Choice of salvage or destruction

BANGLADESH has indeed made tremendous progress in business and industry and made great strides in social indexes in comparison with its neighbours. Today, Bangladesh stands only second to China in the textile sector, having overtaken two textile giants of South Asia —India and Pakistan. Bangladesh is progressing very well and very swiftly towards developing its ship-building industry, which is expected to be the next success story and has now set its eyes on the information technology space, focusing its energies on fostering talent to achieve the Digital Bangladesh dream and take off as a middle income country. This clearly reflects the ingenuity, entrepreneurial skills and foresight of our people. Even on the achievement of the millennium goals and the human development index, Bangladesh has done very well. For these achievements, all successive governments, the private sector and the non-governmental organisations are responsible and we all should share this pride.
However, because of our extremely corrupt and inept politics and crumbling constitutional institutions, lack or no rule of the rule of law, inadequate reforms, extremely poor infrastructure, widespread corruption at all levels are all attributable to our dirty, narrow politics devoid of vision. It is our polarised politics that holds us back and we are unable to progress as fast as we could though the potential to do so abounds. The cumulative effect is losing ground to other potential emerging economies, becoming increasingly less competitive and creating an inertia that pulls us back. Bangladesh has to grow at a double digit pace if it needs to be part of the league of the fastest growing economies in the world and give our people ‘Sonar Bangla’ which is our dream.
Our march towards progress is halted every two, three or four years with what the politicians call ‘political movements for restoration of people’s rights’ or ‘democracy’ and these so-called movements are carried out at the cost of progress and development and without any insensitivity towards its citizens.
This recurring cycle of violence, killing and destruction is due to the lack, and/or the absence of goodwill amongst politicians and their lust for either to hold on to power or to get into power without the least consideration for the difficulties that the people, in general, and the nation, in particular, face. Given such distrust, animus and anomie amongst and between the current lot of politicians especially of the two major parties, even the most perfect of constitutions and the strongest of institutions are bound to fail, thwarting development and slowing growth.
The great philosopher Plato believed that: (a) there is a far more sinister nature to democracy and a calamity at the very heart of democracy which could lead to tyranny and subjugation, as democratically elected leaders, to ensure their power and perks, get involved in violence to sustain their power and anyone who opposes the said leaders are labelled as enemies and are persecuted ; (b) these democratically elected leaders become unpopular over time which is but an unavoidable consequence, resulting in supporters of the ruling class getting disgruntled and they start to rebel against their leaders; (c) at this point, the people/citizens try to get rid of whoever is in office which inevitably leads the ruler to strike down any or all political opposition the ruler may have; (d) these hated rulers are then protected by armed guards; (e) although democratically elected, the ruler turns into a tyrant and needs protection from the soldiers who degenerate into slaves; the tyrant pays them to protect him from the ordinary people; (f) the leader becomes a tyrant, born from democracy and popped up by the demand of liberty; and (g) in quest for liberty, a monster is created.
When I juxtapose the belief of Plato with our own ground realities, I notice the sinister and calamitous nature of our democracy. The subjugation and persecution of the opposition (whichever party may be in opposition) continues unabated — all in the name of democracy and protection of the constitution. Of late, new chapters of tyranny and subjugation have been added to our democratic culture in the form of abduction of political leaders and workers presumably by law enforcement agencies, crossfire, petrol bombs, the locking up of party offices, a complete denial of political space to peacefully carry out political activities, the censorship of the media so on and so forth. The constitutional framework and institutions thereunder have been badly dented due to politicisation in appointments and filling them with party supporters. The result is that in the index of favouritism, nepotism and cronyism be it in appointment, promotion, business contracts etc, Bangladesh will secure the highest rank because none of the institutions have been spared so much so that it has permeated into our services, both civil and military, at least that is what the chatterati’s favourite subject of discussion is these days.
Therefore, for the common good of the people in general and the nation in particular, as opposed to the special good for the ruling class and their families or for supporters of respective political party in power, a change in the outlook of our main/top national leaders or as we commonly know as ‘the high command’ is imperative and necessary if we have to survive as a proud, civilised and developed nation. Besides the foregoing, it is of utmost necessity and importance that our leaders, for the good of the nation, divorce themselves from the inherent egoistic persona that they have cultivated around themselves and start, instead, imbibing the virtue of magnanimity by developing the habit of making concessions in ideas and principles, be respectful to dissenting voices and opinions of others. For this, our politicians must inculcate the greatness of mind and spirit which is necessary and a leadership requirement. After all, leadership is not only about imposing a personal choice but leading in times of great uncertainty.
Time has now come for leaders of Bangladesh, as well as people, to make a choice between the peaceful development of the country — progress in improving health, education and living standards of people by reducing disparity between people and between urban and rural Bangladesh — and civil strife, disunity and destruction.
It is also extremely important to highlight that we have systematically destroyed one of the most important organs of the state which is the trustee of the will of the people — the judiciary. This organ of the state is also the last resort/safeguard for the people/citizens whose rights are denied or who are subject to illegal and unlawful actions of the government. Thus strengthening the roots of our judiciary which has been shaken over the years to a level where the edifice has started to crumble is imperative. A holistic approach is the need of the hour and particular focus must be given on (a) zero tolerance to corruption, (b) the use of more information and communications technology to enhance the functioning of the judiciary, (c) the training of judges and lawyers, (d) a complete review of the remuneration and benefits of the judges; (e) a complete halt of politicisation of the judiciary starting from reforms in the bar council and bar associations.
To get out of this regressive cycle, it is essential that a national dialogue must be initiated, without any further delay, at the instance of the current ruling elite/government to discuss reforms for the purpose of creating strong, sustainable and durable constitutional institutions and limit the scope for constitutional extremism. This national dialogue should be held with all stakeholders namely (a) all important political parties and groups, (b) civil society of all shades (as our civil society is a partisan one), (c) professional bodies of business and industry, journalists, lawyers, engineers, doctors, farmers and workers, (d) representatives of chairmen of upazilas and union councils, (e) civil and military bureaucracy, and (f) friends of Bangladesh.
And pursuant to the national dialogue and on the basis of a broad consensus, it is imperative to
(1) form a broad-based constitutional commission to review, in light of our over four and a half decades of experiences, strength and weaknesses inherent in the constitution and its institutions and to propose amendments to remove all perceived weaknesses and devise checks and balances to strengthen the functioning of all constitutional institutions with the simple sense and aim to institutionalise democracy;
(2) appoint a separate expert commission for undertaking administrative reforms so that the civil and military bureaucracy remains above politicisation where merit and public service would be the only consideration for promotion;
(3) appoint an expert panel or commission to examine the structure of the election commission and its weakness and strength and propose reforms in the law to make it an independent institution with sufficient constitutional cover; and
(4) appoint a commission for strengthening local government institutions like upazilas and union councils.
All these commissions could be supported by foreign experts as advisers to the commission. These commissions should be able to submit their reports within 6 to 12 months to the government and then the recommendations can be examined by all stakeholders and after a second round of dialogue, based on suggested reforms, they should be adopted on the basis of a broad consensus, which in my opinion, could be the beginning of the institutionalising of democracy and taking the nation forward.
The choices are grim but clear; people are fed up with the politics of previous century and the status quo political practice. People want dynamism in politics. People want changes. Time is short. I appeal to our two major political parties to commence the process of dialogue or else the people will bring about the changes and dump the current leaders into the dustbin of history.
Muhammad Mohsen Rashid is a Supreme Court lawyer.