The fate of the caretaker government - going forward.

On and off, there has been a talk about the need and justification of the caretaker government. Our intellectuals and politicians are acting as if they actually have some grey material.


Please allow us tell you one thing in a very plain language and propose something very humbly.

If our post-independence politicians have done anything good for themselves and for the country, it is the idea, demand and implementation of caretaker government system. The way this idea evolved and eventually got implemented, this is true example of participatory policy innovation where situation had driven the eventual solution to an acute problem that we had.

It is significant for various reasons from the context of political culture of Bangladesh. First of all, this is significant because it is probably one instance where our politicians have spoken the truth, they have acknowledged that they have a problem. And they actually worked to solve the problem. Now, nindukera will say that they neither tell the truth to rescue the country nor they had the best interest of the general people behind this policy. Rather they used their brain here because it was about the ruti-ruji'r vaga-vagi for them! But let us forget that aspect for today. After all, we want to look forward.

So, what is the problem with this rule?

There is no problem. Actually, we think this is a rule that will be copied or should be copied in most of the under-developep countries. Why do we think so? Because, this rule recognizes the limitation of an election-based democratic system for a soceity which is not educated enough, a system which has not developed the institutions to check and balance the problems of a democracy. The system of caretaker government acutally enforces some of the check and balance into the system nicely.


Off course, this is also an indication of a weak democracy - a demonstration of not-so-developed system. In other words, as long as we or any other country have it, it will be an indication that we have a problem within our system. Probably, thats why our intellects are trying to give lesson to us. They are like haturey dactars. You have a disease - but they would like you to beleive that you have been cured! This exactly have been happening in our national porimondol during the last several decades. We think there is still need for the system of caretaker system. It is not only a demonstration of our weakness, but it also is a demonstration of our effort that we are working towards fixing the problem. At least, this system prevents a negative progression.

Ok, ok, lets assume we are working towards fixing the problem - but when would we be done fixing it? How would we know?

This off course is a koti takar prosno. But we think this can be solved by some modification in the act. Election commission should consider making a minor amendment in the rules of the national election. The idea is something like this:

During a national election every five years, the election commission can hold a parallel referendum asking a simple question - "Do you think our next national election should not be held under a caretaker government?" So, during the election people will send a slate of MP to the parliament. At the same time, they will also mention whether they think the upcoming government will be in power during the next election or whether a caretaker government should be installed for the next election. For example, say during the upcoming election, Party X may win the parliament but at the same time people might give a NO VOTE for the Party X. In other words, people sends this Party X to form the government, but they do not think that the national institutions are strong enough to rely on Party X to hold the next national election
. So, when the time of next national election comes, a caretaker government will be formed to hold that election. This would be repeated indefinitely. Or if the people do not want the caretaker government for a consecutive five times, we may then declare that our system is now developed enough to repeal the system of caretaker government. There might be other minor things that can be done to improve the current provision of the caretaker government. But on broad scale, we should not think that our system has already outgrown the need of the system. Not yet.