Landscape of Violence Local Elections and Political Culture

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Landscape of Violence: Local Elections and Political Culture in BangladeshAuthor(s): Hussain Zillur RahmanReviewed work(s):Source: Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 25, No. 47 (Nov. 24, 1990), pp. 2622-2624Published by: Economic and Political WeeklyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4397034 .

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Landscape o f ViolenceLocal Elections and Political Culture in Bangladesh

Hussain Zillur RalhmanThe analysis of violence as.an aspect of political culture opens up interesting insights into the evolution ofthe Bangladesh polity. A visual story of the incidents of violence in five local level elections since 1973.

ARE Bengalisnaturallyprone to violence?Is Bangladesh ne vast 'jhagrapur'all quar-relandno solidarities-as coinedby a much-quoted p-airof western academics?' Thereis littledisputing he factthatviolenceseem-ingly abounds in every strata of theBangladeshpolityand society. A glance atanyof thenationaldailiesandtheirmofussilround-ups brings this home quite clearly.But how valid is it to see the roots of suchviolence in some innate feature of thenational character? -It is in fact misleadingto look for the ex-planations of violence in some essentialistcharacteranalysis as some 'experts'wouldhave it. The nature and level of violence isnot a permanentstate;therecan be distinctpatterns o themandthese maychange overtime. The explanationsof violence is betterunderstood n theanalysisof power, e, whatnationsof powermotivatethe aspiring ndi-vidual, how rulinggroupsaccumulate,holdandexercise owerwithinsociety,andfinallyto what extent overt violations of socialnorms of justice impinge upon thresholdlevels of tolerance of the common people.If we wereto summarisethese dimensionswithin a singleterm,this wouldbe politicalculture.

The analysis of violence as an aspect ofpoliticalcultureopensup interesting nsightsinto the evolutionof the Bangladeshpolity.For a concreteillustration,we shall look atlocal-level elections, specifically unionparishadand upazilaparishadelections. Inmany ways, local-level elections constitutea potentialsiteof actionforall the keyactorsof the political arena, i e, the ruling groupin controlof thestate,oppositionalnationalparties vying to challenge the incumbentgovernment, locally-based political entre-preneurspursuingtheirindividualinterestsand lastly, the local masses acting on per-ceived common interests. Not all of themmay in the eventget to playany active rolein electoral outcomes which is whereviolence comes in as a factorto limit, con-strain or exclude participation by one ormore of these political actors.The story which we have reconstructedhere is a simple one in outline. It is alsolargely a visual story. Drawing upon themajor national dailies as our sourcematerial, we have collated all reportedincidentsof violencefor fivelocal levelelec-tions, i e, union parishadelections of 1973,1977, 1983-84and 1988andlastly he recent-ly completed upazilaelections of 1990.Thefive give as it were the story of localdemocracy or the entirepost-independence

period. The information collated from thenewspapershavebeen plotted onto maps toprovide an easily-grasped visual analysisof the extent and spread of electoralviolence over the 19 years of independence(Maps 1 to 5).Before proceeding urther,a clarificationon thesourcematerial. t is, of course, ikelythat not all incidentsof violence will findtheir way into news reports. Reported in-cidents of violence as a statistic is in thatsense frequently likely to be an under-estimate. This may not, however, signi-ficantly distort the broad contours of the

story if the bias towards underestimationoperates uniformly in all the years. Sincethere hasbeen little to suggestanydramaticchanges in thescope or efficiency of local-level reportingover the post-independenceperiod, it seems reasonable to take thepicture which emerges as valid in broadterms.Toa largeextent,the visual storyrevealedthrough Maps 1 to 5 is a self-explanatoryone. Comparedto the 1970s,the 1980sap-pear to have witnesseda major expansionin the role of violence in local elections.Violence marred 138polling centres in the

MAP IA Look at Ihcidence of Electoral Violence: Union Parishad ElectionI1973

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2622 Economic and Political Weekly November24. 1990


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MAP 2 A~~A Ilook it lnciden,, ot I ledoral Vnolence:Union Parishad Electiofi-1977A \ i i'I Ax Look atocidctccook at'rancidnnce Uniof Poh Look< atPrcieaec F aerlctMion-1983-84

