![]() Sunday, February 17, 2019 04:54:48 PM
|
Please do not humiliate the nation any more. The people who fought for democracy, engaged in a liberation war more specifically, for establishing people's government by people's vote know what democracy means. Our teachers are teaching democracy in many well-developed countries. We do not need beneficiary sycophants to tell us what democracy is.
The present government by denying the people their essential democratic right to elect their government is not stopping there. Expensive foreign trips are undertaken to show us pictures with foreign leaders. Nothing could be a greater shame for our nation than the claim by the government that voter-less election is a victory for democracy not only for Bangladesh but also for the world.
It is being claimed that our kind of democracy has become victory for world's democracy because Bangladesh has been elected to be the president of Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU). We do not know if our election engineers were also available there to declare Bangladesh elected. Yet we are ready to accept that Bangladesh representing the third world countries got genuinely elected. But it is no recognition of Bangladesh government's democracy.
The Commonwealth Press Union or the IPU do not bother to see whether the member of the parliament or the government is democratically elected or not. The IPU works for dialogue and peace among the member countries. Cuba, among many other dictatorships, is also a member of the IPU. On the other hand, the Commonwealth Press Union concerns itself with the press freedom.
As there has been no protest through street violence the government seeks justification that our people have accepted the government. This much is understandable. But a government that is afraid of facing free and fair election should not have been so loud and brazen about its democratic character.
Absence of street violence does not make an unelected government a democratic government. Those who believe in that kind of democracy where people's participation is irrelevant and where there is no street violence then all martial law governments of the past were also democratic. There was no violent protest by the people. When some politicians eagerly welcomed such martial law regimes. Some others too happily joined the martial law governments. When they held election, they managed to win by a large margin. No political party could defeat them.
In our country, the members of martial law government had no difficulty in being recognized as government of Bangladesh. International community has to deal with any government that exists for the time being.
It is a matter of national pride and dignity to live with democratic rights and under a government that is elected by them as their own. It should be a matter of humiliation for us that our government not being ready to face a free and fair election, still happily claims it to be a democratically elected government just because violent protests are absent.
It is true that change for having a BNP government does not inspire a movement against the government, the reason being, none of them is democratic. In both the parties money making consideration is predominant. Both of them are happy with hereditary leadership. So BNP must reform itself in order to make it seen as a democratic alternative.
As the present government has abandoned election politics so by the same stroke it has ended mother and son monarchical politics both for BNP and Awami League. Politics of constitutionalism has ceased. Politics will now be about raw power struggle between police power and people power.
The conclusion is: Whether we are fit for democracy is our affair and it has to be our business to do something about it. We do not want to suffer the shame of Pakistani kind of dictatorship. Searching and begging for misleading support for democracy from outsiders should be an embarrassment for the government itself. We understand the need to be farcical in the world of democracy for taking our government seriously.
Let the government show at least some competence to run the country. No outside movement will be necessary. It will bring its own downfall for chaos within. Dictatorship is the end of rule of law and individual freedoms anywhere. So the worse is yet to come if the government cannot save itself from the grip of the Cuban type democracy.
CITY'S Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College Hospital has started operations after a messy situation caused by fire on Thursday evening. Director of the SSMCH said a total of 1,174 patients, including 72 children, were shifted to other government hospitals after the fire originated at the children's ward on the second floor ...
AFP, Tokyo :Japanese swimmers have vowed to step up their efforts in support of Rikako Ikee, the poster girl for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics who has announced she is suffering from leukaemia.Earlier this week, the 18-year-old swim queen tweeted that she had cut short a training camp in Australia after ...
Etienne Capoue's goal in first-half stoppage time was enough to give Watford a 1-0 win away to Queens Park Rangers (QPR) on Friday that saw the Hornets into the quarter-finals of the FA Cup.Both sides had opportunities in an even opening period that belied the fact that Watford are eighth ...
AFP, Ankara :Turkey has not yet revealed all the information it has discovered about the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Friday."We haven't given all the elements we have at our disposal," the Turkish head of state said during an ...
Entertainment Desk :The premier show of 'Fagun Haway', a movie based on the 1952 Language Movement, draw a large number of film loving people at cinema halls.Actor turned director Tauquir Ahmed directed the movie which was released simultaneously at 52 cinema halls across the country.The story of the movie was ...
FOR the constant rise in sea levels and rapid climate change, the famous Royal Bengal Tigers of the Sunderbans could be disappeared within 50 years, especially from the Bangladesh part, according to a new study published recently in the journal Science of The Total Environment. A team of Bangladeshi and ...
.
Agency :Dale Steyn, the South African mainstay, continued to impress on his comeback trail, as he bowled at high pace and picked up four wickets over a long spell on Day 2 of the first Test of the two-match series versus Sri Lanka in Durban.The veteran fast bowler bowled at ...
Sheikh Arif Bulbon :Popular host of present time Shanta Jahan has to be engaged with hosting round the year in and outside the country in different stage shows and TV programmes. Besides hosting, she has more identities. She is also a model and TV actress. But she always feels comfortable ...
AFP, Washington :President Donald Trump is a little heavier than last year and needs a higher dose of cholesterol medicine, but remains in "very good health," his official doctor said Thursday.The presidential physician, Sean Conley, said Trump, 72, passed his medical exam last week with flying colors."It is my determination ...
Martin Guptill is happy to work his way through the travails of a slow Napier pitch and score an ODI hundred, which helped New Zealand beat Bangladesh by eight wickets in the opening game of the three-match series. The hosts had notably lost the ODI against India here couple of ...
PTI, Islamabad :The Taliban said Wednesday that its negotiators would meet US envoys for talks this month in Islamabad, and also sit down with Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan to discuss Afghanistan.While Islamabad did not immediately confirm the talks, Washington said it had "noted" the announcement, which comes after weeks ...
AP, Washington :Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort intentionally lied to investigators and a federal grand jury in the special counsel's Russia probe, a judge ruled Wednesday.U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson's decision was another loss for Manafort, a once-wealthy political consultant who rose to lead Donald Trump's 2016 campaign ...
YET again Myanmar has shown Saint Martin's Island of Bangladesh as of its part in the official map. Protesting it, Dhaka on Thursday summoned Myanmar Chargé d'affaires and handed over a strongly worded protest note also expressing serious dissatisfaction over repeating such false claim, and demanded immediate corrective measures. Director ...
Items that you save may be read at any time on your computer, iPad, iPhone or Android devices. | |
Are you new to our website? | Do you have already an account at our website? |
Create An Account | Log in here |
Email: | |