Corbyn, Musk and rise & decline of parties

Political exigencies often necessitate the coming into being of new political parties. It is an exercise which has in modern times been undertaken in a very large number of countries around the globe, especially after the end of the Second World War.  Of course, there have also been times when new parties have proved to be irritants, given that they either did not get any traction or had little to offer to people in terms of ideas and ideals.

Now that Elon Musk has formed the America Party, a move which Donald Trump has predictably ridiculed, one simply must wait to see if the venture cuts any ice with Americans. For far too long Americans have had the Democrats and Republicans playing a predominant role in their lives. But whether or not Musk, whose forte is business, only business, is able to draw people to his new party is a huge question for him.

The rule in politics is that political parties are best served or best formed by political figures known nationally as well as globally. Musk is not a politician. His role in Trump's election to a second term in the White House last year has been controversial, given that he not only contributed millions to the Trump campaign but went out of his way to denigrate the presidential aspirations of Kamala Harris. Democrats will not soon forget the damage done to the campaign of their candidate at the November 2024 presidential election. And, yes, parties formed or led by businessmen do not have much appeal anywhere in the world.

If Musk's political party is an aberration, the move by Jeremy Corbyn in Britain to form a new political party is unquestionably serious business. Corbyn, a socialist in the true sense of the meaning, was unceremoniously ejected from the Labour Party, of which he was leader, by the Keir Starmer team not long ago. Since then, Corbyn, widely respected by people across the spectrum, has served as an independent member of Parliament. His principles have never wavered, for his loyalty has always been to the Labour Party as it existed before Tony Blair and Gordon Brown diluted it of its left-wing values in the 1990s. 

Corbyn's new political move has generated interest in Britain's political circles. This interest acquired new substance when a suspended Labour MP, Zarah Sultana, publicly announced the other day that she was linking up with Corbyn in his new party. Corbyn is also exploring the possibility of drawing a few other MPs, unhappy with their position in the Labour Party, away from Starmer's shadow and having them come over to him. For the former Labour leader, fashioning a new political party will surely not be a cakewalk. With his socialist credentials, he will be expected to explain to the electorate why socialism must return to being part of politics in Britain.

To what degree British politics will be recast with the emergence of Corbyn's political party is a scenario that yet cannot be imagined. But if Nigel Farage's Reform Party, another new entrant into politics, is to be a yardstick of the situation which might arise in the political landscape, some new doors might open in politics. Reform has of late had enviable success in local elections across the United Kingdom at the expense of the Conservative Party. Kemi Badenoch, the current leader of the Tories, has so far proved unable to arrest the slide in her party's fortunes, a fact Farage has cheerfully portrayed as a circumstance likely giving Reform the opportunity of becoming the main opposition in Parliament after the next election.

Seriously speaking, when do new political parties matter? The answer is embedded at the beginning of this conversation. Exigencies demand the formation of new parties, the exigencies essentially being the inability of entrenched parties to respond to public expectations. In 1949, the failure of the ruling Muslim League in Pakistan to project itself as an instrument promoting democracy led to the rise of the Awami Muslim League, subsequently Awami League. 

The energy driving the new party led to the diminution of the Muslim League, to a point where it gradually dwindled into irrelevance. The Awami League, eventually to lead Bangladesh to freedom in 1971, nevertheless faced its own crisis in 1957 when Moulana Bhashani, its first president, formed the National Awami Party (NAP) in protest against the foreign policy pursued by Prime Minister Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawady.

Bhashani's party did not displace the Awami League but ran into a squall of its own when Khan Abdul Wali Khan, the Pathan politician and son of Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, broke away from the NAP to lead his own faction of the party. Which reveals another political reality of our times, that of parties going their separate ways through their leading figures deciding to head factions beholden to them. 

In India, factionalism among leftists caused fissures in the communist camp. Factionalism defined, for a time, the Congress in the form of Congress (I) and Congress (O). Pakistan's military ruler Ayub Khan did not form a new political party but simply commandeered half of the Muslim League through calling a convention. In the end, he headed the Convention Muslim League while the other half, having called a council meeting of its loyalists, became known as the Council Muslim League. It was led by Mian Mumtaz Daultana.

In Pakistan, the rise of the Awami League patently reconfigured politics in the country. In 1967, much a new configuration came about when Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, who had served in the Ayub regime as a minister for eight years, formed the Pakistan People's Party. Based on a socialist platform, with new party made waves in what was at the time West Pakistan, eventually winning a majority of parliamentary seats in the province at the general election of December 1970. It was a time when the Awami League, led by Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, obtained an overall majority in the national assembly on an all-Pakistan basis.

Political parties, forged into shape by political figures, make a difference. The question is not one of whether they can achieve power in the state, but one of the degree to which they can influence the shaping of issues and their resolution in a democracy. Parties rise and fall --- and this happens in countries where democracy works without interruption --- and through such a process offer societies an opportunity to chart a constantly new course in a shaping of their destiny. Some parties, when they emerge, enthuse the public but soon after come apart through division and differences among their leading figures. India's Janata Party, which beat Indira Gandhi's Congress at the 1977 election, is a prime example.

In Washington, Elon Musk will dream of being President. In London, Jeremy Corbyn will offer policy alternatives to the electorate. Notice the difference between ego and wisdom?

ahsan.syedbadrul@gmail.com