Political Reform: Myth and Reality

By G. M. Quader
Daily Star News, July 23, 2008

POLITICAL reform means reform of political parties and all the political institutions connected with political practice for functioning and advancement of the political process.

The Jatiya Sangsad (JS), the Election Commission (EC), and the executive branch (EB) may be considered as political institutions. The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), Public Service Commission (PSC), University Grants Commission (UGC) etc., with their controlling and regulating authority of different activities concerning vital public interest may be considered political institutions.

In a democratic society the most important political institution is the political party, which is a group of people who share a common ideology and have similar views on national and international issues. This enables the people to select a person on the basis of his/her personal qualities, along with the appeal of the political party to which he/she belongs after evaluating its programs and ideology.

The party that gets the most votes forms the government, which has lots of responsibilities and has to be bestowed with power and authority to fulfill its obligations.

It is said that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. There has to be a system of checks and balances in respect of governance. The responsibility for creating this environment of accountability lies on the elected representatives who are not in government (known as opposition). In doing so they are also to ensure that the government is representing the people through its activities by reflecting their hopes and aspirations.

Political parties form the government and run it. They carry out the responsibility of the opposition to keep the government on track by ensuring accountability.

So, it is, in fact, the responsibility of the political parties to build and strengthen all the other supporting political institutions so that governance can function as smoothly and effectively as possible. For strengthening the political institutions any reform, if needed, falls within the responsibility of political parties. At the same time, sustainability of the effectiveness of political institution depends on them.

On the other hand, if the political parties do the opposite by serving their personal and party interests, the institutions could be used to create havoc for the nation. A few are given below.

During the last government it was widely believed that the EC was made partisan to the four-party alliance to frustrate the right of the people to choose their representatives as per their free will. The political stalemate created as a result is still hanging over our heads.

Rampant misuse of authority by the allegedly partisan PSC in appointing substandard candidates in different branches of administration, law enforcing agencies, judiciary etc., in line with partisan interest distorted the effectiveness of administration and made good governance difficult, not only for the present but also for the next 20 to 30 years at least.

It is alleged that people with a record of corruption and criminal charges like hijacking, extortion, vandalism etc., got appointment as law enforcers during the last alliance government.

Persons responsible for this sort of appointment would surely receive dividends from the beneficiaries of irregularities in law enforcing, judiciary etc. But the people at large have to pass sleepless nights because of insecurity and non-receipt of justice and good governance.

How the ACC was made ineffective, allegedly in order to overlook corruption by the last government, is too well known to be mentioned in detail.

As a matter of fact, even if reform measures are taken to enhance effectiveness of all other political institutions excepting political parties, the same might be jeopardised if the political parties who will run the show afterwards do not continue with them.

So, reform should begin with the reform of political parties. Without that all other reforms could become meaningless and ineffective.

Reform of political parties is the most difficult task in the context of our country. We are not comparable to any other country of the world. This country is unique because here all the political parties and political personalities themselves accepted the allegation that they were not capable of seeing national pride or interest over partisan interest. Introduction of the caretaker government (CTG) system is an example.

The system of non-partisan caretaker government was introduced for conducting free and fair elections. Political governments elected by the people hand over power to a selected non-political caretaker government after completion of their tenure. It is an accepted fact that political parties while in power do neither have the capability nor desire to conduct a free and fair election without manipulation.

Of course, introduction of the caretaker system was a pragmatic approach considering the realities. Political parties and the people by and large extended support to that concept considering the existing situation. But does not that confirm the negative character of our politics and political parties that they are incapable of sustaining democratic culture and ethics due to lack of sincerity and honesty?

The fifth parliament, on the first day of its first session, re-introduced parliamentary form of governance in a unanimous decision of all parties in the parliament. Parliamentary system means that parliament would be the centre of all governmental activities. The Member of Parliament’s (MP) role would be supreme and vital. MPs would form the government, administer, give guidance and make government accountable to people.

But, the system was introduced by clipping the MP’s right to decide independently, making the parliament virtually a rubber-stamp parliament. That has given rise to dictatorial rule by the prime minister (PM), without any accountability, thus breeding pervasive corruption.

The reason given for this was that MPs were not reliable enough and could be bought and sold, causing vulnerability of the government. The parliamentary system is based on MPs, but it was made ineffective by the assumption that MPs were dishonest. At the same time, is not it pointing fingers to the ability of our voters of electing suitable MPs, thereby raising the suspicion that people by and large are not fit enough to practice democracy?

