Answer To: # political conflicts definition #political parties in Bangladesh # history of political conflict/...
Anju Lata answered on Apr 27 2020
Political Conflicts in Bangladesh 41
IMPACT OF POLITICAL CONFLICTS IN BANGLADESH
Table of Contents
Introduction.........................................................4
Definition.............................................................5
Political Parties in Bangladesh.............................6
Political History of Bangladesh............................8
Impact of Political Conflicts................................18
Radicalization......................................................19
Economic Impact.................................................20
International Relations........................................21
Role of Floods and Cyclones on Economy...........23
Social Impact.......................................................24
Impact on livelihood of people............................24
Impact on business..............................................29
Case Study
Impact on Foreign Investment............................30
Impact on Garment Industry...............................32
Impact on Leather Industry.................................34
Conclusion...........................................................36
References..........................................................37
ABSTRACT
The thesis presents an overview of the literature regarding historical background of political conflicts in Bangladesh and illustrates the impact of conflicts on different aspects of Bangladesh like society, livelihood of people, business, and foreign Investment. The study presents the elaborate impact of political instability in three industries: Garments Industry, FDI and Leather Industry.
Keywords: Society, Foreign Investment, Political Conflicts, Garments, Leather Industry etc.
IMPACT OF POLITICAL CONFLICT ON BUSINESS IN BANGLADESH
Introduction
Since the inception of Bangladesh as an independent nation after the Liberation war in 1972, there was a consistent phases of unrest till 1990 when the country faced the regime of autocratic military rule. The establishment of democracy in the country has made the two main political parties (AL and BNP) indulged in never-ending rivalry due to personal competitive intention to defeat each other, and divergence of ideology. The political differences of two parties result in massive protests by politically driven youth and community activists and consistent failure of the ruling government to establish peace and harmony in the country. Moreover, Bangladesh is continuously been exposed to natural calamities(Jewel,2014). The lack of resources to meet the demands of increasing population and corruption is the result of ineffective leadership in government. The poverty and unemployment paves the way for unrest and conflicting situations in public as well. The conflicts adversely affect the Foreign Investment and business in Bangladesh. The foreign investors do not find the country suitable for investment as the disturbances in polity result in uncertainties about various issues like timely delivery of products and goods, and availability of transport vehicles, functional condition of factories etc.
The study aims to research the historical background of political conflicts in Bangladesh and analyze the impact of these conflicts on the social, economic, and cultural well-being of the citizens while assessing the impact mainly on Business sector.
The objective of the thesis is to understand the background of political conflict (and how it is giving rise to multiple problems in Bangladesh) and critically analyze its impact on business.
Definition
Political conflict is the intentional and conscious expression of difference in position by the political groups(Conias Research Institute,n.d.). The issues of conflicts may be pertaining to values relevant to the concerned society. The presence of contradictory and contrary views results in conflicts. For any political conflict to take place, there must be two or more parties expressing their concern on the topic of interest(Subject), both of them must be communicating their opposing views to each other (Measures), and there must be a relevant topic affecting the society (Item). These three elements are the basic requirements for a political conflict to take place (Conias Research Institute, n.d.).
Generally, the political conflicts are based on social issues. They have no significant settlement mechanism (Conias Research Institute, n.d.)
The politics, in general, is aimed to create policies, making laws and decisions, commanding the authority, holding public offices and working to enforce those laws and policies in public. As per the postulates of Hannah Arendt, politics is the interaction of equal and free citizens in the society. It affects the complete structure of public life like the government, school, culture, business, art and other works. The successful and effective politics always enacts conflicts resolution. But sometimes due to differences in opinions regarding the issues of public relevance, the political parties indulge in conflicts. They have contradictory views regarding a topic, which they often communicate with each other aggressively. In a democracy, the leading party holds the office and is responsible for handling the issues of public concern and resolving them as they appear. The opposition party is responsible for criticising and pointing out the loopholes in the governance so that they could prove the current government as irresponsible and inappropriate towards addressing the public concerns and could attract most of the votes in next elections to become the ruling party. Often the opposition parties get to indulge in political conflicts with the ruling parties which they communicate in the public through press conferences, protests and public appearances.
