Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has called for national unity and reconciliation last week and invited all political party leaders particularly taking aiming at BNP and Oikyafront leaders to a dialogue or post-election meeting to exchange greetings. Party leaders say it aims at building trust and bridging the gap to ally opposition support behind the new government. 

President Md Abdul Hamid has also made similar call for national unity at the opening of the 11th parliament on January 30.  It went into session on expiry of the outgoing parliament on January 29 however leaving a writ pending behind in the High Court challenging how the members of the new parliament could take oath earlier this month before the expiry of outgoing parliament.

Such calls for unity deserves serious attention when the nation remains sharply divided over the just concluded election as also over the decade since election in 2008. BNP and the newly launched Jatiya Oikyaafront leaders along with all other opposition parties and political groups have denounced the election saying it has been stolen by Awami League led grand alliance like those in the previous two occasions. 

Many believe unity and reconciliation may be very difficult in this situation although it remains the most sought after dream of the nations throughout this time. Many believe as winner in the election PM Sheikh Hasina has the responsibility to improve the political environment. 

Opposition leaders and workers are crowding the High Court for bail in cases, mainly ghost cases  related to just concluded election. Many are in jail while many others on the run to avoid arrest. How unity and reconciliation can be possible is the question.    

The nation is suffering the worst from absent of good governance and rule of law in all fronts. Media report said swindlers have siphoned over Tk 50,000 crore in a single year in 2015 – the year before election taking advantage of political instability and lapses within the administration. 

The country lost six notches in global corruption index last year taking 13th position from bottom as a highly corrupt nation without good governance. Good governance can’t be achieved in a dysfunctional democracy in absence of effective public institutions. When the nation will keep on fighting at political level, vested interest people will take advantage. 

It needs no mention that restoration of democracy and rule of law is all the more important at this moment and that may start no doubt with a process of national unity and reconciliation that the President and the PM have called for to end the political impasse.  

But mere talking will not cook the rice. So the government leaders should offer a serious plan of action for discussion how the crisis of trust with the opposition can be overcome to give meaning to such calls for unity for peace and development.    

BNP and Oikyafront leaders have evidently ruled out joining any meaningless dialogue or PM’s post-election greeting which seems partly insulting to them given the widespread election fraud which has almost totally eliminated the opposition from parliament. The PM’s prognosis what won her landslide victory and what caused devastating defeat to BNP and OIkyafront in the recent polls is not a political response to their allegation f election frauds. Their demand for a fresh election to remove the legitimacy question over the election is continue.  

Oikyafront leaders Dr Kamal Hossein and BNP leader Mirza Alamgir said they are ready to take part in any dialogue if the government leaders agree to talk about new election to restore the voting rights of the people in a free and fair election. Attending any garden party as Obaidul Qader said like the one the PM hosted for Dhaka based diplomats is not what may lure them to such meeting.   

It can’t say how such meeting would benefit the opposition except to be used as a political tool to mislead the nation and the international community which is repeatedly bringing pressure on the government to remove the opposition’s reservation over election results. 

Parliament went into session in this background with the leftist block calling for dissolution of parliament blaming it is not an elected parliament by the people.  BNP held a human chain in the city similarly on Wednesday calling for fresh election. Its six MPs along with two from Oikyafront have declined to take oath and not joining parliament. 

Like the government call for unity of political parties the opposition is also calling for unity of the masses and that is to unseat the government to establish people’s rights and restoration of democracy.  So both sides want unity but on different perspectives. It is a U turn situation. The opposition had persistently called for dialogue on major election issues before election that the government had avoided. Now the government is calling for dialogue but the opposition remains defiant.

Parliament went into session last week amidst many mismatch. It started journey without an opposition in real sense.  Jatiya Party’s 22 MPs and members of some smaller alliance partners have agreed to sit in the opposition although they equally claim share of the government. 

During last parliament there was no real opposition in parliament as well. This time Awami League alone controls 289 seat in parliament precipitating the crisis of democracy and a formal opposition in the House. Question arises whether or not some smaller partners of the AL led grand alliance can play the role of the real opposition in parliament.  

But the government has no option but to put the JP in the opposition. Senior AL leader Mohammad Nasim however ruled out a crisis of the opposition in parliament saying MPs from smaller groups will play the role of the opposition inside and outside parliament criticizing the government. But observers fear it may be anything but a true opposition to speak for the people.  

The crisis of democracy to the nation has exacerbated with the government absolute election victory  for third time now in a row. It appears too good this time causing embarrassment to the government to claim moral right and democratic ownership to govern. The question of legitimacy will haunt the government until another election.  

