The Bangladesh vote
The recent elections in Bangladesh, though marked by an Opposition boycott, were bereft of both spirit and substance. It is sad that a nation that had consistently recorded a voter turnout of 80%-plus, barely touched 40% this time. This comes in an era witnessing a palpable trend of executive heads of democratic nations increasingly being impatient with the constraints of the parliamentary process. Given the compulsions of swift geopolitical currents and the need to be of reckoning as a growing economy, arguably a martinet governance is being preferred and pursued in earnest.
Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu, in spite of compulsions to operate in a coalition, is being daringly authoritative, leveraging an unending conflict with neighbouring Palestine. Bangladesh has no such concerns. Perhaps the art of Opposition per se, is on the wane in democracies across geographies. This style of governance places imagery above consensus and substance to generate dismissiveness of political opposition and by extension, alternate opinion. This may not sustain, in the long haul.
