National Security Council

THE initiative to form a National Security Council (NSC) as has been stated by the Law and Information Adviser on the other day will be welcomed by the people. This is for the reason that such councils are more the rule than exceptions in many otherwise democratically governed countries. The United States of America (USA) has its NSC. The elected US President and his cabinet colleagues, members of the two Houses of the legislature who are elected, all play important roles in law making and governing the USA in all respects. But notwithstanding their central roles in governance, the existence of a body to watch over governance of the USA in matters pertaining to its supreme security or national interests is permitted.

The wisdom behind admitting such a body is to ensure that even if something goes wrong in the ruling system or among the functionaries of that system, the NSC would play its role and frustrate any grave lapse in saving the country from spinning out of control. The operation of such an institution to watch benignly over the highest security interests of the state, is thus found to be very useful. Recent events have only underlined the compelling necessity of forming an NSC. For a long time, the progress of the country in different areas continued to be threatened by its unstable and acrimonious politics. At one stage last year, the political ills appeared so shattering that it seemed Bangladesh would be thrown into the disastrous vortex of a civil war. Both the ruling party and the opposition ones seemed completely unable to tame their basic instincts of animosities and hatreds towards each other and their utter lack of responsibility pushed the country to the lowest depths of uncertainty and despair. If they had played their proper and expected roles as guardians of the country, then such a dangerous situation of physical and economic insecurity for it would not have been created.

Thus, it is only logical that the role of the armed forces should be institutionalised for rendering their services in the future should the need arise again. There is no knowing that political deadlocks or follies, will assuredly not arise in the years to come. But the same may be offset 'early' if there remains an institutional mechanism to exert the right pressure on the government of the day and political forces, to behave as they should. This will mean the continuation of democratic governance but without the tendency on the part of the players in such governance to run the country as irresponsibly as they actually did so long. The armed forces are trying to pave the way for holding elections to be acceptable to all and cleaner politics to emerge from the process. The idea of the NSC may be rightly construed as a safety mechanism to ensure that politics and the democratic system do not get vitiated once again to rock the country's stability and peaceful progress.