Prof. Imtiaz Ahmed (Department of International Relations, University of Dhaka): “The name of the project under which this Dialogue is taking place is the ‘State of Democracy in South Asia’. The main purpose of this project is to assess how and on which level democracy is practised in different countries of South Asia and what is the grass root level understanding of the term. Five countries of this region are working on this project and the first Flag Ship Report will be published in October 2005. This is an attempt to look at democracy from a different perspective. To some, the rich are the minorities but we often understand minorities as being religious or linguistic minorities. General people view minorities in different ways in all the countries of South Asia. So, we want the Dialogue to be interactive”.

“I think we need a paradigm shift when we address the majority-minority issue. I, myself have sometimes felt like a minority. When we try to do something new, you will be alone. Nobody likes change. We are all minorities in different ways. We have different faces and that tells you that the Divine has some sense of humour. State policy, education because of all these, there is the majority definition and the minority definition. After independence, the Bengali Muslims were considered to be the majority group. The majority and minority were defined for a paradigm shift. At one point, the minority began to think of themselves as belonging to the minority group. When it happens, a dangerous situation occurs and that is the end of imagination. The problem of minority is actually the problem of majority but we are not researching on the majority; we are researching on the minority. The majority has created the minority. When you empower one, you are alienating the others. When we are defining the majority as ‘Bengalis’ and ‘ Muslims’, we are making the ‘non-Bengalis’ and the ‘non-Muslims’ the minority”.
“Democracy has an image and it has more than one reality. In Bangladesh, we have no politics but Hartalotics. It has four features:

•	It is very leader-centric and very fascist.
•	It has become mastan-centric. At any cost s/he must get votes. They are the King and Queen makers. We are practicing criminalization of politics to preserve rituals of Democracy.
•	It has become street-centric. It does not happen in the Parliament.
•	Democracy has become government-centric. It is a colonial legacy and as civil society was not formed, civil society itself became governmentalized. All the bureaucrats when they are retired become radical. We have fallen into the politics of the rise and fall of a government. So, we need to de-governmentalize”.

“In 1999, when the National Water Policy was formulated, the word ‘government’ was uttered 50 times. So, the National Water Policy is the ‘Government Water Policy’. We are the ones who are empowering the government”.

“Democracy has become Mastanocracy. The Members of the Parliament are all criminals. In India, it is recently said that criminals have entered the Cabinet. We have fallen into this structure. The question is how will the disempowered be empowered? I think we need a re-orientation, re-invention and re-imagining of Democracy. During the Election period, when they are empowered, we have to find a way to continue that position”.

Mr. Mijarul Quayes (Director General, Ministry of Foreign Affairs): “We need to look at the statist approach to institutions and how things flow from there. We have to find the balance between government staying as a regulatory body and not as a service delivery body. Government will be included when taxation, planning and implementation is concerned. Two-thirds of the lawmakers are criminals. In the Pakistan national flag, the green part represented the Muslim majority and the white part represented the minority. So, from the moment of state formation, we inherited this distinction”.

Prof. Kalimullah (Department of Public Administration, University of Dhaka): “In the Election Campaign, we see that the ceiling has increased from 3 lakhs to 5 lakhs but in reality, this figure is much more in every election. The 300 representatives are starting their job by submitting a false statement. To prevent this, the source of the Campaign Finance should be mentioned as well”.

Prof. Amena Mohsin (Chair, Department of International Relations, University of Dhaka): “We need a paradigm shift regarding the concepts of ‘majority’ and ‘minority’. It is important to see how these paradigms and notions are being sustained and how to break it or come out of it, what are the intervening variables. It is also important to look at how these paradigms are built and whose interests they serve; how do the citizens or individuals identify themselves with the state or how does the state identify itself. Democracy is supposed to give voice to the people but in reality, is it giving voice to the people or is it silencing the voices of the people?”

“‘Pakistan’ meant the land of the pure. So, by definition, the others become impure. Through this, we are creating hegemony. We are creating linguistic majoritarianism by the very name of our country, Bangladesh-that means land of the Bengali speaking people”.

