পাতা:বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্র (দ্বিতীয় খণ্ড).pdf/১৯৭

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বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্রঃ দ্বিতীয় খণ্ড
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Literacy and property qualifications

 Very often it will be seen that such qualifications do not necessarily enfranchise people who are considered leaders in their own community. Also, the interests of the educated and propertied classes do not always coincide with general mass of the people, whereas our attempt should be to evolve a form of government which should ultimately be rooted in acceptance by the large mass of the people and should be designed to promote their well-being and happiness.

 These conditions are also such that they could easily give rise to dispute and manipulation in their application in practice. Literacy tests can become formalities and political groups could man oeuvre to obtain a registration on this basis for as many of their supporters as possible. For property qualification we would need some standardized yard-stick to cover the country. Problems similar to those confronted in the case of literacy tests would be encountered in this also.

Elections through Basic Democracies

 In many respects the system of Basic Democracies fulfils these needs much better than the suggestion made by the Constitution Commission. In the first place, it is based upon universal adult suffrage. Secondly, it puts a premium upon the election of people interested in the welfare of and service to their community. The groups are small enough for the candidate to be personally known to the electors and a wise choice can be made by the electorate from amongst competing candidates.

 Under such conditions the people returned are likely to be the public spirited and superior individuals in the community. This fact is borne out by the last elections to the Basic Democracies. In a country where the literacy is barely 15 per cent, more than 84 per cent of the people elected are literate the bulk of them are from the lower middle class or higher strata of society. Such a body of people is certainly going to take a much keener interest in the affairs of the nations and will be far severer critics of the government if they feel that its policies are not in the best interests of the country that the average inhabitant of a country with a low percentage of literacy and inadequate means for the dissemination of news and information. This, we must remember, has happened when Basic Democracies were as yet new and untried institutions, and some people did not participate in the elections as they had not fully appreciate their importance: otherwise the results would have been even more appressive. Future elections will no doubt illustrate this.

Effect of indirect elections on Local Government Institutions

 Objections have been voiced by people that this method of linking indirect elections with local government, while having all the disadvantages of such a system, would also wreck the local government institutions, by involving them in party politics. This is not only somewhat far-fetched apprehension, it is also erroneous. The issues before such institutions invariably are of a local nature and of local importance, affecting only their own small communities. National policies are not likely to cut across interests at the level