Meanwhile BNP and other opposition parties have ruled out possibility of taking part in the ensuing upazila elections and mayoral elections throughout the country. A power hungry government may exploit it to grab all political institutions at all level in this situation without serious challenge.

But the deprivation of the vast majority of people sympathizing to BNP and other parties to elect people of their choice may ultimately backfire. It may become cause of volatile politics within different factions of the ruling party and outside the party threatening peace and stability at the end. Without a viable opposition the ruling party bears the risk of bigger trouble from within.

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A Bangladeshi anti-drugs campaign, in which more than 300 people have died, has raised national as well as international concerns but the government has dismissed any suggestion of extra-judicial killings and said the crackdown had popular support in the country. 

Likewise, in the Philippines, thousands of suspects were also killed since President Rodrigo Duterte took office two years ago. Duterte had also angrily rejected international concern about the violence there.

After such a drive began in Bangladesh, so far 308 alleged drug peddlers have been killed in the name of ‘gunfight, around 150,000 suspects arrested and 100,000 cases filed in the nine months of the anti-drug crackdown since May 2018 with the law enforcers still busting drug gangs and recovering huge amount of narcotics, particularly Yaba, almost every day. However, well-known godfathers are still mysteriously remained safely and untouched. Most of the deceased, according to the police, were peddlers of Yaba containing methamphetamine that are smuggled in Bangladesh from Myanmar mainly through Bangladesh Myanmar border along Cox’s Bazar.

The anti-narcotics operations was launched on May 14, 2018 aimed largely at stemming the flow of Yaba tablets, a methamphetamine manufactured and smuggled in from neighboring Myanmar. During operations run last month and in the first 18 days of January, BGB, RAB, police, the Coast Guard and the Department of Narcotics Control (DNC), recovered a total of 1.5 million Yaba tablets.  Despite the ongoing countrywide anti-drug massive crackdown, illegal drugs are still available in almost all place of the country.  

Elite Force Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) began the anti-drug drive on May 4, 2018 and the police on May 17, 2018 at the directives of the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. On May 15, 2018, two suspected drug peddlers were killed for the first time since the drive began, allegedly in gunfights with RAB, one each at Narayanganj and Kushtia.

And until January 27, 2019, at least 308 suspected peddlers and addicts were killed, mostly in ‘gunfights’ with the law enforcers, according to newspaper reports quoting accounts of RAB and the police. The latest such incident took place in Cox’s Bazar early Monday in which two alleged drug peddlers were killed in a reported gunfight with ‘rival group’ in Nayabazar area at Hoykong of Teknaf.  

According to police, some of the peddlers were killed in ‘gunfights’ with rival groups over sharing money and some were allegedly found dead. But family members’ accounts differed from what police and RAB said. Some of the alleged peddlers were picked up by people in plain clothes, said their families and later police and RAB officials said that they died in ‘gunfights’.

Home minister Asaduzzaman Khan has, however, repeatedly claimed that there were no extrajudicial killings during the anti-drug drives and that they had been killed in ‘gunfights.’ He further said that illegal drug business always involved firearms and when law enforcers tried to arrest the peddlers, they opened fire and locked in ‘gunfight’.  He also reiterated that the anti-drug drive would continue until the drug menace was brought under control. 

However, the killing of Akramul Haque, a ward councillor of Teknaf municipality in Cox’s Bazar, in what RAB termed a ‘gunfight’ on early May 27 was largely criticised as unverified audio clippings of conversations between Akramul and his family members, provided by his wife on May 31, suggested that he was murdered. “The commissioner has not done anything ... Why are you killing him?” Repeating these words, a female voice kept screaming over a mobile phone moments after hearing a gunshot during a phone call, according to an unverified audio clip. “The alleged murder of Teknaf municipality councillor Akramul Haque rang an ominous bell for the country’s human rights situation,” human rights defenders and activists said. 

Besides, a detained suspected drug peddler was killed in a ‘gunfight’ with police at Shamlapour, a village adjacent to the shore of the Bay of Bengal, under Teknaf upazila in Cox’s Bazar on December 1, 2018. It also raises questions and concerns among the human rights activists.

 

As the special drive against yaba peddlers goes on in full swing, questions arise why some alleged listed yaba godfathers in Ukhia-Teknaf, the gateway of smuggling the crazy drug into Bangladesh, whose names have prominently figured in multiple intelligence reports, remain out of the net.