“If I quote Article 9 of our Constitution, it defined Bengali Nationalism as, ‘ …the unity and solidarity of the Bengali nation, which deriving its identification from its language and culture attain sovereign and independent Bangladesh through a united and determined struggle in the war of independence shall be the basis of Bengali nationalism’. The state is identifying itself and identifying its citizens. After 1975, though Bengali nationalism became more territorial, it didn’t become less linguistic or cultural rather religion added a new element in our nationalism. Thus, the state is creating ethnic minorities and religious minorities. We are creating a ‘We’ vs. ‘Them’ debate. We had 14 Amendments but we did not have a single amendment on the Chittagong Hill Tracts. So, there is a relationship between Democracy and Minorities. Our democratic practice has become appealing to the minorities for votes alone. What we are doing after that does not matter. We are saying Bengali is the language and the other; ‘dialects’ and thus we are creating a High Culture and a Low Culture which is very dangerous. Our Constitution acknowledges the existence of a uniform system of education based on the national culture. So, where are we allowing democracy? We are homogenizing every aspect but we are not diversifying”.

“The three reserved seats for the CHT are not reserved for the hill people; they are for the three Constituencies. There are only seven members as the representatives of the minority communities. If we want to bring about a paradigm shift, we have to break through these notions. We have to see what is democratic and what is undemocratic, and what is hegemonic”.

Mr. Shantanu Majumder (Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, University of Dhaka): “I want to add something more on the religious minorities and gender minorities. In terms of power, the poor are also the minorities. In the model of Democracy that is visible in our country, minorities will continue to be created. In the name of nationalism, Democracy was imported in our country. We learnt to say ‘No’ first to the British and then to ‘Pakistan’. So, the concept of exclusion found a way into our minds. After independence, the exclusionary tendency was applied to the CHT people and the religious minorities. The gender minority was created because of the male-dominated structure of our society. The scarcity of resources and the competition to gain control over these resources has contributed towards the marginalization of a group of people and thus in the creation of minorities”.

“You cannot find 20 percent hill people in the main city of Khagrachari the Bengali settlers there are continuing to push the hill people deeper into the mountains. In this situation, what can be the formula for the paradigm shift?”

Md. Tanzimuddin Khan (Lecturer, Department of International Relations, University of Dhaka): “I think vulnerability is related to power. If I want to make someone powerful through an institutional structure, others becomes less powerful. If I reserve seats for some particular group in the CHT, I am making the other groups less powerful and usually they become the minorities. So, we should see how democracy deals with the vulnerabilities. If it does not then how can democracy be redefined? I think democracy has become Demoncracy and to overcome that democracy needs to be redefined”.

Ms. Kabita Chakma (Research Fellow): “I think majorities are controlling the minorities and I also think that the minorities have no democracy in this democratic country. As I grew up in the CHT, I will discuss the problems of the CHT. We grew up in an environment where we were controlled and administered by the army. We have seen how the army tortured us - the minorities and thus abused their authority and power. I do not think the majority can realize our sufferings because they are the majority. I think by making Islam the state religion and Bangla the state language, the leadership inspired the majority to deprive the minority. I have struggled all my life to reach this position but there are those who did not have the courage to establish their rights and are still the victims of discrimination. Most of them are still uneducated. The entire state-system is responsible for this. It is the responsibility of the majority to come forward and lessen the majority-minority divide. We are harassed at every step of our lives. We cannot even wear our own traditional Chakma dress. This is a cultural violence. We do not get the opportunity to practice our culture, our religion, our language etc. We are saying that a Peace Accord is signed and the CHT has become peaceful and calm but in reality, there still is no peace in the CHT. The army is still administering the CHT”.

“I am a free researcher. Recently I was conducting a survey for which I went to Khagrachari. The settlers told me that they will cooperate with me but first I have to take permission from the army. If the army granted me permission only then I can take their interviews. If I were Kabita Islam or Kabita Choudhury instead of being Kabita Chakma, they would have cooperated without any permission from the army. The army burnt down nine villages (villages of the hill people) in Mahalchari, Khagrachari. The Bengali settlers in the CHT helped the army to do this. I had to change the topic of my research because of this kind of discrimination. I really expected that after the attack, the army domination would be replaced by an indiscriminatory administrative system but in reality, the situation remains the same as before”.

