The Bangladesh Supreme Court has restored the Constitution to the spirit of the original secular version of 1972, prior to its “tampering” by a series of military dictatorships.
The Supreme Court of Bangladesh has reinstated the measure banning Islamic parties. In a document of 184 pages presented July 26 last, the Court has demolished the Fifth Amendment of the 1979Constitution, including provisions that allowed the rise of Islamic parties in parliament during military regimes (1975 – 1979, 1982 – 1990). The measure, introduced for the first time in January, has been blocked for six months because of an appeal process demanded by Islamic leaders.
Using the Supreme Court ruling as its initiative, the Bangladesh government has banned religious political parties:
Shafiq Ahmed, Minister of Justice, said the measure will be a blow to the extremist parties that can no longer use religion to political ends.
“Secularism – said the minister – will again be the cornerstone of the constitution.” For the moment the court ruling does not provide for the cancellation of the Islamic inspiration of the constitution, but according Shafiq “thanks to the demolition of the Fifth Amendment, the modifications made during the military regimes can now be challenged in court.” Moreover, the measure outlaws all those who supported the regimes from 1975 to 1990. “In theory – adds the minister – all citizens of Bangladesh may now bring a lawsuit against the former military dictator. The repeal of the amendment would also limit the possibility of future coups. “
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The Minister says “all citizens of Bangladesh may now bring a lawsuit against the former military dictator”.
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But Bangladesh (BD) already had laws against secularism, this sounds more like another setup against the army and jamat. The army in BD is a powerful police over rampant political corruption, and in the absence of checks&balance in the political system, the army’s role has been laudible I thought, during the last Caretaker Govt. So BD politicians are now creating a dog & pony show to stop army and jamat from preventing corrupt political shenanigans. They call this “restoring secular constitution”?
What BD really needs, is to restore the constitution so that all citizens of Bangladesh may bring a lawsuit against living corrupt POLITICAL DICTATORS, not against dead and historical military ones !!!
“the army’s role has been laudible I thought, during the last Caretaker Govt. So BD politicians are now creating a dog & pony show to stop army and jamat from preventing corrupt political shenanigans. They call this “restoring secular constitution””
No, they called that handing power from the army back to the people, or in other words “democracy”. Surely you realise that this was a procedural matter that even the army itself was constitutionally obliged to complete? That is why they called it a “caretaker government”.
Otherwise Bangladesh would have remained a military dictatorship, which this time round, the military, amazingly, was unwilling to carry through. Credit due there to the military and the strength of existing democratic institutions and of course a press and public opinion who were opposed to the army retaining power longer than it needed to.
Restoring the constitution, which is what this initiative is all about, is removing certain key phrases and clauses which allowed power and concessions to unelected religious institutions, which were introduced unconstitutionally by subsequent military dictatorships who formed alliances with religious parties in order to grant themselves ‘consensus’.
Basically, AL regime is building a ‘firewall’ against Jamat & army uprise, nothing wrong with that. But by doing it, they are systematically removing their political rivals, alongwith the ‘checks & balance’ against political crime & corruption.
You will never see BD politicians building a firewall against their OWN crime & corruption, and this is why I am always suspicious of any “restoration” that involves ONLY their rivals.
The author Faisal is taking a partisan stand here.
The Indian video talking about ‘rising radoicalisation’ is an Indian view not shared by the West.
The Bangladeshi judiciary isn’t independent. These rulings on the constitutional amendments which the BNP bought in are expected. But what happens when in 3 years BNP (maybe with Jamaat) is back in power? They will change the constitution back again.
In a country like Bangladesh where the state plays minimal role in peoples lives the constitution is meaningless. Keeping Islam as state religion and reference to Bismillah makes no difference on government policy. Both Awami & BNP follow broadly secular policies anyway.
All this petty rubbish is party political, not about secular principles. Nore AL won’t dare remove Islam as state religion or ban Jamaat based on this ruling.
