Master Of The Game?
Thirty six years ago almost to the day a good friend, Capt (later Maj Gen) Amin Ahmad Chaudhry (of Bangladesh), told me about Telemachus, a Christian monk who jumped into the ring at the Roman Coliseum to separate two gladiators fighting to the death with swords. The gladiators turned on him and he was run through by their swords. Shocked into silence at the tragedy, the crowd left the Coliseum. Some historians disagree, they say he was set on by the crowd, furious that he should prevent their entertainment they stoned him to death. Whatever the real version, because of his selfless act Emperor Honorius stopped all further gladiatorial events from Jan 1, 404 A.D. The moral of “Telemachus” is don’t try mediation, you will either be set upon by both the warring parties or by the bystanders. Normally one shoots the messenger bringing bad news, in the super-charged political atmosphere presently in Pakistan, the polarization is so defined and acute you shoot the mediator. As much as we decry President Bush for it, his doctrine is alive and well in Pakistan, “you are either for us or against us!”. Being even-handed and objective is not smart in Pakistan!
Bangladesh, Democracy In Crisis
Completing their 5-year term in late Oct 2006, Khaleda Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) duly handed over power to a Caretaker Regime. In a strategic mistake, the Awami League (AL)-led opposition did not agree to Retired Chief Justice K M Hassan, the man who (according to the Constitution) was to be the Head of the Caretaker Regime, as being “partial” to BNP. A man of great integrity and known impartiality, Justice Hassan himself refused the office, leaving the doors open for the President Iajuddin Ahmed (who is very partial to BNP) to double as Chief Advisor. With the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Zakaria clearly BNP-partisan, there was no way that the AL-led 14 party alliance was going to accept this “double whammy”. The resultant 60 days of street unrest, resolved only when the President agreed to send Zakaria on leave beyond the election date and announcement of results thereof. Four of the Advisors resigned rather than not being able to fulfil their responsibilities to the citizens of Bangladesh under the Constitution. Subsequently another three resigned, refusing to be rubber stamps of the President, dozens of honourable men and women also denied to be Advisor-posts on the same grounds. With both sides taking up intractable positions, foreign govts and international institutions applied enormous pressure on both sides to compromise before events spun out of control.
Electoral Process In Bangladesh
It is very difficult in the third world to hold free and fair elections, the result is always contested by the loser. This has both political and economic repercussions for the State. Every regime in power uses its incumbency to tilt the elections in its favour, the normal modus operandi pre-elections is to put its own supporters to run the Local Administration and the Election Commission, making it that much easier to try any number of manipulations in rigging the elections. For influencing the outcome of the vote there is nothing more potent in third world countries than using police functionaries at the street level. An honest election is only possible if supervised by a genuinely neutral administration looking after governance and affairs of the State for the period leading to elections as well as transition of authority to whoever is the winner. One of the better innovations to the Bangladesh Constitution was the institution of the Caretaker Cabinet (called Advisors to the President) to oversee General Elections. The formula agreed by all parties was that the last retired Chief Justice of the Supreme Court would be the Chief Advisor.
Hasina Khaleda-ised
Defying expectations of a great many analysts who predicted a close race, Begum Khaleda Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP)-led Alliance routed the ruling Awami League (AL) in the general elections held on Oct 1, 2001, putting Bangladesh founding father Sheikh Mujib’s daughter, Shaikh Hasina Wajid, out to pasture for the next five years. The BNP already has a two-thirds majority with at least 30-40 seats still to be declared. Showing a good head for arithmetic, Hasina Wajid lost no time crying “foul” in announcing a boycott of Parliament, acutely aware that her party has often used brute majority to amend the Constitution to suit its narrow interests rather than national ones. More than 200 foreign observers present to observe the elections have disagreed with Hasina Wajid, unanimously calling the polls generally free and fair. The lady is out in the cold without any credibility to cloak her.