“In our National Museum, I saw that our cultural images are presented in a distorted way. When the TV Programmes or the Text Books are talking about the hill people, they represent ‘us’ in such a way that we are not part of this country we are outsiders. It seems as if they have discovered something. Thus we are alienated. I think the majority group has started to realize our problems and that is why, I have got the opportunity to speak here. The minorities need more attention from the other part. Otherwise, the discriminatory policies cannot be changed. We are compelled to learn Bangla when we start to go to school. We face a lot of problems for this. It is very difficult for us. We are losing the letters of the Chakma language. I think because of the state religion and state language, our sufferings are greater”.

“The CHT problem is a political issue. Now the number of the Bengali settlers and the number of the hill people are equal in the CHT. I think in the next election, the Bengali settlers will outnumber the hill people. So, we are becoming a minority in the CHT also. The government is creating opportunities for the Bengali settlers. The Land issue is still a disputed case. The Bengali settlers run all the local businesses and official works. The settlers are occupying our land and we are driven out of our own land. I think the government has created a colony in the CHT and we are the colonized people in our own country. It can be referred to as ‘Internal’ or ‘Domestic’ Colonialism”.

Mr. Mukta Ranjan Chakma (President, Humanity Welfare Association, Bandarban): “I want to start by saying that we, who live in the CHT, neither can ‘live’ nor can ‘leave’. If responsible and concerned people from the majority group and from the government can understand this problem only then can we expect something better. The decision-makers and intellectuals of our country should seriously consider the Majority-Minority issue. We need to address the issue collectively and constructively. We, the hill people have no freedom of speech. After the Accord, we have at least achieved the right to speak but the government needs to change its strategy towards the CHT. I think we need to arrange a Seminar with the Bengali settlers and representatives of the hill people. They will share their views, opinions and problems with each other in the Seminar. Actually what drove the Bengali settlers towards the CHT? Are the reasons economic, political or both?”

Mr. Philip Gain (Society of Environment and Human Development): “First, I think we need to know who rules us and how legitimate they are. The politicians have actually criminalized politics. The politicians appoint some people who conduct the entire election process for them. In this situation, do we have any political protection?”

“The poor people most of the time do not get justice as they do not have political protection. The state does not have the will to give protection. So, the majority have become the minority, as the majority of people do not have any kind of political protection. So, they don’t have any power. Political resistance does not work in our country, as we do not have any political protection. What are the external influences in this particular case? Different groups of people are players in this unified country. If each of them cannot play well, we will be a nation that failed. I want to call it ‘Systems Thinking’. The ADB (Asian Development Bank), USAID, financed programmes as well as other external factors are in a way responsible for all the human rights violations that occurred in the CHT. The entire Khyang population were driven out of their land because of the Pulpwood Plantation Project. Our Participation and Access systems are very disturbed and in most cases, totally destroyed. Not only in the CHT, these violations are taking place in our coastal regions, in Modhupur etc. Aidocracy that created the Aid Industry and is the largest successful industry in the world today. Public forests are lost through the Privatization projects initiated by the World Bank and the IMF (International Monetary Fund) and the rights of the local people are violated through the implementation of those projects. The investment strategies of the international investment institutions are mostly responsible for these occurrences. We sustain on the crumbs of these international financial institutions. For this, we, the researchers are not effective”.

“When the Globalization of capital is taking place, it is important to see how the Aid Industry works. We have tried to include, accommodate the minority here and thus we have excluded the majority because the majority is absent here. An in-depth analysis is needed in this regard. Each individual possesses power. We all hide our actual faces behind a veil. Do we have the courage to show our actual faces? If we have, then we can find our true identity. We have to generate an imagination among people to empower them. What are our limitations and how can we overcome them?”

“I often visit different places. I have seen how species were lost for the Pulpwood Plantation Project. Not only the communities there but also the diversity of trees and species were lost. As our rulers or our elite class are gathering funds from the international financial institutions, they want to maintain this structure where the majority has become the minority. Local and external factors both are responsible for this situation. So, we need proper information, knowledge and analysis”.

“The state is creating minorities, not Islam. During elections, we often see that all the candidates are corrupt. In this situation, we are bound to choose from them. So, we need to focus on vulnerability when we are talking about Democracy”.

