New democratic system that may suit Bangladesh!

Political culture changed for bad
Whatever might be the types of democracies, one thing should remain constant and that is the people must have the final say in all affairs and there must be ways to bring that to actual practice. Today, Bangladesh faces the greatest challenge in its democratic practices. We achieved democracy through great sacrifices. It is gratifying to look back and see how the various political parties and particularly two major political parties worked together with the people to bring the downfall of the dictatorship. But the political culture in Bangladesh has unfortunately taken a bad turn where political parties feel that they must remain in power or come to power whatever may be the cost to the nation and that has led us to this position today. The people are absolutely flabbergasted by the political situation in the country.

Endless problems for citizens
There is a long list of problems that the citizens face: no culture of political tolerance and wild accusations and indeed abuses inflicted on political parties by other parties, parliament boycott, absence of democracy in the major political parties leading to extreme frustrations among the promising and dedicated politicians, successive bad governance. And also recent disturbing episodes: assassinations during successive governments including assassination of a former Finance Minister belonging to Awami League, killing of journalists, particularly investigative journalists, and killers hardly brought to justice, shameful grenade attack on a diplomat and several political and other killings that led to unwanted and undiplomatic open criticisms by the diplomats of some countries that infringe on our sovereignty (diplomats are certainly entitled to protest through diplomatic means i.e. through the Foreign Office. No diplomat of any country in the US could ever speak openly about America's human rights violations and particularly those in Guantanamo Bay and Afghan and Iraqi prisons ), urban corruption of unacceptable proportions, bribery and extortions, nepotism, continuous hartals in the name of democratic right, street battles of the political activists with the police as even peaceful hartal processions are not allowed to proceed, police excesses on opposition sometimes even without provocation, extreme politicisation of the bureaucracy including the security apparatus, unnecessary and increased politicisation of practically all other organs of the society relating to business, lawyers, doctors, engineers, media, teachers and students etc, weakness in the legal system and alleged corruption at lower judiciary while there is still no separation of Judiciary from the Executives.

It's an endless list of grievances and people have been talking about them through print media, particularly through private electronic media (TV channels) with a view to bringing them to the notice of the political parties but there is hardly any effect and hence the present unrest in the country. The people feel that this might take an undesirable turn any time. So it is high time for the civil society to come forward and talk to the political parties and suggest means that could bring an end to the present deadly political situation.

New system to end unrest
In this context I would venture the following suggestions keeping in view the demands of the Opposition. Majority of the demands deserve favourable consideration by parties in power as many of these appear reasonable. But for that the parties must go to the parliament, debate them there for a solution or sit across the table for the same. This is what needs to be done in a democracy. The continued pressure for resignation and the ruling party's refusal to do so has put the country on to a destructive path.

Bangladesh has been experiencing such political unrest for many years and the people have been suffering untold miseries. Therefore, it would be quite in order to go for a new kind of democracy which may bring an end to the present political tussle for power. If power is the main concern and not people's interest and welfare, then the two parties the ruling coalition and the opposition coalition -- should choose to go for dividing the term of five years on the basis of the total popular votes or number of seats grabbed by each side. If, for example, coalition A gets 35 percent of the popular votes or say 250 seats and coalition B gets 32 percent votes or 175 seats in the parliament (the exact numbers may be different), then coalition A would govern for say three years and the other B say for two years. In other words, coalition A would hand over power to coalition B immediately after three years. So there would be no bloodshed for mid-term elections. This would obviously be a departure from the traditional democratic form. But, as stated above, the types of democracy differ from country to country and if sticking to the traditional type leads to political unrest and bloodshed, then the best course would be to do away with it and go for the one that suits the people and saves their lives. We already have the undemocratic system of caretaker government. So there should be no problem to choose something that is somewhat different from the traditional one. This may be tried for say two/three terms to see how it works and also go on plugging the loopholes, if any.

The argument is that such a system may not have regular opposition in the parliament and it may look like a national government. Yes, this is what is needed when our politicians are unable to work together amicably in a democratic manner. Anyway, have we ever been really having effective opposition in the parliament? Indeed, the new system would encourage members of the political parties to work as per their conscience within the party and voice opposition wherever necessary. It's high time to do that.

Showing respect to the leader(s) of parties is certainly important, but not at the expense of members' own conscience which Almighty Allah has bestowed on human beings to make them superior to the Angels. Today, there is practically no democracy in our political parties. The political parties should encourage opposition within their organisation so that real democratic system is established. We must not give any opportunity to others to lecture on us that Bangladesh does not have real democracy. We must be fully conscious of our rights and obligations and uphold our hard earned sovereignty and democracy. Only then we will show proper respect to the martyrs and be able to maintain the spirit of Liberation War.

Muslehuddin Ahmad is a former Secretary, Ambassador and Founder VC of NSU and Presidency University. He is also the Chairman of Civic Watch Bangladesh.