– Mainul Hosein :
The US ambassador to Bangladesh, Mr Peter Haas, has been expressing his anxiousness to see Bangladesh having a government of people’s representatives chosen in genuinely free elections. The US government is open about the existing government not being elected. The USA did not invite Bangladesh for attending the gathering of democratic governments. It inflicted sanctions on some high officials as serious violators of human rights.
Such moves on the part of the USA have caused jittery in the government and its illegal exploiters. The behind the scene beneficiaries of the anti-people corruption-ridden system are coming out in isolation in defence of the system. These opportunists will take no time to change their say when the wind of change will become strong. Their number will be few and soon disappear into hiding.
Mr Haas while explaining the importance of free elections on another occasion also said America is not concerned with who wins in the elections. If he goes deep into the complications of the matter than he will know that for democracy to be revived after fifty years of autocratic rule by organised corruption and state violence free elections alone are no guarantee for democracy.
The system firmly rooted in corruption and enjoyed impunity for human rights violations has to be discarded for making politics not a money-making business to be millionaires. Politics shall be for true politicians dedicated and selfless for the good of the people. So the American support for free elections is definitely not for ousting one set of incompetent corrupt ones to be replaced by another set of the same.
The government will not face elections if it is sure of free elections. We have to make sure that the opportunity to rob the elections is eliminated and denied. The sitting government must step down and the parliament dissolved, like in other parliamentary system, disabling the government to control the state machinery to manipulate the elections.
The widespread corruption and endless opportunity to be benefited by abuse of power at all levels for decades have left a gaping vacuum for democratic politics and political leadership. Politics has been polluted to be attractive for money-making businessmen in the guise of politicians.
Waiting for the free election, more than a year away, is no assurance for bringing the kind of change necessary for saving the country from the consequences of inevitable violent chaos. The signs of public restlessness can be ignored to the peril of the government. The government is surrounded by so many self-interested beneficiaries that election rigging is a do or die affair for the government. Violent clashes between the government followers are becoming a regular affair as the mismanagement of the public affairs worsening.
The government will be well-advised to accept the mechanism of free election and seek a peaceful way out.
So to make free elections possible for the desired change the efforts for creating the proper field must begin now. The truth is this government received help and assurances from outside also for remaining in power without meaningful elections and denying the people of their right to vote. Now we need America’s open determined help establishing the people as their own master. In the competition between autocracy and democracy, people’s democracy must win for a peaceful world order. Slavery under dictatorship cannot win in human affairs.
The Joe Biden government’s determination to see democracy to prevail worldwide against the worldwide conspiracy to establish communist kind of dictatorship in other countries is a big challenge. The strong support for democratic politics must be rightly channelled in Bangladesh when all democratic institutions have been eroded.
The people’s optimism that India as a democracy would like to see democracy to work in Bangladesh went disastrously wrong.
It will be self-defeating to delay preparations by all concerned to make democracy to return. A big change is on the way is to be seen. The Election Commission under existing arrangement is worse than a sitting duck and a gigantic bluff.
The absence of press freedom does not mean much as the journalists are party activists of undemocratic parties. The judiciary is all the time conscious of the government’s watchful eyes. There is no democratic politics or democratic leadership. All are silent partners in rigged elections for money and sharing of seats. The amount of money thrown at the elections had no limits.
The consolidated and collective machinery of corruption must be targeted for dismantling before democratic change can be visibly in progress.
It has to be admitted that America has been neglecting the political developments in Bangladesh for so many years. Awami League government is happy with the countries which do not care about human rights.
After Biden has come to power America has started showing helpful interest in our politics. Our people are happily looking forward to America’s activism to help us to have democracy through free elections. The politics of secret killing, disappearance and police cases were unknown to our politics in pre-independence East Pakistan, now Bangladesh. Our people struggled long and gave blood for democracy but their leaders betrayed them most cruelly.
What we are anxious to explain is that the change we need is not just for holding free elections but we want to ensure democratic politics and democratic leadership. Only America is expected to bring that kind of change as the leader of the democratic free world.
