The Law Minister of Bangladesh, Shafique Ahmed, recently claimed that no special law needs to be passed in order to ban religion-based politics in electioneering. The recent strike against the 5th amendment by the Supreme Court suffices to end the explicitly religious turn in Bangladeshi politics ushered in Ziaur Rahman, dictator, president and founder of the BNP.
The 5th Amendment retroactively legalized proclamations and political moves made by the then Martial Law Authorities between 1975 and 1979–after the assassination of Sheikh Mujib and the rise to power of BNP founder General Ziaur Rahman. The 5th amendment notoriously struck down the founding sentiment of secularism in the Constitution of Bangladesh and replaced it with “absolute trust and faith in Almight Allah.” It further abolished Article 12 of the Constitution which prevented the “abuse of religion with political ill-intent.” Thus, striking down the 5th Amendment is tantamount to reverting to a program of secular and non-domination of religion in politics. It also means that through the strike out of the 5th Amendment, the historical founding of the BNP has been deemed illegitimate.
In spite of all this talk, politics remains front and center in all this of cours. Sheikh Hasina claimed that though the Constitution has become secular, the Preamble would maintain its call to Allah, the God of Islam. Hence a secular state maintains its claim to God as the purveyor of all value, political or otherwise. The BNP has something to say about that.
Partly to cut through this morass of politics, Mr. Ahmed claimed that the Election Commission (EC) has been charged with looking over the party manifesto of all religious parties to see if it maintained a line that contradicted the reconstructed Constitution, made “secular” by Supreme Court’s move. It if adhered to the 5th amendment, such a party would be banned from contesting any elections.
The EC is being charged in this endeavor to uncouple claims to politicking from the ban of religiosity in politics. Noting that the Prime Minister had earlier claimed that such a ban might will not go through, Mr. Ahmed, claimed that at any rate, the bureaucracy that is the Election Commission will see this matter through. Politics has been put aside; a large bureaucracy must set about its remit.
