Permanent ban on Awami League under anti-terror ordinance detrimental to Bangladesh's democracy: Report

Dhaka/Colombo, April 5 (IANS) Last year, the then interim government of Bangladesh, under the leadership of Muhammad Yunus, had banned all activities of the Bangladesh Awami League and its related outfits, through the Anti-Terrorism (Amendment) Ordinance 2025. Now, the new government, led by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), has reportedly proposed to make the ban permanent. 

This reflects an alarming objective, including the effective criminalisation and possible political extinction of the Bangladesh Awami League, which is also the country's founding political party, Anwar A. Khan, a political analyst based in Dhaka, wrote in Sri Lanka Guardian.

For him, this appears to be a constitutional crisis, more than a political rivalry.

The Constitution of Bangladesh was created in the aftermath of the 1971 Liberation war.

Khan, in his opinion piece for the Sri Lanka Guardian, says that the Bangladesh Constitution declares a democratic order grounded in pluralism, participation, and the rule of law.

He mentions that Article 37 of the Constitution guarantees the fundamental right to assemble peacefully and Article 38 secures the right to form associations or unions, which, according to him, has long been interpreted to include the formation and functioning of political parties.

According to Khan, to make a major political party accountable by rendering its activities as punishable with four to 14 years of imprisonment is not regulation -- "it's repression, a direct affront to the spirit and letter of these constitutional guarantees".

Moreover, Article 11 of the country's Constitution guarantees fundamental human rights and freedoms and refers to the Bangladesh Republic as a "democracy".

Khan, in Sri Lanka Guardian, wonders whether a democracy can remain worthy of its name if one of its principal political actors is legally suffocated?

"Can the will of the people truly manifest if their choices are pre-emptively curtailed by law?" he asked.

He affirms that the answer is self-evident and that its clarity cannot be denied.

Anwar A. Khan said that the proposal of the BNP-led Bangladesh government to legally transform the anti-terror ordinance into a permanent legal instrument, with draconian punitive provisions, "signals a dangerous departure from democratic norms".

"It moves beyond temporary administrative restraint into the realm of institutionalised exclusion," he says.

Expressing his dissapointment, Khan remarked, "This is not governance -- it is the codification of political vengeance."

The political analyst reminds that leaders of the BNP had, during electoral discourse, publicly affirmed their opposition to banning political parties. They had reportedly insisted that such decisions belong to the people of the sovereign nation. He calls it "the collective will of the citizenry".

Yet, Khan feels that upon BNP's victory, this principled stance of the party may have dissolved into convenient authoritarianism.

He says that such double standards leads to losing of the citizen's trust and wears down the very foundation of democratic politics.

Khan also cautions that democracies do not collapse overnight.

He mentions that they are slowly hollowed out -- first by crushing dissent, then by criminalising the Opposition, and eventually by normalising exclusion.

The political analyst, in Sri Lanka Guardian, notes that an attempt has been made to marginalise the Bangladesh Awami League "under the guise of deception or a hidden motive-legal reform-risks accelerating this perilous trajectory".

As a result, Khan warns of profound implications, which include deepening of political polarisation and restricting of democratic space.

He fears that the streets of Bangladesh may once again become grounds of confrontation rather than arenas of peaceful expression.

"A culture of suppression, once entrenched, seldom remains confined to a single target. Today, one party may be outlawed; tomorrow, the precedent may ensnare others. Such is the inexorable logic of repressive governance," he writes in Sri Lanka Guardian.

Having said that, Khan is also optimistic. He believes that history also teaches resilience.

He emphasises that since the formation of the nation, the Bangladesh Awami League has stood against storms far greater than legislative hostility.

"Its roots are entwined with the very birth of the nation, its identity inseparable from the ideals of liberation, sovereignty, and popular mandate. Time and again, it has returned -- not by decree, but by indomitable strength; an unyielding force of the people's will," Anwar A. Khan writes in Sri Lanka Guardian.

He makes it clear that if democracy is to continue in Bangladesh, it must be defended not by suppressing opponents, but by engaging public opinion.

He emphasises that participation and contestation are the destined paths forward, not prohibition or coercion.

Khan underlines the sovereignty of a Republic resides in the people, who are the ultimate custodians of a nation's destiny.

Reaffirming that the citizens of the sovereign Republic has the right to decide the fate of political parties, Khan says to forget this virtue is "a constitutional betrayal" and not merely a "political error".

--IANS

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