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Saturday, December 6, 2008

[ALOCHONA] Will party manifestos reflect people's hopes?

Will party manifestos reflect people's hopes?

Col(Retd) Mahmud ur Rahman Choudhury

With elections less than a month away the major combines of AL and BNP are finalising their election manifestos and are ready to disclose them to the public. Under normal circumstances, this would have been done months ahead but with the emergency putting a drag on all political activities, the preparation and propagation of election manifestos have been inordinately delayed.

Naturally enough party manifestos reflect peoples' hopes and aspirations and they contain a party's stand on important issues of public concern. This year though, concerns are deep and many: education, poverty, unemployment, agriculture, the overall economy, corruption, public administration and its decentralisation, governance, political stability and the institutionalisation of democracy.

Based on their political ideological underpinnings, both the AL and the BNP have in one way or another attempted to addressed these issues in their manifestos but they are yet to propagate the manifestos to the public in a form that the public understands them and is ready to vote on them – the media has been doing that job for the political parties but each newspaper and TV channel has its own "angle" and so issues often get "twisted" as the political parties often and volubly allege.

Now that emergency provisions on public meetings have been withdrawn, the political parties need to go directly to the public and explain their particular points of view in such a manner that people can take an "informed decision" on whom and what to vote for.

Party manifestos and their propagation is all to the good but unfortunately after the voting is over, political parties, more often than not, conveniently forget what they had committed to the public prior to the vote and for the following 5 years of government, the populace has no way of influencing political parties, either in government or in opposition, to act in the way that they had committed.

Politicians and political parties are therefore, seen by the populace, as using the political process of voting and the political institution of Parliament as mere instruments of legitimising their political power as opposed to politically empowering the people to have a genuine and unimpeded say in government, in governance and in public administration. People "suffer" the 5-year tenure of government not because they want to but because they have no choice in the matter, their choices being restricted to voting either the AL or the BNP "to power" every 5 years. Democracy, therefore, has never taken "root" in Bangladesh but has, for the last 15 years, been restricted to pronouncements in party manifestos and to voting.

As to how this nation can come out from in between the covers of party manifestos is difficult to say but perhaps a constant and continuous practice of voting, more literate if not an educated populace, less poverty if not enrichment and more awareness if not active participation will ensure for us, in time, some say in our government and governance and some democracy. The times ahead will be hard and we hope that the political parties will not make it harder still for us. Right now that is the only thing we can do – Hope.

The author is the Editor of The Bangladesh Today, an English language daily published from Dhaka. The views expressed are the his own.
 

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[Disclaimer: ALOCHONA Management is not liable for information contained in this message. The author takes full responsibility.]
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