Encounter: Army and Press Freedom. Image by Ishtiaque Zico

In the Third World we never hear the recalling of a product whether it is a formalin-laced fish or adulterated cooking oil. Life goes on normally while consumers devour adulterated foodstuff or operate a faulty car. Perhaps that’s how democracy has stumbled on in Bangladesh. It was never healthy but no one bothered to recall it. 

Has anyone heard about recalling a seemingly defective democracy in the West? Hardly. But in the Third World, democracy is recalled every so often after a military coup.

Recall the first recall

In October 1958 Pakistan's constitution was abrogated by Field Marshall Ayub Khan only to engender a substitute by the name “Basic Democracy.” Ayub Khan’s handlers thought there are different kinds of democracies in the world.  Since parliamentary democracy, which was in vogue in Pakistan during the mid fifties, did not work as the military leaders wanted it to, they had to recall that system and replace it with a “homegrown” version the likes of which were never seen before.

Ayub’s Basic Democracy was a far cry from true democracy but it was favored because it was manageable.  Some eighty thousand elected members decided who would be the president. Ayub Khan calculated that he could buy at least 40,000 of those basic democrats to legitimize his title as President. And he was right. While Ayub was busily practicing Basic Democracy in Pakistan many Bangalee politicians were protesting in the streets of Dhaka, Chittagong, Khulna, and elsewhere. Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founding father of Bangladesh, was one of them who never compromised with the Pakistani military’s new brand of democracy.

Homegrown in South Asia

General Moeen, the current head of Bangladesh’s military, is formally not a part of the Caretaker Government. But he is widely seen as the strongman who is pushing the military’s agenda through Fakhruddin Administration’s facade in Dhaka. Politically, the sapient General has been increasingly vocal, crisscrossing the country in the last 80 days to deliver his message on the faults of politicians and democracy as practiced in Bangladesh. His reaching out and speaking to a section of the nation’s intelligentsia on April 2, 2007 is a progression in that role.

The General declared before a select crowd of political scientists that Bangladesh should forego “elective democracy" and go for a new and improved type, which will be Bangladesh’s own brand. The army chief is following Ayub’s tried and tested method of first discrediting democracy and then offering up a manageable alternative. At the same time, he didn't mention why democracy has flourished in India, nor did he touch upon the fact that the military in India stays in the barracks, under the firm control of a civilian government, and they honor the constitution of the land.

In Pakistan, this was never the case. In matters of governance and politics, the Bangladesh military looks up to Pakistan, against whom ironically it had fought a liberation war precisely because its generals were suppressing popular democratic aspirations. Like Pakistan, Bangladesh's military has a very checkered history. The General did not mention that, as though the military has a pristine background, as though it is incorruptible, and it never provoked coups or regime change.

Intellectual collaborators

Of course there are a mélange of political scientists who are just waiting to capture stray rays of the limelight. Through newspaper reports we heard that two political scientists and theorists were brought from Oshkosh, Wisconsin, USA to counsel the General to accomplish this tough job. There are rumors that these political scientists are helping to draft the blueprint of Bangladesh’s next homegrown brand of democracy. There is no dearth of charlatan academics in Bangladesh who would like to give a glowing encomium to a strongman.

In November 1975, the military in Bangladesh came to power through the backdoor, unconstitutionally. The general who took control of the country with the help of tanks and firearms went on to invent Bangladesh’s very first “own brand” of democracy, in order to legitimize his rule. That general, Ziaur Rahman, and his successor, H. M. Ershad, both gave high posts to Bangladeshi academics, barristers, and constitutional experts who proceeded to help rewrite the constitution to invent and re-invent Bangladesh’s homegrown brand of democracy, models of which began to appear almost in the same interval as the updating of car models.

One thing is clear: General Moeen believes, like many in the country, that democracy is in a coma after getting abused by three successive administrations. That part is true. The problem is, like before, he is recalling democracy through military wisdom, and like before, the outcome will be predictable. And as before, we will see a host of intellectual collaborators lining up to offer endorsements just to get a share of the podium.

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