THE 10th parliament ended yesterday without any effective move from titular opposition bench (Jatiya Party) to protect people’s rights or oppose passing any authoritarian law. Three top leaders of the Opposition bench serve in the cabinet and the main opposition party’s chief was made special envoy to the Prime Minister. It’s an unprecedented example in the history of Parliamentary democracy. It was constituted after the election on 5th January 2014 where 152 lawmakers were elected unopposed. What is significant is that, the opposition bench did not bring any motion of adjournment. Since the restoration of parliamentary democracy in 1991, this Pparliament was the most unattractive and dull where Opposition bench acted like the treasury bench.
In this parliament, the ruling party did not get any hurdle or opposition in passing 191 bills while a few opposition MPs boycotted some session for few minutes. Observer said the role of Jatiya Party as the main opposition was nothing less than a mockery. However, Leader of the Parliament termed the Jatiya Sangsad most friendly. Interestingly, the Leader of the Opposition in her speech several times mentioned that “people’s perception is that JP is not the real opposition party”. We know democracy gets life in an active Parliament through spontaneous debate and discussion between the treasury and opposition benches. But such event was rare in the 10th Parliament.
A TIB study revealed that lawmakers of the 10th parliament, until December last, spent just nine percent of their time in the Parliament to pass laws. In the 18 sessions of this Parliament, about 30 minutes on average was lost in every sitting due to quorum crises. Only 26 MPs participated in the passage of 24 bills between 14th and 18th sessions held in 2017. The 10th parliament spent an average of 35 minutes on passing a bill.
At the end of the day, we see the performance of this parliament unsatisfactory. If the opposition party does not know its actual role in the Parliament then there is no justification to send its lawmakers to the House. Unless competent lawmakers, elected through a free and fair election, join the Parliament; the parliamentary democracy will remain a far cry.
