It’s safe to say that multi-party parliamentary democracy in Bangladesh is taking a severe beating these days. Regardless of what we think are the reasons for it, or whether we feel that a shrunken democratic environment is justified, the fact that it is happening is something most of us can quite plainly see.
The opposition’s refusal to contribute to the process of governance by boycotting parliament exacerbates the situation no doubt, but it would be unfair and essentially uninformed to lay the blame squarely at their feet. The Awami League’s overwhelming majority in the House has meant that the Bangladesh National Party and its allies have very little say in the passing of bills and the creation of laws, or for that matter, in the amending of the Constitution. Still, a more accommodating atmosphere might have given them reasons to at least try.
But that’s almost beside the point now. A series of moves over the last few months have made it abundantly clear that we are veering close to a total collapse of democratic, indeed of civil, statecraft.
Since February, the government has arrested opposition Members of Parliament and leaders, essentially dismantling a structured, legally instituted buffer against possible misrule. It has done this in the name of law and order, which is fine in principle, but it also means that the already strained space for debate and deliberation - a pillar of democracy - is now virtually gone. The premise under which the arrests took place also remains flimsy and very little is being done by civil society or the media, to try and challenge it. Prior to that, opposition rallies and marches were frequently attacked by law enforcers, even when they occurred in as peaceful a manner as can be expected under the circumstances.
The authorities have also closed down newspapers and television channels, and arrested bloggers on the even flimsier premise of ‘offending religious sentiments’ which, by its very vagueness, can include anything that sounds or smells like an opposing position.
Politicians like Iliyas Ali and the whistle-blowing driver in the Railways corruption scandal are missing for over a year now and very little is being done or said in the public discourse about their disappearances. In fact very little is being done about a number of suspicious and entirely unacceptable things, from successive corruption scandals involving billions of Takas to brutal murders of innocent tailors by groups associated with the ruling party.
Last but by no means least, the police have become extremely empowered and have brought to bear excessive force upon unarmed or lightly armed demonstrators, killing and injuring people by the hundreds. They have used live ammunition, have been indiscriminate in their operations and have behaved, often, like a heavily armed, heavily manned gang of thugs, immune from prosecution.
All of these are very worrying developments. Equally worrying are the allegations that the government has interfered with the judicial process and the War Crimes Tribunal, which true or not, means that the national expectation of seeing justice done for crimes committed during 1971, may potentially be hampered.
The Shahbagh Movement and the two Hefazat-e-Islam rallies might, on the surface, look like a healthy regard for dissent, and the government’s offer of dialogue with the main opposition party may seem like a commitment to democracy, but the fact that these movements and talks are allowed to prevail only so long as they are politically convenient, and only while the government is able to dictate terms and use the threat of force, means that there is a very real “democracy-deficit” in the Bangladeshi version of this popularly mandated, inclusive form of government.
But the best trick so far has been the government’s ability to get much of the country’s civil society to support it. Never mind that civil liberties, freedoms and rights are being trampled on, and forget about accountability and judicial due process, all anyone seems to be doing anymore is goading the government on as it assumes for itself extraordinary powers.
Zeeshan Khan is a Journalist.
