Going Beyond the Mainstream Discourse: Democratic Consolidation and Market Reforms in Bangladesh

Abstract

In the early hours of August 7, 1991, an unprecedented event took place in the Jatiya Sangsad, the national assembly of Bangladesh. Putting aside their traditional rivalry, both opposition and government legislators were working together to give the newly achieved democracy a chance to survive. Their immediate purpose was to allow the national assembly to adopt the twelfth constitutional amendment, a bill to replace the autocratic presidential form of government with a democratic parliamentary system. Unlike the case of post-Suharto Indonesia, where the state, under the democratically elected regime of Wahid fell back on its promise to create a new, democratic structure of governance, Jatiya Sangsad made history on that day by unanimously amending the constitution and allowing the country to witness the creation of a democratic system under the leadership of Mrs. Khaleda Zia. However, what made the nation of 120 million people very emotional was the newly developed understanding of mutual cooperation between the governing and non-governing elites of Bangladesh. The events of August 7 indeed promised a complementary ‘government-opposition’ relationship, which the country had rarely witnessed in its post-independence history.