The country goes to an election once again come January. One expects the voting to be conducted smoothly, with citizens happily making their way to the polling centres and casting their ballots freely and happily, without any intimidation or interference.
Since elections are a way of fortifying democracy in Bangladesh, indeed in any country, it is only proper that every citizen take the opportunity to exercise his right of franchise and make his preference known for the politicians he would like to speak for him and for his fellow citizens in parliament and in government.
But, of course, there have been the recurring problems with our elections. In the first place, we have not had an Election Commission that could have its writ run through the whole process of electioneering and voting. In these past many years, despite calls for a strengthening of the Election Commission, there has not been much to indicate the emergence of a situation that could impress the electorate.
In the second place, the repeated absence of a major political party, in this instance the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, from the voting has prevented elections from being the intensely competitive affair the nation would have benefited from.
Elections are a battle for the soul of a nation, in that political sense of the meaning. Political parties are expected to join the battle either as independent units or as part of alliances and so test their acceptability or otherwise with the electorate.
But elections are not and ought not to be an arrangement where seats or constituencies are shared between parties. When a ruling party, in this case the Awami League, agrees to withdraw its candidates from twenty-six constituencies in order for the Jatiya Party to be elected from there, it is the democratic rule book which is upended.
Elections then begin to look like a friendly match. Friendly matches in politics or sports do not arouse the enthusiasm of the audience. Similar sentiments arise when the smaller parties in the fourteen-party alliance are given a few seats in order to have them demonstrate their relevance.
A political party’s relevance rests on its ceaseless campaign to broaden its appeal, by expanding its base, to the electorate. These allies of the ruling party have not moved an inch from where they were years ago, which is a terrible flaw in politics.
That said, the election campaign should be an opportunity for the political parties to spell out the programmes they mean to implement once the voting is over. Not all parties will go to power, of course, but it is imperative that in the run-up to the elections the parties and their nominees inform the electorate about the issues they mean to tackle in power or in parliament.
All too often, we have had intense, powerful rhetoric from the parties over the years. We have had arguments and counter-arguments on history, on the political legacy the nation has been home to over the decades. That is as it should have been. But beyond that there are the issues which citizens need reassurance on.
The parties, through their manifestos and public pronouncements, ought to come forth with detailed analyses of how they mean to handle the issues which today exercise the public mind. Rising prices, indeed the cost of living, are an issue that holds greater substance than anything else in the country at this point of time. The parties know that the lives of citizens have in recent times been marred by the syndicates which have had a stranglehold on prices in the market.
Onions, potatoes, rice, meat, fish, vegetables, et cetera, have gone beyond the reach of the common man. Prior to the elections, therefore, one expects the political parties to stay away from making grandiose statements on politics and ideology and instead focus on how they will ensure for citizens an easier trip to the market after the voting is over. The citizen is worried about food on the table for his family. Everything else is of little consequence for him.
The political parties should be focusing, in their interaction with citizens, on the measures they mean to adopt with regard to law and order, with those means of governance which will reassure them that the nation’s security apparatus is there to uphold the rights of all citizens where freedom of movement, of speech, of thought, of religious belief is the issue. Platitudes will not do. A politicisation of institutions will only compound the crisis.
One expects concrete, well formulated programmes to be made available to citizens before the vote and for those policies to be put into implementation mode after the elections. That the harassment of individuals and groups on political grounds will turn into a bad story of the past is what the citizen would like to be reassured about.
Citizens, civil society groups and political leaders have consistently drawn attention to the need to do away with the corruption eating away at the vitals of society. The election campaign should be that moment when the political parties will be expected to lay out detailed programs on the measures they mean to adopt towards tackling such issues as money laundering and the flight of capital from the country.
How do the parties plan to bring to justice those who have siphoned off national resources abroad and will their plans to such an end be put in place in full view of the general public? How do the parties plan to check the vicious circle of black money being turned into white money, a menace we have lived with for years, when they come to power or go into parliament?
Over the years, influential elements have commandeered land, riverbanks and other resources and have got away with the act. There are businessmen and investors who have through the decades taken out loans from the banks and have never bothered to repay them. The country will not be at peace as long as these elements remain beyond the pale of the law.
Citizens will not find the promises made by politicians to be credible if such elements are not brought to justice. It is on such issues that party manifestos must focus on. Vague statements will not impress the electorate. Fully shaped strategies on dealing with the issues will.
Politics is certainly about going to power or seeking power. But politics is also a measure of the ability or willingness of the political classes to inform citizens of what their mission is, what their policies will be and how they mean to give the country the wherewithal that will enrich democracy through deepening its roots in the country.
On the campaign trail, the candidates will be required to explain what measures they have in place to curb bureaucratic corruption, all the way from the bottom to the top.
It is certainly not a tall order when politicians seeking high office are expected to explain, in statements and speeches and interviews before the vote, the policies they have in place on employment for the young, climate change, medicare, women’s empowerment, education, social welfare and foreign policy.
We do not expect the political parties to talk down to us but to convince us that their policies resonate with our sentiments and that they will have those policies underpin their governance or their performance in parliament. Competent, honest and informed governance is the promise the parties must offer in the course of the campaign,
Post-election 2024, citizens will expect parliament to be that expansive and vibrant political arena where ideas will be debated and arguments will be put across, all on the quotidian issues which assail people’s lives. Citizens expect the ruling party that will emerge to be responsive to the questions raised; they will wait for the opposition to keep the chamber lively and engaged through its questioning of the governing party on the latter’s performance.
The January elections should be directed at a listing of the problems citizens face every day as they go about life in a state of worry. In this people’s republic, where the gap widens day by day between rich and poor, the people would be better served through politicians coming level with them in a meaningful conversation on matters voters are concerned about.
Home truths matter. The price of green chilli is among the truths citizens expect the politicians to explain to their satisfaction.
Syed Badrul Ahsan is Cosultant Editor, Dhaka Tribune.
