In all the democratic structures and our present governing system, the state, the government, and the ruling party are three different entities.
They are meant to work together to achieve a unified goal, which is to ensure the welfare of the country and its people.
However, there has been a tendency for these three entities to merge -- and not just in the current dispensation -- causing a significant problem in the democratic process.
This article aims to discuss the importance of the separation of powers in a democratic republic and the pitfalls of a government that fails to recognize this principle.
The state refers to the entire terrain within a political boundary, including the citizens, assets, and political power within that periphery.
Every citizen has ownership over the state. Officials of the state are to remain alert in preserving the interest of the state and the welfare of its citizens.
They will not represent any person or political party, especially the ruling party.
Since all citizens collectively own the state, officials representing the state must treat all citizens and their organizations similarly and refrain from discriminating on any basis.
Political parties are organizations formed by people to run political activities. When a party becomes eligible and forms the government, that party becomes the ruling party.
The ruling party will continue its efforts to improve the confidence and support in favour of their party government.
As soon as the government is formed, it becomes its responsibility to run the country in such a way that citizens and the country are benefitted.
But that goal can never be achieved if it discriminates between people, favours its own, and deprives others.
In the current context, there has been a tendency for the state and the government to merge, and there appears to be little difference between the ruling party and the government.
The head of the ruling party generally takes up the responsibility of the head of government, controlling all other institutions of the state.
This makes way for the head of government to have full control over all the authorities of the state.
Parliament, Judiciary, Election Commission, Anti-Corruption Commission, Public Service Commission, Human Right Commission, and other similar institutions have been created to serve people.
Their ultimate objective includes giving protection to people's interests and rights against abuse of authority by the government.
But when the functioning of these bodies gets intertwined with or beholden to the ruling party, it becomes difficult to achieve that.
For instance, whenever there is any political program of the ruling party, government machinery, including facilities, resources, and employees, provides all possible support.
On the other hand, other political parties are not being provided similar assistance, and anti-government political parties are reportedly harassed by the same government functionaries during their various programs.
There is also the tendency to term anti-government statements, or other activities, as anti-state and are treated accordingly. Laws like the Digital Security Act have been created to facilitate the same.
People believe that ruling party members or persons referred by them get preferential consideration for the appointment, posting, and transfer of employees of the state, even in constitutional establishments.
Regarding businesses and the economy, it is widely believed that almost all are being distributed among government-connected people using means created for that purpose.
There exists a perception that employees of the state are working directly or indirectly in favour of the ruling party during different local government and national elections.
Consequently, political adversaries and dissidents of the ruling party must rein themselves in.
In course of time, all political parties would lose their effectiveness and would ultimately be eliminated, if the said trend continues. People would feel deprived of their rights granted as per normal democratic practices.
The People's Republic of Bangladesh is the greatest achievement of our heroic war of independence. Bangladesh is a republic, meaning people have ownership of Bangladesh. It is not a monarchy where the king will have that right and people will serve as a powerless subject. In a republic, people are the owner of all powers of the state.
People will delegate their share of power to representatives elected by them for running the country as a government. The government so elected will run the affairs of the state as per the will of the people. People will change the government in case they feel their choices are not reflected in the activities of the state.
As such, the government must facilitate and encourage institutions and other means to know what the people say.
Similarly, it is not only the right, it is the duty of each citizen to criticize the government. Otherwise, the government may not know its faults. This is the practice of democracy.
Bangladesh is a republic and is to be run democratically. That was the intention for which the war of independence was fought.
The idea was to ensure accountability of government to people which in turn will build a society having rule of law based on social justice.
The expectation was to liberate the people of this region from the centuries-old perpetual problem of discrimination, deprivation, poverty, suppression, oppression, and authoritarian misrule.
We have come out victorious in our war of independence. The question now after 52 years of that victory is this: Could we win in our war of liberation, which was the desired goal for achieving independence in the first place?
GM Quader is Jatiya Party Chairman.