¶¶Òõ¾«Æ·

BANGLADESH emerged as an independent nation in 1971 with a democratic beginning, but unfortunately it did not have smooth sailing. In the past 50 years, Bangladesh experienced democratic rule for a limited period. Bangladesh’s political development over the last three decades may be characterised by significant shifts between democratic governance, military involvement, and volatile or unpredictable politics. Bangladesh’s political development over the years has been fostering a climate of increased discontent resulting from the combination of economic challenges and authoritarian rule. Though economic development and infrastructure growth have improved, while there has been political polarisation, large-scale corruption and inefficiency in public sectors, failure of the banking sector, and the erosion of democratic norms remain dominant challenges and issues.Ìý

Presently, Bangladesh faces two basic challenges in the political arena: 1) How to plan and implement democratic reform measures for promoting democracy? 2) What reform measures are necessary to establish and sustain democratic governance? The future of Bangladesh democracy rests on the ability of our political institutions and political actors, with support from concerned institutions, to address these two challenges in the coming years. We need to make sincere efforts to arrive at a consensus in Bangladesh defining the ‘democratic ideals’ that the country will pursue in future years in its efforts towards democratisation. Democratisation may be identified as a three-dimensional process, which includes (a) the creation of democratic values and culture, (b) the establishment of a democratic government and political system, and finally, (c) ensuring the individual right and scope of people’s participation in public governance and in all other areas of national life. Democracy may be a difficult type of political system to maintain, but in our time, its appeal and acceptability to general people and ultimately its usefulness for achieving development of the various social-cultural and ethnic groups within a society are much more effective than other types of political systems.

The functioning of an effective democratic government requires a democratic culture in society. Development of a democratic culture is a long-term process. It takes time to firmly establish democracy as a way of life in a society. This can be promoted in Bangladesh through a civic awareness programme. The civic awareness programmes must aim at strengthening the awareness of democratic culture at all levels of society — urban and rural, across all social-cultural institutions. University students, cooperating with other research institutions and interested voluntary organisations, may take a leadership role in undertaking such a programme particularly among the young people throughout the country.

Ìý

Education and awareness

DEMOCRATIC governance requires the principles, structures, and processes that enable a democratic system to function. The government must invest in widespread civic education programmes to educate people about democracy, voting rights, and civic duties. Awareness programmes can target rural and illiterate populations using mass media, community leaders, and NGOs to spread knowledge about democratic processes. Integrating democratic values into the school curriculum from an early age will help shape future generations becoming more informed and participatory. We need to strengthen the civil society and media that perform a crucial role in promoting democratic ideals like people’s participation, educating citizens and holding public officials accountable.

Ìý

Constitution and democratic norms and values

SUBSTANTIVE democratic norms and values incorporated in our constitution are as follows: equality, liberty (individual freedom), human dignity, fraternity, human development, and the rule of law. The hardest task is how to translate and make these substantive norms and values operational and workable in an actual social situation. Operational and procedural aspects of substantive democratic values and norms include such things as:

—ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý Public representatives at all levels are selected through a free and fair election system.

—ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý Maintaining separation of powers within three branches of government, executive, legislative, and judicial, as well as institutional checks and balances: no single institution or branch of the government is allowed to monopolise the exercise of state power in society.

—ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý There is universal application of the rule of law in society irrespective of class, creed, religion, race and geographic or local affiliation.

—ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý Maintaining rule of law in all aspects of governance. The public representatives and the civil servants, including the military and the police, are accountable to people. Their actions also need to be transparent.

—ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý Balancing individual freedom and rights with national security and national interests. There is maximum use of people’s consent and minimum use of coercion.

—ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý Efficient and effective government performance based on people’s wishes, support and participation, keeping in view both the short-term and long-term benefits and interests of the nation.

Democracy and democratic institutions can be developed not merely by agitation, demonstrations and public speeches but by gradually internalising democratic values, principles, and rules through institutionalisation, political orientation, and training of political workers, leaders, and officials of government institutions, both civil and military. In a developing country like Bangladesh, where a large portion of the population remains significantly ignorant or uninformed about democracy and democratic principles, it raises the question of how we can expect individuals working within modern institutions — established through technological advancement, industrial growth, and urbanisation — to be effectively governed by a system adhering strictly to democratic laws and principles.

