BNP MP Rumeen Farhana today told the parliament that the fall of the present government is just a matter of time after reports of different international organisations against them.
“Several international organisations, in their reports released in the last few years, painted grim pictures of Bangladesh clearly. All these have sounded the final bell for the government. The fall of this government is just a matter of time,” she said.
The opposition MP said this while participating in a discussion on the thanksgiving motion on the president’s speech.
“Forced disappearances, extra-judicial killings, torture and deaths in custody, suppression of dissident parties and depoliticisation — all the state-sponsored destruction of the electoral system, making the judiciary subjugated under the executive department by erasing the separation of power and heinous corruption were reflected in the report of the Millennium Challenge Corporation of the USA,” said Rumeen.
“The poor condition of Bangladesh is clear in the reports published in different indexes including democracy, human rights, civil liberty, freedom of expression, rule of law, and election in the last few years by the Freedom House, Bertelsmann Stiftung, V-Dem and the Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, Economist Intelligence Unit, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Reporters Without Borders, the World Justice Report and Transparency International,” she went on.
Referring to the recent US sanction on seven former and present officials of Rapid Action Battalion, the BNP MP said, “The situation is clear that the ban is not ending with this.”
“Twelve renowned human rights organisations including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch strongly demanded the United Nations take action against the deployment of Rab members in the UN peacekeeping missions. The UN has also taken the issue under consideration,” she added.
“All the ministers, including the foreign minister, initially attacked the United States with very harsh language, but now their voices are low,” she also said.
“Now they’re talking about examining problems and hiring lobbyists and law firms, if necessary,” Rumeen said.
“Interestingly, hiring a lobbyist firm is nothing new. The government has long been hiring lobbyist firms in the US by spending crores of public money,” she added.
She also said, “The lobbyist culture in the politics of this country was launched with the Awami League.”
For the first time in the history of this country, the Awami League gave more than $1.25 million to a US lobbyist firm, Alcalde & Fay, in 2005, 2006 and 2007, said Rumeen.
