Prospect for Democracy in Bangladesh

(Cross posted in Adda)

You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to understand the agenda of the military government in Bangladesh. It’s becoming crystal clear that Army is running the show and it has no desire to leave it in the coming days. If you don’t believe, watch the TV news that will show you who runs the game plan. If you look at the history of military backed political parties under General Zia and Ershad, the recent political trend in Bangladesh fingers at the same path of dirty history. Now, the military spokesperson Law Advisor Mainul Hosein says that the government may not lift ban on politics due to recent violence. Isn’t it a part of the blue print that the Army wants to stall the return of democracy? Bangladesh Election Commission has repeatedly asked the government to lift ban on in door politics to start grounds for dialogs with political parties. Nothing happened. Now, the Commission has come up with schedules of dialogs as it’s been left with no alternatives. BDnews24 reports today:

Law adviser Mainul Hosein Wednesday said recent street violence had made the government rethink a move to immediately lift a long-standing ban on indoor politics.
His latest concern came a day after the Election Commission announced that it would kick off dialogue with the political parties in the second week of next month.

"We have finalised an outline to lift the ban on indoor politics. But the recent violence in Dhaka University has forced the government to reconsider its implementation," Hosein told bdnews24.com. "The council of advisers will take a (final) decision," he said.

Chief election commissioner ATM Shamsul Huda Tuesday said that they would start the much-expected dialogue on electoral reforms with the political parties on September 12.

The major political parties have said they are not interested to sit with the EC for talks unless the ban goes...”.

General Moeen has already concluded that traditional democracy has failed to yield any good to this poor nation, as he implied to abandon it to replace with a new form of governance and democracy (i.e. military democracy?). How many times are we going to be fooled to our Goldfish memory? Yes, we’re looking for democracy. We don’t want to fail as we’ve seen failures of military take over. We want to show the world how Bangladesh can and will return to democracy. Has the process started to welcome the return of democracy? No, not yet.

Political ban in Bangladesh has not been lifted, and it appears that will not likely to happen in the coming days. Corruption charges and legal proceedings have painfully suffered as they’ve been crafted and enforced to serve ill-motivated political interests and hidden agenda. Yes, the mother of all corruption is still left spared and untouched. The Army Generals’ motive is clear as democracy will return as per their term. When the rest of the world is safely assured that the Bangladesh military won’t take over the government, it doesn’t guarantee that democracy will come back here without sponsorships and influences. Can we afford another hand made regime in Bangladesh in the name of democracy? Sadly, the prospect for democracy in Bangladesh is severely distorted when it solely depends on the mercy of the Generals as the free will and hope of people are cordoned off by bans and blames.