Political parties, while in power, used and misused facilities, and opposed and boycotted parliament while out of power. Never was any initiative taken to address the said contradiction of the system.

There is no denying the fact that political parties need thorough reforms for practicing sustainable and meaningful democracy that would continue to provide people-oriented and accountable government. So far, no mentionable sign in that respect is visible. Without reform of the political parties, other reforms carried out, or in the process, will neither be useful nor permanent.

G. M. Quader is a former Member of Parliament.

Bangladesh moves closer towards Accountable Democracy

Reported by Nazrul Islam for The New Age, July 13, 2008

The military-backed government has approved in principle a package of electoral and political reforms including provisions for ‘no vote’ and mandatory registration of contesting political parties for the first time in the country’s history, officials said. No front organisations of political parties, exercise of in-house democracy and guidelines for electoral alliance are among the criteria, which were intended to bring about qualitative changes in politics and endorsed by the council of advisers Sunday.

Setting new eligibility criteria for contesting in parliamentary polls, empowering Election Commission to scrap candidature, new ceiling for election expenditure, mandatory bank account for election funds, submission of expenditure returns and guidelines for electioneering are the reforms planned for the country’s electoral system. uilty of war crimes will be barred from polls, but the draft has not elaborated on the areas of such crimes, officials said. he council of advisers at its meeting with chief adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed in the chair gave the approval to the reforms proposed by the Election Commission few months back.

The meeting asked the law ministry to immediately place the draft of The Representation of People Order Ordinance 2008 incorporating the reform proposals before the interim cabinet. We expect the gazette notification on the ordinance will be available sometime at the end of this month,’ Syed Fahim Munaim, press secretary to the chief adviser, told reporters after the meeting at the Chief Adviser’s Office.
The 50-page draft ordinance was prepared mainly by the Election Commission after a series of dialogue with political parties, civic groups and professional consultants for nearly a year. he commission proposes 114 sections instead of 95 in the existing Representation of People Order that came into being in 1972.

The draft ordinance proposes mandatory registration of political parties with the EC. or registration, any party must have a record of winning at least one seat in any of the parliamentary elections since the country’s independence or obtaining five per cent of total votes cast or having active units in one-third of the districts or in 100 upazilas with minimum 200 members in each. olitical parties intending to be registered would have to declare in their constitutions that they would not have front organisations of students, teachers and workers, and overseas units. ut the draft proposes that students, workers and teachers would have their rights to political activities as preserved in the constitution. he parties must have written constitutions with no contradiction with the constitution of the republic. No discrimination in terms of cast, colour and creed will be allowed.

The parties would be disqualified from getting registration in case of favouring a one-party system of government.Political parties must declare clear deadlines for keeping 33 per cent seats reserved for the women in every level of organisational committees by 2020. To promote democracy within the parties, the draft proposes that the parties’ parliamentary boards will nominate candidates for Jatiya Sangsad elections from the panel of leaders forwarded by ward or upazila level committees. If any independent lawmaker joins an unregistered political party, he or she would not be considered as a member of that party in parliament, says the proposed law.

No electoral alliance with unregistered political party will be allowed, stipulates the draft ordinance.
The security deposit for an individual to stand for election will be Tk 10,000. The deposit would be forfeited if the candidate fails to secure one-eighth of the votes cast. A candidate will be allowed to contest for three seats at a time instead of existing five constituencies.
The draft seeks to raise the ceiling for electoral expenditure for an individual candidate to Tk 15 lakh from Tk 5 lakh now.
Maximum limit of election expenditure has been set Tk 4.5 crore for a party fielding candidates for more than 200 seats, Tk 3 crore for a party with between 100 and 200 candidates, Tk 1.5 crore for less than 100 candidates and Tk 75 lakh for candidates in less than 50 constituencies. The parties must maintain separate bank accounts for operating election funds and must submit statements to the EC immediately after the polls results are published. Donation of above Tk 20,000 must be taken in cheque.Violation of expenditure limit carries a penalty of up to Tk 10 lakh, while false information may result in cancellation of candidature.Responding to a popular campaign spearheaded by various rights groups and individuals, the draft proposes introduction of ‘no vote’ system in the ballot for the first time in the country’s poll history.

