Violence, chaos stalk Bangladeshi democracy

Violence, chaos stalk Bangladeshi democracy

By Ahmed Fazl

DHAKA (DPA): The specter of violence and chaos stalks
Bangladesh as its fragile democracy is put to test next week when
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her ruling Awami League step
down giving up power to a caretaker government ahead of a general
election.

Fears of bloody clashes between armed supporters of the ruling
Awami League and those of the main opposition Bangladesh
Nationalist Party (BNP) have risen after a series of gunbattles
and bomb attacks left over a 100 dead since April.

Many believe that the interim government headed by a retired
chief justice of the country's Supreme Court which is expected to
take oath on Sunday may not be able to cope with the rising tide
of politically inspired violence.

Ironically, it is to prevent such violence and secure free and
fair polls that the Bangladeshi constitution was amended in early
1996 to set up a non-party neutral government under the most
recently retired chief justice at the time to oversee the
national vote.

"It is a unique system to guarantee credible elections free
from the partisan influence of political parties in power," said
constitutional expert and lawyer Amirul Islam.

Under the constitution the parliament will be dissolved at
midnight on Thursday on the completion of its five-year tenure --
two days before Hasina also transfers power.

Islam said the caretaker government had three months to hold
polls for a new parliament with the help of the Election
Commission and the army and police providing security.

The man most likely to be inducted as head of the interim
government is 65-year old former chief justice Latifur Rahman who
retired from the highest office in the judiciary last February.

Despite the apparently ideal situation Rahman faces a
formidable challenge in this politically volatile country which
had endured a decade and a half of rule by army strongmen since
the former East Pakistan broke away from Islamabad in 1971.

"Political killings are on the rise and as the two main
parties mount their election campaigns more violence is feared,"
said prominent analyst and newspaper editor Moynul Hussain.

Hussain names illegal arms, black money and rampant corruption
as main obstacles to a fair election.

But others point to an absence of a democratic culture in this
South Asian country of an estimated 125 million inhabitants as
the real hurdle to a western style of parliamentary democracy set
up in 1991.

"The level of mistrust between Prime Minister Hasina and the
opposition chief Khaleda Zia is unimaginable," said a western
diplomat in Dhaka. Both leaders have not spoken to each other for
more than a year although they hurl threats at each other
frequently.

The bitter animosity has its roots in the country's bloody
contemporary history.

Hasina believes that Khaleda Zia's husband and former military
ruler Gen. Zia ur Rahman had a hand in the assassination of her
father and Bangladesh's founder Sheikh Mujib ur Rahman along with
most members of his family in 1975.

Gen. Zia himself was brutally killed in 1981 by a group of
army officers known to be pro-Mujib when he was on a tour of the
southeastern port city of Chittagong.

Zia's BNP and her alliance partner the Jamaat-e-Islami have
been boycotting parliament for the last two years forcing the
330-seat legislature elected in June 1996 to run without
opposition lawmakers.

More than 60 percent of Bangladeshis live below the poverty
line despite an yearly GDP growth of over five percent since
1996.

Economic hardships for the farmers are accentuated as bumper
harvests of the staple diet depress rice prices below production
costs and create problems of storage of the surplus grain in the
villages.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has forecast a slowdown
of growth this year in the country where agriculture is the
economic mainstay and the biggest employer.

Recurrent opposition sponsored shutdowns and street clashes
amidst escalating political tension have threatened economic
activities and discouraged investments.

Observers say economic stagnation can lead to political
instability fanning religious extremism in the Muslim majority
country.

"Islamic fundamentalism will gather strength if economic
failures and political hostilities increase," said Gaziul Huq,
human rights worker and cultural activist.

Underground Islamic militants have been blamed for the current
spate of bomb attacks. The latest bombing incident in June left
22 activists of the ruling Awami League dead in the central
Bangladesh industrial town of Narayanganj.

It is in this atmosphere that the caretaker government will
find itself, making the task of governing, ensuring a free and
fair election as well the transfer of power to the government to
be elected a daunting one to say the least.