Anti-discrimination law needed to sustain democracy

Democracy will not sustain if discrimination cannot be eliminated, said noted political and legal analysts and civil society leaders today.

"If we cannot eliminate discrimination, democracy will not be protected in the future because the institutions we create will not be difficult to overcome or break down," said SR Osmani, professor of Development Economics at the University of Ulster.

Osmani's comment came at a discussion on anti-discriminatory law organised by Citizen's Platform for SDGs, Bangladesh organised the event in collaboration with the Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust (BLAST), Manusher Jonno Foundation, and Nagorik Uddyog (Citizen's Initiative), with support from Switzerland and UNDP, at the Bangladesh-China Conference Centre in the city today.

Democracy can go astray due to the tyranny of the majority, but there are two main ways to prevent it: one is by creating institutional obstacles, but there is no guarantee that they will be permanent and effective.

In the past, despite constitutional guarantees and recognition, institution after institution has been destroyed, first for party interests, and then for individual interests.

"The answer, therefore, is in the people, who must take responsibility for protecting their power."

However, the vast majority of these people are victims of discrimination, which starts with socio-economic disparities and ultimately turns into a disparity in political power.

When those who are oppressed are asked whether they want democracy or autocracy, they prefer democracy.

However, due to discrimination, the attraction towards democracy often decreases over time and they get frustrated and that leads to apathy.

"This then takes them far away from that deliberative democracy or public reason. At that point, they lack the opportunity to enter the discussion forum, and the ruling party, individual or group takes advantage of this lack of opportunity and this apathy."

The ruling group accumulates more power by exploiting the apathy and consequently accumulating more power.

"In this way, the decline of democracy gradually occurs. This eventually enables the rise of autocracy. Therefore, eradication of discrimination is a must alongside creating institutional obstacles to prevent the decay of democracy," Osmani added.

The core spirit of the July uprising was anti-discrimination and what emerged out of it are the guarantee of justice, elections and reforms, said Debapriya Bhattacharya, convener of the Citizen's Platform for SDGs, Bangladesh.

In order to get justice, citizens must be protected from discrimination. When citizens are empowered, they can express their opinions and actively take part in political and governance process.

"Effective reform is in no way possible without ensuring the rights of the citizens," said Bhattacharya, also a distinguished fellow at the Centre for Policy Dialogue.

If discrimination continues and deepens, it will not only hinder justice or reform but will also eventually endanger democracy and development.

Subsequently, he called on the interim government to issue an ordinance of the anti-discrimination law.

The political parties should include in the manifesto that the law is passed in the next parliament, he added.

The civil society groups for long have experienced that there were various forms of discrimination in the society in the names of caste, creed, ethnicity and gender and initiated drafting an anti-discrimination law in 2013, said Shaheen Anam, executive director of Manusher Jonno Foundation.

Finally, the cabinet had approved a draft law that went to the standing committee in 2022. The draft was not passed for unknown reasons despite promises by the then law minister.

The promise of the Liberation War and the July Uprising was to build a humane, non-discriminatory society free from inequality.

"But that has not been possible yet," she said.

As per the constitution of Bangladesh, all citizens are equal, but the country repeatedly sows divisions based on religion, said Attorney General Md Asaduzzaman.

In recent times, another division has entered the scene: political discrimination.

"The entire social system has been driven into such a vicious cycle of criminalisation of politics," he said, while calling for coming out of such social, religious and political divisions and discriminations.

Asaduzzaman suggested that the civil society make necessary amendments to the draft anti-discrimination law and push the law ministry and law commission on this.