Editorial Desk :
In this column we also suggested, like many well meaning leaders of Western democracies including the United States who are actively engaged to ensure free and fair election, that the political parties should have a dialogue to find a way-out for the upcoming election to be free and fair.
We knew that political dialogue would not change Awami League’s position of rigging election as free and fair because they devised the election rigging mechanism by changing the Constitution.
To say that rigging election against the people’s right to vote is to be accepted as free and fair election and the government so formed is to be reckoned as the people’s government makes no political sense.
Such an assertion amply proves the emptiness of political leadership the people are getting from the government.
The government is not worried that, other than corruption in every sphere, its stark failure has made itself too vulnerable.
The major political parties have started continuous mass movement in Dhaka and other parts of the country.
The police brutalities against the political workers and leaders are making peaceful public gathering impossible.
The opposition leaders are being treated inhumanly as they are sent to jail showing false cases against them.
Those who are ill and under medical care are also not spared.
It was far from our thoughts that the government would respond positively.
To deny the people their basic right to vote for the government of their choice, the incumbent has been preparing police and other law enforcing agencies to suppress people’s movements at any cost.
The government that defends rigged election does not believe in politics of dialogue or political compromise.
In Bangladesh the leaders of political parties have become so in hereditary consideration.
Whether the leader has sufficient education or experience to know what the government is and how to run a democratic government was not important. That is at the root of political crisis.
To rig election denying the people their basic right as citizens cannot be sensible politics even though the 1972 democratic Constitution is
in existence for the fundamental rights of the people and for the independence of the judiciary.
The government is heading for a communist kind of absolute dictatorship.
The government will not hesitate to cause bloodbath to remain in power instead of doing what is politically sensible. Give up the power to an interim government to arrange for a free and fair election.
The people are in panic and worried about safety of their lives. The United Nations has already expressed concern for loss of lives.
The international community that is anxiously engaged to ensure free, fair and peaceful election has been successful so far as the government has relaxed the iron grip on the opposition expressing their anti-government views.
That is certainly a great leap forward to be hopeful about a democratic change in Bangladesh.
But the government is still determined to succeed in remaining in power through its election rigging mechanism.
Rightly or wrongly, the government still thinks that the repressive power of the police will be on their side.
The government not being political cannot think of a political alternative. The government is too hateful of the opposition for its own good.