Editorial Desk :
The 20th Council meeting of the ruling party Awami League ended on Sunday in the city with the biggest gathering of leaders and workers in the midst of unprecedented pomp and pageantry. There was joy and grandeur everywhere. The security arrangement was the tightest ever.
The Awami League’s Council has missed a big opportunity to motivate the grassroots level party leaders and workers to maintain discipline and honesty to come closer to the people and serve them humbly.
But a broad message of change or reform in politics for the people was totally absent. There were no guidelines for politics for the local level leaders and workers to be enthused politically or restrained.
What is to be noted with some relief is that though the participants praised the leadership of the party profusely yet the opposition did not come under attack. Whether that will be translated into tolerance to critics of the government needs to be observed.
The Chief of the party is unchangeable and Sheikh Hasina was again elected the President for the eighth time.
The election of Mr Obaidul Quader can be seen as a hope for new and constructive youthful approach to the party’s politics. He can put his closeness to Sheikh Hasina, the Prime Minister and leader of the party, to good use.
Syed Ashraful Islam is a person in the mould of his father and a great leader late Syed Nazrul Islam. He was less active but more decent as the General Secretary of the party. In his last speech, as the General Secretary, he tried hard to inspire hope and provide energy among the party activists. With his departure as the General Secretary, the links with the democratic politics of the party founders have become more uncertain.
Other than President Sheikh Hasina’s directives to local leaders and workers to get ready for the election and prepare lists of the poor and homeless to build cost free homes for them there was nothing important that has been said for political orientation of the party. Even the general public could not be sure how faithfully this plan for free home will be implemented to earn popularity of the party as because no warning was uttered against corruption with public funds.
The Prime Minister also reiterated the ruling party’s resolve of zero tolerance towards terrorism. That is mainly a matter of police power under the control of central authority. Whether that will lead to more intolerance in politics is to be seen.
The Prime Minister said it forcefully that she would not allow terrorists to use the country for attacks on local targets and on neighbouring countries.
The government claims rightly that our terrorism is local. What is also true the terrorism we have is not so organised or a big threat. So we find too much attention is being paid to terrorism making innocent people to feel insecure. The opposition is scared of unbounded police power. What is not appreciated is that terrorism goes if alternative to terrorism succeeds.
Sheikh Hasina was also upbeat in her address on the huge development in all fronts that the country has achieved as she has been claiming over the past years. It is sad that she is not aware of how dull is the economy. If only her party were in touch with common businessmen they would have known it. But the people’s anger and disaffection remain.
Her source of information is deceptive coming from self-seekers. She has to know about the conditions of various sectors of the economy. Let her review the economic condition sector by sector to know how the bureaucratic duplicity is playing up the development stories. Only those who are making business with the government or enjoy government’s patronage are the richest persons and they sing the songs of great economic success.
The central leaders should have drawn attention of the party leaders and workers to the law and order situation they are creating in different places and warn them against hooliganism, crimes of violence and extortion.
The central leaders on the other hand have assured the party men of their determination to continue in power. Democratic change for holding credible election was not found worthy of mentioning. The government will be in charge of the election so unpopularity is not a matter to worry.
Nothing was discussed about the political philosophy for the justification of any party to be known as a political party. It is not enough to say follow Bangabandhu’s ideology without explaining what it is. Democracy of development is denial of democracy of the people for which Awami League’s founding leaders suffered and made supreme sacrifices. Money making politics was unknown to them.
The desire to build Sonar Bangla is not a political ideology.
May be it is because the present Awami League has chosen the path of socialism so it was rightly thought unnecessary to discuss politics. Under socialist dictatorship politics as we understand in a democracy does not exist. Bureaucracy is the base for power and not popularity. Propaganda is popularity.
The 20th Council meeting of the ruling party Awami League ended on Sunday in the city with the biggest gathering of leaders and workers in the midst of unprecedented pomp and pageantry. There was joy and grandeur everywhere. The security arrangement was the tightest ever.
The Awami League’s Council has missed a big opportunity to motivate the grassroots level party leaders and workers to maintain discipline and honesty to come closer to the people and serve them humbly.
But a broad message of change or reform in politics for the people was totally absent. There were no guidelines for politics for the local level leaders and workers to be enthused politically or restrained.
What is to be noted with some relief is that though the participants praised the leadership of the party profusely yet the opposition did not come under attack. Whether that will be translated into tolerance to critics of the government needs to be observed.
The Chief of the party is unchangeable and Sheikh Hasina was again elected the President for the eighth time.
The election of Mr Obaidul Quader can be seen as a hope for new and constructive youthful approach to the party’s politics. He can put his closeness to Sheikh Hasina, the Prime Minister and leader of the party, to good use.
Syed Ashraful Islam is a person in the mould of his father and a great leader late Syed Nazrul Islam. He was less active but more decent as the General Secretary of the party. In his last speech, as the General Secretary, he tried hard to inspire hope and provide energy among the party activists. With his departure as the General Secretary, the links with the democratic politics of the party founders have become more uncertain.
Other than President Sheikh Hasina’s directives to local leaders and workers to get ready for the election and prepare lists of the poor and homeless to build cost free homes for them there was nothing important that has been said for political orientation of the party. Even the general public could not be sure how faithfully this plan for free home will be implemented to earn popularity of the party as because no warning was uttered against corruption with public funds.
The Prime Minister also reiterated the ruling party’s resolve of zero tolerance towards terrorism. That is mainly a matter of police power under the control of central authority. Whether that will lead to more intolerance in politics is to be seen.
The Prime Minister said it forcefully that she would not allow terrorists to use the country for attacks on local targets and on neighbouring countries.
The government claims rightly that our terrorism is local. What is also true the terrorism we have is not so organised or a big threat. So we find too much attention is being paid to terrorism making innocent people to feel insecure. The opposition is scared of unbounded police power. What is not appreciated is that terrorism goes if alternative to terrorism succeeds.
Sheikh Hasina was also upbeat in her address on the huge development in all fronts that the country has achieved as she has been claiming over the past years. It is sad that she is not aware of how dull is the economy. If only her party were in touch with common businessmen they would have known it. But the people’s anger and disaffection remain.
Her source of information is deceptive coming from self-seekers. She has to know about the conditions of various sectors of the economy. Let her review the economic condition sector by sector to know how the bureaucratic duplicity is playing up the development stories. Only those who are making business with the government or enjoy government’s patronage are the richest persons and they sing the songs of great economic success.
The central leaders should have drawn attention of the party leaders and workers to the law and order situation they are creating in different places and warn them against hooliganism, crimes of violence and extortion.
The central leaders on the other hand have assured the party men of their determination to continue in power. Democratic change for holding credible election was not found worthy of mentioning. The government will be in charge of the election so unpopularity is not a matter to worry.
Nothing was discussed about the political philosophy for the justification of any party to be known as a political party. It is not enough to say follow Bangabandhu’s ideology without explaining what it is. Democracy of development is denial of democracy of the people for which Awami League’s founding leaders suffered and made supreme sacrifices. Money making politics was unknown to them.
The desire to build Sonar Bangla is not a political ideology.
May be it is because the present Awami League has chosen the path of socialism so it was rightly thought unnecessary to discuss politics. Under socialist dictatorship politics as we understand in a democracy does not exist. Bureaucracy is the base for power and not popularity. Propaganda is popularity.
