The initiative taken by some business leaders to broker a dialogue between the two major political parties–the Bangladesh Awami League and Bangladesh Nationalist Party– is yet to make headway due to inner political confrontation among themselves, sources said.
The move itself is again for a lofty goal that looks distant and may never happen, because the two ladies heading the two major parties do not even talk to each other.
Although, the leadership of the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers and Commerce and Industry (FBCCI), the apex trade body in the country, told newsmen the other day that they had sent a letter to the main opposition BNP in this regard, the BNP central office has denied the receipt of any such letter.
“We are yet to receive any letter from the FBCCI,” a BNP central leader told The New Nation on Thursday on condition of anonymity.
A former business leader of FBCCI who owns
a big chain of industries and associated with the ruling Bangladesh Awami League has said that he was not aware of the FBCCI move or about any understanding among the business leaders for this.
Another former FBCCI President said that the present FBCCI leadership is too much biased to government lines and they have turned the office of the apex trade body into a virtual party office.
He said that before the exchange of ideas with BNP leaders to work out a strategy for talks with the Bangladesh Awami League, the present leaders of the FBCCI once proposed the banning of hartals by formulating a law.
Fact remains, hartal is now considered the only effective political weapon for them to use against the government.
“Because of their excessive involvement in partisan politics the opposition will not welcome their move for dialogue,” he noted.
The former FBCCI President further said that although the business leaders mostly the sitting and former presidents of FBCCI had two meetings to seek a way out of the political confrontation, those are yet to bear fruits.
In the past dialogue even brokered by Commonwealth Secretary General’s special envoy Sir Ninian Stephen in the nineties did not lead to solution because the two sides did stick to their guns. The interest groups that surround the leaders of the two parties do not want solutions as they do not want to negotiate their vested interests.
“It will yield nothing as because the business leaders are divided with partisan attitude,” said another leader of FBCCI adding that what they are saying publicly is not coming form their heart.
Source: The New Nation
