Political space?
The story of Bangladesh's economic development is an inspiring tale well recognised by the world proving the skeptics wrong. We can, however, not say the same about the development of democracy in the country.
There was a time when in the name of democracy lawlessness prevailed, like hartal and killing of innocent people. This newspaper has been a constant critic of hartal and political violence and disorder. We had criticised the BNP's violent attempt to thwart the 2014 election in which 153 MPs were elected uncontested and the violence it perpetrated on the first anniversary of the election in 2015.
But now it seems that we have moved entirely to the opposite direction. The essence of democracy lies in the space accorded to the opposition political parties and to dissenting voices. Unfortunately, very few will take issue with the view that dissenting voices have no space in today's politics in Bangladesh. Intimidation, arbitrary arrests of opposition leaders on a ludicrous number of cases with absurd charges, and pressure on the media, are not at all conducive to a healthy political environment.
There have been many instances of economic development without democracy. But they have essentially been unsustainable like the Ayubs' and Marcos'. Of late there is a tendency to show that democracy and development are incompatible and that for the sake of development democracy can be dispensed with. One doesn't have to be a political scientist to see the fallacy of such a view. We hope that we do not fall into that trap. To face the variety of challenges, the country needs more political space, not less.
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