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Political and election culture in Bangladesh

Published : Sunday, 30 December, 2018 at 12:00 AM  Count : 1321

The metaphor called the Iceberg model used by cognitive behavioural therapy and various behavioural sciences. The Iceberg model describes that our performance is driven by our behaviour, and our habits. This is also driven by our feelings, which is turned on by our thoughts in turn. In the Iceberg model, our performance and some of our behaviour are visible, other behaviour, feelings, and thoughts are either undiscovered or invisible. The same condition of our political leaders as Iceberg, where a part of the political pledge was revealed and most of the actions were not discovered. Our political leaders have never thought of socioeconomic and socio-political problems carefully - and eventually it does not lead their thinking towards a positive level, which can do much for the nation than what they have done for this period.

In many countries, proper politics is absent, and it is considered to be the main problem of socioeconomic stability of a country - Bangladesh is no exception. People are involved in politics in Bangladesh, most of them are not accustomed to the political background. Prior to their entry in this area of work, they do not need to get the political knowledge all along that is very true. However, the main responsibility of the political party was to contribute to education in their cooperation so that party activists or members know how to demonstrate and how important things can be done more effectively than revealing aggressive behaviours. Importantly, the most political party was not standing as an institution in Bangladesh and it is considered to be one of the biggest problems for democracy in the country.

In Bangladesh, some political parties have made people an image that they are the only patriots, who are among them and will be good enough to choose as a ruler. However, the political party forgot to do something that most people wanted to see in their political agenda. Political parties are compelled to fulfil political pledges. The goal of the political party is to serve the citizens of the country more than themselves, which is not practiced well in Bangladesh.

Aristotle proposed: "do not let the poor be the partner of the elite city or the entire community of society, reflect the deep democratic disparity". Do we have to create a constitution that will give the rich full access to political issues, even though they will share this facility with the middle people? On the other hand, really poor, all together will be omitted. Have we ever thought of such a constitutional process that divides our society? We often change our constitution, but not for the welfare of the nation or for the peoples' betterment. Such changes do not make any distinction among the poor because it does not help them at all; instead, it helps a lot of changers who might be involved in its alteration process. Democracy does not mean anything to you if you do not practice it and if you do not try to respect other's opinions as it is very essential in any democratic country.

Unfortunately, we have failed in securing our prosperous future in Bangladesh because most political parties are involved in loggerheads rather than ensuring democracy for the people of the state.  

What we virtually see in our country, a wrong and the quagmire process of the oligarchy political system. It does not matter anymore who is in power and who is not, eventually each political party act similarly which distort the reputation of the government at large. Almost every political party works in a parallel structural form instead of expressing their identity or characteristics differently, and perhaps this process began long ago in Bangladesh.
 
The election is a process of guiding the country on the right and democratic way. If this process is hindered by political process or political party supporters, other organisations may become weak and the state is in crisis. Bangladesh is facing political unrest and two big political parties are interested in the government instead of offering an effective strategy for the development of the whole nation. Here, after being elected a political party, they forget their commitments, and the voters are deeply neglected by the political party. In this way, the uncertainty of future success inspires them to face trial of the obsolete masses, and finally, it extensively manipulates the entire system of election, which is certainly a bad sign of democracy.

Finally, people were amazed to see the violence in the field during the national election of the year 2018. It was not all mandatory and it could have been avoided with an appropriate strategy that some key stakeholders have largely failed to do so. Moreover, it is almost impossible to organise a good and credible election in Bangladesh without the proper will of the political parties. Other states organs are ready to support the government; however, it is up to the government (ruling party), whether they do want to see a credible election in the country or not. Remember one thing that in the phase of globalisation and neoliberalism developing states are weak in institutional democracy and territorial stakeholders are more powerful than the Western powers today. Thus, you need to make your own decision whether you want to see a progressive democracy in your country or not.   

ASM Anam Ullah is an Australian academic and researcher






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