North South University

Course: POL 104

Assignment:

Parliamentary Government in

Bangladesh: Advantages & Expectations

Prepared byMohammad Hossain Linkon [ID 091 0037 030]

Section: 1

Prepared for

Dr. Sk. Tawfique M. Haque (SkT)

Introduction

People's Republic of Bangladesh is a parliamentary democracy, governed by a multi-party

parliamentary system of government. In participation of all citizens of 18 years or more,

elections are held every five years for electing the members of parliament. Currently the

parliament has 345 members including 45 reserved seats for women, elected from single-

member constituencies. The executive power of the republic is exercised by or on the advice

of the Prime Minister who commands the support of the majority members of Parliament and

is appointed by the President. Other ministers, state ministers and deputy ministers are

appointed by the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister nominates the cabinet members from

among Parliament members and one-tenths of the total members are from outside of the

Parliament. The cabinet is collectively accountable to the Parliament.

Background

Bangladesh was born after a bloody War of Liberation and through sacrifice of 30 million

lives. Since the end of drafting constitution of the country, the reactionary approach in the

tenure of various governments in terms of rectifying constitution were located with the

process of another amendment. Fourth amendment of the constitution added one party system

and presidential form of government in the provision of our constitution and this amendment

of constitution was amended again with introducing the twelve amendment of the constitution

where it set up multi-party system and parliamentary form of government. Bangladesh opted

for parliamentary democracy in 1991 after the country's two major political parties, Awami

League and BNP, succeeded in ending the military dictatorship of General Ershad.

Present Situation

Unhealthy student politics following violence in different universities, unstable market of

goods, violence in two hill districts, unbelievable traffic problem are the face of Bangladesh

right now. In the question of authority different student political groups are making their

campus a war zone. Already a number of students are killed in these fights. Especially ruler

party is not able to control its own student group.

Besides that, price of goods in the market is flying high and getting beyond people’s ability.

It seems like this situation is going out of control of our government.

Peace pact of hills is nearly proven to be failed as the Bengalis and tribal people are already

in fight, killing each other and damaging properties.

Traffic problem is at the peak. Urban life is totally interrupted for this reason.

Corruption is still ruling all the parts of the infrastructure of government.

Best Form of Government for Bangladesh

Despite of all the problems, still parliamentary government is the best form of government

for Bangladesh as presidential or military governments were failed to provide all the things

that is needed to establish democracy and fair order. If we can ensure equal power to all the

part of government, not to a particular political party, and if we make our parliament active

from both government and opposing party, then there is a big chance to make the government

active and more effective to bring development.

Parliamentary Form of Government

Parliamentary form of Government, is basically a government with parliamentary supremacy,

a political system in which the legislature (parliament) selects the government - a prime

minister, premier, or chancellor along with the cabinet ministers - according to party strength

as expressed in elections; by this system, the government acquires a dual responsibility: to the

people as well as to the parliament.

Expectations from the Parliamentary Government

People want to live first, then they want to live better, and then they want to go on. Fresh

food, pure drinking water, safe shelter, education, medical attention in time are the primary

needs those has to be ensured by government.

Our expectations –

Accountability: The democratic system of governance is widely appreciated

because it is supposed to provide the best guarantee for accountability of the

government to the people, and that is the reason it results in good governance.

Inversely, in case there is lack of good governance in a country, there is reason to

doubt whether the system of governance is democratic in reality. Thus,

Government should be accountable to the people by all means.

Poverty free country: Government has to reduce the proportion of the people

living under the poverty line nationwide.

Advanced agricultural sector: Government has to ensure higher growth in the

agricultural sector. Government should promote and strengthen a package of

measures covering tenancy, efficient irrigation and water management, research

and extension services, marketing and storage facilities, as well as credit.

Implementing Law & Order: Law and Order is a nation’s most important issue.

It is very important to maintain a stable law and order situation in the nation by all

means.

Ensuring Human Rights: Government has to ensure human rights more

effectively.

Improved Infrastructure: Improvement of the infrastructure will include- Proper

electricity management, Increase electricity production, ensure sound supply of

Gas nationwide and improve the transportation.

Better Traffic Situation: A proper Traffic management should be implemented

by the government to improve the overall situation of traffic.

Widespread Internet Connectivity: Internet is a vital element in development in

all aspects. Government has to ensure internet connectivity for to achieve digitized

Bangladesh.

Corruption free country: Government should reduce corruption at all levels.

Reduction of the Price of the Essential Commodities: Reducing price of

essential goods to ensure affordability for all.

