POLITICAL TURBULENCE IN BANGLADESH

Mr. Mollah Mohammad Shaheen sums up the situation:

The political landscape in Bangladesh is turbulent now. The AL, the main opposition party, has decided to resort to street agitation to unseat the government. The government has completed only half its tenure. Actually, the BNP-led alliance suffers from superiority complex due to its majority and the AL suffers from inferiority complex due to its poll debacle. But a strong opposition is the mainstay of functional parliamentary democracy. The country lacks it at present.

There is a lot to say about the parliament boycott by the opposition party and the hartal (general strike) culture. If we look at two things:

* a member of the Parliament is under oath to 'faithfully discharge the duties'
* that he will not allow his/her 'personal interest to influence the discharge' of his/her duties.

A boycotter of the Parliament by alienating himself/herself from the proceedings of the Parliament has clearly broken his/her oath. The concerned member is thus guilty of violating the constitution. They have thus also broken the promise to the voters that "if elected he/she will represent the voters to the Parliament". Members of Parliament are definitely not above everything. They must be made accountable.

Hartal disrupts normal life and causes much economic damage and it is absolutely undemocratic.

Meanwhile Awami League has declared that "the alliance government is a great disaster". Its true that Awami League activists are harassed and attacked (check here for a more superfluous claim) by ruling party activists, but their fight should be in the parliament, not in the streets. But their claim is:

Awami League had been in parliament but the government's gesture forced us to stay away. We were not allowed to speak on public misery and national issues... Treasury bench members used filthy words against us. In such a situation, we can't join parliament.

The above is somewhat true and there is a ploy of the ruling party using the Mastans (hooligan) to stem Awami League and other opposition party activities against being a threat to the ruling party for the next election.

Nobody wants to lose power. Power is the root of all evil. No party is bothered about the common people. They want be elected and remain in power screwing people. Its the time when we all should screw them. But where is the alternative?