BB chief says voting for ‘symbols’, not candidates, creates autocrats

Bangladesh Bank Governor Ahsan H Mansur has criticised the tendency to vote for “symbols” rather than carefully evaluating candidates in elections.

“In that case we are obviously creating conditions for an autocrat to emerge,” said Mansur

The culture of voting by “symbols” leads to the situation in which the same individual keeps coming back to power.

Mansur spoke about instances of Sheikh Hasina’s meetings with business leaders just before the Uprising.

“Repeatedly, the message was the same, even at one of the final meetings during her tenure: ‘I [businessmen] want only you, over and over, only you’; our business community was saying ‘the country cannot move forward without her’.”

“I believe we need self-reflection to realise why we push ourselves into the situation,” he added.

Mansur criticised the country’s political and electoral culture.

He said, “Voting solely on markers creates space for an authoritarian leader—one who first seizes control of the party, then the government, and eventually the entire state machinery.

“This leads to a ‘patron-client’ system: to survive or prosper in business, one must align with the government.”

The governor noted that this explains why business representatives had previously supported the former prime minister.

He believes that if voters considered a candidate’s ability and integrity rather than just the party symbol, many capable individuals could have emerged in the country.

At the core of his observation, he pointed to the “decay” within the intellectual community, saying: “That decay, which I would describe as… what used to be our strength, I would say the strength we had before independence, before ’71, we have lost that.”

“Over the past 15 years, I have not seen any significant stir at Dhaka University, among the teachers’ association, or within our intellectual groups. That is regrettable,” he added.

Those who assumed power during the democratic era, which signifies the time after 1990, invariably tried to hold onto it, just relying on the culture to vote based on “symbols”. And their removal from power required the use of force, Mansur said.

The BB governor noted that those who take over power by the strength of “symbols” start thinking at one point that they will not exist without power or be forced out of the country.

They are afraid of leaving power to avoid becoming an ordinary citizen again, he said.

“But that is what happens across the world: a prime minister stepping away from power to become an ordinary citizen.”

The parties need to practise democracy to inspire people to choose their leaders and stand for their rights, Mansur said.

“Nominations come as if a message descending from the heavens. Whoever secures nominations is our candidate. If such a practice does not come to an end, where do we expect transparency to come from?” he asked.

The BB chief was rather frustrated at not seeing any signs of change in the culture.

“Anyway, let’s be optimistic,” he said.