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Dialogue on Sustaining Democracy in Bangladesh: Learning from Global Experience

26 December 2006
 

 

The CPD organised a dialogue with the young professionals on the issue of Sustaining Democracy in Bangladesh: Learning from Global Experience on Tuesday 26 December 2006 at with Flambé Restaurant. George Soros, Chairman of the Open Society Institute and also a renowned financier and philanthropist addressed the participants as the Guest Speaker. Rehman Sobhan, Chairman of the CPD presided over the discussion. Soros started with a brief description of the Open Society Institute’s objective particularly highlighting the initiatives taken by the organisation in the Eastern Europe after the collapse of socialism, in South Africa and in the East Asian countries to promote democracy. Sharing his experiences from Georgia and Ukraine he went on saying that revolution do not necessarily establish democracy but pave the way of democratic institutions which is a pre requisite to sustaining democracy. He however appreciated the existence of strong civil society in Bangladesh and suggested that the government should pay attention to the civil society’s initiatives.

Taking part in the discussion Professor Imtiyaz Ahmed compared the open society system of the Bauls, Sannasi and Sufis with the modern system of democracy where tolerance is very often rare. Professsor Asif Nazrul criticised the open market economy saying that even in an open society like United States it has obsessed the people in such a way that they do not eager to know about the happenings within the country or outside. Referring to Bangladesh he said that here exists a non functioning democracy. Barrister Sara Hossain pointed out that rise of extremist political forces were a great threat to democracy and combined effort was needed to have the democracy in practice.

Among others Barrister Tania Amir; Syed S Kaiser Kabir, Managing Director of Renata; Iffath Sharif of Maxwell Stamp plc; Dr A S M Abdun Noor Tushar, Managing Director of Gati Media; Mr Tasneem Khalil, Editoral Assistant of the Daily Star; Nazim Farhan Chowdhury, Deputy Managing Director of Addcomm Ltd., Zafar Sobhan, Assistant Editor of the Daily Star took part in the discussion.

In his concluding remarks the chair of the session said that abuse of the constitution by the political parties was a great threat to democracy and called for constructing a genuine civil society for upholding the democratic process.