It seems that our leading political parties have no principles, no ideology, no set policy and no goal, except to retain power or gain power. There are no rules in the game except that: “We must win and the other must lose, and everything else must be made subservient for this.”
Sporadic violence is engulfing the entire country. The number of the dead is rising by the hour. As the scale of violence gets bloodier every passing hour with no sign of abating, terror has gripped the populace. Common, law-abiding, and peaceful citizens have become helpless hostages to the madness all around.
The international community has called for restraint. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon again has called for an “inclusive, non-violent and credible” election in Bangladesh and encouraged the two major political parties to engage in constructive dialogues to that end. But neither side seems willing to heed the UN’s plea.
Since the onus of establishing order and peace is on the ruling Awami League, it must come out of the box of conventional thinking. Dialogue among the parties embroiled in the present crisis is still possible. In the diplomatic world, it is happening often between arch enemies even in the midst of a bloody war. And it is only logical that the lead should be taken by the party in power.
Authoritarian tendency to hang on to power even after the term in office is over became discernible since the first general election of 1991. Distrust between both the dynastic claimants to power grew over time. This undemocratic desire to deny the opponent political camp a fair environment to vie for power through elections prepared the ground for the entry of extremist behaviour in political practice. At a par with militancy in political polemic, political encounters also started to get more violent and bloody on the street.
There is no doubt that the nation is passing through the worst of times in terms of confrontation between the government and the political parties in the opposition. It is really a critical juncture for the nation.
Society is now dangerously polarised. Never before, since independence, has the nation been forced into such an artificially created crisis. And all this is the product of chicanery and Machiavellianism in order to get political mileage out of them against the adversary.
How power is transferred from one government to the next is an indicator of a democracy. At the end of its term, a democratic government hands over power to the next elected government peacefully and smoothly.
It is unfortunate that four decades after our independence, we could not find a transparent and peaceful mechanism for the transfer of power. As a result, we see at the end of every regime a severe confrontation among political parties, where common people are the worst victims. Past elections have been marked by continuous hartals, vandalism and attacks on the public.
The impartiality of the caretaker governments, which successfully managed to hold the last four general elections in a free and fair environment and earned national and international acclaim, had been subject to criticism mainly for the trust deficit on the part of the losing parties.
In view of the current stand-off, one feels that there is no scope to hold parliamentary elections peacefully without a non-partisan government, and it is believed to be the opinion of the majority of the people of the country. The government must respect the people’s voice.
Since the current standoff is of an intensive variety and political leaders seem extremely stubborn, it has become necessary for all the conscious citizens of this country to find ways to salvage democracy as early as possible.
All our editors, senior journalists, teachers, lawyers, doctors, engineers, architects, accountants, retired civil and military bureaucrats and civil society members should be united in making the following proposals: The President shall dissolve the parliament; PM’s executive powers shall be dissolved for election time; main opposition shall run five important ministries like home, defence, finance, foreign and commerce during election time; and the EC should be revamped: The activities of the present chief election commissioner and other election commissioners have recently raised confusion, amounting to a sense of scepticism as to their capabilities. The EC should be thoroughly re-organised.
The following pledges must also be made by the political parties: Democratic norms shall be practiced in the party; party chief and head of state shall be different people; tenure of government shall be four years; there shall be a balance of power between the president and prime minister; Constitutional bodies shall be allowed to work independently, and a national advisory council shall advise the government on policy issues.
We must put pressure on them to accept the proposals for the greater interest of the country. Time is running out and we cannot wait anymore. We want the hooliganism to end.