Abdur Rahman Bodi, former Awami League MP from Teknaf, has long been known as the godfather of yaba trade and he has allegedly set up a powerful network that includes his five brothers, personal assistant Mong Mong Sen and Teknaf Upazila Chairman Zafar Ahmed to spread the drug across the country.

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The invitation card signed by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has been sent to 75 parties to attend a tea-party on February 2, 2019 at Ganobhavan. The invitees are those who participated in Dialogue on different dates before the eleventh Parliamentary election.

This is garden party just a courtesy to exchange greetings and pleasantly, but not for any political dialogue of any sort, as clarified to the media by Awami League General Secretary Obaidul Quader, and PM’s political adviser HT Imam, and politician shown.

What they will talk? Personal matters for which most of the parties having no vote base aspire for luxurious living and existence at the patronage of government or external sources, knowledgeable circles quip, they move in the corridor of power seeking opportunities. But, it cannot be the task of any political party by any interpretation of Constitution and Political Science. As such, Oikya front- BNP leaders could not accept the invitation for lack of specific agenda on election.

Actually, Dialogue was first requested by a letter of Oikya Front leader Gano Forum President Dr. Kamal Hossain, backed by one of the two mainstream parties in this country Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), to Prime Minister, who immediately accepted it, held the dialogue, followed by another on their request with a small team. Other parties and alliances similarly requested for dialogue which were responded by her and held the same on subsequent dates. That made the all parties participation in dialogue costing the valuable time of Prime Minister and public exchequer known to all and election was held on December 30, 2018. 

But, the result was stunning; gave massive majority to Awami League (AL) and reduced BNP to the margin on which controversies are raging at home and abroad. Were all other parties/ alliances to the dialogue serious for national election to uphold democracy or simply presented a show for bargaining with two symbols Boat and Sheaf of paddy, change colour, turn coats and ran for nomination either individually or in alliance as usual by money and manipulation? The question is burning as there is no third alternative party in this country and traditional National Awami Party, founded by leader of the oppressed Maulana Bhashani in 1957 in erstwhile Pakistan, has been extinct. Even Bikalpa Dhara President Prof A Q M Baddruduza Chowdhury joined the AL lead alliance and got seat for his son secured as MP. They have already accpted the invitation and would join the garden party.

In a nutshell, Oikya Front- BNP parties did not accept invitation as they have already rejected the poll results of 11th Parliament for riggings in unimaginable proportions, its 08 MPs shown as won have not taken oath in Parliament, asked for fresh election mutually agreed upon. They deem tea-party is a ploy save farcical election continues in power. It seems 02 MPs from Oikya Front thru Gano Forum are hesitant: Sultan Muhammad Mansur Ahmed with symbol sheaf of paddy appears to be inclined to join the Parliament, reported a national vernacular daily on January 30, 2019 and Mukabbir Khan was MP just by chance, when nominated candidate could not contest under Supreme Court verdict at last moment, he returned from London and won. Let us see how it turns out, if they can finally restrain from lust for power, hefty salary, allowances and privileges. 

One thing is sure attendees on Feb 2 would be able to show their importance to others exact immoral advantages for lobbying, money and manipulation. It is seen corruption has increased in Bangladesh, reported national dailies on January 30, 2019. 

Once one asked Pro- Soviet communist disguised in NAP Prof Muzaffar why he sent Eid Greetings in Post Cards to all his party men, he said it would enable them to keep it in pocket, publicize the party and get advantages as the case may be showing it. 

In this context, we have no other alternative as fellow septuagenarian but to request PM Sheikh Hasina daughter of Bangabandhu to take all out measures to stop corruption , restore a good governmane and followi the course of democracy. 

The writer is an economist, advocate and social activist.

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Though first session of the 11th parliament began on January 31, Bangladesh, one of the world’s largest parliamentary democracies, has for the first time in recent history has experieed a strange problem of finding a suitable and acceptable opposition in parliament after the most controvercial one sided fixing national polls completed on December 30.

Upon completion of the latest election, which many independent observers termed “controversial”, the country’s 11th national parliament sees the Jatiya Party, a key ally of the newly-re-elected ruling Awami League sitting in opposition.

After the election results were finalized, the Jatiya Party was undecided for about a week on whether to join the government or to act as its opposition in the new parliament. 

On January 4, Jatiya Party co-chairman GM Quader declared that the party had unanimously decided to be a part of the new government led by the Awami League. He told the media that since his party had participated in the election under the banner of the Awami League-led grand alliance, it wanted to join the government.

He added, “We doubt if people will accept us as the opposition if we quit the grand alliance now to play the role of the opposition… We don’t want to sit on the opposition bench… This is a practical problem for us.”

