The recent meeting between Sheikh Hasina and Begum Khaleda Zia at the armed forces day reception has generated natural interest throughout the country. One of course does not expect that the meeting, the first in a very long time, will have led or will lead to anything immediately substantive. The reason why we say that has to do with the bad legacy that has developed over the past many years, with the Awami League chief and the BNP chairperson, both former prime ministers, studiously maintaining a distance from each other. That has had unfortunate consequences for the country, one being that their attitude toward each other has percolated down to the lower levels of their party structures and even to the entire country. The political divide we witness today is as much an offshoot of the personal animosity of the two leaders as it is of the political positions adopted by their parties to national issues.
Which of course is not suggesting that the meeting between the two pre-eminent politicians of the country is not a significant happening. It most certainly is, but it is on whether they are now ready to adopt a new course where interacting with each other is concerned that the future shape of politics depends. The nation looks forward to a return of democracy through the general elections scheduled for late December. What it also expects is a change in political culture, a clear shift away from the attitudes which in the last eighteen years have effectively kept democracy from taking good, productive roots in the country. We expect the elections to be fully free, fair and transparent. We expect too that no quarter will attempt any engineering that might raise questions about the results of the voting. Once such expectations are met, we trust our leaders and parties will develop a system that will bring them closer in the broad national interest. Of course, we do not expect them to do away with their programmes. But we do think it is time for them to bring about a degree of modernization in their thinking. That can be done through both the ruling party and the opposition developing mutual respect. The ruling circles can take the very proper step of keeping the opposition abreast of important issues and the decisions made about them. For its part, the opposition can provide constructive criticism of government policies and also support it when the national interest demands it. And, to be sure, the opposition can also prepare to be the government of the future through putting in place a shadow cabinet.
Let the meeting between Sheikh Hasina and Khaleda Zia be a spur to new politics. And let the upcoming elections be the foundation of a new, credible democratic order. |