The Chair of the EU delegation for relations with the South Asian countries Jean Lambert recently said, “A political solution is needed to come from the major political parties about how a future election will be conducted and what the transitional measure will be so that all parties will be ready to participate and people can have a full and fair choice.”
Ms Lambert is very right that it is not at all important to talk about holding fresh election under the present electoral arrangement where the government remains fully in power to rig the election in its favour. It is no longer a matter of suspicion or apprehension, that the election held on 5th January this year had shown how reckless it is to trust a party in power during election time for hoping the election to be fair. The plan was to demolish the opposition in the election by using the government machinery and the election process succeeded in doing so.
It is also a shame for a free country that the government officials including the officials of the Election Commission conducted themselves so slavishly to deprive the people of their voting rights.
In a free country, the government officials are public and not the party workers to ensure election victory of any party. One of the reasons why our independence is not becoming meaningful is because it is so easy to use public servants against the very people who maintain them to serve the people.
Our politics is bereft of political leadership. The party chiefs of both Awami League and BNP have found themselves in such highly political positions suddenly with no political background and they had no difficulty in being in the trap of a section of businessmen and retired bureaucrats. And it is they who made politics an easy game of making money. To them, democracy means winning the election however foul it is, the goal being to remain in power or come to power. The democratic institutions were of no importance. Both the major parties have worked to make the democratic institutions politicized and thus non-functional.
We have to alter the election process as introduced by changing the Constitution conspiratorially ignoring even the recommendation of the all party parliamentary committee. Awami League avoided sure election defeat according to all predictions. The government is afraid to face the people in a free election.
The first thing should be that not to allow election under a party government. Interim arrangement of a non-party impartial government has to be ensured. Then it is also necessary to ensure parliamentary practice and both the present prime minister and the past should be prohibited from becoming prime minister to serve politics of corruption and vested interest. We have to break the chain of family politics without political leadership. Both these two leaders have given us one failed and corrupt government after another.
So not another sham election and failed leadership.
