Masum Billah :
A form of government of the people, by the people and for the people “has gone as the popular and most accepted definition of democracy in the world given by Abraham Lincoln. Most of the countries of the globe adore democracy and run the democratic form of government. But the culture of exercising democracy across the globe in general and in our territory in particular calls for its redefinition. Today it can be redefined as ” a form of the government of a particular section of people, by a particular section of people and for the particular section of people.” And this particular section belongs to the privileged group who enjoy all sorts of state facilities at the cost of common people’s sufferings. They make rules tilting towards their interest. They plunder the state owned riches and properties. Hence, the race to occupy those positions and authorities this exclusive section of populace run after system which they want to colour as democracy. The question peeps in every sensible citizen’s mind what the real picture of democracy is. Is it doing whatever one likes? Or does it mean attacking the police? Or chanting slogans and destabilizing public properties? Is it tapping the mouth of the media? Or taking the license of opening new educational institutions? Or taking the control of the entire gamut of education by muscle power? Actually sensible citizens get confused about the true face of democracy.
Bangladesh witnesses six months natural calamities and another six months political calamity. Whether natural or manmade calamity just contributes to going behind which we see, feel and worry. Still they say what they do is for the emancipation of the oppressed and depressed and for driving the ultra poor out of poverty. But the true fact is some people gather under the umbrella of politics to fatten themselves monetarily. The exchequers, voters and all kinds of common men have been reduced to impotent and powerless. Though it is said in democracy people are supposed to be all powerful, the practical culture says the different thing. Yes, some people show their power but it is in the worst form of destruction. Now democracy means chaos and in the name of people’s rights and chaos and destruction prevail everywhere again when we fail to create the environment for practicing healthy democracy.
Democracy does not mean only to cast a vote at a certain interval. Even then, it is the accepted and widely practiced way to exercise the first right of democracy in the world. We are not an exception. We have a body to deal with this affair known as Election Commission. The Bangladesh Constitution tells clearly the functions of the Election Commission (Article-119). The main thrust is on the conduct of free and fair national and also local elections. To this end, the specific functions include the preparation of accurate and updated electoral roles, delimitation of constituencies, the holding of parliamentary and presidential elections and such other responsibilities as are prescribed by law. Questions arise what are the elements of free and fair elections. The most essential element is the existence of an independent, neutral and efficient election management body. This body has to address a series of important issues, sometimes simultaneously, sometimes sequentially, to deliver acceptable elections. Since our independence in 1971, there have been so far as many as nine parliamentary elections in 1973, 1979, 1986, 1988, 1991, 1996 (February), 1996 (June), 2001 and 2008 in addition to three presidential elections and the referendums. For establishing true democracy we still need to work a lot here.
Time has come to clean the politics and all the state machinery of the government. Though democracy is meant for the welfare of the state, people cannot get anything done from the state machinery without giving bribes. Not only bribes, citizens are to face harassment at every door of the state machinery. This column will not cover to describe the sufferings and harassment history the common people face every day and everywhere. All strata of people of our country know these true and cruel facts but continue suffering keeping mum. No government, no politics, no leader, no democracy has brought even an iota of change in these places. In this nascent democracy is there any common people who has received any single help from police without paying a cost material or otherwise? Is there any office where people get any work done without any bribe or extra money? No example our democracy could have created that common people have got their works done in government offices easily and without paying an extra cost.
The department of education must be clean and sacred to prepare and produce honest and able citizens of the country. But no promotion, no transfer, no MPO is done without any bribe or greasing or party affiliation. What our democracy did so long to bring any change here? The corrupt people continue waiting for that democracy to continue the reign of corruption again. As soon as their desired democracy will come, they continue doing their evil business unhindered. If anybody tries to hinder it, by the blessings of party politics none will dare to take any action against them. The whole society and country has become nervous and weak and tired of witnessing the unabated corruption and unruly situation everywhere. We need security and prosperity. We need peaceful living and real education.
