No one can predict exactly what Bangladesh's constitutional architecture will look like by year's end. The process will be messy, contentious, and imperfect. But the direction is clear. Two-thirds of voters have chosen a path away from capricious rule toward a system where power is tempered.
BNP has to govern not merely as the winner of an election but as the steward of a divided nation. Jamaat-e-Islami has to act as a parliamentary opposition, not as a liberation war revision society. The international community has to support democratic consolidation, not strategic alignment.
Opponents of the referendum write as though rejecting this package will clear the way for a more measured, item by item process of constitutional improvement. But nothing in Bangladesh’s recent history suggests that such a sequence will materialize on its own.
What we have here is selective presentation designed to secure approval through incomplete information. The ballot emphasizes what is popular; the fine print includes what is contentious.
By binding the concept of reform so tightly to the consensus commission's existence, and suggesting that the commission's end would spell the end of reform itself, we have propagated a dangerous fiction: that meaningful reform requires suspending normal democratic politics and governing through unelected technocrats.
The sooner we embark on our mundane journey for democracy fraught with its own setbacks and disappointments, the more likely we will find the peace, stability, and economic justice we yearn
Politics is not a moral monastery. It’s a battlefield of imperfect allies and temporary truces. If the NCP keeps attacking everyone around it, soon it will have no one left to fight beside. Reform may begin with rebellion, but it survives through relationships. And without those, no revolution lasts long enough to write its own constitution.
We need to close loopholes for unilateral amendments to the Constitution, otherwise the July Charter will not be worth the paper it is written on
NCP’s hesitation is an act of political commitment to the people of Bangladesh. It seeks to ensure that Bangladesh’s long-awaited democratic transformation is not undone by legal fragility or political opportunism.
What many observers miss in the drama surrounding the NCP boycott is the fact that the July Charter still represents a significant step along the way to implementing lasting reforms to Bangladesh’s broken political system.
Unless we reach a consensus on key issues such as the July Charter and constitutional reforms, debating whether the elections should be held in February or April are meaningless. With consensus, February makes most sense. Without consensus even April may not happen.