Md. Tanzimuddin Khan (Lecturer, Department of International Relations, University of Dhaka): “Is free trade democratic? When we are talking on this, we need to take into account three different levels, the international level, the state level and the local level”.

Mr. Sunil Kanti Dey (CHT Correspondent, The Daily Sangbad): “Is it possible to implement the Peace Accord? I think the military bureaucracy as well as the civil bureaucracy has made this question complicated. The people who say that there cannot be a separate voter list for the CHT, did they ever read the Accord carefully? I have my doubts. Thus the interests and rights of the hill people are denied. Recently, the tea garden initiatives have been strongly resisted by the hill people. So far, any projects that are implemented in the CHT lacked proper Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA)”.

Mr. Philip Gain (Society of Environment and Human Development): “Companies and Consultancy firms are promoted through the money they are giving us as Soft Loans. So, do I have the choice to use it? No, we do not have the choice. We are losing. Aid has become a chronic liability for us. We need proper analysis. EIA and Social Impact Assessments (SIA) are not properly done and knowledge becomes fragmented. Critical Thinking is needed. The international financial institutions cornered the hill people. Does civil government mean local elite or national elite? It is a difficult question if there is an international elite behind the local or national elite”.

Mr. Mijarul Quayes (Director General, Ministry of Foreign Affairs): “Why is aid necessary and advantageous for the American polity? We are talking about the numerical value of a minority. Where is the majority-minority fault line then? We need to qualify the majority-minority notions. What is the basis of equity, how far is the Bengali muslim society empowered? As an individual, I am both a perpetrator and a victim. Benevolence is also sometimes transferred to hegemony. Aspiration is always ahead of reality. Reality always operates within historical and social externalities. We need to look at the state as evolving from one stage to another. Presumably as we move from ‘truth’ to ‘higher truth’, our values should also evolve”.

“Democracy has also been an evolving practice. Majoritarianism is inherent in democracy. The test of democracy lies; to what extent your constitution and institutions can subsume and internalise not only in ethos but also in practice the issues left behind. Insensitivity is the biggest crime. We have to recognize that diversity gives strength. So, we need a leap forward to conceptualise. Personal evolution is important both at the individual level and in the state level”.

“Who is ruling or governing? All that we have at the superstructure level are representatives of minorities because of the flaw in our electoral system. So, we have to look at the majority-minority situation in the parliament and in governance”.

Mr. Shantanu Majumder (Assistant Professor, Department of International Relations, University of Dhaka): “Aid is a reality. A large number of people depend on that. So, we cannot deny it. If that system collapses, the government will also collapse. So, we have to change our vision. The important thing is for how long will we continue to receive aid? The impact of colonial rule is that now the state itself is creating the majority and the minority. Before 1757, we did not observe the Hindu-Muslim divide. The colonial state mechanism is responsible for triggering this. We have become part of a larger global dynamism or inertia. So, we have to think of how to redefine the state? We do not highlight the role of Lalon in our history. The State itself is anarchic. Communalism is constructed (Non-state has an empowering power or capacity)”.

Prof. Imtiaz Ahmed (Department of International Relations, University of Dhaka): “We see that the unrepresented are becoming more powerful. The demonic genius is increasing in Bangladesh. Let us not forget the fantastic creativity of the non-state actors. Even the Kargil War could not stop drug smuggling (through the rigid Indo-Pak border). We should never underestimate the creativity of the demonic genius of the criminals present in Parliament. If we depend on the state for security and a better future, we are not going anywhere, as it is not possible for the state to fight with the demonic genius of the non-state actors”.

Mr. Mijarul Quayes (Director General, Ministry of Foreign Affairs): “The issues we are talking about i.e. democracy, governance, elections, inclusion, access to opportunities, majority-minority divide, social engineering resulting in demographic changes and the facilitators to come out from this kind of situations, all these functions have a major role which is played by the state. We need an organic evolution of the state and its institutions. Otherwise, the problems become endemic”.

Md. Tanzimuddin Khan (Lecturer, Department of International Relations, University of Dhaka): “When livelihood is threatened, the image of the state is different. When my own security is threatened, who is in power does not matter to me”.