What is the relationship between democracy and education? Democracy ensures education for all. Democracy teaches real education to serve the country. But the picture our educational institutions particularly the highest seats of learning tell us the history of a democracy of chaos, unruly situations and muscle power domination. The administrative positions are filled in by political persons. When democracy exercises this sort of practice, it definitely calls for change. Who will do that actually? Those who control the switch of democratic government must be highly liberal, humanistic and extremely tolerant otherwise the democracy corrupts those hands instead of doing welfare of the citizens what we experience today’s world. The development within the young of the attitudes and dispositions necessary to the continuous and progressive life of a society cannot take place by direct conveyance of beliefs, emotions, and knowledge. It takes place through the intermediary of the environment. The environment consists of the sum total of conditions which are concerned in the execution of the activity characteristic of a living being. The social environment consists of all the activities of fellow beings that are bound up in the carrying on of the activities of any one of its members. It is truly educative in its effect in the degree in which an individual shares or participates in some conjoint activity. The deeper and more intimate educative formation of disposition comes, without conscious intent, as the young gradually partake of the activities of the various groups to which they may belong. As a society becomes more complex, however, it is found necessary to provide a special social environment which shall especially look after nurturing the capacities of the immature. Three of the more important functions of this special environment are: simplifying and ordering the factors of the disposition it is wished to develop; purifying and idealizing the existing social customs; creating a wider and better balanced environment than that by which the young would be likely, if left to themselves, to be influenced.
So obvious, indeed, is the necessity of teaching and learning for the continued existence of a society. Schools are, indeed, one important method of the transmission which forms the dispositions of the immature; but it is only one means, and, compared with other agencies, a relatively superficial means. But when the schools get occupied by the ugly political claws, the real education must die. There is, accordingly, a marked difference between the education which everyone gets from living with others, as long as he really lives instead of just continuing to subsist, and the deliberate educating of the young. But as civilization advances, the gap between the capacities of the young and the concerns of adults widens. Learning by direct sharing in the pursuits of grown-ups becomes increasingly difficult except in the case of the less advanced occupations. Much of what adults do is so remote in space and in meaning that playful imitation is less and less adequate to reproduce its spirit.
Without such formal education, it is not possible to transmit all the resources and achievements of a complex society. It also opens a way to a kind of experience which would not be accessible to the young, if they were left to pick up their training in informal association with others, since books and the symbols of knowledge are mastered. It is the very nature of life to strive to continue in being. Since this continuance can be secured only by constant renewals, life is a self-renewing process. What nutrition and reproduction are to physiological life, education is to social life? This education consists primarily in transmission through communication. Communication is a process of sharing experience till it becomes a common possession. It modifies the disposition of both the parties who partake in it. That the ulterior significance of every mode of human association lies in the contribution which it makes to the improvement of the quality of experience is a fact most easily recognized in dealing with the immature.
Despite the importance of democracy and democratic solutions, however, poorly designed democratic institutions can also inflame communal conflicts rather than ameliorate them. The recent incident of Ramu in our country can be cited as a glaring example of it. And the introduction of “democratic” politics can easily be used to mobilize ethnicity, turning elections into “us” versus “them” conflicts. In deeply divided societies, a combination of majoritarian political institutions and elections can often make things worse. Other democratic institutions that lend themselves towards divisive, yes or no political campaigns, such as referendums, can also have negative effects in divided societies. That is why basic democratic values such as pluralism, tolerance, inclusiveness, negotiation, and compromise are keys to building lasting settlements to conflicts. For a system of government to be considered democratic, it must combine three essential conditions: meaningful competition for political power amongst individuals and organized groups; inclusive participation in the selection of leaders and policies, at least through free and fair elections; and a level of civil and political liberties sufficient to ensure the integrity of political competition and participation. Participation and contestation are crucial: while democracy can take many forms, no system can be called democratic without a meaningful level of both.. Unlike other systems, democratic government permits grievances to be expressed openly and responded to. In short, democracy operates as a conflict management system without recourse to violence. It is this ability to handle conflicts without having to suppress them or be engulfed by them which distinguishes democratic government from its major alternatives.
Democracy, like any other political system, is not without its flaws in this imperfect world. But in the absence of a better alternative, experience from around the world convinces us that democratic structures, in their myriad permutations, can offer an effective means for the peaceful handling of deep-rooted difference through inclusive, just and accountable social frameworks. Democratic systems of government have a degree of legitimacy, inclusiveness, flexibility and capacity for constant adaptation that enables deep-rooted conflicts to be managed peacefully. Moreover, by building norms of behaviour of negotiation, compromise, and co-operation amongst political actors, democracy itself has a pacifying effect on the nature of political relations between people and between governments.