Yet only a day later, Jatiya Party Chairman and former Bangladeshi President HM Ershad said the party will be the main opposition in parliament with no representation in the new cabinet.

In a written statement, Ershad said: “As the chairman of the Jatiya Party, I would like to inform the people of the country and party leaders and activists at all levels that the Jatiya Party will act as the main opposition party in the 11th parliament.”

The party’s decision to lead opposition in parliament comes as the other opposition party, Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), rejected what it deemed “controversial” poll results and its lawmakers did not take the oath.

On January 10, speaker of the 11th national Parliament Shirin Sharmin Chowdhury approved HM Ershad as the opposition leader and ratified GM Quader as the deputy leader of the opposition.

The Ershad-led Jatiya Party had acted as the main opposition in the 10th parliament since the alliance led by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP)—one of the two major parties (the other being the Awami league) in the country’s two-party dominated political system—boycotted the 2014 national election.

However, during their five-year term in opposition to the government in the 10th parliament, the ruling Awami League passed a total of 149 bills, with not one of them being opposed by the Jatiya Party.

Moreover, in the cabinet of the last Awami League government, there were three ministers from the Jatiya Party. It was the first instance in the country’s history where members of the parliamentary opposition were given seats in the cabinet.

A report published by the Berlin-based watchdog Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) accused the Jatiya Party of playing an “ineffective dual role” by letting its leaders become ministers while at the same time their party was serving in opposition to the government.

Experts are now questioning whether, as was the case during the 10th parliament, Awami League’s parliamentary bills will go unchallenged and unscrutinized.

 

After a decade in government, the Sheikh Hasina-led Awami League regained power for the third consecutive time through an election that was termed by the United Nations as “not perfect.”

The Awami League-led Grand Alliance took 288 out of 299 seats (with Awami League winning 257 of them) in elections that were marred by intimidation of voters and polling agents, occupations of polling centers, and clashes among followers of opposing candidates.

The Jatiya Party, a key component of the Grand Alliance, secured 22 seats out of 288. The main challenger of the Grand Alliance, the BNP-led Jatiya Oikya Front, managed to win only seven seats. The BNP termed the election “farcical”, rejected the results and demanded fresh polls under a non-partisan government.

Transparency International Bangladesh said in its election observation report that it found election irregularities like stamping ballot papers the night before the polls and ballot stuffing by capturing booths on the election day in 47 out of 50 constituencies it surveyed.

Dr Ali Riaz, Distinguished Professor of Politics and Government of Illinois State University, United States, told Asia Times that unless there is any pressure on the Election Commission, there is no likelihood of an investigation into the massive irregularities.

Considering the extent of irregularities, the only correct course is to hold a fresh election under a neutral administration. However, understandably, at this time the ruling Awami League has no reason to move in that direction.

 

Ali Riaz believes that having the Jatiya Party in opposition for the 11th national parliament is an indicator that the Awami League is consolidating its power. “There is no reason to expect that the Jatiya Party will act as an effective opposition,” said Riaz.

He said the Jatiya Party’s primary role will be to act as a “showpiece” to counter criticism, from home and abroad, that an engineered election has delivered a one-party parliament.

“It’s a member of the ruling alliance; how can a member of the ruling alliance be an opposition?” said Riaz.

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The National Human Rights Commission of Bangladesh (BHRC) has said, apart from road accidents and cases of suicide, a total of 185 people have been killed—for various reasons—across the country, in the very first month of  January 2019.

The commission shared the findings in a press release on Thursday.

According to the commission, the report was prepared after it gathering  data from its field offices located in different districts, sub-districts, and municipalities. 

Additionally, based on reports published in national dailies, the documentation department of BHRC also conducted investigations with the co-operation of International Human Rights Commission (IHRC).

Mentioning that, on average, six people were killed per day in January, the commission said the situation indicates an extreme deterioration of law and order. 

Expressing grave concern, BHRC said the government’s law enforcement agencies and authorities concerned must play a more effective role in diminishing the rising number of killings.

Of the 185 such victims: six were killed because of a dowry, 17 were killed by domestic violence, 64 were killed in social violence, nine were killed for political reasons, 18 were killed by law enforcement agencies, five were killed by the Border Security Force, five were killed due to negligence by physicians, eight were killed following abductions, five were killed by assassination, 36 were killed by mysterious means, 10 were killed following rape, and two were killed in acid attacks. 

Moreover, 263 people were killed in road accidents, nationwide, while 19 others committed suicide. 

Additionally, 40 women were raped, three were sexually harassed, and five others were tortured over their dowry in January.

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