POLITICAL PARTIES IN BANGLADESH
Though Bangladesh has many small political parties (like Liberal Democratic Party, Bangladesh Islamic Front, Communist Party, National Awami Party etc ) but mainly the two political parties are dominant: Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and The Bangladesh Awami League. The third party Jatiya Party came to power just once since its formation but now has joined the partnership with Bangladesh Awami League(Daigle,2016).
Bangladesh Awami League
This party was formed in 1949 as an alternate opposition party against the then ruling party Pakistan Muslim league. It was headed by then leader Hussein Shaheed Suhrawardi and Abdul Hashmi. Shaikh Mujibur Rahman who was elected as a President of Pakistan Muslim league later was designated as one of the first joint secretaries of Bangladesh Awami League(Jahan,2014).
Bangladesh Awami League has played a remarkable role in the movements against the government of Ayub and leading the country during the liberation war. The party was in the lead role in making the government in the country after independence. The party won the two successive elections (1975 & 1996) and successfully constituted the government(Jewel,2015). During its tenure, the party considerably resolved the international issues like Gange's water sharing. From 2001-2006, the party was in opposition but in December 2008, it again won the elections to frame the government (Diwan,2016). At present, Bangladesh Awami League is the main leading party of governance in Bangladesh with Sheikh Hasina as the current President and Ayed Ashraful Islam as the General Secretary of the party (Prouro,2013).
Bangladesh Nationalist Party
This party was founded on 01 September 1978 by the then President of Bangladesh, Ziaur Rahman(Jahan,2014). BNP brought together all the people of Bangladesh under a common political trust. The party improved many international relations with neighboring countries during its first tenure. In 1991, the party again came into the power after the murder of its founder. In 2001, BNP won 210 seats in parliament. The chairperson of BNP is Begum Khalida Zia and Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir is the present secretary general (Prouro,2013).
The Jatiya Party
This party was constructed in 1986 by the then President Hussain Md. Ershad(Jahan,2014). In 1988, the party won the election and came to power. But since the establishment of democracy in Bangladesh in 1991, the party never gained a majority. Presently, Jatiya party has joined with Awami League and still, Ershad is the party president(Daigle,2016).
Bangladesh is a densely populated Muslim country in South Asia. It got independence from Pakistan after a nine months long national liberation war in December 1971. In January 1972, Shaikh Mujibur Rahman was elected as Prime Minister of the country(Prouro,2013).
POLITICAL HISTORY OF BANGLADESH
A new Bangladeshi Army was constructed by combining the Mukti Vahini and Military forces(Jahan,2014). The serious challenges before the government were the rehabilitation of millions of Bangladeshi people, adequate supply of food, transport and health assistance. In 1970, the country was badly hit by Cyclones. The then Prime Minister sought help from UN, US, and European countries. He also signed a true friendship agreement with India(Global Security,2018). India conducted training of Bangladeshi soldiers and extended humanitarian and economic assistance. More than 10 million refugees were rehabilitated and the economy started to recover. In 1973 elections, Mujiv and his party won the majority votes. He invested hugely to improve the sanitation, health, education, water, electricity, and food services in the country. But in 1974, around 1.5 million Bangladeshi people died due to the extreme scarcity of food and starvation(Jewel,2015). It became one of the most prominent reasons for the failure of Mujib's government. On 25 Jan 1975, Mujiv declared an emergency and prohibited all the parties in opposition(Diwan,2016). He wrongfully used his powers of President post and thus violated the civil rights of democracy. On August 15, 1975, Mujiv Rehman and his family was attacked by a team of Junior Army Officers(Jewel,2015). However, His two daughters, being in Germany, escaped the attack. They were debarred from returning back to Bangladesh. In 1977, the then Army Chief Ziaur Rehman became the new President. He ensured to provide military assistance to the civilian government which was headed by Chief Justice Sayem. He framed the Martial Law and continuously maintained the ban on political parties. He often demoralized the officials and reconstructed the policies to stress on family planning in Bangladesh(Daigle,2016).
As Sayem got retired, within five months the Country had to face new elections and again Sayem won with 78% seats.
