The New Nation - Internet Edition

Special Correspondent

Policy planners in the government are in favour of an early broad-based political dialogue with a view to bridging differences of understanding of the current situation and on the ways and means of bringing the process of reforms to a successful conclusion.

An open forum with the high ups in the present administration like the one organised with business leaders on September 5 is thus high on agenda, highly placed sources told The New Nation yesterday.

The dialogue is felt urgent for enlisting organised political support to the present government which, it is felt, is not being strongly backed by any political party or alliance at present The said dialogue might also help remove misgivings, if any, about the declared programmes of the government

Political support is being considered urgent also to smoothen the process of transfer of power to elected representatives of the people after the completion of the process of reforms.

The proposed dialogue is preferred just after the month of Ramadan or, if possible, even during the holy month, the sources said. It is expected to give politicians an open forum to speak out their minds without any fear, as was to some extent the case of the meeting of the Chief Adviser Dr Fakhruddin Ahmed and Army Chief Gen. Moeen U Ahmed the other day with business leaders.

Relevant quarters inside the government believe that honest and dedicated leaders with grass-roots support who might emerge through the process of reforms should get opportunities to be united and function in concert to bring about qualitative changes in national politics.

The latest activism that surfaced centring on the Dhaka University incident in the fourth week of last month has made them skeptical about support from the Bangladesh Awami League (AL) or the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) for completion of the process of reforms and transfer of power to elected representatives. Political dialogue, it is believed, would lead to beter understanding of the intentions of the government and help guard against violent demonstration as was noticed in the recent past This is because highly placed policy planners believe that demonstration of such type is bound to invite harsh actions which would be counterproductive for not only the political forces but also the government

The proposed dialogue is expected to be in addition to the one for which preparations are being made by the Election Commission with a view to bringing about electoral reforms. The EC, it may be recalled, has already announced a roadmap for holding elections sometime before December 2008.