‘Democracy only in mind, not in action’

Strong institutions are vital for ensuring economic development and carry forward the practice of democracy in the country, said speakers at a webinar yesterday.

They also said suppressive acts like Digital Security Act-2018 should be scrapped to ensure freedom of speech, which is a fundamental element of democracy.

Centre for Governance Studies in collaboration with Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) Bangladesh organised the webinar titled "The Future of Liberal Democracy in Bangladesh after the Covid-19 Pandemic".

Presenting the keynote paper, Dhaka University Professor Shantanu Mojumder said self-censorship has turned out to be the "new normal" for different entities like civil societies, journalists and rights defenders in fear of arbitrary use of DSA.

He reprimanded the role of politicians during the pandemic saying that the bureaucrats were in charge of all the pandemic management activities and official involvement of politicians weren't there much.

He also criticised the role of the parliament terming its activities "rhetorical and dysfunctional" and said political parties themselves do not practise democratic norms, which is an ominous sign for democracy.

Eminent academic and historian Prof Dr Syed Anwar Husain said, "We have the democratic system in our mind, but we do not have the democratic spirit in our actions. Democracy doesn't mean being elected to power and remaining in power for some time."

He said in a democratic system there should be a government and a strong opposition party. However, there's only the government that actually play its part in Bangladesh.

"No university in Bangladesh functions as per democratic norms and rules, moreover, there's corruption. It permeates the whole fabric of society. Corruption and democracy can't go together," he added. 

Questioning the role of democratic organisations like the Election Commission and judiciary, BELA chief executive Syeda Rizwana Hasan said there was hardly any contest from the opposition during last election.

The voter turnout was only 30 percent, and none questioned the electoral process and challenged it in the judiciary, she said. 

Criticising the role of bureaucracy during the election, she said bureaucracies are state functionaries and public functionaries but not government functionaries. However, they are acting like spokespersons for political parties.

"This merging identity of the state and the government is getting difficult for entities like civil society and media to criticise the government. Any criticism against the government is interpreted as criticism against the state," she said.

BIDS senior research fellow Dr Nazneen Ahmed said economic inequality among rich and poor happens due to lack of good institutions, therefore strong institutions are needed for the people, and it's a vital part of democracy and sustainable economic growth.

She said NBR needed an automation system and could collect more money that could be used for social safety programme but due to lack of transparency and monitoring it didn't happen.

The banking sector was responsible for disbursing loans to all enterprises but they loaned the big enterprises more instead of micro enterprises even after the government promised to support the bank, she added.

"And it happened due to lack of monitoring and integrity within the institutions," Dr Nazneen said.

Railways Minister Nurul Islam Sujan said opposition parties have a role to play alongside the government to make democracy effective.

He called upon all to join in the struggle to uphold the spirit of democracy.

BNP standing committee member Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury, New Age editor Nurul Kabir, Dhaka University Prof Dr Amena Mohsin, former state minister Abul Hasan Chowdhury and resident representative of FES and Bangladesh Felix Kolbitz were present at the session, moderated by Jahangirnagar University Prof Shahab Enam Khan.