Edward Kennedy once said, “The Constitution does not only protect the opinion of the majority, but also protects the opinion or viewpoint of all, regardless of the majority or minority.” In the aftermath of 5 August, a constitution reform commission was formed to make our constitution more inclusive. Views of about one lakh people were taken while preparing the recommendations of the constitution reform commission.

In addition to the members of the commission, 32 researchers worked on it. The constitution reform commission has made several proposals to the interim government to make Bangladesh an effective democratic state. The proposals submitted by the commission have already recommended changes in many important areas, including the constitutional name of Bangladesh and the state principles.  

The commission has recommended using the names ‘Citizenship’ and ‘People’s Democratic Bangladesh’ replacing the words ‘Republic’ and ‘People’s Republic of Bangladesh’. It has been proposed to abolish the provision in the constitution that refers to the people of Bangladesh as ‘Bangali’ as a nation and to identify the country’s citizens as ‘Bangladeshi’. It has also been proposed to change the state principles.

According to Article 8(1) of the current constitution, the fundamental principles of the state are nationalism, socialism, democracy and secularism. Instead of these, the new fundamental principles have been recommended as ‘equality, human dignity, social justice, pluralism and democracy’.

Moreover, the term of the president has been set at four years. It has been recommended that the same person cannot be the president more than twice. It has been proposed that the prime minister should not serve more than two terms, and a member of parliament cannot be the party leader and leader of the parliament if he/she is the prime minister. At the same time, the commission has suggested the re-establishment of referendums in amending the constitution and changing the controversial Article 70 of the Constitution.

The commission has recommended forming a constitutional body called the ‘National Constitutional Council’ to balance the powers of the Prime Minister and the President of the country. The current Constitution has given the Prime Minister of the country ‘sole authority and power’, which has paved the way for ‘dictatorship’. So, the constitution reform commission has proposed a constitutional body called the National Constitutional Council to maintain ‘check and balance’.

On the other hand, the reform commission has also recommended that members of the parliament should be able to vote against their own party so that they can express their opinions freely. The constitution reform commission believes that there should be provision for the Prime Minister to face a vote of no confidence in the national parliament, and it is time to keep such measure in place.

It has also been proposed to convert the current unicameral parliament into a bicameral parliament. It has been suggested to increase the number of seats in the parliament. In this case, it has been proposed to have 400 seats in the lower house (National Assembly) of the parliament, of which 100 seats will be reserved for women. However, even if reserved, women representatives will be elected for the seats through direct voting.

On the other hand, it has been said that there will be 105 seats in the upper house (Senate) of the parliament. In this case, the members of the upper house will be determined by proportional representation system. In order to ensure that everyone is represented in both houses of the parliament, it has been recommended to create a lower house based on majority, but an upper house based on proportional representation.

Although several reform commissions have submitted reports with recommendations, there have been speculations about the validity of the proposals and whether the recommendations will be implemented at all. In order to implement some of the commission's recommendations, the constitution will have to be amended. And even if the current interim government can implement some recommendations through executive orders, everything that has been happening in Bangladesh since August 5, 2024 will have to be approved by the next parliament. As a result, many are skeptical that all the reform recommendations may not be accepted by the next parliament.

Some political parties, analysts, and those involved with the reform commission say that if the recommendations are not acceptable to all parties or if there is no minimum consensus among them, then many important reform recommendations may ultimately remain ‘on paper’.

A total of 11 commissions have been formed so far to bring about meaningful changes. To be particular, the proposals by the constitution reform commission have been debated ad nauseum owing to the drastic changes it has recommended. For example - the commission has proposed that a member of parliament cannot be the party head and parliament leader if he is the prime minister. This is not just a matter of challenge, but the reality here is that the parliament and people’s representatives elected by the people should decide whether reforms will be implemented or not.

The role of political parties is paramount in implementing the recommendations. There must be consensus on strategic issues among all parties. It is because the government that will assume office after the elections will ultimately have to validate everything that the interim government does.

To put it simply, a change in political and bureaucratic culture is essential for all reform initiatives. A commitment to the vision of a new Bangladesh is also essential. The topic of reforms has surfaced even before in Bangladesh. But the political party has not implemented many things after coming to power. In particular, they have amended the constitution just to serve their own interests. The bigger issue now is to observe whether the political parties can agree on the recommendations and implement those in the long run. In any case, the implementation will ultimately depend on the mandate of the ordinary people of Bangladesh.
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The writer is a lawyer and researcher.
He can be reached at [email protected]