Democracy Day
In 1991 we started our journey of being a parliamentary democracy that marked the end of autocracy and all that it represented. It also began with the dream that finally we would have a nation that would imbibe the values of our hard fought liberation.
Since that time until now, democracy seems to have been confined to holding elections, though many times this too, has been controversial. We had elections in 1991, 1996, 2001, 2008 and 2014. Each time whoever lost vehemently insisted it was rigged. In 2008, the AL came to power with an overwhelming people's mandate but by 2014, elections were reduced to being questionable with no participation of the biggest opposition party.
But the greatest disappointment in our democratic path has been the dysfunctional nature of the parliament which in turn has impeded governance quite significantly. The biggest debacle for the parliament has been the continuous parliamentary boycott of the opposition whether AL or BNP, thus preventing the national assembly from gaining the required maturity for democratic governance. Extreme violence on the streets has resulted in wreaking havoc on the lives of ordinary people, many of whom have perished in the brutal rivalry of two major parties. And finally we have a parliament with 153 uncontested seats occupied by the ruling party after a questionable election and a "unique" opposition in Parliament with three of its members in the government and its party chief as Special Envoy to the PM. Meanwhile, other watchdog institutions and statutory bodies such as the Anti Corruption Commission, the National Human Rights Commission and the Election Commission have not been allowed to acquire the stature or functionality required of such organisations.
At the end of the day we have failed to give institutional shape to our democracy and all we have achieved is to have elected leaders and little else.
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