Bangladesh : Failure of a Parliamentary Government 1973 - 75

Thirty years of independence from the internal colonial rule of Pakistan has not provided Bangladesh with a viable and well-founded system of government. As happened in the very beginning, most of her politics now takes place outside the parliament. Opposition political parties do not participate in debates and law-making procedures inside the parliament but resort to activities outside, on the streets - damaging the fragile economy as well as the pillars of democracy in a weak state. In their turn, the party in power does the same. It does not allow involvement of the opposition as other democracies allow opposition to be a shadow government actively and constructively criticising as well as helping run the country.

Dr. Jamshed Sanyiath Ahmed Choudhury has attempted to explain the main reasons of the failure of the parliamentary government in post-liberation Bangladesh, 1973-75. The author concludes that the reason of this failure can be attributed mainly to: a sustained interference by the then political leadership in the functioning of a democratic system; weak institutional framework; absence of essential socio-economic and political infrastructure and above all scant regards shown by the founding leadership towards the very system. Finally, the author hopes that through trial and error the democratic trial and error the democratic pillars of Bangladesh will be stronger and resilient but in that process both opposition and the government must learn to compromise and accept each other's opinion.

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