In 1978, Sayem removed all the restrictions from opposition parties. In May 1991, Zia got murdered by the military forces. Vice President Justice Abdus Sattar became new President. He called for a national emergency and announced fresh elections for the post of new President just within 6 months’ time. In the elections, Sattar evolved as a winning BNP candidate. He became the president and implemented the policies of Zia. He maintained the old cabinet but also included Army in it. Hussain Md.Ershad, the Chief of Army came to power in March 1982, when Bangladesh was suffering from severe economic, political and social crisis. Ershad did not like the policies of old age Sattar to restrict the involvement of Army in politics anymore.
The council was suspended by Ershad referring to comprehensive corruption, ineffective government and miscarriage economic conditions as the main reasons. He declared martial law. He promoted the investment of private Companies in manufacturing, heavy metal industries, and newspaper. He invited foreign businessmen to invest in Bangladesh. The ban on all political parties and trade union were imposed for time being to the death penalty in case of commitment of corruption and political campaign. He implemented the view of positive development as the country was facing the state of serious economic difficulty. Before two months of taking over the power, it was announced by Prime Minister that the country is facing food shortage. The government also reflected the deficiency in the budget. An IMF declared that no more loan will be provided until paid some of the existing debts. Ershad asked opposition parties to take part in local elections in 1984 under martial law but they refused. Hence, Ershad condemned the idea and asked the public votes for his current system in his national referendum in March 1985. And Ershad was successful in attaining the highest favors by the public. Despite relegations by BNP and Begum Khalida Zia (Widow of president Zia), the election of parliament was held as per the schedule in May 1986. A majority of 300 elected seats for a national assembly were won by Jatiya Party. Despite of widespread incident of anomaly voting, elections credit went to Awami League, led by president Mujib’s daughter, Sheikh Hasina Wajed(Daigle,2016).
After resigning from Chief of Army post and retiring from the Army, Ershad got ready for elections for President post to be scheduled in October. Thus, Ershad easily won the race by obtaining 84% of the vote. The government of Ershad attained 2/3 majority in National Assembly in November 1986. The government made necessary changes to the constitution and reapplied the martial law. Later on, the Martial law was removed by the president. Consequently, the opposition parties occupied their elected seats.
In July 1987, the government brought the bill in the parliament to include army in local administrative council. The bill was opposed by opposition parties and they walked out of the parliament. The government started to arrest opposition activists under Bangladesh’s special power act 1974. In spite of all the arrests, the opposition kept on protesting and demonstrating national level strikes. Consequently, Ershad declared an emergency and decomposed parliament and scheduled a fresh election in March 1988(Shonchoy and Tsubota,2016).
All the major opposition parties fully opposed the government to take part in the coming polls saying that the government is not able enough to conduct free and fair elections in the country. Even amidst all the refusals, the government took part in elections and ruling party (Jatiya party) won 251 out of 300 seats. Still, the opposition kept on charging the parliament as an illegitimate body who emphasizes to make Islam the religion of the state and setting the High Court benches in main cities out of Dhaka, in 1988. However the Supreme Court stroked out the decentralization and by 1989, the national politics of Bangladesh was stabilized considerably. The elections were supervised by the international observers to eliminate the influence of impartiality and unfair practices in elections.
In 1990, the opposition parties again started to conduct strikes, protests, and rallies paralyzing the country and displaying complete dissolution of law and order(Shonchoy and Tsubota,2016). The major opposition activities dissolved the parliament. Moreover, the fresh elections were withdrawn by opposition parties like Awami League and Jamat. A sharp opposition campaign was launched by the students which finally made the step down Ershad by force. Ershad gave his resignation on 06 December 1990 and after two months on 27 February 1991, prevailing civil disturbance, an interim government headed by acting president chief Justic Shahabuddin Ahmed oversaw that most commentator believed that nation’s most free and fair elections were accomplished on that date.
First Khalida administration (1991 to 1996)
After winning majority seats in elections, Bangladesh Nationalist Party formed the government in collaboration with Jamaat Party. Khalida Zia became the Prime Minister. In 1991, more than 10 members of parliament got elected by only four Parties (BNP, AL, Jamaat, and Jatiya). Ershad, the former President was given imprisonment on charges of corruption.