This will allow a voter to put a cross mark on the top of a ballot paper if none of the candidates matches with his or her choice. If ‘no’ votes accounts for more than 50 per cent of the total ballots counted, the particular constituency will see a re-election. Any person, convicted of war crimes by any court either at home or abroad, will be disqualified from vying for election. But it has not clarified the way to determine the war criminals. Government servants will not be allowed to contest the polls within three years of retirement. Defaulting on bank loans and rescheduling those six months before filling of the nomination papers would continue to remain as disqualification as in the past. However, housing and agriculture loans have been exempted from this category.

The histrionics of an ‘uncompromising leader’

by M. Abdul Hafiz in The Daily Star - July 13, 2008

The BNP chairperson has been, through occasional pronouncements during her court appearances, understandably trying to capture the moral high ground by championing some of the burning issues of the day, although an issue such as price hike is the legacy of the last BNP rule, when, to benefit the party minions, a syndicated price rise was first experienced.

The idea is also to erase the bitter memory of her discredited governments — particularly the last one — as well as to recover the space lost in the country’s politics. Her comments would be fine but for the problem that she had seldom stood on such ground earlier. Based on the track record of her governments, morality, ethics, and compassion are apparently alien to her chemistry, and thus unknown in BNP’s political lexicon. She, however, had been fond of summoning those beholden to her, and the message contained therein was clear: Do as I say and not as I do. Yet, the BNP crowd dutifully obliged her with their obeisance.

But, once fallen from grace, there are now cracks in the BNP monolith, and the party, without the binding glue of power, has visibly crumbled. Now, to re-establish her authority over the disparate groups of the party, she has to, perforce, assume the role of an “uncompromising leader” to sweep under the carpet many of her deficiencies.

It couldn’t be more opportune for Madam Zia to indulge in an impolitic alacrity when her arch political rival Sheikh Hasina has been allowed by the government to undergo treatment abroad for her damaged ear and eye. In the meantime, the AL enjoys Hasina’s green signal for its participation in the local body elections scheduled by the EC.

Sensing that BNP, torn by intra-party wrangling, is not election-worthy at the moment, the BNP supremo found it convenient to opt out of the elections, while criticising Sheikh Hasina for “entering a compromising deal with the government” — although her party is participating in the poll in defiance of her decision. The grass-roots workers perfectly well understand that the Madam, entangled in several indictments along with her sons and cronies, is simply trying to further brighten up her image as an “uncompromising leader” at their cost.

It was perhaps for the same reason that her lofty call for unity among the political forces to fight a commonly perceived opponent was ignored. Though the call is still alive, there are few positive responses –again because of her inconsistency, Jamaat connection, hauteur, and irresistible ambition to be the only thread of scarlet in the drab fabric of politics.

In her politics of blowing hot and cold, Madam Zia is quite capable of shifting from her unity proposal to assailing Sheikh Hasina within a matter of days by drawing comparison between the latter’s present political move and 1986 political situation, where a united and revamped AL participated in parliamentary election under her leadership, although the party’s victory was hijacked by Ershad’s infamous media coup.

Even at that time, the BNP had the same image problem, emanating from rampant corruption and total break-down of the country’s internal order.

Whatever may be the motive, the interim dispensation seems to be agreeable to also grant Khaleda Zia respite and reprieve similar to those given to Sheikh Hasina, although it is understood that the state of her illness, if any, does not warrant that. But Madam Zia seems to have been cleverly exploiting the gesture to bargain for release and treatment abroad of her indicted sons by raising undue hue and cry. She threatens to throw a spanner in the political process underway and even in the forthcoming national election.

In the meantime, the madam’s complacent secretary general, whose son is reported to have enjoyed similar facilities as those of Tareque and Koko in BSMMU prison cell, is apparently fine. He has been spitting fire in defence of the honour of the Zia family, which he, like the BNP fraternity, thinks is under assault.

They all feel that the indictments leveled against the madam and her sons are aimed solely at damaging their honour. The madam even claimed that her sons couldn’t commit any wrong. She also corrected the finance adviser by reminding him that to find the halcyon days it’s enough for the people to look back to her regime.

The people, however, wonder if there is any more honour left in the Zia family for it to be capable of further damage. They also ask if the madam is conversant with history, although she is clearly endowed with quite a gift for histrionics.

Brig ( retd) Hafiz is former DG of BIISS.