The New Nation - Internet Edition

Monowar Hossain

It is perhaps not well known that the founder President of the United States, George Washington, advocated against the concept of political parties and the first three Presidents of the USA were elected without any political parties. Apparently, the practice is still followed in some parts of Northern America. What follows in this article is

a modified version of an original that I had written more than a decade ago in a local daily under the title TIME For a new politcal order in Bangladesh :

A system of politics without political parties. At that time I was myself not aware of GW's political preferences or practices; however, my proposal was mostly unheeded or considered to be either pre-modern or Utopian by the few political pundits who cared to read it.

Since then we have witnessed two multi party parliamentary elections, each being described as rigged, grossly or subtly, by the losing parties that hoped to win.

There have also been two 3-monthly care taker governments and an elongated third one which took on the valiant task of eliminating corruption and carrying out various other measures presumed to be essential for the holding of a free and fair multi-party election, which is about to take place in a matter of days. So, is it wise to talk about party-less democracy now? I believe so. Because, without being cynical or disrespectful to the concept of multi- party politics, Bangladesh will take a long while to find an optimal political system. So, why not reflect on all the options dispassionately, keeping the good of the country constantly in full sight. Interestingly, the Election Commission has provided the voters an option to express their disappointment with candidates offered to choose from, with a no vote. A lot of us would be curious to see how many voters exercise this option. Let us now turn to a reconsideration of the old article.

Failure of the old Political order: The Old Political Order based on a party system has failed in Bangladesh. The most recent (circa March, 1996) evidence of this failure is currently all around us with ominous signs of a famine round the corner. The pattern of this failure is typical: a period of unity among the rival political parties in a common struggle against a foreign aggressor or a local dictator, followed by a period of internal dog fights for grabbing state power, leading to a disrupted civil life and a backward sliding economy, thus paving the way for another round of dictatorship and/or foreign domination. All through a culture of corruption, political victimisation and unproductive expenditure on party henchmen remains the hallmark of such a political order. Indeed, at this point in time all the political parties themselves appear to have been convinced about the need for a non-partisan and neutral caretaker government for carrying out an important task of governance, ie the holding of a free and fair election. First, it arose as an opposition demand and now the ruling party has also accepted it and is publicly committed to making necessary constitutional changes during the current session of the parliament. It is merely a logical extension of this conviction to conclude that a non-partisan, civilian government, enjoying public support, is the only institution which can govern the country in a free and fair manner. And this is the fundamental raison d'etre of a non-party political system.

Proposal for a new political order: The proposed constitutional change to accommodate a caretaker government for conducting the polls, arguably lacking in logical coherence, will only be a minor tampering in the political system, highly unlikely to rectify any of its basic ills. Specifically, it will hardly be able to guarantee a violence-free election, corruption-free administration, hartal-free economy and a mastan-free civil life. It is therefore; proposed that, if and when the question of any constitutional change is taken to the citizens for a vote, let them be given three choices:

i No change: ie keep the old order;

ii Partial change: ie introduce a non-partisan, neutral government only for conducting general elections; and

iii Comprehensive change: ie have a non-partisan government (arising from a non-party political system) to conduct all significant affairs of the country.

Outline of a party-less political system: There may be many variations of a non-party political system. Proposed below is one such system for the consideration of thinking citizens who are not scared to see a major change during their own life time.

a. Goal: The principal aim of a non-party political system is to ensure that the country is governed by the best talents in diverse fields, available among its citizens, under guidelines provided by some Fundamental Principles, Laws and Rules framed with knowledge, wisdom and caring, debated with information, understanding and reason and approved by an overwhelming majority of informed citizens.

b. Fundamental Principles: The Fundamental Principles are to be the inviolable guidelines for the conduct of all socio-political activities in the country and should be regarded as the mother of all laws, rules and regulations that would subsequently be needed to be formulated. The Fundamental Principles should be arrived at through an elaborate process of debate and deliberation among all the important stakeholders of the country and vetted through a nationwide referendum. These would be equivalent to a constitution in conventional political jargon, and are expected to, minimally, include the following:

- Fundamental human rights as adopted by the UN;

- Devolution of state power from the centre to the periphery;

- The source of power must be positive (ie ability to do good and not harm);

- Distributive justice (ie equitable access to the resources and opportunities for those who are in need);

- Democracy for progress and prosperity and not for disrupting civilian life and hurting the economy:

- A just and fair system of reward and punishment; one that brings out the good in humans to the benefit of society and contains the evil in them; rewards must be a balanced blend of the material (eg cash, promotion) and the non-material (eg national recognition);

- Non-violence in achieving all objectives of the society, including the punishment of criminals (there must be an opportunity of understanding one's crime and doing penance);

- Transparency in public affairs;

- Expeditious dispensation of justice by a judiciary that is strictly separated from the executive branch of the government.

