The poisonous politics of Bangladesh
Bangladesh's economy is becoming ever healthier; its politics are
heading in the opposite direction
election of December 2008 seemed to mark a watershed for Bangladesh.
In the fairest poll in the country's four-decade history, the Awami
League, led by Sheikh Hasina (pictured), swept to power in a
landslide, on a wave of national optimism. The hope was that she would
use her party's popularity to strengthen democratic institutions and
pursue national reconciliation, putting an end to a vicious cycle of
winner-takes-all politics between the League and its rival, the
Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP). The fear was that she would use
its huge mandate for partisan advantage.
The hope has been largely dashed, the fear almost fully borne out (see
Banyan). This week yet more corruption charges were filed against
Sheikh Hasina's nemesis, the BNP's leader, Khaleda Zia, and an arrest
warrant issued for her exiled son, Tarique Rahman. As prime minister,
most recently from 2001-06, Mrs Zia presided over a brutal
kleptocracy. But Sheikh Hasina, too, faced 13 charges, including
extortion and conspiracy to murder, from one of her previous stints in
power. Ditching the cases against League leaders while proceeding with
those against the Zias looks like Bangladeshi politics as usual: the
family vendetta disguised as a two-party system.
Sheikh Hasina is the daughter of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Bangladesh's
independence hero, murdered in 1975. Mrs Zia is the widow of another
former president, assassinated in 1981. The two main parties have
adopted their leaders' limitless mutual animosity. The BNP has reacted
to its rout in 2008 petulantly, boycotting parliament and taking to
the streets. And the League's promise of magnanimity has been
overshadowed by brazen attempts to entrench its rule.
The most scandalous is its railroading through in June of a
constitutional amendment. Like Sri Lanka's president, Mahinda
Rajapaksa, did last year, Sheikh Hasina has used the forms of
parliamentary democracy to undermine the substance. Among other
changes, the amendment does away with the caretaker administrations
that oversaw elections in the hope of ensuring a modicum of fairness.
It is hard to imagine the BNP taking part in elections under the new
arrangements—the lack of trust between the parties that inspired the
caretaker system persists. Bizarrely, but in keeping with a growing
intolerance in Bangladesh, it is seditious even to criticise the new
charter.
Public debate is also constrained by the growing personality cult that
Sheikh Hasina is building around Sheikh Mujib, "the greatest Bengali
of the millennium". His portrait is ubiquitous, including on new
banknotes issued this week. It is not healthy when one party
identifies itself so closely with the nation. In the same vein,
war-crimes trials due to start shortly over some of the atrocities
perpetrated during Bangladesh's war of independence from Pakistan risk
becoming seen as exercises in partisan spite. It did not help that
this month a leading British defence lawyer was refused entry to
Bangladesh.
Singh, when you're winning
That politics should remain so personal and so poisonous is absurd at
a time of great promise for Bangladesh, a country of 160m people, most
of them poor. The government remains fairly popular. The economy is
doing well, with its booming garment-export business. Bangladesh is on
good terms with both China and, especially, India (though the
government is touchy about this—see our Letters pages). Manmohan
Singh, India's prime minister, is due to visit early next month to
sign a series of agreements formalising closer co-operation. It would
be good if he and Bangladesh's many other friends abroad could show
that their friendship is with the country, not just one party, and
make clear that allowing democratic freedoms to flourish is a source
not of weakness, but of strength.
http://www.economist.com/node/21525897
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