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Is the country heading towards a disaster?

23 June 2006, 18:00 PM
OPINION
By Md. Asadullah Khan
23 June 2006, 18:00 PM
The unilateral appointment of Justice M.A. Aziz as CEC and two other commissioners of the EC, one belonging to the commission itself in some capacity and whose unflinching loyalty to some power blocks has always been an epic story and the other, a retired judge of the High Court, who after retirement, people allege, had become too much aligned to the ruling alliance's activities, had, to certain extent, shattered the hope of a free and fair parliamentary election in the country. Soon after appointment, Justice Aziz went ahead with preparing a fresh voter list defying existing electoral ordinance as well as the verdict of the High Court on a writ petition filed by the Awami League. Ironically, himself a judge, M. A. Aziz is pre-eminently famous for his attitude to ride roughshod with the rule of law. His latest decision not to send enumerators from door to door to update the voter list on the basis of the data prepared in 2001 has raised questions about his intention and sincerity in conducting a free and fair election. But with meticulously planned strategies from the day Justice Aziz took over as CEC, he could have transformed the moribund EC organisation into a dynamic institution that could deliver and outwit the rigging devices that would have sprung up later in the polls days, but he has lost that rare chance to hold any promise for the electorates. As CEC and as a sitting judge of the Supreme Court, he was to provide a level playing field for all the parties without fear or favour. Our soft-spoken and articulate law minister has absolved the CEC Justice M.A. Aziz of any wrong doing viz. his gamble with public money to the extent of more than 35 crore taka in a country that is sliding into depths of misery and economic slowdown, his haughty manners in dealing with the press, his feigned illness and absence from the office in a crisis situation. The argument or defence these high-ups in the government have are very potential in the sense that his is a constitutional position and the government has hardly anything to do unless he resigns himself, apparently meaning that he should resign. This time the Law Minister advised the opposition law makers to file case against him in the High Court for abuse of his position without making any uproar in the parliament.

People are inclined to think that this is a signal clear and open to all except CEC Aziz himself. .Appallingly, confrontation, as people now see is the oxygen of his existence. Most officials of his age and status would retreat as soon as possible, if they smelt public fury. CEC Aziz's response has been merely a step harder on the accelerator. What is most pathetic, he does not understand that he is earning only rebuke from the citizenry.

If the incumbent government has thought it proper to garner votes by implanting an EC or a caretaker government chief of its choice, then it is plainly mistaken. Every government tries to use the state machinery to its advantage, but no government has been able to change the course of a tide. If the alliance government has left a bright track record during the past five years, people would definitely vote them to power again like the voters in the West Bengal Assembly elections did, notwithstanding the anti-incumbency feeling that was prevailing there.

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With the EC again violating the Supreme Court verdict relating to preparation of voter list, it is courting public wrath that might erupt in a violent storm engulfing the whole country .As arguments and analysis of the activities of the EC in its present form and set up fly thick and fast, the last thing people could expect is not a fair election. With election due in January, 2007 after the tenure of the alliance government expires in October next, voter list, as experts opine, must be ready by November which seems to be a Herculean job for the present EC to complete in just five months from now.

Nevertheless with dialogue on reforms of the EC and Caretaker Government grinding to a halt, it seems hardly possible that elections could be held in January, 2007 as per the constitutional obligations. The constitution further mandates that the parliament shall stand dissolved after expiry of five years, completed on October 28 and unless the country gets involved in a war or faces natural disaster for which holding of elections become impossible, then elections must be held in just 90 days from the day the caretaker government takes charge of the administration. With all these issues left unresolved and the LGRD minister Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan reminding the opposition block that elections will be held as per the existing provision of the constitution, people can only apprehend the country heading towards a constitutional deadlock and a grave disaster.

What people further apprehend is that with elections held in such messy situation through gagging public opinion and with rigging devices that would inevitably follow, efforts to meet constitutional obligations will be a plain farce repeating the sad drama the nation witnessed in Justice Sadeque brand election in February 2001 and Magura Brand election conducted by Justice Rouf in 1996. Rather than soothing the festering malaise, psychic wounds and resentment flowing over the country on party levels, it will trigger violence may be in a scale that people fear to comprehend. Bangladeshis would once again be bracing for another struggle, this time for emancipation from the clutches of power hungry politicians. One wonders if our heroic people that won the battle for democracy, once in 1971 and then in 1990 are going to give in.

The British High Commissioner in Bangladesh Mr. Anwar Chaudhury in his recent meeting with the Reporters Unity has stressed the need for a credible election and a government brought to power in a transparent way that could only spur development and progress, eradicate corruption and root out the seeds of extremist ideas and militancy. Today Bangladesh is steeped in political uncertainties, begging for a resolution, not the kind the alliance government wants to achieve but the kind people want that can only be attained through an unfettered, free and fair election.

Not unusual in democratic parlance as the cynics in the administration continue to defy all prognosis, the country has burst into protest rallies demanding a credible election with all the political parties participating in it in a spirit of accommodation. Before the protest degenerates into a vicious game of violence, good sense must prevail. With an attitude of ignoring people's feelings the administration stands as the country's most unyielding democratic regime. In a democratic atmosphere the political leaders, most often treated as repositories of trust and hope, must have the backbone, stamina and courage to hear the harsh truth and to endure the blow, if it comes from their wrongdoing. Noticeably, BNP's tryst with power marked a shift in political culture of the country after liberation. A little more than four years in power this time the party looks more tired and tiring in spite of the much hyped facelift. Rather it has a face deformed by power. With allegations of sleaze and corruption, patronage and misgovernance the image of the BNP-Jamaat alliance in power today is remote from the idea and pledges it held out to the country.

Md. Asadullah Khan is a retired teacher of physics and Controller of Examinations, BUET.