Democracy, as many experts would suggest, is an ongoing experiment in governance that which morphs and improves with a lot of time. No matter how small the change, often there is a quantitative and qualitative upward trend in most democracies over time which we often do not realise.
“Our democracy is an infant one” many experts go on to suggest. I agree with them. As a people we are demanding. The real problem is that we have a lot of tolerance and the shortest political memory known to mankind.
This leads us in big numbers to keep changing governments every five years, partly to avenge our complaints with the incumbent and partly stemming from the belief that change is truly just beyond the cusp of every switchover.
Unfortunately, in our short stint as a democratic nation until the events that followed 1/11, we have seen firsthand that that is not true. Regardless of the party in power, it’s always been business as usual.
Post-2008, however, just by glancing at the election manifestos placed in front of us by both parties, we knew that the events prior had contributed to a hard rethinking of governance policies and visions.
BNP’s manifesto sunk by election time as it was burdened with the weight of failures during their immediate regime and AL had a clear path and meant to propose a different future that looked attractive and fresh to the people.
AL’s victory proved that their manifesto amongst other factors had true national appeal. Fast forward five years, we have a lot of people still grumbling about government and considering another change notwithstanding that unlike all previous governments and their promises, a lot of progress has been made on the 2008 manifesto commitments.
It is a fact that a lot has been achieved. Yes, hard targets haven’t been fully met on a majority of those manifesto points and some positions even reversed like that of caretaker government reform but overall, positive progress has been made on many vital substantive issues.
By no means am I suggesting that the AL government has delivered on all its promises or performed even close to a universally acceptable standard but they have delivered on a lot of vital issues that the nation deeply needed urgent work on and to me understanding the nature of our politics, people and the system, had I voted for AL in the past election (I voted No because I wanted real change) then I would be inclined to consider voting them again in the upcoming elections.
Is there more to do? Of course there is. Are there legitimate concerns? Yes, Rampal, Rooppur, human rights, inter-party violence, ICT provisions come to mind.
I strongly believe it is time for us to start a new experiment. This, within the prevailing status quo we already have in place. In the absence of new leadership and the unlikely appearance of a viable third party with a legitimate agenda, I suggest we try a new tact with what we have.
It is less revolutionary and more evolutionary in nature. I strongly urge all the readers of this op-ed to consider a state of continued governance. It’s benefitted the US and India to name a few.
We always vote the incumbent government out of power and all development stops for a considered revision by way of partisan readjustment and alignment. It’s damaging and a waste of our limited resources.
Then we witness the political revenge game post-elections and we find ourselves not concentrating on what’s important ie continued development by taking forward the achievements of the previous government.
We repeatedly stunt our own growth. The first year of any new government is crucial and we can’t risk resetting the progress counter to a zero to start all over again when we have so much work already done and so much in the pipeline left to do.
So why not give the incumbent another chance? What could we end up losing that we haven’t lost over our limited time as a democracy? How bad could it possibly get?
Therefore, I am likely to vote AL, if not solely based on the memory of the previous BNP performance and the absence of a No Vote on the ballot this time, then to at least try the experiment of continued governance with a steady agenda.
If all else fails, we always have 2021 to make our feelings amply known. In democratic politics nothing lasts in perpetuity and therefore there is no harm in trying something different. To not do so would be foolish.