Election ul-Fitr
With the return of electoral democracy, the BNP has resoundingly been given the opportunity to stay true to its promises and establish democratic practices in Bangladesh.
Muhammad Yunus cast his vote and passed on Eid greetings to the people of Bangladesh via the gathered national media. The snapshot perfectly encapsulated the thirteenth general election. It was a celebration of the return of electoral democracy, the breaking of the long fast of autocracy. If Yunus is to be congratulated, it is for lacking political ambition in his twilight years, thereby allowing a democratically elected government to assume state power at long last. That the election was peaceful and festive is a testament to the temperament of the average Bangladeshi, when granted suffrage.
Whether the resumption of electoral democracy signals a successful end of the transition to democracy, is as much a hypothesis requiring proof as whether the immediate socio-political future of Bangladesh is hopeful. With a healthy nationwide voter turnout of nearly 61%, there is conclusive electoral evidence of the predominance of Islamist nationalism in present-day Bangladesh. This is a political ideology that has, historically and worldwide, not been contained within the strict parameters of democracy, especially when constitutional safeguards do not exist. These are set to be removed as a parting gift from the interim government. The positives derived from the BNP being a party lacking any clear ideology come with the negative of there presently being only one game in town, looking to monopolise.
The election also reinforced the concerns of women and ethnic, religious and gender minorities. Their paltry representation in the incoming parliament is tantamount to a complete erasure. The ascendant Islamist nationalism excludes these groups and virulently opposes them. The interim government expended no time or effort on including them. A BNP government with a super majority must protect and serve them. In fact, it is not only incumbent upon the new government to fulfil its responsibility to ensure the safety and security of every Bangladeshi; after the woeful inadequacy of the interim government, this must be a top priority.
There was genuine excitement about campaigning and the election because they had value rather than being pointless exercises in vanity and propaganda, to launder autocracy into faux democracy. Similarly, there will be genuine excitement when parliament reopens because the debates within, as raucous, nonsensical and entertaining as they will at times be, will have value. They will be about state-building for a broken state, about including and serving the entire population, about revitalising a struggling economy and an eroded culture. That is the responsibility assumed by the first male prime ministerial head of government Bangladesh will have since Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
Tarique Rahman has presented himself as a man reborn, helming a party that is seeking to be reborn after two decades in the political wilderness. A landslide victory does not mean that his BNP government will not be viewed with suspicion by those who remember its past sins. Encouraging that scepticism via a press that was only too happy to compose paeans to the Yunus government, a judiciary that has a real opportunity to become independent, a new, robust civil society committed to rights over power, and a defiant, resilient youth, can be the BNP’s best chance of success, and a bulwark against its own propensity for excesses.
Despite the republic being threatened during the interim government’s tenure, it still stands. The BNP can be the best hope that the country has for it to be preserved, so that it can fulfil its potential and thrive. This is neither the dawn of a new era nor a new beginning for Bangladesh. It is a rare chance at redemption, for the country and the party that its citizens have elected to power.●