Till recent death of Nurul Islam, president of the Ganatuntri Party and nominee of the Awami League-led grand alliance for the upcom ing parliamentary election for Noakhali -1, together with his son, both burned to death when their house was set on fire last week, comes as a timely and tragic reminder of all that ails Bangladeshi politics.

Many things ail our political culture from the feudal and inegalitarian make up of society, to our winner lake ail mind set that does not permit the opposition space for dissent, to an oppositional cul lure that prefers to disrupt a sitting government than try to work with it.

But none is so corrosive to the estab lishment of a functional democracy as our long-standing culture of political violence, and the death of Nurul Islam demonstrates that as hopeful as we all are for good elections on December 29, there is still a long way to go and lots of loose threads to be tied before we can truly believe that democracy is safe in Bangladesh.

The death of Nurul Islam calls to mind the assassinations of Ahsanullah Master and Shah A.M.S. Kibria. If these kinds of political killings remain on the cards as possibilities, if they remains potent tools in the political tool-box to deal with opponents one does not like, and if there is nothing that can be done to bring the perpetrators of such crimes to justice, then where exactly does this leave us as a

democracy?

Fear of political violence was a principal concern of the then opposition two years ago and it seems that the current government has only limited power to ensure that candidates for office are safe to run (to say nothing about the rest of us).

The bottom line when it comes to elections in Bangladesh is always violence. If you arc not practicing it, you at least have to ensure that you are not victimised by it, and that you can protect your voters.

Some people say it that it's all about money, but it's not about money except insofar as you need money to pay for muscle. Money spent to feed voters Eid lunch or to hold rallies or build pandals is neither here nor there and will do no good in the absence of either a good candidate or well-organised intimidation apparatus.

To the extent that we can keep muscle out of elections, then we are well on our way to a functioning democracy. I have no

doubt that when and where Bangladeshis have been permitted to vote their consciences, they have, by and large, made the best choice for themselves.

The problem arises when they are not permitted to make that choice, when intimidation gets in the way of their exercising their right to vote for the candidate of their choosing.

This can be accomplished in the crudest of ways, by simply killing a popular political leader, as seems to be the case with Nurul Islam. You can't vote for someone who's dead. Not coincidentally, perhaps, it seems as though it is only politicians from one side of the political aisle that get killed these days.

But beyond killings, which is intimidation and violence taken to the extreme, the political landscape is rife with all other manner of intimidation against the party candidates and workers, and against the voters themselves.

Voters are not stupid. The most important thing for any voter, as for any person anywhere, is to ensure the security of himself or herself and his or her family. If one cannot give one's vote free from fear of the repercussions, one will not give it. If one needs to vote for a certain candi date to ensure one's own personal safety, one does that.

There are other considerations, but until we can protect our voters from the threat of actual physical violence, we cannot call the political system that we have in place democracy. It is that simple.

So, if we are to have elections that are good, there are many things that I would like to see 1 would like to see the election code of conduct adhered to. 1 would like the EC to ensure that candidates who do not qualify or have been convicted are kept away from the polls.

But most important of all is to ensure that the polls do not belong to the musclemen.

The state of emergency is about to be lifted. Well, you don't necessarily need emergency to protect people and emergency didn't protect Nurul Islam either.

But I hope, more than anything, that in the run-up to the elections, that the government has the law and order situation under control, emergency or no emergency, and is able to ensure that the goons do not come out of the woodwork and recommence their reign of terror Otherwise, what kind of an election will it be?

Zafar Sobhan is Assistant Editor. Pie Daily Star