Friday, 23rd August, 2013
M. Serajul Islam
It is past time for the Awami League to
reflect on its current predicament that cannot be a happy one from the way its
leaders are speaking and publicly contradicting one another. It is
incomprehensible that a party with such a rich history and tradition can be
doing such things in the country’s politics. It lost the city corporation
elections badly. Instead of taking lessons, it blamed the people for electing
“corrupt” and “terrorist” candidates. Yet it called the elections free and fair
to dismiss the opposition’s call for the caretaker government!
In frustration, the ruling party raised
scores of billboards to highlight the successes of the AL led government to
encourage people to vote in its favour and against wrong candidates. It,
however, did not realize that it had no right to raise these billboards because
the space on which they raised these billboards was legally the property of
private businesses that had paid for the space! Under fire from the public, the
billboards were quickly taken down but meanwhile the AL led government was seen
by the public as reflecting the same mindset as that of its student and youth
wings which has earned peoples’ disapproval.
To compound its miseries, two important
ministers contradicted each other when
journalists asked them on who raised
the billboards and who took them down. One
important minister feigned ignorance
while another powerful minister proudly owned government sponsorship of these
billboards! Ministers of the AL led government have been regularly
contradicting one another on all major issues of governance. Most recently, the
public contradictions exchanged by the Minister of Finance and the Minister of
Communications has embarrassed the nation although strangely the government
went into denial over it.
AL’s suicidal move
The strange decision of the Election
Commission (EC) to ask the Government to annul Article 91(E) of the
Representation of People’s Order and thereby weaken it that everybody thought
was like the EC shooting itself in the leg was another inexplicable action of
the AL led Government and one would suspect correctly that the EC took the
action on the government’s advice. At a time when the government is trying to
convince the nation that the EC is powerful and independent to conduct the next
parliamentary elections, this was a suicidal move. However, some have suggested
that this move is an insurance policy of the ruling party in the event the next
elections were to be inclusive. In the absence 91(E), opposition parties would
be unable to contest election results where electoral laws would be violated.
In fact these actions of the ruling
party are palpable signs of desperation to hang on to power at any cost for
fear of retribution in case it lost power. In what can only be described as the
ultimate act of desperation in a series of such desperate acts, one former
minister has taken the cake. This former minister did not blink an eyelid when
he said at a party gathering recently that if next parliamentary elections were
not held for whatever reasons, then by virtue of the 15thamendment of the
Constitution that the ruling party passed in its current term, the present
government would continue to remain in power indefinitely, “democratically” and
“constitutionally!” Ministers and party leaders have given spin to the
minister’s statement that has caused widespread concern among the public about
the government’s intentions.
Fifteenth amendment
The 15thamendment, as readers would no
doubt recollect, scrapped the caretaker government (CTG) from the Constitution
and replaced in its place the party government for conducting parliamentary
elections for passage of one elected government to the next. The ruling party
introduced the 15th amendment based on a Supreme Court ruling that elections
under CTG were undemocratic because only elected representatives could hold
democratic elections. The Court also recommended that the next two
parliamentary elections could be held under the CTG in view of the conflict
between the two mainstream parties. The ruling party used its 3/4th majority in
parliament, with the opposition abstaining, for passing the15thamendment but
ignored the Court’s recommendation for holding the next two elections under the
CTG.
The 15th amendment was hurried through
in record time in parliament. Soon after it was passed, constitutional analysts
pointed out two elements that they felt contradicted tenets of parliamentary
democracy. First, it allowed the next parliament to be elected while the
present one would remain un-dissolved, something unheard of in parliamentary
democracy. Second, it left vague what would happen in the event elections were
not held for any reasons. Some constitutional analysts felt that the issue of
what would happen in case elections were not held was kept vague deliberately;
that it was a ”conspiracy” to allow the ruling party to remain in power till
the opposition agreed to participate in elections conducted under it.
In fact, when the former minister made
his statement, he inadvertently lent credence to the “conspiracy” theory to
which many had alluded. Surely, a country with even the minimum semblance of
democracy cannot imagine that a government would remain in power after its term
was over without an election. It could happen only when the country was in war
where the option definitely would be not to allow the existing government to
remain in power but to form a national government and hold elections as soon as
the external threat was over. In case civil disturbances made it impossible to
hold national elections, the democratic/constitutional option would be to
declare emergency under the President to create the conditions so that national
elections could be held as quickly as possible for elected government to
return.
