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Election for the economy

Abdul Bayes
***Leaving aside the interest of political parties, the economy urgently needs an election and elected government. Major economic decisions that embrace national interest must come from an elected government. Poverty level has shot up recently after a long-term decline.***
OXTER the last two years or so. Bangladesh had to live without an elected government. This goes against the very spirit of the constitution. which stipulates sovereignty of people to choose their own representatives to rule the country. In a modern world, nothing short of an elected government would be expected to claim a berth in a club of civilised nations. Why it took so much time to turn to election is a long story, and the author has no intention of delving into it. Suffice it say, however. that the country had been under emergency rule for the longest period in its history.
Under emergency rules, the freedom of people is forfeited and "un freedom breeds underdevelopment. Recall Amayarta Sen's seminal book. Development as freedom, where he linked development to freedom under
an array of empirical evidence. Thus, despite the dilly-dally, the declaration of a date for the election is welcome in the wake of a demand for national polls from home and abroad and. more importantly, on the heels of the commitment of the government to return to democracy. However, we agree that holding an election does not imply establishment of democracy. Election is a necessary condition for it; the other condition is reforming of institutions that uphold democratic values.
These days we hear that politicians have to learn a lot from the bitter experience of the last two years. The advocates mainly point at corruption, confrontational politics, muscle and money power, and lack of democratic values prevalent in our political arena. Political parties must behave differently this time. The Parliament should be the center of gravity -- not the streets -- to invite support or criticism. Hartals
Can the up-coming should be halted; parliamentary bodies should be strengthened; opposition in the parliament should be respected as a shadow government, etc.
Any deviation from this might cost them heavily in future, as it did in the most immediate past. But why only politicians? We strongly feel that politicians and non-politicians equally have good lessons to learn. First, the former
have to note that without election, they are fish out of water. An election puts some in power, and others in the opposition bench. Any excessive actions to cling to power might cost heavily, not only for the party but also for the nation. The post-Januray events are clear pointers to this.
The Democrats in America came back to the White House after one decade. The
Republicans will now try to come back to power in the next election. In India, Congress or BJP rules the country on the basis of franchise. Thus, election is always a win-win game for political parties. Second, the so called civil society members -- elite, educated and urbanised -- and technocrats have to know that elected political parties, despite all criticisms against them, perform better than unelected ones as far as socio-economic uplift of people is concerned.
It should also be noted that there was no hartal, no street agitations, no siege during the last two years, but socioeconomic indicators deteriorated over time, investments fell and uncertainty loomed large on the horizon. Support to unelected governance through rhetoric might bring some personal gains to an individual, but hardly has it seemed to serve the society. It is not possible that Bangladesh will be governed like America or Britain, whose systems of governance arc centuries old. Bear in mind, uncertainty is the bitterest enemy of an economy. Therefore, a bad election is sometimes better than no election.
Under this scenario, we would expect that all political parties will participate in the upcoming election. The government should also see that genuine demands are met in due time. "Lack of
preparation" cannot be an excuse since most of the parties (especially the two big parties) demanded election even last October, when their organisational setups were in disarray.
In any case, as we mentioned before, the election will be a win-win condition for politics, politicians and the economy. Political parties must come out of the power-craze, otherwise the specter that haunted them during the last two years might stage a revisit. The sooner it is understood, the better it will be for the nation.
Leaving aside the interest of political parties, the economy urgently needs an election and elected government. Major economic decisions that embrace national interest must come from an elected government. Poverty level has shot up recently after a long-term decline. An elected government should immediately fix this. The investors are waiting in the wings for credible and consistent policies that are deliverable only by an elected government. Thus, there seems to be no substitute for the election in the offing. Any no to this would imply that our learned politicians are still leaning. And the price to pay for this lapse has already been communicated to them by various ways.
Abdul Bayes is a Professor of Economics at Jahangnmagar University.