Zahir Ahmed

Anthropologist James Clifford says that the term travel can be understood as a form of 'global contacts' in a post-colonial word. I realised that a genuine traveller is reflective, moving across a landscape where things are in place.

When it comes to winning support, politicians are selective about how they represent themselves, their views or decisions, their projects or policies, and their opponents, supporters or alliances. Politicians in Bangladesh claim to represent multiple, changeable and complex interests but what does that mean in practice? Let us hear the experiences of some ordinary citizens in different constituencies in this regard.

In our upcoming parliamentary election on December 30, 2018 more women MP aspirants have shown an interest to take on a legislative role than ever before (more than 50 from each alliance).

I have been engaged in carrying out research on representation and MPs' work with citizens in their constituencies since the 90s. This has led me to write this piece on understanding whether our MPs' roles and responsibilities are truly rooted in constituency service or cultural and societal aspects.

In 2016, I attended a political science workshop at Wroxton College in Oxfordshire in the UK on parliamentary issues (the field is known as legislative studies). At the workshop I presented a paper describing the role and responsibility of Members of Parliament (MPs), as part of a research project administered by University of London, SOAS.