TO term the recent political developments — the resignation farce, induction of new ministers and the Ershad antics — as bizarre, would be an understatement. Politics has been tarnished by the admixture of both lust and aspiration for power on one hand and the effort to hang on to it at all cost on the other. And that includes the misrepresentation of the Constitution at best and its violation at worst.
We now have eight ‘constitutional ministers’ and 58 ‘unconstitutional’ ones. The wording of Article 58 (1) (a) allow of only one interpretation although the PM and her ministers would want us to believe their explanation of Article 58 (1) (a) which, for anyone who is able to read would find difficult to concur with. There can be no other reason for a minister to place his or her resignation letter to the PM except for the purpose of giving up his or her post, and for that to be transmitted to the president. The PM, regrettably, has not seen it fit to fulfill the implied obligation of the Constitution, to pass it on to the president, on receipt of the same. So much for the PM’s oft -proclaimed commitment not to deviate an inch from the Constitution.
We have seen the Constitution coming under the scalpel of the military dictators. But now even democratically elected persons can outdo them in defiling the supreme law of the land. No law can be devoid of its moral content. And likewise, no action of the government, legal that may be, can be devoid of its moral authority. If that happens then what we have is what Fareed Zakaria describes as illiberal democracy, an autocratic dispensation under the gloss of democratic government.
And what is even more regrettable is that those whom we considered the voice of sanity, the conscience of the nation, have not been able to shed their party identity while explicating on the most talked about article of the Constitution. What we seem to forget is that the Constitution is the guiding doctrine that helps in the governance of the country. The Constitution is for the nation and not for any particular party. But that document has been misrepresented, all in the name of the people and in the name of upholding democracy. The issue now lies with the highest court of the land. And we are waiting eagerly for the verdict of the writ petition.
It would appear that the PM’s latest move is yet another step towards keeping the BNP out of the elections. The new cabinet is old wine in old bottle, and the reinvigorated association of Ershad’s JP with the government’s ploy renders valid the speculation that he was to become the domesticated loyal opposition should the AL strategy to keep BNP out of the polls succeed.
The less said about Ershad the better. The two cartoons that appeared in this paper and the daily Prothom Alo on Monday amply express the character of the man and his present political status. While nobody can grudge a leader’s stand on a political issue, but to blow hot and cold in the same breath to deliberately mislead the public lend a bad name even to politics. Who knows, such a disingenuous political flip-flop might soon come to be known as ‘doing an Ershad.’
Beside the legal and constitutional issue, the more fundamental question is will the PM’s actions help resolve the political impasse that we are facing? By no definition can the new cabinet be called an all-party government. While the PM can do anything with her cabinet we wonder whether the Constitution (the 15th Amendment) allows for a pre-poll government in the first place. And is there a need for one? And who will she leave out from her old cabinet?
Nothing that the government has done since the 15th Amendment has helped to remove the distrust between the AL and BNP. If anything, the telephone saga and the formation of the new cabinet have deepened the animus. The level playing field that the opposition is demanding has become more uneven. A part of the 90-day period that was to be the domain of the EC has been ceded to the government, where the ruling party is freely conduction polls campaign. And the most important institution at this point in time, the EC, has done its best to cause public confidence in it to erode irredeemably. Can one expect free and fair polls under these circumstances?
Source: The Daily Star
