M.I. Ali
Bangladesh is a classical case where the vocal minority has, time and again, encouraged the party in power to ignore the will of the silent majority, of course with the predictable consequences. The vocal minority convinced the Awami League leadership that their government had done a lot of development work and that the party will be rewarded by the voters for this achievement. This prompted Awami League to go for the four city corporation elections only to be stunned by the scale of defeat it had to face.
The party immediately went into denial, citing a plethora of causes for their defeat, none of which were the primary causes. So when the Gazipur elections came, Awami League made the same mistakes and was handed over an even bigger defeat. That too after the party had dedicated all its resources and assets to ensure its victory in an area that is considered an Awami League stronghold. Once again Awami League is in search of excuses to justify its defeat, ignoring the real causes. This denial of the real causes will, in all likelihood, result in its defeat in the next general elections.
The biggest misconception of Awami League, and for that matter, when applicable, for BNP, is that they thought that the voters have voted them to power, when in fact the voters had voted BNP out of power, with Awami League winning by default. It is conceivable that this time around, Awami League will most probably be voted out of power with BNP being the winner by default. When people rose up against the Ershad regime they thought that they were ushering in the dawn of democracy in the country.
Since then, each time they have voted against the party in power because their demand for democracy, accountability and transparency had remained elusive. Once again Awami League, with its massive parliamentary majority, had failed to usher in democracy into the country. The natural consequence of this is that the government remains unaccountable for its actions, until it is too late or as in this case when voters in the four city corporations and Gazipur try to tell the party in power that they are not happy with them because they did not fulfill their commitments of institutionalizing democracy in the country.
Both Awami League and BNP seem to believe that the process of democracy in the country ends when either of them are voted to power and they are free to do whatever they wish for the next five years. The vocal minority, most of whom are rent seekers, lull the party chiefs into a false sense of security that people are ecstatic with their performance. And now after the debacles in the four city corporations and Gazipur, these people are trying to find scapegoats to justify their failure in winning these elections for their party.
It is very unfortunate that our major political parties have failed to understand that people have, time and again, voted against prime ministerial dictatorship. Be it Awami League or BNP. They want accountability of the government’s actions as well as transparency. They know well that neither our government nor our major political parties practice democracy. Still, hoping against hope they vote against the incumbent, ever optimistic that by voting the opposition to power may somehow bring democracy and accountability to the country.
Source: Weekly Holiday