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Speaking up for democracy

NEW Age is into its seventh year and its short journey so far has never been very smooth. A newspaper, which sets its goal to remain critical of the political establishments, particularly the incumbents, is destined to suffer disaffection of, if not wrath from, the powers that be. We had been critical of the elected government of Khaleda Zia, we were critical of the short-lived caretaker government of President Iajuddin Ahmed, we were critical of the unelected military-driven regime of Fakhruddin Ahmed, and we are critical of the current elected government of Sheik Hasina, and will continue to remain critical of the governments to come.

   That we were, still are, and will continue to be critical – not cynical – of the powers that be has behind it a sense of history, and certain understanding of the political and economic systems that are in practice here in Bangladesh for quite some time now. For us, at New Age, mere absence of rule by a military-driven regime or just governance by an elected administration is not worth being called democracy. Considered a way of life, democracy, we believe, has to have its manifestations in every sphere of public and private life of a people – political, economic, social, familial and cultural.

   In a democracy, the individual citizens are supposed to enjoy the highest level of freedom, albeit within the framework of the constitution of the state, which, again, is expected to function as a republic in which people’s will is supposed to reign supreme. If the constitution of Bangladesh is considered the embodiment of the people’s will, even though ours is not the best of republican constitution on earth, the country’s ruling classes, organised under different political parties, must admit that their governments have never allowed the people at large to enjoy republican freedoms, nor have they fulfilled their basic constitutional obligations towards people – obligations that include ensuring rule of law, in the first place, which means every citizen irrespective of their ethnic, religious and gender identities would be treated by the state equally, while all of them will be provided equal opportunities in their quest for happiness of life in society.

   Democratic political equality, when translated into other areas of life, stands for economic equality as well. That Bangladesh has been segregated into two camps – the extremely poor and the extremely rich, or the extremely privileged and the extremely non-privileged – can be explained mainly by the undemocratic economic policies pursued by the subsequent governments of the ruling elite – political or apolitical.

   There is always a lot of political rhetoric about the rule of law and democratic equality propagated by the political class, particularly before elections, but once voted to power the governments refuse to observe the democratic principles of the rule of law, and resort to repression of the political opponents by using coercive tools of the state. Instead of making conscious political efforts to expand democratic rights of the citizens towards economic and cultural areas of life, the governments rather find it convenient to suppress democratic dissents of any sort, coming from anywhere – organised on partisan line or independent. The result is obvious: political competition among different political camps contesting for power takes the shape of political acrimony. Besides, such a repressive political culture stands directly in the way of the flourishing of oppositional intellectualism, which is the driving force for any society to change towards expanded democratic directions.

   Under such a politico-cultural environment, a democratically oriented newspaper committed to the expansion of the political, economic and cultural rights of the citizens cannot but remain critical of the governments that always have, across the world, the tendency to constrict the rights, the other name of which is democracy and development, because without the rights in question expanded further the citizens would not have the democracy and development that they need.

   Hence, New Age, a democratically oriented newspaper, does not have the luxury of remaining under any illusion that the governments would ever like it, and subsequently it does not expect to be treated favourably by the governments, any government for that matter. We would continue to speak up our mind – in appreciation of the government if and when it takes a democratic step and in criticism when it does the opposite. The contents of the annual supplement would stand for the claim.

   We hope our ever-growing readers and well wishers would continue to support our never-ending journalistic journey, however rough it turns out to be. Expansion of democracy, after all, is a never-ending process.

   – Nurul Kabir