Democracy or Demoncracy?

In the West, democracy is the only valid system to administrate any country, where people's voice and especially citizen's rights are given highest priority. But, in most of the developing and under-developed nations, politicians use the term 'democracy' for the mere personal benefits.

Bangladesh, a nation of pride and dignity snatched freedom from the Pakistani occupation forces in 1971 with the huge sacrifice of lives of those heroic people of the land. The major aspiration of the people of this country was to attain independence to get proper rights of people and to see their own governments, which would surely pay heed to popular opinion of the masses. But, unfortunately, in course of time, it is evidently proved that, almost all the governments, which came in power since the independence of Bangladesh, ultimately turned into worst ever elected dictators, who loved to establish 'demoncracy' instead of democracy in the country. Those elected representatives are continuing to behave like mere monarchs, if not masters of the nation.

In Bangladesh, possibly the most questioned and controversial period are those two years of military backed interim government rule, where, freedom of expression as well as citizen's rights were badly screwed by a bunch of culprits, who became either direct of indirect beneficiaries of that illegal government. It may be mentioned here that, General Moeen U Ahmed blue-printed a virtual coup-de-etat in Bangladesh in 2007 [January 11] and ousted the democratically set caretaker government thus establishing reign of terror in the entire country for two years, which was not only designed to destroy the democratic establishments of the country, but also to smash the very economic back-bone of Bangladesh. In the name of combating corruption, the government set by General Moeen was busy in multiple forms of serious crimes including extracting money from leading entrepreneurs and businessmen of the country by picking them up with no logical ground and locking them inside unknown torture centre, most possibly inside Dhaka Cantonment, where several fellow officers under General Moeen's command were busy in extracting millions of dollars from those people by giving them death threats.

According to my own assumption, Bangladeshi economy was pushed back to at least 20 years during the evil rule of General Moeen's shadow government during January 11 2007-December 2008. This shrewd General managed a group of 'like-minded' people in his team, who were also no less enthusiastic in causing maximum damage to Bangladesh's democracy and economy.

This army General made frantic bid in holding the power for at least 10 years and with such 'mission' in mind, he tried various tricks domestically and internationally. When failed in all such attempts, he opted of finding a 'safe exit path' by setting a government through the election, which would let this controversial army official let step out of this dangerous anti-state activities and ensure him impunity of all his crimes and wrong-doings. It is alleged that, Moeen's men continued hidden negotiations with both the major political parties in Bangladesh as well as Jatiyo Party, which is led by General Hussain Muhammed Ershad.

Finally the general election of December 2008 was a real upset for the Bangladesh Nationalist Party and its Islamist coalition partners, when Bangladesh Awami League, a secularist political party attained wild majority with almost 80 per cent seats in the parliament. For the first time in the history of Bangladesh, communists, who were coalition partners of Bangladesh Awami League, finally managed to win seats in the parliament and even one of the prominent communists like Dilip Barua was picked as the minister for Industries ministry in the country. There are numerous rumors and allegations on the very transparency and credibility of the general election of 2008. Series of subsequent post-election incidents, including some specific proves of massive irregularities by the Election Commission, which helped some of the candidates of Bangladesh Awami League is managing victory really gives much grounds to such allegations and rumors.

I truly failed to understand as to why a communist was given the responsibility of the industries ministry in a country, who follows the path of free market economy. Dilip Barua's political ideology is very much against the theme of free market economy. Instead, he loves to see Bangladesh to be another 'Soviet Union' or even another worst avenue of communism. He would love to do everything to screw up private entrepreneurs and stop the growth of free market economy at least in Bangladesh. A committed anti-US and anti-West politician like Dilip Barua, who failed to manage winning any of the elections in Bangladesh for obvious reason, is now set in the very important ministry as a mere Frankenstein to virtually destroy the atmosphere of growth of market economy. As a result, during the past almost two years of rule of the present government, there is no foreign investment in Bangladesh. Country's economy is gradually moving towards the old-day's fate of 'bottomless basket'.

There is no doubt that Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is trying her best to show a better performance of her government, as she made specific electoral pledges to the nation during the election of 2008. She promised to give job to at least one member in each of the families in the country during 2009-2013. She has promised to improve the infrastructure of Bangladesh as well establish several power stations to resolve the existing power crisis, which causes severe sufferings to both domestic and industrial establishment in the country. According to pro-government media, there has been lack of interest of the foreign investors in investing any money in Bangladesh, because of the existing severe power crisis. It may be mentioned here that, on an average, Bangladeshis are witnessing load-shedding for 5-6 hours every day. It is even speculated by the departments concerned that such length of load-shedding will increase in the coming days. The energy ministry is virtually flopped in doing anything substantive in resolving the crisis.

Law and order situation in Bangladesh is at the worst ever since its independence in 1971. The home minister continues to make funny comments on the deteriorating law and order situation, which contributes in making people more irritated and annoyed.

Foreign exchange earnings are greatly reducing as most of the Muslim nations are continuing to send back Bangladeshi workers despite numerous diplomatic attempts of the government in resolving the crisis. Critics say that the present foreign minister has completely failed in doing anything in resolving this extremely important issue. There are allegations of unnecessary foreign trips by the foreign minister, where she is spending millions of dollars from the national exchequer, bringing nothing good for the country.

Commerce ministry is another prominent avenue of grand flop in the present government. Most talkative commerce minister Lt. Col Faruk Khan has recently stopped appearing frequently in the media with his funnier comments, as he not only failed to do anything in controlling the exorbitant rise of the prices of essentials, but there are numerous allegations of corruptions against this man.

According to my own judgment, the only effective member in the entire government is none but the Prime Minister herself. She has commitment for the nation at least and trying to do everything possible for resolving numerous challenges and problems. It is also my own judgment that most of the ministers in the present government are simply enjoying the luxury of being in the ministry and busy in building their own fortune, while they are expecting the Prime Minister to resolve each and every problem of the nation. I am sure, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina does not have any magic stick or wish bone in her hand, with which she can dramatically change everything. She needs a team of truly effective and committed people for attaining the goal of showing substantive positive results to the entire nation before her party faces the next general election in 2013. On the other hand, some of the over-enthusiastic members of the government as well several influential sycophants in the ruling party are busy in turning the present democratic government into a worst form of autocratic regime thus establishing demoncracy [when democracy goes into the grips of monsters and autocracy is established under the garb of democracy] instead of democracy in Bangladesh. Wish the Prime Minister would at least realize this before it is real too late!

Related Topics: Bangladesh News receive the latest by email: subscribe to weekly blitz's free mailing list

Democracy or Demoncracy?

Comment on this item