In essence, constitutional democracy requires institutions, structures, rules, methods and processes within the political and administrative system that align with democratic norms and democratic values as underlined by our constitution. The persistence of political and administrative behaviour, structures, rules and processes suited to authoritative systems or rulers is undesirable. Democratic reforms across politics and all administrative spheres should be systematically planned and carefully executed to operationalise and institutionalise the spirit and values of democracy. To internalise democratic values, ethical work practices, and transparent, efficient procedures, reforms should focus on embedding democratic principles within all public agencies, ensuring policies and processes reflect these values and support the collective goal of serving the people. By building a strong foundation for democracy through these actions and policies, we can ensure its durability and support effective democratic governance — an essential step towards realising the vision of a ‘New Bangladesh.’

At this time, we may create platforms for ‘national political dialogue’ participated by prominent members of political parties, retired civilian-military technocrats, academicians, think tanks-research groups, student groups, independent civil society groups, and media persons with a view to forming a national consensus through discussion/debate relating to fundamental issues of national interest.

There is an urgent need for depoliticisation of key institutions like the judiciary, law enforcement and civil service. Under democracy, we need a public administration system absolutely delinking its colonial and authoritarian past and gradually but steadily transforming public administration as an institution of the people, for the people, and by the people. Merit, not political loyalty, should be the primary basis for taking all service-related issues so that these institutions can perform their duties with political neutrality. Strengthening the election commission is urgently required and will make it ‘really independent’ through a transparent selection process involving members from major political parties.

There is a need for enhancing ‘publicness’ in the governance system at the field-administration levels, such as division and district. Formation and effective functioning of local government institutions in Bangladesh, particularly at the rural level, with executive financial and legislative autonomy guaranteed by the constitution deserve top priority. The rich and democratically advanced nations may play an important role by helping Bangladesh in different ways to promote and strengthen our democracy and democratic institution-building efforts. The challenge for a new democracy, as rightly pointed out by many scholars, is to survive long enough for this process to occur. All our individual and institutional efforts must be directed to keep democracy alive in Bangladesh.

This paper specifically discusses key political institutions, including elections, political parties, the parliament, judiciary, public administration, local government, and the media. These institutions play a strategic role in fostering, strengthening, and institutionalising democracy and democratic governance in Bangladesh. Particularly, this paper explores efforts to reform and reorganise the structure and functioning of these institutions to embed democratic values and strengthen democratic governance.

Bangladesh has been practising a parliamentary system following the Westminster model, where the prime minister acts as head of the government along with a ceremonial president. The parliamentary system has been functioning with all its visible advantages and inadequacies. The parliamentary system has some edge over the presidential system when considered in view of Bangladesh’s pluralistic and multi-party context. Under the current changed socio-political situation, for the parliamentary system to operate successfully, effectively, and in line with the constitution, the politicians will need to encourage and promote consensus-building and inclusivity. Major challenges confronting the parliamentary system in Bangladesh are: dominance of the majority party, political volatility, and weak institutional independence where the judiciary and other institutions are more prone to executive interference due to weak democratic institutions in society.

Politics and the parliamentary system need reforms to better suit Bangladesh challenges, which are:

Electoral reforms:ÌýFocus on enhancing transparency and integrity of elections to ensure and attract more participation of political parties and prevent the dominant party from manipulating and influencing the election process. strive to maintain integrity and fairness of elections, preventing corruption and fraud through mechanisms such as voter ID verification, secure ballot handling, and tamper-proof voting systems. Clear mechanisms should exist for filing complaints, challenging results, and holding officials accountable for election misconduct. Monitoring of the election process by national and international observers must be encouraged to deter fraud and manipulation in election processes. The election commission needs to regulate campaign financing and spending to limit the influence of money in elections.

Reforms within political parties: Highlighting the role of political parties under democracy and urban-centric politics in Bangladesh, there is a need for national consensus between political parties. Polarisation between the major political parties needs to be addressed perhaps through dialogue. Our politics and politicians need to be more present and future-oriented rather than past-oriented, more rational and pragmatic rather than emotional and sentimental. In the context of democracy and democratic government, it is imperative that more democratisation takes place within all political structures and functioning.Ìý

Reforms in parliament: Emphasising the role of members of parliament in policy making and the strengthening of checks and balances in parliament, reforms are needed to prevent the ruling political party from dominating parliament and allow enough scope for opposition members to express their views, thereby ensuring healthy political competition. The creation of opposition-led committees and dedicated specific sessions for ‘Opposition Day’, can transform the legislature into a catalyst for administrative accountability and transparency in Bangladesh.

Reforms in military and police: Reforms need to emphasise the need to insulate the military and the police from political interference and pressures, ensuring impartial law enforcement; finally, future challenges and directions for reform in the police system.

Reforms in local government: There is a need for reforms in the operation of the local government, which needs to be strengthened and needs to ensure people’s participation.

Ìý

Dr Lutful Hoq Choudhury is a former professor of public administration, University of Dhaka.