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Bangladesh Charts an Obstacle-Strewn Course
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11511 |
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CURRENT ISSUES
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10 / 1986 |
1,660 Words |
| Author
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Rouful Hassan
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Much water has flowed down the river Buriganga past Dhaka, the capital, since parliamentary elections were held in Bangladesh last May. After a third parliamentary session (which met for 13 barren days this past July) adjourned indefinitely, it became clear that very little was comprehensible regarding the political situation in Bangladesh. The lack of orderliness, to put it bluntly, due to the political instability and insecurity that reigned prior to the elections, still preoccupies and torments all parties concerned - those in power, the opposition, and the ordinary man in the street. The constant question is: "What is next?"
For the government the next political step appears to be well charted and carefully molded. Presidential elections are scheduled for October. President Hossain Mohammad Ershad, a lieutenant general and a former army chief of staff, is the natural and only choice for the ruling Jatiya Party. No one, including the opposition parties, expects Ershad to lose. In fact, he must win the election to avoid - when civilian and constitutional rule returns in the future - legal battles concerning actions he took while the country was under martial law.
The opposition, which is not very hopeful about what success can be expected from its anti-Ershad movement, will do what it can to keep Ershad from easily reaching his political goal. Most of the political parties, including the Awami League (which held power between 1972 and August 1975), are already stirring up trouble and created an embarrassing scene for Ershad when they boycotted the first session of parliament. Only a small fraction of the 124 opposition members of Parliament have participated in its regular business, contributing to a loss of credibility for the proceedings. In fact the government's prestige plummeted when Ershad, in his capacity as president, suspended Parliament after it deliberated upon the address he delivered at the inauguration of the house.
The Awami League, the fundamentalist Jamat-e-Islami, and the pro-Moscow Communist Party of Bangladesh (CPB) boycotted Parliament to press home their demand for the immediate and total withdrawal of martial law; the ruling party refused to do so until its terms had been met. In the words of Prime Minister Mizanur Rahman Choudhury: "Martial law can be lifted only when actions taken under it in the last four and a half years have been ratified and validated. This is necessary for maintaining the continuity of government." What he did not say was that Ershad also wanted a vote of confidence by Parliament to continue on until the next president could be duly elected. To ratify the order of martial law the government needed a two-thirds plurality in Parliament but fell short by 20 votes.
The Awami League, which is the largest opposition parliamentary party in the country, has a strong grass-roots organization in place. It came into power immediately after Bangladesh gained independence, but the government was violently overthrown in 1975 thanks to its endless misdeeds and misrule. Yet the Awami League appears to have recovered rather well from its past setbacks. Today it is vying for power again through every possible channel, both parliamentary and agitational. The party was in close agreement with the government for holding the elections in June, allegedly in exchange for a considerable number of seats in Parliament. Awami League leader Sheikh Hasina, the daughter of former president Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, (who was assassinated in the 1975 military coup), accused the government of
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