The Anatomy of Military Interventions in Asia

This article looks at the recent military intervention in the politics of Bangladesh—within the broader framework of the military's role in the politics of Asian countries, as it evolved in different stages and patterns over the years—identifies its main characteristics and prognosticates their implications on the future political developments in the country. The main hypothesis is that a new pattern of military involvement in politics is emerging in countries such as Pakistan and Bangladesh, which we will call ‘power without responsibility’, a trend that bodes ill for democratic developments in both the countries. In the current situation in Bangladesh, the military intervened, no doubt, to correct the mess, to use army language, not directly but indirectly by propping up their cohorts in the form of a caretaker government, where the policy directions and actions of the new government were determined essentially by the armed forces. Bangladesh military is fast imitating the Pakistani model, albeit in a different form, to place itself as an arbiter in each and every aspect of social, political and economic life of the country. Like in Pakistan, the Bangladesh army does not necessarily have to come directly into power. It can wield effective power and influence even while remaining in the background and, yet, constantly destabilize politics and deprive the democratic forces the necessary political space. The caretaker government remained in power by courtesy of the military and ruled at its bidding. If at all the current experiment of social and political engineering by the Bangladesh military succeeds, though doubtful, it can always take the credit for cleaning up the mess in the politics of the country and filling in the democracy deficit that the country is facing today. The responsibility for the failure can always be passed on to the caretaker government whose civilian façade has been kept deliberately to confuse and hoodwink the domestic constituency and the international community. So, a new model of military intervention in politics—rule without responsibility and accountability—has emerged in Pakistan and Bangladesh, which obviously has both long- and short-term implications for political developments in Third World countries and, thus, requires closer scrutiny and analysis.