Servants killing state owners: what next?

The Constitution of Bangladesh asserts that its citizens are the sole owners of the country. On the other hand, political parties, theoretically, are just non-profit voluntary organisations who are meant to serve the citizens as governing party or opposition, both on the citizens' behalf. Unfortunately, those parties more or less have now been acting against the country's citizens especially for the last month.

It is understood from the mass media reports that opposition parties are throwing petrol bombs on citizens, putting their lives in a riskier state, and committing horrors by attacking trains, buses, and other types of public transport. This is in addition to the damage and destruction of private property. On the other hand, the governing party does not seem to have done enough to tackle the situation. Thus, the dominating political parties have been playing their roles against the benefit of citizens. This fact deserves to be termed subversive as political parties are meant to work as the servants of the citizens, and citizens as the sole owners of the state. On this ground, the parties should be tried if there were such laws or courts in the country.

In the absence of any chance of trial for these subversive activities, there might be the possibility of some alternate events. Among them, the incumbent party in power could use excessive force to calm the opposition down. If force does not work, they would opt for a dialogue with the opposition. If such dialogue does not take place or is unsuccessful for any reason, there could be a great chance of turning the current violence into Islamist militancy, like what has been happening in Pakistan.

However, even if everything settles down through either through the use of force or dialogue, the use of petrol bombs could still be a part of future political violence in Bangladesh. The Awami League especially would follow suit when no longer in a position of power, just as they are learning now from the actions of the current opposition.

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Dr. Kalam Azad is an independent researcher currently based in Sydney, Australia. Earlier, he worked as Lecturer at Queens Academic Group, Auckland, New Zealand, and as Editorial Assistant for the New Zealand Journal of Applied Business Research, Manukau Institute of Technology (MIT).