The approval by-elections made changes in the constitution. The election/vote played the main role in re-creating a parliamentary system and in returning the power of the office of prime minister as was in Bangladesh in 1972constitution.
In 1994, the opposition claimed that the government had rigged and called for an indefinite boycott of the parliament by entire opposition. Hence the opposition constructed a program to do recurrent strikes and demanded resignation from Khalida Zia. All the initiatives to work out the disputes under the umbrella of Commonwealth Secretariat failed. Another effort on talk based settlement also failed slightly in December 1994. The whole opposition resigned in parliament. Opposition kept on agitating the marches, strikes, and protests to compel the government to resign(Shonchoy and Tsubota,2016). Sheikh Hasina pledged to ban the further elections scheduled for Feb 15th, 1996.
In February Khalida Zia prohibited the election (due to landslide incidents) which was attributed as unfair by other three parties in opposition. An amendment in the constitution was passed to form a caretaker government to come in power and conduct the elections. Former CJ Md. Habibur Rahman was appointed as the Chief Advisor in the short-term government. In June 1996, fresh elections took place, Awami League won and formed a government with Jatiya Party and Sheikh Hasina became the Prime Minister.
First Hasina administration (1996 to 2001)
In 1996, Sheikh Hasina made the government which she called as Government of National Consensus. In September 1997, Md. Ershad, the party President of Jatiya Party withdrawn his support from the Sheikh Hasin Government. The opposition recurrently created problems and developed instability in the state and the nation had to face unexpected election each and every time. The ruling parties and the opposition parties changed but the role and conduct of opposition always created instability in the workings of the government. The opposition parties have always been initiating conflicts which could be resolved by just the talks.
Thus the political violence continued to increase in the run-up to the election. In August 2000, Khalida Zia and Sheikh Hasina unanimously agreed to the conclusion that forceful protests won’t be used as political tool in the country. The government allocated a far more responsible role to the opposition.
Second Khalida Zia administration (2001 to 2006)
Shiekh Hasina again boycotts the elections and the parliament again. The whole process of protests and rallies was continued again by both the ruling and opposition parties. The entire session of budgetary discussion was a boycott by the Awami League. They charged the speaker as partial. In August 2005 the state witnesses recurrent explosive blasts in 63/64 districts destructing major buildings of the government. An extremist Islamic Group, Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh took the responsibility of blasts. The group demanded to replace the secular legal structure with the Sharia Courts. Violence killed 28 legal professionals including lawyers, judges and police employees who were deployed to safeguard the courts. All this started the agitation in government for Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) group. The government sentenced more than 7 main leaders of JMB for the charges of murdering the two judges. The blame game and charge imposing practices of all the parties on each other kept on.
In November 2007, Bangladesh got hit by the cyclone Sidr, which killed thousands of citizens. In the general elections of 2008, Shaikh Hasina became the Prime Minister, as her party Awami League again won the majority by occupying 250/300 parliamentary seats. The government banned the regional activities of Islamic Organization Hizb Ul Tahrir, declaring that its activities are violent and peace destructing. The main leader of Islamic party Jamaat-e-Islami, Motiur Rahman Nizami and Mr.Sayedee charged by a government court for their alleged links with Pakistan in 1971 liberation war.
In 2013, the European retailers in Bangladesh agreed to sign a treaty for improving the safety in their workplaces, after the incident of collapse of a garment retail building. The incident killed more than 1100 workers(Apu,2010). The death of innocent people triggered heavy protests in the country which resulted into closure of hundreds of Bangladeshi factories. The workers demanded increase in daily wages and right to make worker’s unions(Apu,2010). The workers were arrested in huge numbers for their protests and pay strikes but later on released after the pressure from the Big Companies of fashion Industry. In 2014 January, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina ruled the power for the third time. The government boycotts the Islamic group Ansarullah Bangla Team for killing many pro-secular leaders. The leader of Jamaat e Islami party Ghulam Azad was convicted with death sentence due to charges of a war crime in 1971 war. Other two leaders of the same party (Abdus Suhan and Mir Qasim Ali) along with two more leaders...