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Of gangs and Bangladesh

Khandakar Qudrat-I Eiahi
Alexander the Great: ’Pirate, what is your idea in infesting the sea?' The Pirate: 'The same as yours in infesting the earth! But because I do it with a small craft. I'm called a pirate; because you have a mighty navy, you’re called an emperor."
This dialogue took place between the Macedonian King Alexander and a captured pirate, which St. Augustine, honoured as one of the four Doctors of Western Church, quotes in his famous book, TheCityofGod.
In410A.D. the Goths, members of a Germanic tribe, sacked Rome. The Pagans blamed this disaster on the emperor's conversion to Christianity. They argued that Rome remained powerful so long as Romans worshipped Jupiter. But he withdrew his favours when the emperor turned away from him and embraced Christianity.
In The City of God, St. Augustine refuted this accusation: Rome's fall to its slaves had nothing to do with the acceptance of Christianity by
the Roman emperor. This fall was caused by the city’s own wickedness.
Rome was an out-and-out wicked kingdom that practised little justice; kingdoms without justice are like gangs of criminals: "Remove justice, and what are kingdoms but gangs of criminals on a large scale? What are criminal gangs but petty kingdoms?"
A gang. Augustine says, is a group of men under the command of a leader, bound by a compact of association, in which the plunder is divided according to an agreed convention. If this villainy wins so many recruits from the ranks of the demoralised that it acquires territory, establishes a base, captures cities, and subdues peoples, it then openly arrogates the title of kingdom, which is conferred on it in the eyes of the world, not by renouncing aggression, but by the attainment of impunity.
It's truly painful for me to use Augustine's arguments for examining the prevailing political developments in Bangladesh. Yet, my conscience has long convinced me
that the difference between ’’gangs" and "political parties" have significantly shrunk over the past 36 years of our independence. The recent decisions of AL and BNP concerning participation in the national dialogue have exposed this stark reality nakedly.
A gang has two features that are particularly important in the context of this article. First, an immoral man, called a godfather, depending upon his notoriety, commands a gang whose members cannot take any decision or action without the approval of or instruction from their commander.
Second, this morally mischievous male assembles similarly immoral fellows with the promise of sharing the ill-gotten incomes. Evidently, a gang is gathered mainly to serve the pecuniary interests of its members.
Political parties exist only in a democracy. Democracy, as we understand, is a political theory of governance, which is founded on the axiom that people collectively own the state. In other words, people are the owner of the state's sovereign
power and their power is vested in the institution of government.
People, being a collective entity, cannot exercise this power. They, therefore, need individuals to do this job for them. Here arises the need for political parties in a democracy. These associations identify and develop political leaders who are supposed to take up the responsibility of running the government -- the most important task in the state.
In elections, voters choose their representatives from among the candidates fielded by different political parties. This procedure also prescribes what these parties are supposed to do about the candidates who failed to get voters' approval. The failure to get elected might be interpreted as the rejection of one's candidature by voters.
This, in turn, makes these candidates ineligible for re-nomination in the coming elections. Therefore, the political parties should look for new nominees for the next elections — a principle that is practiced in all advanced democracies.
The two features of our interest are the following. First, a political party ought to be organised and operated according to democratic principles.
Like the state, ordinary or general members own the political party they are members of. Thus,
the central leaders should neither dictate to the party, no matter how popular or persuasive they arc, nor should the ordinary members or junior leaders subserviently seek their directives or guidance. If this happens, it is an indication that the party is failing to play its relevant role in society.
Second, and I understand this as the most important feature of a political party in democracy, unlike other social (legal and legitimate) associations, political parties are not formed to serve the interests of their own members; they are formed with the avowed objective of serving the interests of the people of their country. This makes two points very clear.
Firstly, a political party does not have unqualified right to select its leaders and then nominate them in the general elections. Neither does it have unqualified right to field members in elections who have already been rejected. Secondly, a political party acts more like a gang when its leaders seek personal fortunes using public offices.
We are fully aware of the political situation in the country. We know what our political leaders did in the past and what they are doing now. We know how the 1/11 event took place. We know what types of people were running the government,
and their personal characteristics and commitments.
We know our main two political parties want unconditional release of their leaders so that they can resume their previous jobs. We know that a section of our civil society, public university teach-
ers, noted academicians and some media personalities support and supplement their demand.
Thus, the time has come for us to ask some fundamental questions that will determine our future, both as a nation and as individuals, for unknown years.
For whom will our political parties function -- for the people or for their leaders, or, as it is in our case, for some families?
The author, a former teacher of Bangladesh Agricultural University, lives in Guelph. Ontario. Canada.