Abu Hena
In cartoons there is often a moment when a person, having galloped over a cliff is still unaware of the fact that he is hanging suspended in the air, until realization dawns, gravity intervenes and downfall starts. Sheikh Hasina’s campaign looks a bit like that this week. After her heavy losses in four city corporations and a disgraceful defeat in Ghazipur, a city she needed to carry triumphantly, her campaign for another term is surely close to its end.
As she addressed the nation on 18 October, she was still publicly promising to keep on fighting right the way to 25 January when the five year term of the current parliament expires. That remains her right. But it is hard to see what she, her party or the country can gain from it. This is largely to do with mathematics. As finally confirmed in her speech on 18 October, prime minister Sheikh Hasina is decided to hold election to the 10th parliament under sub- clause (a) of clause (3) of article 123 which means the general election shall be held within the period of ninety days pending the expiration of the parliament’s term. That means she now needs to form her proposed all–party government before the commencement of the ninety days election period which starts on 25 October. The leader of the opposition has turned down the proposal and has responded with a counter- proposal, the text of which has been conveyed to Syed Ashraful Islam, General Secretary of Awami League. In the situation the chances of forming an all-party government have already evaporated.
SH/Khaleda’s hard line
Addressing the press on 21 October the leader of the opposition took a hard line holding on to her stand on the non- partisan caretaker government rejecting the PM’s plan to hold the election under her party’s suzerainty. Sheikh Hasina has stood out, thus far by her refusal to quit and compromise on either the non- partisan issue or holding the election after dissolving the parliament. In the ultimate analysis Khaleda Zia has proved to be a less feisty sort, and has exhibited enormous grace under pressure. Despite considerable provocation she has never wavered from her commitment to the election time non – partisan caretaker government—and the idea of Bangladesh engaging in the pursuit of a fair and impartial election. She has come up with a concrete and viable alternative proposal tracking the way down to its implementation. On the other hand there are severe problems with the details of the prime minister’s proposal.
For all these reasons, Begum Khaleda Zia’s proposal deserves consideration. It is surely not worth dragging the struggle to January 2014. It is time for the prime minister to concede gracefully and throw her weight behind her party’s best hope in the election. She is out of step in her failure to see that the opposition must be negotiated with, not simply threatened with coercive power of the government. It is time she realizes that best policies are formed through cooperation between the two parties and that the ability to listen is the essential requirement of democratic statesmanship. The function of the government is not to meet every opposition proposal or scheme with a denunciation or a counter-scheme, but rather to weigh its advantage and support it.
Transformative moment
This is a transformative moment when the democratic movement has almost exhausted itself and depleted its resources through infighting. The leader of the opposition has not only suggested a way out from the present grave situation but has also initiated new ideas of accommodation and mutual trust and also a new political vocabulary. Political ideas don’t change much over time and political debates don’t either. But the tonal difference between Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s political pragmatism in 1973 and Sheikh Hasina’s revengeful retribution in 2013 is enormous. Awami League must now reinvent its vocabulary and ideas by thinking hard again. If Sheikh Hasina bows out in the next few days, her reputation as a tough fighter –one who has definitely forged a personality separate from others—will have been enhanced.
Sheikh Hasina’s humiliation in the recent local elections is certain evidence not only of the PM’s inevitable defeat in the upcoming general election, but also a conclusive popular rejection of all her works including the 15th Amendment.
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Writer was a Member of Parliament from 1996 to 2006
Source: Weekly Holiday
