The country went through a huge upheaval on 36 July, that is, 5 August this year. It was undoubtedly a massive rebellion, some dub it as a revolution. We often see that when there's a revolution, there a large severance with the past. Everything has to be demolished and things start anew. We are not talking of demolishing everything now and constructing again from scratch. We are talking about reforms, state reforms.
The citizens of the country have been vocal for quite a few years over various problems of the state, the discrepancies, the discrimination, the deficiencies. But our rulers would pay no heed. Everyone feels that the student-people's rebellion has created an opportunity before the people now.
If we talk about state reforms, at first we have to change the loopholes in the laws that the government utilised to rule, exploit and oppress the people. If those are to be changed, the constitution must be taken up.
Yet, for various reasons, a sense of trepidation rears its head. After all, there have been mass uprisings in the past too. But the people did not always reap the benefits of such uprisings. It was in extreme stressful and suffocating circumstances that the military coup of 15 August 1975 took place. We saw at the time that, other than those in the government and ruling party and the associates of the ruling party, everyone welcomed the coup. But the state remained unchanged. The next rulers also used the state machinery to wield their rule over the people.
We witnessed a mass uprising in the country in 1990. Then an interim caretaker government headed by Justice Shahabuddin Ahmed was installed. We felt that the country had gained independence in December 1972 and the citizens won independence in December 1990. The people could enjoy that independence only for a few months. That it was back to square one. Yet again, a one-party rule, a one-person rule. The manner in which the state machinery had been used to control the society, people's actions and thoughts, simply continued as before.
Then came the movement for a caretaker government. A caretaker government was installed. But there were all sorts of efforts to manipulate the caretaker government. Both BNP and Awami League continued in these manipulations in turns. The caretaker system rotted. As a result, 1/11 hit the scene. Our political parties did not learn from this either.
The system of government that had been in place for the last 15 years can in one word be called fascist. A certain group attempted to control everything in a most cruel manner, indiscriminately oppressing, repressing and killing people. But finally they could not remain in power. It was the students, the youth who were the catalysts of the mass uprising that took place in July and August. A month has passed since the uprising. The interim government hasn't managed to settle down as yet. The government is talking about all sorts of commitments. The government has to start working on the reforms. What are those tasks?
If we talk about state reforms, at first we have to change the loopholes in the laws that the government utilised to rule, exploit and oppress the people. If those are to be changed, the constitution must be taken up. There is a lot of talk about the constitution now, about amending it, about rewriting it.
When a rebellion takes place, often the constitution is changed. We are not seeing that now. It looks like the constitution will be shaped up so that the rulers cannot use the constitution to oppress or exploit any section of the society. The constitution must contain a guarantee that the citizens will not be subject to discrimination.
The political parties are major stakeholders of the state. Unless the political parties reform themselves, the state cannot be reformed. Whether the political parties practice democracy within themselves, is a million dollar question. Unless they practice democracy within the parties themselves, how will they ensure democracy for the country?
Whether we talk about big political parties in our country or the smaller ones, all of them are individual-centric and dynasty-centric. There is only one party that elects its leadership by means of secret ballot. In the other parties, it is the leader of the party who decides who will be on the committee. Unless they get rid of this process of selecting leadership, one cannot expect democracy from them.
Our political parties march in processions carrying banners. On one side of the banner is a large picture of the leader, implying it is the leader's party, not the people's party. This culture must change. We see a political culture where leaders talk with voices raised high, fingers raised high. This culture must end. The politicians must change such behaviour, such manner of speech. Such roaring and shaking of the fingers is not decent.
We all say that there must be an elected government in the country. Can the governments that have been installed in the past by means of elections, be called elected governments? They did not fulfill the pledges they made to come to government. In fact, they did exactly what they didn't pledge to do. Has any party ever said that when they ascend to power they will lodge cases against anyone who criticised them? Did any of them say they would draw up false crossfire scripts? But they do all of that once they are in power. So there is no reason to believe that one will become a saint or an angel simply if one is an elected representative.
We have seen the parliament as a 350-member owners association formed in the name of parliament members. Whether the parliament is unicameral or bicameral, it makes no difference unless the political leaders change themselves. The locality-based and national-based ownership structure that had been built up from the union parishad to the national parliament, must be smashed.
The agenda of state reforms is large and much work needs to be done. The proposal for state reforms must come from the political parties. The proposals have to be specific. Whether the parliament is to be unicameral or bicameral is not a matter of reforms. They have to say whether Article 70 will be retained in the constitution or not. The 50 members who are in parliament through the quota are not elected by the people. They are elected by the 300 members of parliament. This needs to come to an end. All such discrepancies must be cleared away.
The people are not crazy for elections right now. Before elections there needs to be radical changes in the existing trend of politics. State reforms must begin at home. The political parties must clearly enunciate their proposals, what reforms they will carry out. For example, BNP has proposed that no one can be prime minister for more than two consecutive terms. This should apply to members of parliament too. Then no one has the chance even of being prime minister for more than two terms. Then we will see new faces in leadership. In our country, just a handful of families are in the political play. It's the same faces that are elected time and again. This must change.
Everyone must express themselves openly about reforms. Let there be a citizens' charter based on whatever everyone finds acceptable. Only the political parties that sign the charter will be able to join the election.
* Mohiuddin Ahmad is a writer and researcher
* This column appeared in the print and online edition of Prothom Alo and has been rewritten for the English edition by Ayesha Kabir