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union parishadelections of 1973 (Map 1).But this violencewasregionally oncentratedin Chittagong, Comilla, Sylhet, Jamalpur,Khulna and Barisal. The 1977 unionparishadelectionsappearto haveexperienc-ed the least violence with only 38 pollingcentresaffected Map 2). The trend s revers-ed in the 1983-84 union parishad elections(Map 3): Twohundredand four polling cen-tres were affectedby violence but unlike the1973elections, the incidenceof violence hasa muchgreater egional pread ndicating heemergence of electoral violence as a moregeneralphenomenon.The trend s continuedand virtually engulf the entire countryduring the 1988 union parishad elections(Map 4) with over 3,000 polling centresaf-fected. Violence rather than participationbecomes here the dominant theme in theelectoral experience.The trend is partiallyreversed n the 1990 upazila parishad elec-tions (Map 5). Thescaleof violence is lesserthan in 1988 but still higher than the levelin 1983-84 with 266 centres affected andsignificant regional concentrations inChittagong, Noakhali, Munshiganj,Keraniganj, Brahmanbaria, Gopalganj,Jessore, Satkhiraand Rajshahi.The intrusion of violence withinthe elec-toral sphere as analysed above appears tohave stemmed from two different politicalimperatives. We may distinguish these as(a) violence as a form of political competi-tion and (b) violence as intending politicalexclusion.One important eatureof contem-porary political culture is the instrumentaluse of violenceas a method of politicalcom-petition. The rulesof the political game in-creasingly allow for this form of competi-tion. The election of 1983-84 and in par-ticular the election of 1988, however,demonstrate n additionalanddistinctlydif-ferent imperativeat work. Violence here isresorted to not primarily to engage inpoliticalcompetitionbutto exclude he localsociety from participation in the politicalprocess altogether.Assuming the characterof wholesale ntimidationwhich deteractualvoting, the function of violence hereis lessa partisan one than an imposition by thecentral authorities on the local society.Violence in this instance operates to dis-enfranchise the community ironicallythroughthe verymediumof local elections.The 1988 local elections clearly mark thehigh point of such an imperative withpolitical participationreduced to a virtualminimum all across the country in favourof the willof rulinggroupsincontrolof thestate.The 1990 elections appear to mark aretreat romtheexclusionarymperativewitha partial revivalof the scope for politicalcompetition. Such a retreat is neitheraccidental nor arise out of the good inten-tions of the incumbent government butreflectratheralteredpoliticalcalculationsonthe part of ruling groups forced on by ex-ternal and internal pressures for yviderpolitical participation. The revival ofpolitical competition has been underpinned

both by the continued use of violence andthe spontaneousvigilancebythe local com-munity. In this, the state has as3umed acharacteristicallymbiguousrole, e, on onehand in conflict with the widerdemocraticaspirations of the people and on the othergenerally unableor unwilling to impose itsexclusionary will on the local community.Such contradictory roles has on balancetended to tilt the local political landscapeof 1990more towardspoliticalentrepreneur-ship than tQwards n enhanced role of thedemocratic polity.To the extent that it has continued to beunderpinned by violence, the revival ofpolitical competition at the local level hasbeen a change for thebetter nonly a special,very restrictedsense-a process seen moreaccuratelyas a balance of terroramongstpolitical entrepreneurs than a definitiveassertionof thedemocraticpolity.No doubtthepoliticalcapacitiesemerging hrough hebalanceof terrorprocess bespeaksof a cer-taindynamismat thebaseof theBangladeshpolity. However, he democraticpotentialaf-forded by suchlocal-leveldynamismappearto be strictly circumscribed on anotherplane, namely, he hegemoniccontrol of thefunctionsand representationaluthoritiesoflocal government institutions by thebureaucratic tate. With such powerful in-struments of control at hand, the rulinggroup does not appear immediately

threatenedwith any loss of politicalcontrolby certain amount of 'opposition' success.Indeed, one political strategywhich can bediscerned is the calculated use of pressureby the incumbent administrationto indi-vidually co-opt 'opposition' victors, a taskmade easier by the large number of 'in-dependent' victories.The political prospectopen to the victorsof the 1990 local elections appearthen tobe a double-edged ne.While heycan surelypartakeof the spoils of incumbency, heywill find it hard going if they aspire to bethepower-houses f democratic lternatives.Truthfullyspeaking, such aspirations mayevenbe misplacedf unaware f the obstaclesexisting by way of the hegemonic controlover local governmentbybureaucratictate-power. But we need not despair. For thelong-suffering dwellers of villageBangladesh, the meaningof democracy nany case standreduced o a minimalistcon-notation, namely,not who can do the mostgood but rather who might do the leastharm. From this perspective, he potentialsignificance of the revivalof political com-petition may lie not so much in an expan-sion of democraticrightsas in a reductionin arbitrary ppression.A balanceof terrormay then even be seen as 'better'than theearlierone-sidedterror.Such are the idiomsin which democracyappears o speakin to-day's Bangladesh.

The Break-up of Sri Lanka:The Sinhalese -Tamil ConflictA. Jeyaratnam WilsonThe Break-up of SrTLanka is an analysis ofthe political developments in Sri Lanka sinceits independence in 1948. It focuses on theconflict between the Sinhalese majority andthe Tamil minority - a conflict that threat-ens to break up the country.Hardbound Rs. 300.00

Orient Longmafl

2624 Economic and Political Weekly -November 24, 1990

Landscape of Violence Local Elections and Political Culture

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