{"id":285,"date":"2018-01-03T07:44:50","date_gmt":"2018-01-03T07:44:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jobanmagazine.com\/en\/?p=285"},"modified":"2018-01-03T07:49:32","modified_gmt":"2018-01-03T07:49:32","slug":"inter-parliamentary-union-in-dhaka-is-this-really-going-on","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jobanmagazine.com\/en\/2018\/01\/03\/inter-parliamentary-union-in-dhaka-is-this-really-going-on\/","title":{"rendered":"Inter-parliamentary Union in Dhaka: Is This Really Going On?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

One must have more than a sneaking regard for how the Awami League government has managed to persuade the Inter-Parliamentary Union to host its\u00a0assembly in Bangladesh<\/a>\u00a0this week with more than 650 MPs from 132 countries apparently attending.<\/p>\n

The IPU may not have a high threshold of standards for membership, but one would expect \u2013 or at least hope \u2013 that since the organisation\u2019s constitution suggests it is concerned\u00a0about \u2018representative institutions\u2019<\/a>\u00a0it would scrutinise the parliaments of the countries which sought to host its assemblies.<\/p>\n

Well, in relation to Bangladesh, it seems it did not.<\/p>\n

At the last election, in 2014, a majority of the parliamentary seats were uncontested and the remaining ones remained mostly uncompetitive. Even though\u00a0polls showed that a free and fair election would have resulted in a close contest<\/a>, possibly with the BNP alliance winning, just about every seat\u00a0went to a member of the Awami League or its alliance of parties<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Not quite so representative.<\/p>\n

Indeed, the so-called \u2018opposition\u2019 in Bangladesh\u2019s parliament has ministers in the cabinet, and they are rarely \u2013 if ever \u2013 critical of the government. That is of course because before the election they were, and remain, political allies of the Awami League.<\/p>\n

The blame game<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Awami League \u2013 which had been in power since winning the 2009 elections \u2013 argues that it does not hold responsibility for the situation. It was a victim of circumstances. What else could it do with an obstructive opposition which boycotted the election, it argues.<\/p>\n

But there are two reasons why it must shoulder the blame for the current unrepresentative parliament \u2013 and why the IPU should not have come to Bangladesh.<\/p>\n

First, it was the Awami League government that triggered the opposition boycott of the election by unilaterally removing the constitutional provisions requiring the establishment of a pre-election, non-political caretaker government to hold the polls. Whilst this provision was far from perfect, the caretaker government had been the only means by which fair national elections had been able to be held in the country since 1990 and it had wide popular consensus.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

The lack of interest of International Parliamentary Union should perhaps not come as much of a surprise when one learns that the president of the IPU is Saber Hossain Chowdhury, one of the 153 members of parliament who won an uncontested seat in the 2014 elections<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

And, secondly, after the elections, the Awami League government did not keep the commitment\u00a0it had given to international diplomats<\/a>\u00a0that soon after holding the January 2014 elections (which it said was a \u2018constitutional necessity\u2019) it would initiate talks with the opposition parties to discuss holding a new election.<\/p>\n

Not only did this never happen \u2013 but soon after the election, the Awami League government initiated significant repressive measures that effectively prevented the real opposition parties from functioning.<\/p>\n

The lack of interest of International Parliamentary Union should perhaps not come as much of a surprise when one learns that\u00a0the president of the IPU<\/a>\u00a0is Saber Hossain Chowdhury, one of the 153 members of parliament who won an uncontested seat in the 2014 elections.<\/p>\n

A \u2018puppet show\u2019?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A little over a year after the controversial election, the highly recognised non-governmental organization Transparency International published a report on the Bangladesh parliament which showed that only\u00a06 percent of the parliamentary time<\/a>\u00a0was taken up with legislative debates and that it was not functioning like a normal parliament.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cMembers of the Parliament indulged in criticizing the political opponents that are not in the parliament an unprecedented number of times often using indecent and unparliamentary language,\u2019 the report noted. \u2018Similarly, praising the government dominated the proceedings with high intensity, often without relevance.\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n

In\u00a0launching the report<\/a>, the TI executive claimed that the Bangladesh parliament had become a \u2018stage for a puppet show\u2019 with the so-called opposition party working as \u201cB-team of the government\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has become an institutional forum to defeat the political opponent outside Parliament,\u201d\u00a0he said<\/a>. \u201cOn the other hand, the so-called opposition\u2019s culture of kowtowing to government has become acute.\u201d<\/p>\n

The parliamentary response to this was predictable. No introspection or acceptance of legitimate criticism.<\/p>\n

In parliament, one Awami League lawmaker threatened to close down the organization, and others questioned its source of funds. \u2018The main objective of TIB is to undermine Bangladesh, tarnish its image as well as hinder the country\u2019s progress,\u2019 one member of parliament\u00a0was quoted as saying<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Just over a year later, parliament enacted a law\u00a0allowing government authorities<\/a>\u00a0to suspend the registration of an NGO or to close it down if it made any \u201cderogatory\u201d remarks against parliament, the constitution or any other \u201cconstitutional bodies\u201d.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t expect to hear much criticism of the Bangladesh parliament in the future.<\/p>\n

Human rights<\/strong><\/p>\n

If the Inter-parliamentary Union is not concerned about the representative nature of a parliament hosting its annual congress or the manner or that parliament\u2019s functioning, one might have hoped that the IPU would have given a bit more consideration to\u00a0one of its four goals<\/a>\u00a0concerned with human rights.<\/p>\n

This says that the IPU seeks to, \u2018Contribute to the defence and promotion of human rights which are universal in scope and respect for which is an essential factor of parliamentary democracy and development.\u2019<\/p>\n

A week before the IPU started, the United Nations Human Rights Committee published its conclusions about Bangladesh\u2019s compliance with its international commitments on civil and political rights. This was\u00a0pretty damning<\/a>, criticizing, amongst many other things, the government for its \u201chigh rate\u201d of extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances.<\/p>\n

This goes back to the election period when a month before the 2014 national elections, law enforcement forces picked up 22 opposition activists,\u00a019 of whom remain disappeared<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And just days before the IPU started,\u00a0it has been reported<\/a>\u00a0that an opposition activist was picked up by police, and his dead body found.<\/p>\n

In August 2016, the sons of two opposition leaders \u2013 the lawyer Mir Ahmed bin Qasim and Brigadier-General Abdullahil Amaan al-Azmi \u2013 were picked up by law enforcement authorities, and remain in secret state detention.<\/p>\n

Quasem\u2019s lawyer has\u00a0released a video calling on the IPU<\/a>\u00a0to pressure the government to release him.<\/p>\n

The targeting of opposition activists by the Bangladesh government should have been well known to the IPU. In April 2016, the International Crisis Group\u00a0published a report<\/a>\u00a0claiming that Bangladesh jails were overburdened by political prisoners put there, it argued, by a partisan system of justice.<\/p>\n

Yet, neither the hundreds of parliamentarians nor the IPU itself has shown an inkling of interest in this \u2013 despite human rights being a key priority of the organization.<\/p>\n

In Bangladesh, it is now the norm to self-censor. Few dare risk the retribution that may come about from voicing criticism. However, one would expect\u00a0more from at least some of the independent parliamentarians who find themselves in Dhaka this week.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The article first appeared on the\u00a0writer\u2019s blog site\u00a0Bangladesh Politico<\/a>\u00a0on April 3, 2017.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One must have more than a sneaking regard for how the Awami League government has managed to persuade the Inter-Parliamentary […]<\/p>\n

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