Govt’s bureaucrats confirmed bureaucratic democracy we have
03 April 2014 Editorial Desk
Law makers of the British Parliament All-Party Committee on Human Rights at a seminar held at House of Lords on Monday discussed about the ways and means as to how a fresh democratic election could be held in Bangladesh to restore the rule of law in the country and how an election time government could be setup to allow all political parties to take part in the polls.
News reports said it was participated by noted MPs from both Houses of the British Parliament presided over by Co-chairman of the Committee Lord Avebury, who champions the cause of human rights and good governance in the British establishment.
Reports said HT Imam and Dr Moshiur Rahman represented the government in the meeting. Both of them were senior secretaries to previous governments and worked their way to politics using power and their position in the bureaucracy by breaking service discipline.
Similarly BNP was represented by Sabihuddin Ahmed who is a retired bureaucrat and an adviser to party chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia, Prof Pias Karim and one Mr Asaduzzaman Siddiqui who was not even familiar to many. Major global human rights bodies also attended the meeting. From the viewpoint of the British Parliament it was an important meeting in the backdrop of the January 5th voterless election in which the ruling party Awami League held the farcical election making it impossible for BNP, the main opposition in the parliament, to participate. Extra-judicial killings, abduction and widespread abuse of human rights are also destroying the peace of the nation showing no accountability of the government.
Reports said that the meeting of the British parliamentarians saw the repeat of the domestic political quarrels on the floor. The government side asserted that there was no problem for democracy in Bangladesh due to the election and as such there was no need for any fresh election. They rather spoke of 'terrorism and communalism' in Bangladesh blaming BNP and Jamaat for attacks on the members of the Hindu community during and after the election.
The bureaucrats like H.T. Imam who is said to be main architect of election engineering along with another bureaucrat Mashiur Rahman were enough to convince everybody how efficiently they have destroyed democracy in Bangladesh to establish bureaucratic autocracy in Bangladesh.
BNP participants on the other hand accused the government for holding the voterless election and electing 154 MPs unopposed to show that it was not an election at all but an exercise of selection of party men at all 300 seats to the House. They also said in fact Awami League was the power behind attacks on the minorities to grab their land while passing blames on the opposition.
It is known to all through diplomats of their own countries that the government could not hold fair election in fear of defeat. All the democratic institutions have now become non-functional and unaccountable. Voterless election does not produce responsible government anywhere.