- All higher level political and juridical positions (ie those requiring an exercise of creative and independent thinking) shall be filled through a combination of an objective evaluation of the candidate's competence for the job and the subjective evaluation of a relevant body of knowledgeable electors.

c. Political administrative structure

The proposed system shall have two tiers of elected representatives as explained below.

1st tier : National Political Forum (NPF)

The first tier of the proposed political structure shall be an electoral college, called the National Political Forum (NPF), consisting of all the local government functionaries elected by direct vote. The country shall be divided into a reasonable number (say 500) of political administrative units based on population, geographical area and natural resources (comparable to Upazila/ Thana). For each of these local units there shall be a local self-government, called a Local Council (LC), comprising eleven (chairperson + 10) elected members, each to perform a distinct and defined function requiring appropriate qualification and background. The NPF wi consist of all members (ie 5,500) of all the Local Councils. The chairpersons of all local councils shall constitute the National Political Council (NPC) and taken as truly representing the NPF unless otherwise claimed by a majority of members of the relevant LC/s.

2nd Tier : Supreme Political Council (SPC) & Supreme Executive Council (SEC)

The second tier of the proposed political structure will consist of a 60- member Supreme Political Council (SPC) and its derivative, a 20-member Supreme Executive Council (SEC). The SPC is the highest political body in the country (comparable to the parliament in a parliamentary democracy), while the SEC, a subset of SPC and equivalent to a cabinet of ministers in a parliamentary democracy, is the most powerful political body in the country. These two bodies shall both be elected by the National Political Forum during 5-yearly national elections through a process explained below under Elections.

The size and composition of the SEC (hence the SPC) and the desired qualifications of its members shall be determined through a process of reasoned thinking by eminent scholars and experienced administrators of the country and the various professional associations representing the main stream activities of the society and the economy, and guided by the fundamental principles. It is expected that 20 positions representing as many distinct and diverse fields would be an adequate size of the SEC, anything larger being indicative of a penchant for a large government. The desired qualifications are expected to include education, professional competence/experience, distinguished achievements, wisdom and patriotism.

d. Elections

All elections during an electoral term of 5 years shall be conducted by an Election Commission (EC) consisting of 5 members, each a distinguished and reputedly honest professional in relevant disciplines (eg judiciary, civil administration, law and order, mass communication and statistics/computer science). The EC shall be elected by the NPC of the previous electoral term and in its absence by a process of consensus among eminent scholars/experts in relevant fields.

For each position on the SEC a short list (5 to 10) of candidates based on the criteria of desired qualifications and background shall be prepared by the Election Commission and a profile prepared for each candidate following a general format. The candidates' qualification, professional experiences, distinguished activity/achievement records, positions on important national, regional and global issues and personal election manifesto indicating policies and programs to be pursued if elected, should all be adequately but succinctly reflected in the candidate profile, which will be distributed to all the members of the NPF at a reasonable time before the Election. About a week before the Election the NPF shall assemble in Dhaka and have a series of exposure sessions with the potential candidates through group discussions, debates, speeches and personal interviews. This process will inform the voters fully about the candidates who already are the most deserving persons in the country. Each voter shall give a ranking order to all the candidates. The candidate with the highest cumulative rank order shall be the elected member of the SEC for the designated position for a period of 5 years; the candidates obtaining the second and the third highest positions shall be ordinary members of the SPC. Adjustments for a minimal degree of regional representation may also be provided for.

The election of the local councils will be similar with some variations in respect of desired qualifications and projection of the candidate's background (the model tried out during the Tongi by-election of 1995 provided some experience to draw upon).

e. Roles of SEC, SPC, NPF, NPC and LC

The Local Councils shall act as true local self-government bodies within the purview of the country's Fundamental Principles, Laws and Rules, with set demarcations and linkages between the local and central governments for various periods of time. The local councils shall raise tax, pay contributions to the central budget and receive required techno-economic support and share of the national development program. Finance, Defence, External Relations, International Trade, Higher Education, Non-primary Health Care, Transport and Communication, etc shall remain the concerns of the central government, while responsibilities for all other matters are to be jointly shared by the central and the local governments in a manner that best suits the existing objective conditions and objectives of the nation and the area.

