When you hear Bangladesh’s name in media what image pops up in your mind? Just another idiosyncratic South Asian democracy or a country of authoritarian rule? If you never thought that Bangladesh is not a democracy that is not your fault. In a global media where sweeping generalizations are ordinary things you might have not noticed that something fundamentally has changed in Bangladesh, apart from the everyday extrajudicial killings of opposition political activists, detaining opposition editors and shutting down opposition TV stations.
28th April was the big day for Bangladesh. After three months of street protests and widespread violence from government and opposition, there was a city government election in three biggest cities corporations of Bangladesh. The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has said ‘rigging and ballot box stuffing by ruling party cadres, polling officers and law-enforcement agencies’ marked the polls to the Dhaka and Chittagong city corporations. All opposition candidates boycotted the election.
But this is not new in recent Bangladeshi history. You don’t need to be a political scientist to understand that there are some immutable inviolable characteristics absolutely essential in order for a country to be operating as a democracy. By the most reductive criteria of democracy from any political science 101 book or even a dictionary –that necessitates a representative government elected through a free and fair election, Bangladesh is not a democracy since the last January 5th, 2014 one sided election boycotted by pretty much everyone except the government itself. Even that election was marred by widespread stuffing of ballots which certainly reminds the elections under Hosni Mubarak or Bashar Assad. In fact what happened in that one sided election was the very reasons that the opposition didn’t participate in that election and didn’t want to give a stamp of credibility?
Ensuring free and fair elections necessitates the next set of essentials for a democracy- rule of law, equality before the law, civil space and liberty, a free press, preservation of fundamental human rights. It’s really difficult to measure or expect rule of law from law enforcing agencies who are reported to have killed more than 143 people through a systematic ‘extrajudicial killing in just first three months of this year. Human Rights Watch in its global report 2015 has said, the Bangladesh government failed to prosecute security forces for serious abuses including killings, disappearances, and arbitrary arrests. Now, a procedure is under consideration which will give immunity to security forces for killing political activists. Amnesty International has urged Bangladesh government to reject this outright. So many opposition activists, before getting the chance to defend themselves in a court of law, being killed in ‘gunfights’, ‘truck accidents’ or in ‘crossfire’. So, there is no rule of law for them and for some others the law is more than equal.
The state of press freedom is going through the most repressive time only second to the tenure of the first Awami League government of 1972-75. Under the current regime, three opposition TV channels were shutdown and two opposition newspapers were closed. An investigative report in Al Jazeera has revealed that journalists and media houses are operating under fear and constant watch and censorship by the government.
In May 2013, following a massacre on protesters in Dhaka’s business district Motijheel, police took control of the studios of Diganta TV and Islamic TV, forcing the channels to shut down for airing the live footage of the mayhem. A broadcast policy has been devised that prohibits content that may tarnish the image of the regime, and making it mandatory to broadcast programs the regime deems to have national importance, such as speeches by government leaders. Does it sound like an authoritarian country yet? One top opposition editor is behind the bars indefinitely on allegations of contempt and inciting religious sentiment. Another opposition TV chief is sent to jail for broadcasting the speech of opposition leader Khaleda Zia’s son Tarique Rahman’s speech. Shutting down popular talk-shows is a regular phenomenon.
In the political space, the main opposition party BNP’s chief was barred by sand-trucks from moving out of her office during major programs for a lengthy period of time. It was in effect a Aung San Suu Kyi style house arrest without just naming it an arrest. Still the offices of the opposition party are beefed up with huge police presence. The spokesperson of BNP is ‘missing’. Opposition parties and rights organization has alleged that the white clothed security forces have abducted him. The other party in the opposition alliance Jamaat-e-Islami’s office is closed since 2011. Thousands of opposition activists including women are in jail and facing all forms of repression.
After this brief description of the civil and political space in Bangladesh lets go back to the original question why calling Bangladesh a democracy anymore? In global politics there are some redlines. Until and unless those redlines are crossed the dominant media narrative is not changed. So, what would be that redline in case of Bangladesh? An eminent arrest of the opposition chief or a massacre involving a larger quantity of opposition protesters? It may sound rude or cruel, but, apparently that is the sexiest way to take position in the media headlines and let the world know that Bangladesh, by any definition-classic or contemporary, is not a democracy anymore. But, again, in our quest why Bangladesh is ‘officially’ a democracy, if we can connect this civil-political scenario with the broader regional economic and geopolitical equation then we’ll learn once again “it’s the economy, stupid!”
(Author: Nazmus Sakib, a Bangladeshi PhD student in Department of Political Science at Texas Tech University . Twitter: https://twitter.com/nirjhor_bd )