Improving the Environmental Condition: Upgrading the present natural

condition of the country.

To Achieve Our Expectations

Accountability can be ensured through transparency. Government should not be

accountable once only on the election date at the end of its five-year term. Not only that,

but conditions also exist for success of that one day of accountability. The election would

have to be conducted in a free and fair way so that it could reflect the will of the people

without any undue influence and distortion. Moreover, our constitution bars government

party MPs (in fact, all MPs) to go against the dictate of their party. This provision of the

constitution allows the government to have captive support of the MPs belonging to the

government party for all its activities. This rule has to be changed in order to ensure

political accountability and political accountability will automatically ensure bureaucratic

accountability.

Reduction of Poverty is very important in a developing country like Bangladesh. Since

Independence in 1971, Bangladesh has made notable progress in reducing both income

poverty and human poverty. Insofar as income poverty is concerned, since 1973-74 the

percentage of people below the poverty line has decreased from 70.6 percent to 46.5

percent. Government will have to focus on human (or social) development in both urban

and rural areas in order to improve the poverty condition. The Government has to ensure

adequate resource allocations for education facilities, with the eventual objective of

achieving full enrollment, lower dropout rates at the primary education level. The

Government will seek to strengthen this initiative and others such as Vulnerable Group

Development and Rural Maintenance Program, to reach poor areas and communities.

Since health is also dependent on the living environment, the Government will have to

make a concerted attempt to improve the delivery and coverage of urban water supply and

sewerage, giving due emphasis to secondary and small towns. While focusing

development policy on poverty reduction, the Government also has to be aware of the

need to protect the poor from the risks of income erosion. This is particularly relevant in a

country that is prone to natural disasters, especially floods. Since no single mechanism

will serve the purpose of an effective safety net, the Government’s approach should

encompass a variety of measures. These will include access to credit, improving public

health services to reduce the incidence of income and consumption shocks on account of

illness, and increasing the effectiveness of measures for disaster prevention and

mitigation.

Improvement of Law and Order situation can be done by successful establishment of

the two dimensions of rule of law- Instrumental dimension which includes law, law

enforcing agencies and judiciary. Ensuring the implementation of law and the

accountability of the law enforcing agencies will improve the overall law and order

situation. Also, the independency of the judiciary system has to be truly implemented to

ensure impartiality.

Human Right Violation is a big issue now-a-days in our country. The questionable yet

appreciated actions of RAB (Rapid Action Battalion) have nudged the human rights

organizations as innocent people had been used as a scapegoat.

Infrastructure can be improved by appropriate management of electricity, ensuring

adequate electricity everywhere, Gas allocation, repairing the existing degraded roads and

highways and constructing new ones.

The traffic situation in our country is the most challenging to resolve. Traffic jam has

become a regular incident and it wastes our valuable time. Proper traffic management

system should be implemented. More flyovers need to be constructed.

Ensuring high speed Internet for all is also necessary. Establishment and maintenance

of the submarine cable is necessary to introduce fiber optic based internet for all.

Moreover, internet will help tremendously to improve several sectors like Information

technology, banking, education, traffic management and also elections.

Eradication of Corruption should be undertaken for establishing credibility of

governance which can be established by digitizing the system and reducing the human

interference. Accountability and transparency should be adhered in all procurements and

government spending.

Reducing the price of commodities is probably the easiest of all the challenges. The

pricing will be done by the government. Also, there should be specific rules about the

whole wholesaling-retailing process. The VAT rules should be revised as well. Ensuring

proper grain storage and other vegetation cold storage is also necessary to lessen the high

price.

Environmental conditions need to capture the attention of the government badly. The

present condition of the greeneries of Bangladesh, especially the Sundarban, is tragic.

Sundarban needs restoration measures and as well as reservation. The Rivers need to be

restored to their original state. Managing waste properly through establishing an

Integrated Waste management System (IWM) can also help. Following the Three R rules-

Reduce, Reuse and Recycle will help to manage our wastes more effectively. The

reduction of greenhouse gases like Carbon Di Oxides, Monoxides by reducing and

gradually removing all the four stroke vehicles from the nation. These all measures will

ultimately help to upgrade the total environmental condition of the country.

Conclusion

Finally, Parliamentary form of Government is the best one among all of the others as it has

less probability to fall under a particular person’s feet despite all other disadvantages of it. If

the transparency and honesty of a parliamentary government can be ensured then any civil

expectation can be fulfilled and it will bring betterment for the country.