have been evaluated in the write-up.Party-political domain: Political Parties, more or less in every state, play a crucial role in democracy and in making history of a nation for its own shake. Anti-colonial movements against British and anti-discrimination movement against Pakistan are the glorious history of political parties in the region, specifically the organised role in the struggle against the post-independence military regimes are all those show the legacies of the political parties in Bangladesh. But in recent cases, the hatreds among the political parties loosing democracy, Rounaq Jahan (2003:223-29), even the political leaders are unwilling to recognise how their actions are threatening the fabric of democracy. The failure of the two political parties to negotiate their differences threatens the future of the democracy in Bangladesh and can give rise non-state actors as there can create a vacuum if the violent scenarios go on. Instabilities within the parties, quick fragmentation, frequently changing loyalties create one-man parties lacking democratic norms and seriously obstacling proper democratic culture to grow.
Money and muscle politics: In recent decades, politicians are banished to retire from politics and the vacancy is replaced by the non-politician corporatists. What they actually do is the politics of money making and muscle to secure their business. So getting nomination to run the voting campaigns, they pump huge amount of money just to purchase so-called voters and get a licence with political impunity. The voters who have got the little money have certainly sacrificed their right to develop either themselves or their community within the 5-yearly term and those elected representatives manipulate their spent money in the period. Consequently, this practice narrows the scope for the real politicians to repatriate and inspires the businessmen to make money through the political connections. For the existing political cultures, the parties have to compromise with the motives of financers and donors that is why the parties are composed of politicians, businessmen, bureaucrats, retired military personnel
Anyhow, along with the money, political parties use the violent methods in forms of politicised and party recruited law enforcing forces, party cadres, gangsters and hooligans damaging public property rampantly just to suppress the opposition. Also, use of terror against the religious and ethnic minorities is very endemic during the election. It is almost no differences between the civil-military regimes in the form that military uses guns, tanks whereas democratic parties use strike, blockade, vandalism, hartals etc in the name of democratic rights or the protest against the injustice of the ruling counterparts
Endemic hartals: One of the powerful and damaging tools, used by the political parties, in Bangladeshi politics is Hartal/strike. Hartal reduces industrial production as those have been stuck in the stalemate. Mainly Hartal affects the urban unskilled and semi-skilled laborers and daily wage-earners thoroughly. Education activities experience serious session-jam and other unexpected academic delay. However, the reality is that major political parties persist hartals as the important tools in both supporting and opposing hartal, disrespecting the will of the people, as major parties are always inconsistent to stay in their position. They dispatch hartal when they run the government and readily practice it while turning into the opposition status in the name of constitutional rights.
Absence of democracy within the party is termed as the within impediments in the institutionalisation of democracy in the Bangladesh state. There are no provisions for election in the central and local level of the parties. Some sort of dynastic system is prevailing at the highest level at the parties. With the passage of time, such peculiar system has developed that nobody even dares to access the top post of the parties.
Instead of fair democratic competition, family status, influence and connections with the higher authority of the have become crucial in holding a position within the parties. So in many cases, grass-roots level. politicians have often been cornered by the newcomers. As a consequences, retired civil-military personnel, business elites turned themselves into politicians and mafias. What they do is just for the sake of corporatism, never for democracy and not even for the parties as well.
Absence of enlightened political class is largely caused by the lack of modern education among the candidates. But unfortunately a certain number political representatives are inadequately educated and settled in politics through the lobbying with the centre. Basic structure (economy), social equity, culture of tolerance are some preconditions for liberal democracy. The Bangladeshi political system lacks such an enlightened political class with necessary knowledge in ruling and accommodating political oppositions.
Patron-clientelism: The political parties develop a hierarchy of leaders and cadres from top to bottom. The relationship bases on kinship. battling for the leadership, wining in the election at any cost and personal goals have become the priorities instead of dedication for the people or promoting democracy.
Finally, as a soft democracy Bangladesh is growing to institutionalise democratic norms and values. But the greed and grievances equally spoils the background where it rests on. Since the independence, there appears a serious lacking in nation-building that affects it to a great extent and some issues are yet not resolved also like war crimes and state-ideologies. Until these issues are answered, democratisation never flourishes and the wheel of development will be going to slow day by day.
(The writer is a Research Assistant at Bangladesh Institute of Peace and Security Studies (BIPSS) and a undergrad student of the Department of Peace and Conflict Studies at University of Dhaka. Email: rakib_pacs@yahoo.com)
