In Q&A part of the first plenary session at the the Global Summit on Constitutionalism 2023, a constitutional law scholar (Professor Jashim Ali Chowdhury) commented that there should be a responsibility on the people as well. In Bangladesh, what is going on is a purely dynastic politics and people do not object to that. The last three elections (two actually, as the election of 2008 was not controversial) in Bangladesh were very controversial. Academics, Journalists, and members of the Civil society did not object to these elections.
I am adding here a note on his comment.
Vilifying the people is common among the politicians/ intellectuals. It is important to notice what does Mr. Chowdhury mean by people when he talks about the responsibility of the people. Unlike politicians/ intellectuals, he is very specific in his examples of the people - they are academicians, journalists, and civil society. The term civil society should include the two other groups he added. It is not the people - or the common people - who are usually reduced to unintelligent animals for justifying the abuse of the state powers - rather it is the civil society or the intellectual class that failed to fulfill its responsibility. Mr. Chowdhury’s textbook on constitutional law may provide an ironical resemblance to narratives that contributed to the sin of the civil society. As an academic may explore the constitution from many different perspectives, one might slip in a biased interpretations that align with the partisan narratives that criminalize political opposition and contribute to the democratic backsliding.
However, instrumentalization of criminal justice tools in the hands of the government contributed in silencing the civil society. The infamous Digital Security Act is a very clear example. This Act is one of the weapons that inflicted the civil society whenever they tried to voice their objections. It led to the consequence where the crime of silence has the only defense - gasp. As the saying goes that a gasp is better than silence, did the members of civil society including journalists and academics gasp after the elections of 2014 and 2018?
Instrumentalization of laws had its academic friends among constitutional scholars. It always happens - as Gandhi’s notes on Bhagavad Gita tells us, that evil cannot succeed in their endeavors without the friendship of the good. Good provides moral support for the evil. (And for those who believe that things are beyond good and evil - not everything is beyond good and evil; a lot many things fall within clear baskets. Good and evil is still a functional binary for a lot many things.) However, besides the good sense that the civil society including the academia should bear the responsibility, a better sense can trace a complex sociological factor as contributing in silencing the civil society. It is theorized as ‘culture of fear’ by an author (Ali Riaz). Extremism from the two sources manufactures the culture of fear in the country. Religious extremism has the record of deadly intolerance towards dissent and the party in the power has more deadly and institutionalized process for suppressing the political opposition.
Where no one speaks or objets, the crime of silence reigns. You may call it fear. But call.
March 16, 2023
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