Islamism-in-Waiting
Bangladesh ranks 146th out of 187 countries rated on the United Nations Human Development Index. An estimated 30% of the population lives on less than $1.25 a day. Even so, progress has been made toward the country being able to meet the Millennium Development Goals in health and education. GDP has grown 6% annually on average. High performers like India and Indonesia have only slightly higher grown rates. In addition, both population growth and poverty are on the decline in Bangladesh.Formerly known as East Pakistan, Bangladesh fought a civil with with West Pakistan over linguistic, democratic and religious freedoms. Unlike Pakistan, the social-political contract in Bangladesh is largely absent the kind of fundamentalism that has riven and wracked most Muslim countries. Even though it is the world's fourth largest Muslim nation. Its sole Islamist political party remains a minority group with little influence.
Bangladesh, with a population base of over 150 million, while the most densely populated large country in the world, is also the world's eighth most populous country. But since it has always hailed itself as a secular country celebrating every branch of Islam, Christianity, Hinduism, and Tribal Shamanism equally is is definitely not Pakistan. Faith inter-marriage is not uncommon, the Hindu caste system is banned and the Muslim sectarian violence that has made a bloodbath of the Middle East is non-existent.
Sounds quite wonderful. Though to be sure, not quite. Bangladesh is known for its democratic ideals, much like its much larger, wealthier and more powerful neighbour, India. Of which it was once a part, inheriting the British traditions of governance, parliamentary procedures and social values. The country's textile industry represents the world's fifth largest. Labour conditions are certainly not on a par with the safety and concern for workers that Western corporations contracting out to Bangladesh factories prefer.
But if a glance at the governing politics of the country assures that it is a democracy, the reality is more reflective of a dictatorship. There exists, in fact, such severe tensions resulting from government action between opposition parties and the ruling party that it remains a possibility that the country's military, dedicated to upholding democratic values, may step in. But then, there is the example of another populous Muslim country considered a successful hybrid of Islam and Democracy.
Turkey's military too had a far longer tradition of ensuring that democracy which had taken root with Kamal Ataturk's revolution, would remain firmly in place. That is, until Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Justice and Development Party stepped into governance, and in a decade and a half of rule returned the country to an Islamist version of democracy by autocratic rule that destroyed the Turkish military's vigil leaving the country with one-party rule and a chief-executive-for-life.
Bangladesh's Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina with her ruling Awami League is the daughter of an assassinated Bangladeshi pro-independence leader, president and founder of the Awami League. Her opponent, Khaleda Zia is the widow of another pro-independence military man, country president and founder of the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party, who was assassinated by the military.
People in Bangladesh riot and are killed in clashes over the legitimacy of the government with thousands of anti-government demonstrators arrested along with reports of arson attacks and the assassinations of opposition leaders. The decades-long feud between the prime minister and the leader of the opposition has seen the two trade power for a quarter of a century.
How long before the wave of fundamentalist Islam washes over Bangladesh as it has over so many other once-'secular' Muslim-majority countries of the world?
Labels: Bangladesh, Democracy, Islam, Poverty, Trade
posted by Pieface @ Saturday, March 14, 2015
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