CAN BANGLADESH IMAGINE A DIFFERENT FUTURE THROUGH DELIBERATION?
The citizens of Bangladesh, amid the ongoing political turmoil following the fall of the Hasina regime, could dare to re-imagine politics differently: embracing deliberation.
Amid political uncertainties over the political course of the country and amid mounting pressure to hold national elections this year, Bangladesh is at a critical juncture.
The main political parties that have dominating the political arena since independence, despite evident ideological differences, were undistinguishable from each other in one thing: their shameful disinterest in fulfilling the voters’ aspirations.
It is unsurprising that these parties and their leaders are now generally being blamed for the entrenched problems that led to the People’s Movement.
Yet Bangladesh could be at risk of perpetuating the same entrenched problems caused by these parties that, tragically, have thrived on people’s sufferance.
There is an increasing fear among the general population of the inevitability of the return of the status quo.
Yet, rushing to the elections without fixing the “house” first might bring the same dysfunctional approach to politics and, once again, the people would pay the consequences.
That’s why the Interim Government is hard pressed to bring in systemic reforms that would enable Bangladesh to definitely turn page from decades of authoritarian and illiberal politics even if there formally classified as democratic.
But the Interim Government and the diverse groups of stakeholders upholding it, should also considering introducing one type of reform that could radically change the system for the better: introducing deliberative practices in the national politics.
Changing the political class won’t be easy.
The main parties had developed a brazen and shameless approach to governance, including its dimension related to internal party politics and the one aimed (at least on the paper) at governing the nation for the common interest.
Their modus operandi was vastly characterized by a range of dysfunctions and malpractices, from nepotism to over corruption to sheer incompetence.
It is hard to imagine how, for example, both the Awami League and BNP could reset and reboot their core working modalities in just few months’ time.
While the rapid and to many extents chaotic developments occurring in the nation might provide for a conducive space for a change of the guard at the helm of the two parties, something that it is still unclear and hard to predict, Bangladesh should consider introducing deliberative practices in its governance.
Deliberative democracy is on the rise: around the world, there have been an increased interest on doing democracy differently, not only closer to the people but led by the people.
The weaknesses of traditional liberal democracy based on electing representatives at both local and central levels are evident almost everywhere.
Simply delegating citizens ‘powers to elected politicians who will govern on their behalf has alienated people who, also due to a steep decline in traditional media’s readership, feel disinterested and detached.
Deliberative democracy should not be seen as a monolithic stone.
Its strength is its malleability and diversity and its unique capacity to restore agency in the citizens.
It is a diverse mix of practices that must be shaped according to the local contexts but has a real potential to unfold a new democratic renaissance.
From participatory budgets to climate assemblies to constitutional amendments or debating the most sensitive issues, there is an increasing amount of innovative thinking shaping the ways democracy could work.
The common denominator of such diversity of approaches is a capacity to enable citizens to go beyond casting their votes at the ballot box and have a say in matters that interest them the most.
The positive thing is that, at the moment, there is a lot of experimentation going on and this trend is unfolding both in the North and South of the world.
For example, participatory budgeting was initially designed and implemented in Brazil before spreading around the world and turning into a mainstream tool to enhance transparency and citizens ‘accountability.
In the Asia Pacific, Mongolia and Japan have been among some of the trailblazers in promoting innovative bottom up approaches that ultimately give people’s a more meaningful decision making power.
Bangladesh would not start its journey towards embracing deliberative practices from scratch.
Deliberation at very local level is not only anchored to the social fabric of the country, a common feature of South Asian societies.
It is also, at least partially, already embedded into the system through Ward Shobha that, at least, on the paper, have been working as deliberative forums.
Moreover, there have been also extensive examples of the so called Open Budget Meetings (OBMs) throughout the country.
In addition the NGO Safety and Rights Society, SRS, with the support of Asia Foundation, has spearheading efforts to implement participatory budgeting across the nation.
Despite such efforts, Bangladesh is still far from embracing democratic innovations across its system.
A study of existing examples of deliberative models conducted by the BRAC Institute of Governance and Development that was published on August 2019, indicated that unless there is a strong involvement of civil society organizations, such efforts won’t be neither sustainable nor truly meaningful.
Establishing synergies between non state actors and the state, according to the study, could mark a real difference in the way bottom up democratic innovations can function and be assimilated into the traditional system.
“A sustainable solution, perhaps lies not in donor-funded short-term NGO projects, but in a permanent arrangement of state-NGO collaboration, in which the NGOs will nurture the citizen engagement process by applying all the strategies discussed above”
“A Politically smart and more sustainable developmental intervention would call for a synergy of state NGO-community to create a more robust form of social capital”, explains the research.
Working to bring innovative practices into the mainstream, improving and enhancing the existing democratic ecosystems, no matter how imperfect and deficient, is going to be paramount.
This is the central thesis of a recently published White Paper written by Josh Lerner, the Founder and Co-Executive Director of People Powered, “From Waves to Ecosystems: The Next Stage of Democratic Innovation”.
That there is still a lot of work to be done in this area; it is something easily discernible by the lack of discussion, in the national conversation about the future of Bangladesh’s politics, over ways of doing democracy differently.
One thing must be clear: any type of innovative democratic propositions can co-coexist with elections even if one day, perhaps, societies around the world might decide to adopt more radical and drastic democratic innovation.
As often happens in the situations similar to what Bangladesh is experiencing, new political machines are emerging, like for example like the National Citizens ‘Committee, NCC, initially born not as a party but as a movement.
Just choosing new parties, even if well intentioned, created out of mounting problems people are facing, might represent a valid option.
But it might lead to even more frustrations especially when the political system has not changed yet and the whole “house” is far from being in order.
For certain parties, the urgent call for elections is a very convenient tactic to get back to power after years of isolation and systemic persecution by the Hasina’s regime.
Yet those stakeholders supporting the work of Dr. Yunus and his Interim Administration should consider starting a national conversation on what’s wrong with the current parties ‘crony dominated politics.
Together with members of the civil society and experts, they could allow themselves to explore how different democratic practices, either local or being implemented elsewhere, might right the wrongs of a system that clearly did not work for the people.
The clock is ticking and the pressure to hand over power to “legitimate” actors is becoming incessant.
But there is still time for a different option.
Bangladesh could undertake an exercise in boldness and rethinking democracy in a way that no one other nation has ever dared doing.
The author, based in Kathmandu, writes about politics, human rights and regional integration in the Asia Pacific.
