I will just go ahead and say this like it is: in Bangladesh, when we vote for anyone in particular, it depends largely on our personal biases and the personality of the candidate in question. I have hardly ever found any evidence that suggests otherwise.
We tend not to tether our votes to issues and solutions. Matters of substance regarding governance are not interesting to our electorate as they should be in a healthy democracy. I admit I am talking in broad strokes here but I’d wager a healthy amount that I am correct about the above.
Before I am lynched for stating two of the personalities I am about to address in the same sentence, I do so only because it’s a political certainty that they will lead us into the future whether we like it or not.
The celebratory undertone in bedroom conversations nationwide regarding the return from exile of Mr Tareq Rahman and the national unveiling of Mr Sajeeb Wazed Joy, recently appearing as the knight in shining armour for Awami League’s future, just goes to show how deep our biases and personality addictions are.
We follow through with our biases that are pan generational in nature. We hand them down to our children. Breaking away from these boxes we have built as a nation for years and assigned ourselves into is harder to do in reality.
I for one don’t ascribe to the notion that dynasty in politics is a bad thing per se because it has produced in many different parts of the world some fantastic politicians and leaders.
I find that the whole idea becomes a corroding force against merit when people are in effect forced to idolize the offsprings of legacy leaders as their only choice for governance, or when people consider the subjects of the dynasty as automatically deserving of their political legacy and as such fit to rule.
In absence of any real competition or of other meritorious political figures in Bangladesh, that is in effect our situation. Upon presenting this point of view to many of my very learned friends and colleagues, I have been told that in a country like Bangladesh where votes stem, at least for the “existing status quo generation,” from legacy considerations, where the bloodline of ’71 leaders are considered “sang real,” dynasty trumps merit by default and there is nothing anyone can do about it.
We are doomed to a limited choice. The easiest solution and balancing formula would be a two-term limit to prime ministerial candidacy but I don’t think anyone has the fortitude to do so.
Therefore, I don’t find a problem when Mr Wazed professes that Bangladesh could be the “Switzerland of South Asia” or when Mr Rahman tells people we could be like Malaysia or Singapore some day soon.
In fact, I applaud that they have jumped into the dirty waters of politics head on with the intention to clean it up and it can only be a good thing when highly educated people like them do so.
What I find problematic is when they don’t tell us how exactly they want to go about doing what they are promising and when in a mirage of dreams we forget to cross-examine them in the merits of their claims due to their personality and lineage.
That truly is the biggest problem facing our democracy today. We buy into the personality cult and forget that our nation faces tremendous challenges that we can all fix together if we had the right leadership – showing us the way and leading by example.
We tend to forget the urgency of needed change and reforms in this country when faced with charms thrown at us by the newly initiated. It’s hard to see from the free pass we are giving to Mr Rahman & Mr Wazed and other younger contingent of politicians of the same ilk, already gaining traction in popularity, to see how they intend to assist Bangladesh accelerate development.
It’s important we ask more questions of them and insist on answers, after all they intend to shape our future and if we are not careful and more diligent, we may regret the fluff we end up believing and buying continuing the cycle of useless anti incumbency whining that we all participate in so casually while ruled by incoherent and uneducated mad men.