Bangladesh: A rush to the election, but then what?

G.M. Solaiman - 6/1/2008

The head of the caretaker government in Bangladesh disclosed the
plan for general parliamentary election in December of 2008. Voting
was due in January last year. It was postponed until late 2008 after
months of political violence and weeks of bloodshed in the streets.
The political parties ran into a deadlock and the country was headed
to a civil war.

There has been much talk about reform inside political parties to
avoid the situation like this in future. The interim government
undertook a long overdue war on corruption. A band of criminals have
gone under justice. This is pretty unprecedented for Bangladesh.

Now what is the point of election if all you do is reject the
results? Who needs a parliament, if the opposition would remain
absent most of the times? This has been happening for last 15 years
by both big parties. When Ershad's government fell in 1990 after a
long public unrest, a care taker government was set up to hold a
free and fare election. Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) won the
election and formed the government. Khaleda Zia, wife of late
president Ziaur Rahman, became the first female prime minister in
country's history. Awami League (AL) became the main opposition
party lead by Sheikh Hasina, daughter of late President Sheikh
Mujibur Rahman. Hasina claimed irregularity in the election and
rejected the results, but soon decided to play along and attended
the parliament. In inauguration, she declared that she would not let
the government to be in peace for a single day. She kept her promise
and called strikes for hundreds of days. BNP officials told us about
how the country is loosing millions of dollars in every workless day
of strike.

In following term, after some initial hiccups of February'96
election, AL won the June'96 general election and Sheikh Hasina
became the second female Prime Minister of Bangladesh. However,
things hardly changed as Khaleda Zia stole few page of AL's book and
maintained the political unrest in the street. As a result a failed
parliament hanged over the poor nation for one more term of five
years.

In all these 10 years, while opposition was engaged in all possible
ways to ignite a public unrest in the street, the ruling parties
were engaged in all kind of corruption. It was in fact a rat race to
see who can grab more and how fast. Corruption was institutionalized
in Bangladesh by then. Upon coming into the government, the ruling
parties dismissed all corruption cases filed by previous government
and interim government proclaiming those were politically biased
case. Criminals arrested by previous government and interim
government were released proclaiming they all were political
detainee. So everyone knew for sure that there will be no
consequence even if your party looses the next election. You just
have to survive next five years, and then your party will be back in
power again. You will be able to erase all your bad deed and get
fresh start in doing more corruption again. The opposition was not
in the streets to say that ruling ministers are doing bad and needs
correction. They are in the street to ask the ruling party to
resign, so the opposition can become ruling party to do the
corruption. It was like, it's okay to do the corruption, but why
you? I can do it better. With no surprise, Bangladesh claimed the
title of the most corrupt country in the report published by
Transparency International for the first time.

Some of the most corrupt ministers of Sheikh Hasina's government
were running from justice and went into hiding as soon as the
interim government was setup to hold the election. Police raid their
home to find weapons and all kind of illegal stuffs. But you can do
only so much in three months. The criminals knew it.

In 2001 election, the parties switched there respective position
once again as BNP's four-party alliance got a landslide victory of
more than two-third majority. As the people of Bangladesh were fed
up with corruption, Khaleda Zia took oath to be the prime minister
of Bangladesh. She took office with a huge mandate and a promise to
end corruption. But she blew it. Or is she? All indicators suggest
that her government has accelerated the corruption. While the
ministers and their associates bag millions of dollars, Bangladesh
named the most corrupt country of the world three times in a row.
The degree of their corruption was an open secret. Every one knew it
and no one was ashamed for this anymore. We saw the horrific
description of their corruption in their own words in recent months,
thanks to current interim government's war on corruption.

In the eve of 2007 election, all old ministers came back from
hiding. Everyone knew the stakes were huge, more than ever. If you
win the lection, you get to hand billions of dollars of corrupt
money. If you don't win, you get nothing. This time no one wanted to
be in the side line for five years. This is a must win election for
all. Both BNP and AL hand out nomination papers to the corrupt
criminals. It was reported in all major local newspapers that
millions of dollars were exchanged hand behind the closed door in
picking the nominee for political parties. With those many, BNP and
AL started an open auction to get the third big political party
Jatio Party and its leader former dictator General Hossain Mohammad
Ershad. It was interesting to read local newspapers in anticipation
of where General Ershad will go and for how much.

Finally AL got him. General Ershad joined AL's grand alliance.
However, BNP's residual force in election commission dismissed
General Ershad's candidacy. As a result Ershad's Jatio Party
boycotted the election and soon AL with its grand alliance boycotted
the election. Live videos of people being murdered in the street
started to come into local television. The whole country was heading
for a bloody civil war.

It was everyone's anticipation to see when the army will come out in
the street to stop the bloodshed. Then it happened in January 11,
2007 and a new interim government was setup. In Bangladesh, the
event is called one-eleven. The expectation was to heal the divided
country, root out corruption, reform political parties, and then
hold a free fare general election so the country would not go back
to pre-one-eleven situation. Two years seemed to be a reasonable
time frame to do just that. I am happy to see that Fakhruddin Ahmed,
the head of current interim government, is committed to that time
frame. But all the pieces of this puzzle have to be fall in place to
do the magic. The question is: are we there yet?

I am not saying to halt the election, or not even to delay the
election. I believe the election should be held by end of 2008. Two
years should be enough time. But the point is, enough time for what?

I am not seeing Bangladesh political leaders are saying anything to
assure either the people of Bangladesh or the international
community. They are not saying yet that what happened in December
2006 and early January 2007 was a big mistake and that won't happen
again. They are not saying it was mistake to be absent in the
parliament for last three terms. They are not saying that they would
not hand out nomination in close door to country's top criminals
anymore. They are not assuring us that they would establish a fare
and transparent procedure to give out party nomination. They are not
assuring us that they would establish democracy in their own party.
They are not saying they would remove dictatorship from their
party's constitution. All major political parties in Bangladesh are
virtually run by dictators and all set to pass down as a property to
be inherited. How one, who is a dictator by one's party
constitution, will be able to show any sort of democratic behavior
upon getting the entire state in hand to run?

Finally here is the billion dollar question. Well, it may be a
trillion dollar as well. The party leaders are not saying that they
would disclose party financing details, who are giving all these
money, how much, and where are they spending it. This is the mother
of all corruption. If the criminals and corrupts put money in the
party, it is very logical that they would like to get a return. If
you practice corruption in your own party, how could you give the
country anything other than the corruption when you get elected?
It's like a stripper is asking us to give an election so she could
be appointed as a nun. In Bangla, they say it "bhuter mukhe ram
nam". To be saved from ghosts, a good Hindu person calls the name of
god Ram. It is believed that the ghost gets scared by mare mention
of the name of god and leaves the person alone. Well, what will
happen if the ghost himself is calling the name of Ram? That day we
all will be deceived. The people of Bangladesh have been deceived by
these types of politicians for a really long time. The question now
remains for the world to see if the people of Bangladesh can rise
out of this deception. We are already seeing the crack. Call me an
over optimistic, but I am very confident that in the end of all
these mess, a bright light of true people's democracy will shine
over Bangladesh. A little passion and a firm commitment is all it
needs.

http://globalpolitician.com/24810-bangladesh