The unique 10th national parliament

লিখেছেন লিখেছেন Democratic Labor Party ০৬ ফেব্রুয়ারি, ২০১৪, ০৮:০৫:৪১ রাত

By Dr. Mahfuz Parvez



From the perspective of political science a unique 10th national parliament started its journey on Wednesday. This parliament is unique in many ways, not just one. In fact this parliament is one of a kind in the history of democracy. The unique nature of this parliament is this: that more than half of the members were elected unopposed. The election was highly controversial and its credibility was questioned by national and international media and experts. More than half of the voting population could not vote in this election. Vote was boycotted in many places. Even where people did showed up to vote the turnout was laughingly low. The party cadres made the number of vote cast more by casting fake votes. So, the legal support for this parliament might be perfect on paper but the real picture is different. This parliament does not have the vote of the people.

Another reason why this parliament is unique is the absence of a legitimate opposition. It is customary for the head of the party to become the leader of the opposition. But the former president happily accepted an inferior post of ‘special ambassador for the Prime Minister’ while his wife became the leader of opposition. There are concerns that Ershad participating in the government might unfairly influence the Manjur murder case, in which he is an accused. Whatever the concerns might be, he is not in the government to uphold democracy, he is there to serve his own interests. It is not very difficult to understand. Another government minister Anisul Islam Mahmud is sitting in opposition. Apparently the line has been blurred if not removed between which is the government and which is supposed to be the opposition. So the picture is quite bizarre.

The opposition MPs made an opposition leader and they support their leader. But at the same time some of these opposition members are ministers as well. Therefore, they work directly under the Prime Minster. Parliamentary rules don’t allow crossing floor, i.e. leaving one party on whose behalf a member was elected and joining the rival party in the parliament. How then these ministers will work without calling their functionality into serious question. It has become difficult to presume who will vote for which side. With one part of their allegiance to the Jatiya Party and the other to the government the JP MPs cannot be allowed to have two votes. This will surely create legal and procedural complexities and paradoxes.

From another perspective, the duty of the opposition is to challenge the government. But how will they challenge the government when they are the government. In the 9th national parliament a few MPs of different political parties participated in the government. Some of them were made ministers as well. Naturally they did not sit with the opposition. The leader of one faction of the Jatiya Party Anwar Hossain Manju has also been made a minister. But he does not claim to be an opposition.

But the ‘opposition’ in the 10th parliament is keeping its position as the opposition and at the same time participating in the government. How can the party retain its characteristics of an opposition? How can this work? The reality is that the current parliament is an illusion of multi-party government. It should be patently obvious to any observer that this is sham.

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