Bangladesh • Latest • Perspectives • Slide
TRULY YOURS Expectations from our President
Mohammad Ali Sattar
So the month long dialogue between 28 political parties and the honorable President ended with a note of positive expectation. If these talks do not bring about minimum desired results this will be yet another case of futile exercise or just a waste of time and energy on both parts.
From the very beginning skeptics kept their lips twisted and did not raise eye brows. They were rather confident that this time too it is the government which is playing the fool with the people and the parties.
They say, the political parties also knew damn well that they have no other alternative than to follow the dialogue process.
Our honorable President is senior politician and had been a very successful driver of the parliament for a long period of time. His commanding tone and wits have made him popular. His experience in politics and state affairs is huge. As the head of the state it is but natural that the aggrieved parties would look up to him as the trouble shooter or savior. Against the current backdrop of political situation, it is only the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) which is the worst sufferer. It has been on the back foot for some time now. Ever since the last care taker army government took over and left, the party finds itself in disarray. It has been going through tough time. The ruling party is in no mood to give BNP any space whatsoever. Good or bad, BNP is under pressure. The party was first to meet the president and placed series of demands to mend the Election commission. So did other parties. The ruling party also placed number of suggestions to make the EC stronger and effective.
Our President must have had good meetings with the parties who had threadbare discussions with him. He has heard them and must have been fed with many good points and suggestions by the thoughtful leaders of the parties.
Now it is up to the President to come up with the best and acceptable proposal for all parties on reformation of the Election commission.
We need an independent and impartial election commission for the greater interest of democracy and rights of the people. For the last one decade we had very bad days with the EC members and their activities.
We hope our President will come up with a different and pragmatic gift for the people, democracy and the country. Let him set an example.