People must be saved from violence and bloodletting

Editorial Desk :
The United Kingdom, United States, the delegation of the European Union, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, in a joint statement on Tuesday, unequivocally condemned the attack on independent candidate Hero Alom during Dhaka-17 by-election on July 17. The United Nations as well as the UK-based right group, Amnesty International, also denounced the attack in strong words.

While expressing condemnation, these countries and bodies categorically said that such an attack on a candidate is not compatible with fair democratic process and urged the Bangladesh government to carry out an investigation on the attack. The people of Bangladesh who have been suffering from atrocities for years have welcomed the condemnation.

Hero Alom was not any serious threat to the government, even then out of bad habit of intolerance he was badly tortured by Awami League followers. So the incident has made it clear about the extent of massacre that would be inevitable if the government can hold a farcical election in its bid to remain in power with the help of government machinery.

What is a free and fair election is not for any political party to decide. It is to be transparent to any sensible person. If free election is ensured to meet international standards, then the government would not be available to take part in the election. The country would be engulfed in lawlessness.

Denial of free election is denial of people’s right to choose freely their government. Other than free election let anybody convince us how a nation can have a people’s government.
Democracy is a government of institutions as defined and protected by the people’s Constitution. The democratic system for its functioning does not depend on the wish or pleasure of anybody or any party.

For the lack of understanding of democracy as well as the greed of power, Awami League unilaterally discarded the Constitutional arrangement of caretaker government to require election to be held under its own sitting government. The Election Commission has been reduced to a rubber stamp for endorsing election rigging by the government.

The caretaker government was made part of our democratic Constitution as an all-party unanimous decision. It was felt necessary to allow the Election Commission to discharge its constitutional duty of holding free election without interference or threat from the sitting party government.

Our people all along fought for democracy and the rule of law. But after the birth of Bangladesh with the help of India, the country became a graveyard for democracy. At one occasion, the Awami League government decided to call it a revolutionary government to wipe out any trace of democracy.

Our people have been facing crisis for saving democracy and their democratic rights. They lost all freedoms and protection of law. The government assumed all powers and gained all freedom to plunder the country and abuse power at will. It is unfortunate for the people to see the transformation of Awami League into a tyrannical anti-people party forgetting altogether its legacy of fighting for democracy.
The government will not face free election come what may. This means as a desperate government to remain in power, Awami League may be encouraged to go to the extreme as the people’s movement for resignation of the government for free election turns more fierce and more widespread. The mass upsurge remains a dangerous possibility.

It is a great relief for our people to find the active international response in favour of transparently free and fair election without violence.
To deny people the right to vote freely to elect their government is not party politics. The government’s intention to continue in power with the help of corrupt and dangerous elements cannot be denied.
Only international community can bring sanity to prevail. The government and its allies are in danger for their huge corruption and misdeeds.