The book, ‘Fifty Years of Bangladesh: Economy, Politics, Society and Culture’, was launched this afternoon at the Centre for Policy Dialogue office in Dhanmondi of the capital.
The book comprises three research articles regarding Bangladesh’s politics over the past 50 years, written by BRAC Institute of Governance and Development (BIGD)’s senior researcher Dr Mirza Hasan, Illinois State University’s Professor Ali Riaz and Oslo University’s South Asia Studies professor Arild Engelsen Ruud. The three writings have been reviewed by the Prothom Alo editor Matiur Rahman.
Speaking at the event moderated by Rounaq Jahan, Mirza M Hasan said he basically wanted to highlight how far relations between the state and the society have evolved over the past 50 years. He spoke of the political system taking on three forms. This included the state of an authoritarian party, which prevails at present. The other two are military rule and competitive party system. He said, the authoritarian party state system has been in place for the past 24 years. The so-called competitive party system was in place for 17 years, but this system also took on an authoritarian form from the day after the election. In that sense the authoritarian system has prevailed for 43 years. There was direct military rule for nine years.
Mirza Hasan said, the political elite are comfortable with an authoritarian party state system. When they are in the opposition, then they talk about democracy and want a caretaker government. When back in government, they return to authoritarian rule.