The New Nation - Internet Edition

Dilara Choudhury

Bangladesh is poised to hold its ninth parliamentary elections on December 29, 2008. The elections are to ensure smooth transition from the army-backed caretaker government to a democratic order. Constitutionally, the caretaker government was to be in power for ninety days and, within these time period, it is to help the Election Commission to hold the next elections. The question is why did the present government linger beyond its mandated time-frame. It was argued that present government needed that time in order to carry out a number of reforms so that, after transition, we would have a qualitative change in the politics of the country, which would help democracy to take its roots in the soil of Bangladesh. Many reforms, indeed, have taken place but no major and qualitative change was brought to ensure the effective representation of women in the ninth parliament.

One, thus, wonders about the future of democracy in Bangladesh in the context of the common knowledge that without broadening the base of democracy and power sharing with the marginalised groups-the system lacks equibrilium, and as a result, its very structure remains instable. Women, who constitute 50% of country's population, are the largest marginalised groups, and in that context, how can democracy flourish without having a power sharing arrangement with women? If democracy is to function and marginalised groups are to be integrated into the system, then what better way there is to start it by sharing power with the women? This apparent difficult task becomes easy if there is an effective women's representation at every strata of country's power structure, especially in the parliament, which is the vital forum for the discussion of all public issues.

However, the history of having an effective representation in the parliament is as old as the country itself. For decades, since the independence of Bangladesh in 1971, the leadership grappled with the issue and more or less satisfied with fact that it could be resolved through the reservation of a number of seats in the legislature, which are to be filled indirectly i.e. through nominations or selections rather than elections. Following decades witnessed no qualitative measures except increasing the number of reserved seats from 15 to 30 until as late as in 1990s. Demands for introduction of women's reserved seats through direct elections went unheeded. The leadership argued that arrangement of indirectly elected reserved seats served women's interests in the context of their difficulties to confront large women's constituencies, which are three times larger than regular general constituencies. Women were also denied party nominations on similar grounds. As such, during the last BNP-led coalition government, the constitution was once more amended through 14th amendment to ensure women's effective representation in the parliament by increasing the number of reserved seats for women from 30 to 45 and having their proportional allocation among the winning parties. Needless to say that the measure was no more than an eye wash in the context of dissatisfactory performance of indirectly elected female MPs either in policy formulation or raising women's issues on the floor of the parliament. So far, no sound women leadership, as expected, has emerged even after years of "training." They basically served as the vote bank of the party that captured the majority in the parliament. Even after the increase of number of seats and their proportional allocation, no qualitative change was discerned from women representatives..

In the backdrop of the above scenario, it is evident that the caretaker government should have adopted effective strategies to ensure women's effective representation in the ninth parliament. On the contrary, present government did not incorporate increased number of reserved seats for women with rotational constituency at the Union Parishad level as suggested by Local Government Commission. The tragic fact is that no such endeavours were taken by the stakeholders including the civil society members who so loudly declare their love for democracy. There were hardly any debates, seminars, round tables, dialogue and discussion on the issue. Qualitative change could have been possible if the issue was seriously addressed. It also shows that neither the political parties, who are the main agents of social change, nor Election Commission paid any attention to the issue. Election Commission is taking pride that it pushed the parties to create a critical mass i.e. providing 33% women at every tier of party's structure by making it mandatory for the political parties but the fact of the matter is that the political parties have gotten away with it by stating that enough women are not available to fulfill the condition and that they would incrementally increase the number and fulfill it by 2020. If the Election Commission really wanted to give boost to women's political empowerment it should have made 25% mandatory nominations for the women for the political parties. Actually, measures like 25% compulsory nominations or introduction of additional member system (mixture of first-past-the-post system and proportional representation) should have been analysed and proper measures should have been adopted. One could take the example from Nepal where the issue of power sharing with women was seriously discussed, strategies were adopted which have created a critical mass of women in their newly elected Constituent Assembly. They have really broadened the base of their nascent democratic order.

At present, both AL and BNP are gloating that, this time around, they have given nominations to more women candidates than before but if one calculates the ratio, it is barely 5% of the total candidature. Further, if one takes into account of the seats contested by Khaleda Zia and Sheikh Hasina (three seats each) the ratio is much less. it is regrettable that in the much awaited ninth parliament, which was to serve as the vital forum for all public issues, the women's representation would still depend mostly on the indirectly elected 45 women representatives and a handful of directly elected representatives. The question is can this kind of women leadership able to confront and achieve success with regards to the gargantuan task that lie ahead in the 21st century in the backdrop of globalisation and its negative impact on the women. How can the women leadership, who do not have geographically designated constituencies, fulfill the hopes and aspirations of their constituents? How will they know how majority women are getting affected by the negative impacts of globalisation? Surely, they would be quite oblivious that there exist a large number of women in both organised and unorganised sectors, due to the demand of cheap labour by multi-national companies, without any societal or state sponsored security. And those women's rights are violated on daily basis beginning from rape, sexual harassment, persecution, discrimination, and trafficking, illegal migration to exposure to HIV and AIDS. They would also be quite unaware about the predicaments the working women face in their workplace like transport problems, lack of women's physical needs and baby care centers, inadequate maternity leave and so on so forth and their daily juggle between work and household work. Most important of all they would not be able to develop leadership, gain expertise, knowledge, and tools so they are ready to "play a brokering role for change through a synergy of partnership with government (states) and with civil society so that the market forces can be shaped to work in favor of women and gender equality." In a nutshell, women, by and large, would remain outside the democratic system and make it, as mentioned earlier, dysfunctional.

It is obvious from the above discussion that without having directly elected women representatives it would be hard to enhance women's leadership quality, efficacy in legislation, especially legislation dealing with women's issues and their role as individual legislator. Despite the overall disappointments we still would like to see our women representatives play a meaningful role and try to do their best to tackle the issues that confront women all across different strata of the society.

They must play constructive role in the committees, take part in the legislative process and most importantly cross the party line (not voting against the party) and form a women's caucus so that women's issues can be kept outside the party line. It is a tall order in the context of Bangladesh's prevailing political culture but one must hope that culture is not static but dynamic and amenable to change.

The party leadership which is held by two women must also play their proper role in enhancing women representatives' leadership in the parliament. Only then one can hope for a somewhat power sharing arrangement between men and women (no matter how nascent it may be) and only then democratic order would be strengthened. And the benefits of democracy would reach among all strata of society.

(Professor, Department of Government and Politics Jahangirnagar University, Savar, Dhaka)