The New Nation - Internet Edition

Dr. M. S. Haq

Election practices - such as the use of incorrect information, false information, inadequate information, fabricated information, ill motivated information or information polluted otherwise, whether deliberately or not - by election candidates, political party workers, as well as leaders, government leaders and concerned others through the media (print, electronic, others) during say, election seasons have so far been found to be a formidable barrier to initial conditions for better governance in Bangladesh.

One of the apparent motives behind those practices is to attract and grab election votes by misleading the voters and others, including inter alia the poor and the donors, with the help of media related insufficiency - relative to time, space and other variables, though. In other words, the present day role of media - in letting the voters and others know the truth, as applicable, behind for example, party stances and candidacy information - is, in an average sense, poor.

If the state of affairs is allowed to continue through the current election season, it would then be difficult to predict, with a 100 percent certainty, the quality of election, if that takes place eventually - though, and the impact of outcomes of that election on the quality of governance after the transfer of power to a people's elected government. How could the abuse of voters' vote related decisions by politicians and others through for example, false and fabricated information be instrumental in inter alia bringing about a significant change for better via the upcoming people's administration?

The cause, the effect and the causality associated with the role, the contribution and the outcome of BNP-Jamaat and AL administrations in the past years (starting, 1991) have now, as appropriate and among other things, become physical realities, virtual realities, records, reports, and statistics in pertinent areas. In view of that, it can be said: not a single - conscious, responsible, and mentally, as well as morally healthy - election candidate has at least a legal right to play dirty games with those established things in pursuits of creating a false image in favor of his or her party stance or in favor of his or her candidacy or both before Bangladeshi voters - before the election, per se.

The information pertaining to for example, poverty figures, prices of rice and other commodities, child mortality rates, BOP (used in an economic sense), inflation rates, crime rates and literacy rates during the above years are not only available to Bangladesh but to world countries at large - as applicable, though. Despite the above fact, political leaders representing parties - big or small or medium - are now-a-days engaged in inter alia distorting the truth via say, the media presentations. It is indeed a shameful act on the part of concerned political leaders, for example.

Why are they attempting to build-up, sustain and promote their election winning matrices on premises that are false or far from the truth, among other things? Why is the media - in particular, the electronic media telecast those political stuff without pointing out the truth in pertinent areas with a view to say, assisting the voters in their efforts towards taking eventually vote related decisions based on the truth and the truth alone. Bangladeshis can no longer afford future governments that will come to power with a background based on falsehoods in relevant areas.

One of the concerns here is: the illusion (false perceptions) that is now being created in pertinent areas prior to election votes could help - concerned political party or parties which will subsequently come to power - to devaluing (used in a theoretical sense) inter alia the country's development status before ordinary people of Bangladesh, world tax payers, donors and others. In such an event, the gap between the actual development (= ad) and the devalued development (= dd), I mean, not the real one, at a given time, could create spaces for the successor government to benefit from opportunities such as and as appropriate: corruption; wastage; and unnecessary developmental re-rolling. Incompatibilities of above nature associated with the demand side and the supply side of the country's development could increase inter alia the cost of irrelevance in the effort towards advancement of developments at local, national and other levels - by concerned stakeholders. It will not be out of place to mention here, despites the present day progress in IC and other related technologies, a government can still hide many things from the world people as it would deem fit.

In light of above, it expected the media (print, electronic, others) would now onwards monitor for example, the statements of political leaders, government leaders and others at different forums on a daily basis with a view to upholding the established truth in pertinent areas and sharing the truth in those areas with people of Bangladesh and others - all in the greater local, national, global and other interests. In any case, Bangladesh should be liberated from the present day truth related deficit.

It is also expected the country's civil society, cell phone companies, internet service providers and concerned others will assist the people - in particular, the poor - in knowing and using pertinent truth and pertinent truth behind the truth (as applicable) in a more meaningful, sustainable and progressive manner than that at present, as applicable. They should act as antidotes to future blackmailing by government, private sector, political parties and concerned others in pertinent areas.