Reform of three types – legal, institutional and infrastructural – are compulsory for a real democratic transition, electoral reform commission chief Badiul Alam Majumdar said on Monday.
“The electoral arena must be decriminalised in the first place to establish supremacy of citizens. At the same time, all sorts of monetary transactions in the political arena must stop and the civil society also has to be active. Besides, there must be citizen’s representation in every institution to ensure their accountability,” he stated.
Badiul Alam Majumdar made the remarks at a roundtable held at the Prothom Alo office in the capital’s Karwan Bazar Monday afternoon.
The roundtable on the process of democratic transition was organised jointly by the BRAC Institute of Governance and Development (BIGD) and Prothom Alo.
Addressing the round table, he said, “When we were holding discussions on behalf of the commission for reforming the electoral system, some people from the grassroots came to the parliament building to speak with us. They had never even been near the parliament before. They were astonished by how beautiful the building was. Their eyes widened in awe. I overheard them saying amongst themselves, ‘Such a beautiful building, yet such vile people have taken control here.’ … From that remark, we gained a sense of direction. It became clear to us that a one-day electoral democracy not only reinforces factionalism but also breeds a society plagued by thuggery.”
“Our electoral system and politics is heavily criminalised. Money played a big part in it. Even if we want to mature this one-day democracy, we have to get rid of criminalisation of the electoral system. Several long-term reforms are needed for that. The major instances of corruption and serious wrongdoing we see are carried out through collusion between a certain quarter of politicians, a certain type of businessmen, and a certain type of bureaucrats. We must find a way out of this,” he added.
Badiul Alam Majumdar further said, “Now we must explore more ways to truly achieve a deliberative democracy—by making civil society effective. Politics must, without a doubt, be freed from criminalisation.”