Constitutional changes required to prevent return of autocracy

Changes in political culture and the constitution are obligatory for building an inclusive and better Bangladesh, said students, who led the mass upsurge.
Nine organisers of the Anti-discrimination Student Movement of different campuses also emphasised equal rights for all citizens, and the need for ensuring political parties are more tolerant and that they practice democratic norms within the party.
They joined a roundtable discussion titled “Vision of the Youth” organised by The Daily Star at its office yesterday.
Most of them want an end to the culture of sycophant students’ and teachers’ politics but were for students’ union elections.
Masud Rana, an organiser from Rajshahi University, said the Awami League government’s main fault was suppression of dissenting voices. “If the opposition is strong in a state, the government can also be strong. It is necessary for ensuring transparency and checks and balances,” he said.
He said the AL had become family-centric.
“It should not be the culture of any other party. All parties should practice democratic norms,” he added.
Nazifa Jannat of East West University said the opposition parties were not able to engage people in their earlier movements.
She said the opposition parties never tried to raise public issues, including the protection of their rights. Rather, the parties only tried to obtain power.
“They are only the other side of the coin. We did not oust one regime to replace it with another,” she said.
Arif Sohel, one of the coordinators and a student of Jahangirnagar University, said, “We made our slogans for the movement based on the proclamation of our independence — equality, human dignity, and social justice. We hope to build the country based on these values.”
After the Liberation War, the proclamations were not incorporated in the 1972 constitution, he said.
“The constitution should not dictate the people. It should be written again to incorporate the people’s will. But we need to figure out how it will be done — through the constituent assembly or by other ways.”
All the colonial era legal framework and administrative structures have to reformed, he added.
Meghmallar Bosu of Dhaka University said it is necessary to change or amend the constitution. But it will require political unity so that the next government does not nullify the changes.
He recommended proportional representation in parliament, which was echoed by DU’s coordinator Mozammel Haque.
Proportional representation is an electoral system in which the distribution of seats corresponds closely with the proportion of the total votes cast for each party.
About banning religion-based politics, he said, “We did not find anything good in such types of decisions earlier. When you oppress a party, they become victims and get public sympathy. The same will happen if the state bans a political party by law. It should be done through socio and political unity.”
Umama Fatema, a coordinator of the movement and a DU student, said such parties always use religion as a tool for oppression, but they never use it as a tool for freedom.
“It will not be wise to ban student politics on campuses when the administrators are politically affiliated. They will only favour their party’s student wings, banned or not,” she said, adding that the elections to students’ unions in campuses are vital.
Arif Sohel also spoke for students’ union-based politics on campuses. “The student union-based politics will naturally fill the vacuum that the political-party based students’ politics will leave behind and a new kind of students’ politics will arise.”
Prapti Taposhi of Jahangirnagar University said the definition of rape in our existing law is obsolete.
“Though we were able to abolish clause 155 (4), there is still clause 146 (3) which is being used as a tool for victim blaming … Many British-era laws, including this one, must be amended or abolished,” she said.
Terming the 2014 polls “voterless election”, 2018 election “night vote”, and this year’s polls “dummy independent” election, Mustafiz Rahman of Jagannath University said the country’s current state is the result of those so-called elections. 
BRAC University student Sabah Anjim Farabi said the political party in power use its influence in the entire country.
Editor and Publisher of The Daily Star Mahfuz Anam also joined the discussion moderated by The Daily Star journalist Shuchismita Tithi.
Mahfuz said our inability to accept different views and to live with differing opinions is a huge disease.
“Now, your future vision is for a democratic Bangladesh. To achieve that, we need to bring a culture of tolerance towards different opinions. You have set so many examples and I hope you can set this example as well.”