Editorial
International Day of Democracy
Are we doing our bit to see it thrive?
162 nations of the world, members of the Inter-Parliamentary Union, observed the International Day of Democracy on September 15. In Bangladesh the celebrations are confined to the Jatiyo Sangsad, without the opposition, who choose to stay away, and, equally regrettably, without the people. For us the day is of special significance. Democracy was subverted from time to time through dictatorial interventions. And having restored democracy from the clutches of an autocrat through a long 9-year struggle, the country had finally embarked on the road to democracy 22 years ago. Since then we have had four general elections that were participatory and, except for the losing party, accepted universally as being fair and free. But unfortunately, a good part of the term of all the four parliaments was marked by the opposition boycott of it. Notwithstanding the ups and downs since democracy was resurrected in 1991, transfer of power had been peaceful except the last time when, regrettably, we stumbled, in 2006, because the country had to undergo a period of emergency till we had an elected government in 2009. We hope that our leaders have not forgotten the consequences of the impasse brought upon by inflexible positions of both the parties in 2006. If democracy stumbled then it was because of the mistakes committed by our leaders. It seems the same blunders are being repeated. We hope that both parties will learn from the follies of 2006, which was not too long back, and avoid the consequences of the past.
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