An alternative to caretaker government

MASUM BILLAH:The government declaration to scrape the caretaker government system has triggered the opposition to call a strike on June 05 it conducted three of our national elections very successfully. Why did we actually go to the court to settle the matter when it is absolutely a political issue and it   must be settled in the assembly in presence of the major political parties as it is a big national issue? Why should we want to show so much value suddenly to the court when we continue ignoring many other important verdicts of the court?  No single political party or alliance has the absolute right to change the system. Ultimately this decision may give rise to another abnormal situation which we cannot afford to allow any more. Our two big political parties are the two deciding factors in mattes of all issues of the state; this issue cannot be decided singe handedly. What can we expect when the two big parties stand poles apart?

Barrister Rafu ul Haque said, “ the statement of the prime minster is not right that when the Appellate Division has declared the caretaker system illegal, the government has nothing to do with it except to follow. He castigated this point adding that according to section 111 the lower court and the high court are bound to obey this order, not the assembly. Assembly is an independent entity. It can make law but the court can never. So it is not mandatory for the assembly to exactly follow the verdict of the Appellate Division.” Furthermore, considering the gravity and significance of the situation, the court continued that the next two elections can be conducted  under caretaker government system which the government did not give importance . When the opposition has responded to their known way of protest I mean calling strike, the government has said that the it is not rigid on caretaker issue. It now requests to withdraw strike and come to the assembly. But we know the opposition will not escape this opportunity. The citizens of the country are seriously fed up with the activities of these two big parties. But who bothers? They are doing their own jobs. Let the country go to dogs and the people’s life become unbearable, so what? The government will leave no ways untried to cling to power and the opposition will try heaven and earth to oust the government and occupy the power. But it is interesting enough that both of them talk about the country and welfare of the people. We see, what the people are enjoying? What response do we get from the government when small investors have lost everything in the share market due to the corruption of some big guns?

I am a negligible citizen of this nation. I know my opinion or concern for the nation attaches any value to our leaders. Even then I feel constrained to express my proposal regarding the caretaker government issue. I think we need to have a special kind of government for a certain period besides political government. Why?

Caretaker government is a kind of assessment of the political government done by a third neutral eye. When a party assumes state power, it does whatever it likes.  The presence of a strong opposition makes real democracy more meaningful. But we have developed the culture to erase or to adopt all the ways to seriously weaken the opposition so that we can do our whimsical works according to our sweet will. Citizens whose vote was important during the elections have nothing to do in the real sense of the term. They just become the victim and hostage of the whims and wills of the ruling party and the opposition.  

Each political party thinks whatever it does is absolutely right. But is it the case ? Actually there is no  established and systematic way to deter the government from taking any wrong decision against the people. In this nascent democracy the party men will never say any wrong decision as ‘ wrong’. So, who will find it out? The opposition? Who bothers them? Who cares them? The opposition has only means to call strike which actually gives nothing to the nation except some national loss and public suffering. So, what is the way to address the issue?

CTG is a kind of silent feedback and demonstration.   When elected, a particular party must not work for its party and party men. Rather it becomes the custodian of the whole nation irrespective of opposition and dissents. In our child democracy we could not have developed such kind of system. CTG can teach us this thing working neutrally as we experienced from the previous examples though in some cases it was a little bit questionable, even then much better than political government’s attitude towards other parties and common people.

