Let Democracy Ring

There are two great things about Election Day, February 12.

The first is of course the fact that the Bangladeshi people get to choose their leaders for the first time since 2008.

Bangladeshis are a democracy-loving people. We like to vote. We like to be able to determine our own destiny. We do not like it when that decision is taken from us, and the 12 years since the abortive elections of 2014 have sat uneasily on the national psyche.

But the second reason that elections are so important should not be ignored. As much as they choose our leaders, elections tell us an enormous amount about ourselves as well.

In the absence of good elections, an entire generation of Bangladeshis has grown up without a sense of self.

The truth is that the majority of voters have never voted in a fair election, and as a result neither do they know who they are, nor do we know who we are as a nation.

Polling is all very well, and can give us snapshots and partial glimpses and rough approximations, but the election is the time when we truly will get a full portrait, in glorious and granular detail, of who the Bangladeshi people are, what they think, and what they believe.

It has been a long time coming.

If the Interim Government is able to deliver the Bangladeshi people a good election and pass power onto our elected representatives without incident, then we will all owe them a debt of gratitude.

In the days to come there will be many assessments made of their performance, what they did right, what they did wrong, what they should have done, what they should not have done.

But one thing needs to be recalled in this connection: The first is that we need to remember just how fraught and tenuous things were in August 2024.

Had Dr Yunus not agreed to take the reins of government, there is no telling what might have happened. They inherited a country that was teetering on the brink of chaos and anarchy, with a broken economy, and they have succeeded in stabilizing it.

Let us never forget that, let us never minimize this achievement, and let us never pretend that it was ever going to be an easy job.

Of course, the government itself has not staked its reputation solely on its performance over the past 18 months and the upcoming elections.

Instead, it seems to have invested its authority, credibility, and reputation into the reform process as embodied by the referendum.

This was, we feel, an unnecessary step.

In the final analysis, the government will be judged on how well it delivers the election. If it delivers a sound and credible election and hands over power to the incoming elected government smoothly, it can fairly claim itself to have succeeded.

Investing its authority and legacy into the referendum was unwise.

We offer no opinion here on whether voters should vote yes or no. That is up to each individual voter and his or her conscience and assessment.

The only point we wish to make here is that a no vote should not be taken as a defeat for the Interim Government any more than a yes vote should be taken as a victory, and neither should be seen as a reflection or judgement on the government and its performance.

At the end of the day, the final test of this government is not whether the referendum passes or not, but whether they have been able to hold a credible election and whether the referendum process itself was managed without a hitch.

As we enter the final stretch before the election, this is the time for all Bangladeshis to come together, regardless of political affiliation and belief.

Even those who oppose this election or are boycotting it due to the absence of the Awami League should welcome the election because at least it will restart the democratic process.

Everyone wins from that, and no one wins with unrest and a further extension of an unelected government, with all the instability, confusion, and lack of certainty that is inherent in that situation.

Let February 12 be the day we restart our democratic journey and let us all pledge to continue to work together to ensure that the light of democracy will never go out again.