Weird argument
The ruling party is making this weird
argument that it would remain in power on the excuse that elections would not
be held due to the opposition’s fault. If this weird contention were accepted
for sake of argument, the ruling party would need to make efforts with the
opposition to hold “inclusive” national elections before extending its own
tenure. That does not seem to be the case. The Prime Minister has most recently
said her party would not budge even an inch in the matter on opposition’s
demand. The ruling party General Secretary has said that the ruling party would
not hold discussions with the opposition over conducting the next national
elections under any circumstances.
The weird contention that the ruling
party would remain in power indefinitely if elections were not held due to its
conflict with the opposition on the issue of the CTG would sound even more
hollow and untenable because apart from the Court’s recommendation, the CTG has
today become the demand of the people. Independent polls conducted by most
national dailies have shown that the demand for national elections under a
non-party government is today a national demand. In fact, apart from the Prime
Minister, her inner circle and ruling party activists, there is a consensus
among the people that the country would inevitably slide its greatest political
crisis since becoming independent unless elections were held under a neutral
non-party government in which the opposition would be able to participate.
There is of course the ruling party’s
current predicament in the country’s politics to add to the absurdity of its
demand/desire to remain in power indefinitely under the 15th amendment. It is
on a very weak turf to be making the demand as its political fortunes are on
the decline. In insisting on something so incredible, it is only reminding many
people of the BAKSAL or the 4th Constitutional amendment by which the ruling
party in 1974 had hoped to remain in power perpetually. The 4th amendment was
introduced when the AL was the only political party in the country and Sheikh
Mujibur Rahman’s towering personality as the party leader and the Father of the
Nation was there to back the BAKSAL amendment. Yet the BAKSAL amendment failed.
The BAKSAL framework
At a time when the ruling party is
challenged seriously by the BNP and in serious trouble with voters for making a
mess of governance, even the thought of remaining in power after completing its
tenure would just raise the ghost of BAKSAL that had kept the ruling party in
political wilderness for over 2 decades. The AL would do itself great good to
keep in mind that it was Sheikh Hasina’s promise in 1996 to give the party
another chance by forgetting BAKSAL that had encouraged the people to return it
to power under the CTG that it forced the BNP led Government to introduce into
the Constitution as an amendment.
Attempting to hang on to power under
the illogical and un-democratic interpretation of the 15th amendment would only
encourage people to think that the ruling party is bent upon returning the
country to the BAKSAK framework. In its current predicament and changes in
international politics, it does not need a crystal ball to predict that it
would fail and send the ruling party to another long tryst with political
wilderness. Unfortunately, if the ruling party would insist to go that way, the
country would suffer consequences too dangerous even to contemplate.
There is however another possibility
that the ruling party could care to consider. If it insisted on what this
former minister stated, then the disturbances that are certain to follow would
inevitably send power to the hands of the extra-constitutional forces for only
in a state of extreme denial or fantasy could the AL expect to use the 15th
amendment to become the permanent government and expect the BNP/opposition
forces and the rest of the nation to remain silent spectator.
‘Third force’ looming
If the extra-constitutional forces
entered politics, it would only be for doing what the AL would fail, namely
hold free, fair and “inclusive” elections. That would be exactly what the BNP
is demanding; only those elections would not be immediate but perhaps after 3
or 6 months that the BNP would be only happy to wait. The armed forces learnt
it the last time how its popularity nosedived when General Moin and his cohorts
wanted to perpetuate power. It would be reasonable therefore to expect that the
present army would not want to hang around for too long to incur public
disapproval and hold the elections, hand over power to the elected
representatives and leave. That would save the country from a disaster and earn
the armed forces public adulation.
If politics went that way, the ruling
party would be making another stupendous mistake to the series of mistakes it
has been making these days. It would seriously put in jeopardy the party’s
claim that it spearheaded the movement for a democratic Bangladesh. The only
reasonable option for the ruling party for its own sake and that of the nation
would be to amend the 15th amendment, plug the gap on its vagueness, hold
negotiations with the opposition and find the way to hold free, fair,
transparent and “inclusive” national elections.
Trying to hang on to power under the
weird interpretation of the 15th amendment that strikes democratic ethos in the
core would no doubt fail and leave the ruling party holding the BAKSAL flag.
[The writer is a former career
Ambassador]
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