 SUJAN Secretary has said, “However, it must not be forgotten that the CTG has had many outstanding achievements.A reliable electoral  role  with photographs was created during the tenure of the last CTG. During the same period, many systematic and institutional reforms were initiated and a number of progressive laws were framed, though some were not approved by the 9^th parliament. Steps were also taken to separate the judiciary from the administration, free the EC Secretariat from the clutches of the Prime Minister’s office, and make the Anti- corruption Commission, functional and so on. Most importantly all the CTGs were by and large able to deliver free and fair elections. “

When government wants to erase CTG system of the government it must consult with the opposition and other small parties of the republic as it is absolutely a political decision . When the government alone wants to take the decision regarding a big national issue it sounds absolutely wrong. Secretary of SUJAN, Badiul Alam Majumder commented.“Personally I welcome the judgment, although without responsible behavior on the part of our politician, it may lead the nation to an uncertain future”

To avoid all these issues I propose there must be three consecutive governments in the country. They are –(i) the highest vote achievers will run the country for four years. (ii) the second achievers will play the role of the opposition during these four years. Then they will automatically rule the country for three years when the ruling class will play the role of the opposition for these three years. (iii) then there will be  a neutral government to be constituted by the members of civil society drawn from different professionals but not the members of any political party. They will work as feedback government. The success and failure of the first government ( the ruling party) and the second government ( the opposition) will be judged from a neutral point of view and show the countrymen how they can serve the nation actually neutrally. The civil society members will be chosen by the prime minister and the leader of the opposition. They will choose fifty-fifty members. The chief of the neutral government will be decided by the prime minster, leader of the opposition, chief election commissioner and the president. When they will reach consensus, finally, the president will give him/her appointment. This neutral government will run the country for three years and they will arrange national election at the end of their term. They will leave the power handing over the highest achiever. Thus the national election will take place every ten years, not five or four years. It will save national money and the country will be free from the anarchy and violence that take place before and after the election. We must remain busy with development works not with elections every five years.

Why this system? The party in the government thinks of their development plans. If they fail to get back to the power, all of their development works will see a dead stop. So, to continue the development plans, they try to re -occupy the power.

The opposition will not be frustrated and take to the path of destructive activities if this system is introduced. Rather they will learn many lessons from the government mistakes. And take preparation to run the state during their term very effectively and efficiently. Finally, the people and countrymen will get the real benefit. The government will be very much cautious to take any decision against public interest. They will not take diehard preparation to come to power embracing many illegal acts and avoiding the opinion of the opposition.

In the present democracy many good things are mentioned and uttered time and again for the welfare of the people and country. Do they really  happen? When a party comes to power, the opposition starts living in the hell though they represent significant amount of people. Various sorts of true and false cases are registered against them, they become bitter and hatch the plan to come to power just to take revenge. This game continues. The ruling party men from the root level to the highest tier start sucking benefit by fair means or foul. The neutral people, common people and the dissent remain ever neglected. So, this kind of democracy in name must not continue. Rather a national government or neutral government must be in the power every seven years.

Civil society members discuss and criticize the government and the opposition whenever they get time. If they are in the government, they will get the opportunity to show how far it is possible to run a country where thousands of problems appear in the way of running the state. Besides, general people will have the taste of the rule of different governments as they have already become bored to see the rule of the two parties only. Again, these two parties do whatever they like in many cases without bothering about public opinion. The country is not for these two parties only. Their way of behaving says so. The country is for the neutral people, civil society people and the people of the toiling masses who actually don’t have any representation. Party interest becomes the significant point when a party comes to power. Our bitter and practical experience always witnesses this truth.

The government will not be doing whatever it likes avoiding the opposition when a neutral national government will be formed. They will not think of or dream of remaining in the power for an uncertain period. And to remain in the power for an uncertain period, they start hatching various plans in the name of constitution, nation and public interest. Actually all these are bogus things. Their main objective is to cling to power. These three forms of government will save the country from the whimsical behavior of the politicians. Only these formula can save us because we become absolutely powerless and valueless to the politicians after casting our vote and the nation sees the conflict between the two parties at the cost of their sufferings. Hartal or strike cannot do any harm to the people of the government as they get state protection but the common people are to lose a lot. This game must come to an end.

[MASUM BILLAH, Program Manager: BRAC Education Program and Vice-President: Bangladesh English Language Teachers’ Association (BELTA),Cell: 01714-091431, Email: [email protected]]