The rulling Awami League has replaced the people’s power in Bangladesh with money and muscle power through day-to-day operations over the last one and half decade, according to a commentary article published in Tribune India on Wednesday.

“There is an equal number of reasons for it to be deeply concerned apart from pride. Money and muscle power have replaced people’s power in the day-to-day operation of this party,” writes Bangladeshi Editor Mahfuz Anam.

The article titled 'Bangladesh’s Awami League no longer a party of the people’ narrates the party's leading positions are up for grabs by the rich and the corrupt. “The victory of a large number of the AL’s own ‘disobeying’ candidates in the last election stands as proof of how corrupt the original selection process was,” it said.

The history of the Awami League — which started off as the Awami Muslim League— at 75 can be encapsulated under three headings: the AL at birth, the AL under Sheikh Mujib’s leadership and the AL with Sheikh Hasina at the helm. From its birth in 1949 to our liberation in 1971, the AL can be credited with being either the author of or the main mover and participant in all democratic and cultural movements working to strengthen the demand for the rights of the Bangalees in East Pakistan.

The victory in the 1970 general election, under Sheikh Mujib’s leadership, was the AL’s biggest, most sweeping and politically critical achievement in that period. It was the precursor to our Liberation War. That electoral victory gave the AL the legal, moral and political right to speak on behalf of the people of East Pakistan and declare independence and start the armed struggle when genocide was imposed on our unarmed people. The AL’s leadership, the role of the Mujibnagar government and especially that of war-time PM Tajuddin Ahmad were remarkable.

Mujib’s brutal killing, along with all members of his immediate family, save the two daughters — our current PM and her sister —was the most tragic event that could have befallen us. Of the AL’s 75 years of existence, the last 43 have been under Sheikh Hasina’s leadership. Since her return from exile in India in 1981, she has rebuilt the AL after it suffered from deep existential crises following the murder of Sheikh Mujib.

AL that began as the voice of the people has now ended up being that of an individual. From the smallest to the most significant policy decisions, they are no longer the result of debates within its ranks, but personal choices of the leadership.

Elections, a crucial measure of judging how a political party is faring in the public eye, is no longer valid in Bangladesh. It has lost its fundamental ability to elect genuine representatives of the people, due to both the ruling party's grip on all state institutions that guarantee free polls and the Opposition’s unthinking boycott of elections.

The party today is its own judge and jury. It is a typical example of a political party living in its own bubble. And since it has monopoly control on all the levers of power, the bubble, as fragile as it is, can also be dangerous.

This is so because the reality presented by the bubble can form the basis of decisions that can fatally harm us all. The handling of the issues of corruption, money-laundering, misuse of power, and, especially, that of defaulted loans and the treatment meted out to wilful defaulters cannot be but the results of living in a bubble.