The SPC will frame the Laws and the Rules and participate in the formulation of national policies and programs based on consensus reached at the conclusion of the electoral exposure meetings, and subsequently reviewed through annual general meetings. The SEC will ensure that the country achieves its desired socio-economic and political goals, in the most efficient fashion and in full conformity with the Fundamental Principles and the Laws.

Towards that end the SEC shall formulate policies and programs to encourage and ensure the emergence and flourishing of private initiatives and investments in the achievement of skills and technologies and their application for producing goods and services in which the country has a natural advantage. The ordinary members of the SPC shall act to provide an internal check and balance on the SEC. All policies and programs have to be approved by a 2/3 majority of the SPC, undecided matters of importance being referred to the NPF or a referendum, as appropriate.

The SEC will not be involved in any individual allocative decisions but frame the rules by which such decisions are to be made. The respective bureaucracy will be entrusted with the application of these rules in making individual decisions. The SEC shall also ensure that the rules are strictly followed and in case it leads to visibly unacceptable results (as determined by an appropriate procedure) the decision shall be reviewed to identify causes and appropriate actions taken including a modification of the relevant rules, should that be needed. This would hopefully reduce corruption among politicians and decision makers, by removing from their role the distribution of material benefits to other people.

The ordinary members will also act as a built-in ombudsman in the system keeping an eye on any deviant behaviour of the SEC. They shall form a National Grievance Committee who will receive grievances and appeals for justice from all citizens, but preferably channelled through appropriate civil associations and/or professional bodies.

f. Accountability

Accountability shall be ensured for different organs of the political system through periodic activity reviews by relevant peer groups and electoral as well as supervisory bodies. For example, the Supreme Executive Council (SEC) shall be accountable to- The ordinary members of the SPC (ie peers) on a continuous basis through participation and review;

- The National Political Council (NPC), on an annual basis while reporting on progress of work during the budget session;

- The NPF on a 2.5 yearly basis (mid term review) and before a general election;

- Any organized body who can muster sufficient signatures for an emergency meeting of the NPC or NPF as and when needed;

- Any citizen any time through the grievance committees and the courts of law;

- An independent set of educated and patriotic journalists on a continuous basis.

Similar arrangement shall be there for various other parts of the political system. Accountability shall also be enhanced by a constitutional requirement of transparency in all public activities, thus ensuring accessibility to all governmental decisions and their underlying reasons/considerations on demand by any concerned citizen (researchers and journalists inclusive).

Possible weaknesses

Two main criticisms that are likely to be levelled against the concept of a non-party political system are

- Lack of historical experience and/or evidences of success; and

Lack of protection against strong individuals (like Hitler) or groups (eg the army) to grab state power and bring in dictatorship.

Against the first point, history does not, and hence should not, be allowed to define the limits of human creativity or new experiences.The world never experienced capitalism before the eighteenth century or socialism before the twentieth. It may also be pointed out that local government elections are legally not to be held on a party basis, though this rule is widely violated because of the strong vested interests of the existing political parties and a benign non-cognizance of such violations by the electoral authorities.

As for protection against usurpation of power by the 'bad guy/s', there may be a number of measures including strong constitutional provisions against such 'actors', a gradual reduction of the army with a concomitant growth of a national militia and a constant vigilance by all civil societies (which will receive a new lease of life in the absence of self-seeking political parties). Ultimately, however, it is in the mind of the educated citizens that the evil side of humans will be defeated.

Conclusions: The proposed outline, a simple blend of meritocracy and democracy, is rudimentary and not sufficiently thought through. Criticism and comments will reveal gaps and weaknesses which may then be addressed and the concept further developed. At this stage, no attempt has been made to speculate on the question of implementation. It is necessary first to ascertain if the concept is logically coherent and philosophically acceptable.

It is being shared with other citizens because of the present political imbroglio and the desperation felt by many to find a way to break away from the pattern of failure of the old political order referred to at the beginning of this article.

(The author is a former Chairman of BIDS)