Shahid Islam
It’s a typical spectacle: too familiar and too intrinsic to our body politic. But it’s not liked by people anymore. Many ask: why this election façade when a one-party rule is firmly anchored? They say, in Bangladesh, democracy has long been dead. Why then are the buzzards feasting over the bloated, stinky, forbidden, inedible carrion?
The answer lies in the fact that the worst of the despots too want to appear as the best, seemingly popular, and benevolent too. It’s the symbolism and the theatrics that matter most to those savouring to cling onto power indefinitely without facing the gauntlet of challenges that democracy entails. They’ve a scheme to slog on shamelessly until uprooted by the surge of an overwhelming gust.
Despicable TV scenes
Lessons of history are not what they’re concerned about and, democracy, according to them, is not all about voting. Yet, in any aspiring pluralistic society, voting is at the epicenter of democracy’s efficacy and the raison d’etre.
The just concluded elections at the 234 municipalities depicted anew the real intent of a political regime bent on entrenching its one party labyrinth more firmly by seducing people into distorted historical swoons and phantom development miracles. Democracy is neither the regime’s means, nor the end. It’s just a ritual like attending the Friday prayer by any Muslim they cannot shelve aside.
However, by joining the election, and sticking to until the end, the BNP had done the smartest thing in many years. Now, none should be in doubt that no election under the incumbent AL can be tolerable, let alone fair, as the BNP had vouched time and again.
Besides, the bona fide of an election may not mean much to the ruling coterie, but election is what makes all of us proud as Bangladeshis. Imagine if the much despised Yahya Khan allowed the 1970 general election to be rigged in the manner one witnessed under the AL regime. Would Bangladesh be born as an independent nation? No way.
Yet, the AL had killed democracy many times in the past, even soon after the maiden sun of independence peeped over the eastern horizon. The 1973 election was a sham, and, a year later, all the political parties and mass media outlets were proscribed, resulting in the disastrous consequences of the 1975.
That part of the history is being re-written now, quite diligently and cunningly, and, what the AL has been doing lately in the name of democracy is a systemic destruction of all the national fabrics of a people who may soon lose their identity as a sovereign entity. Those who watched on December 30 what flashed out in the live coverage of a few TV channels, others being mostly loyal to the government, the scenes were unmistakably despicable, drenching and dreadful at times.
Uninterrupted ballot stamping
One of the popular dailies had summarized this election as: “Seal stamping began the night before. The first news came in the morning from Kalkini, Madaripur, where 1100 pre-sealed ballots with stamps on the boat sign were discovered. One had to wait just a bit more to get the next news from Comilla’s Barura where discovery of another 1200 pre-stamped ballots made headlines. Then, as the polling started at 8 AM in the morning, the real picture began to emerge. Earlier, the law enforces had conducted a witch hunt of opposition agents the night before, making them flee. And, those who dared to appear at the polling station had to abandon their spots by noon when all votes were cast and many of the under-aged, faked voters were found not knowing why they’re flocked to the polling stations.
TV cameras showed the scenes of uninterrupted ballot stamping by the ruling party thugs. People stayed away from polling stations in many places after news spread that their votes had already been cast. In some polling stations, police joined the ballot stamping to make the ruling party candidates winner.”
And, this is not the first time the mass rigging of votes under the incumbent AL sullied the image of the very notion of democracy through the planned, deft, use of money, muscle and authoritative manipulations. The January 2014 general election witnessed uncontested winning of 154 seats by the ruling party, more than what is required to form the government; due to the mass abstention from the poll’s participation by all major political parties under the BNP’s lead.
’Democracy is finished’
Then, on April 28, 2015, municipal elections were held for mayors and ward councilors in Dhaka North, Dhaka South, and Chittagong. Following a visit to polling stations along with his electoral team, The Asia Foundation’s director of election, Tim Meisburger, wrote about the nature of riggings perpetuated by the ruling AL thugs in that election.
Meisburger wrote: “All the rest of the locations we visited had been similarly captured, with staff cowering inside while AL agents marked ballots. At the fifth location we visited, I entered one booth to get a look inside a polling screen. I waited, as I noticed someone was inside. A minute or so later, a man wearing an agent card came out. I went inside and found a pink ballot book – used for the reserved seats for women – a stamp pad and ballot stamp. Leafing through the book, I discovered that on every ballot, the teapot symbol used by an Awami League candidate had been stamped.”
Meisburger continued: “We spoke to the police again, and they said they had wanted to do something but had been ordered not to by their superiors. At the last station we visited, a voter told us as we entered, “Democracy is finished.”
Last word: when democracy lay dead in any society, the society itself must brace for any cataclysm.
Source: weekly holiday