Faisal and others:
Reality is that in any referendum Bangladeshi ppl will choose to keep references to Islam in the constitution by a huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuge margin. You guys should respect the will of the people.
Having a state religion doesn’t lead to communalism. For ref look at Britain where we have the CoE as the established denomination and religion.
Said
For your information, the Church of England is not the “state religion” in the United Kingdom. It certainly is not in Scotland, nor Northern Ireland.
The C of E status as “established” is the use of the term to mean that the sovereign of the United Kingdom is also the legal head of the Church of England.
This is all about as meaningful(and has as much constitutional impact) as the information that the Queen as Duke (yes, Duke not Duchess) of Normandy is the overlord of the Channel Islands, or as the legal heir of the Scottish monarchy has a similar title over the Isle of Man. See Henry VIII’s divorce from Catherine of Aragon in first half of the 16th Century for further details.
There was a considerable movement in the 19th Century for the *disestablishment* of the Church of England (the disconnection between the Church and Monarchy). Not once was it seriously suggested that such disestablishment would lead to the end of the British constitutional settlement. Although, its opponents did give us one of the longest words in the English language, antidisestablishentarianism – which is nice.
or even : antidisestablishmentarianism.
Do any of you fantasists actually believe a referendum on secularism could be won in Bangladesh???
C’mon, answer the question….
In Bangladesh ordinary people relate secularism with atheism.
Maybe Awami League leaders should educate people first rather than spend time stuffing their own pockets with state funds while in power.
That’s rich “educate people” from Jamaati!
The religion of BD politicians is Corruption, and the State Religion for them is Corruptionism. So by this amendment, all these Mujibistic Cult Politicians whose main theology is State Embezzlement, should also be banned under religion-based politics.
At least, the religion of Corruption needs to be banned and should be isolated from BD Governance.
“The Bangladeshi judiciary isn’t independent. These rulings on the constitutional amendments which the BNP bought in are expected. But what happens when in 3 years BNP (maybe with Jamaat) is back in power? They will change the constitution back again.”
The constitution has been restored to the secular document ratified in 1972. The reason why this has passed without much objection. This is because the changes that were made to it – such as the introduction of the “Bismillah” and Islam as “state religion” were the actions of two successive military dictators, both of which were ex-judicial and therefore unconstitutional.
This also means that any laws associated with these provisions are unconstitutional and therefore to be struck down. Hence why “religious parties” are now illegal.
“In Bangladesh ordinary people relate secularism with atheism.”
Many people, including well-spoken, well-educated folk outside Bangladesh also incorrectly relate secularism with atheism. So what? Far from being “atheist”, even partially secular states have greater respect for religious diversity the freedom of worship than theocratic ones.
An interesting read on this:
http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?266555
“The Jamaat has already criticised her move to revert to the 1972 constitution. “People want to move the country forward. But the government is trying to create impediments for its progress and development,” says the acting emir of the Islamist party, Makbul Ahmad.
There are clear indications, however, that the Jamaat is losing ground in Bangladesh. The party’s standing in parliament has come down from 15 to two seats as a large number of voters in the 2008 elections, particularly women in rural areas, fed up with its push for strict adherence to Shariat law, had turned against the Islamist outfit.
However, the BNP, which had lost heavily in the last elections, has decided to remain silent and watch carefully the evolving scenario in Bangladesh.”
Islam v Secularism isn’t an issue in Bangladesh. Only a minority of middle-class people with political axes to grind care for this.
People want development. Trouble is no party can deliver. They hide this inability with the waffle about religion and useless identity politics.
Reason no party can deliver is because the governing system has no accountability, no term limit, no impeachment, no checks & balance and no independant judiciary. The party leaders are both selected from dynasty, totally incompetent on administration & governance, but rule like autocratic monarchy.
Opposition party BNP will have to sit and watch for next 20 years, while AL wipes out all opposition, takes over the country with their autocratic ‘mogher mulluk’ monarchy – until India and Global Warming finally takes over BD, and converts it to Greater Assam !!
Meanwhile the fourth reich goes the other way
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-11510765