The New Nation - Internet Edition

The government has proposed to hold a dialogue with the major political parties. The dialogue is for arriving at consensus on some issues for holding elections according to the roadmap announced by the Election Commission with a view to ensuring peace, economic progress and stability of the country. Chief Adviser, Dr Fakhruddin Ahmed underlined in his address to the nation recently that he looks at the dialogue as one for essentially getting all-round agreements from the political forces about a code of conduct to be practiced by them after the election so that a situation of the sort that led to the 1/11 changes does not repeat. The dialogue plus carrying on of wider political reforms including the reform of the political parties to make them cleaner, accountable and suited to produce talented and morally fit leaders to take over the charge of running the country, seem to be the objectives from the government side in the dialogue.

The ball would be now in the court of the political parties. They should respond constructively to this dialogue offer from the government. There is no way for the political parties to stubbornly maintain a stand that their past conduct was above reproach and that they need not exercise soul searching and not carry out self- reforms. People generally expect them to mend their ways and if they do not do this, then they would lose their claim to be truly people’s representatives. The agenda for the dialogue with the government has not been set. Leading persons in the administration have expressed what things they would like to see at the top of the agenda such as the political parties carrying out certain reforms in their own organisations to make them democratic, accountable, transparent, and creating opportunities for upward mobility of good and efficient persons.

Government side also would like to see that the culture of buying and selling nomination of candidates for elections is prevented and the use of black money and muscle power in the elections in no longer there. Other top items for consensus likely to be stressed by the government are guarantees that all elected parties would give an undertaking not to boycott Parliament sessions, to give up hartal as a political weapon, strengthening of the parliamentary committees; undertaking that on winning seats of Parliament the parties would support and ratify all the laws related to the good works that the incumbent government has done so far such as the independence of the judiciary and the Election Commission. People will see whether the political leaders who aspire to govern the country have truly realised their lapses and are agreeable to changing themselves. All caring people are perhaps one in expecting that there ought not to be going back to the old order of intolerance and violence in politics.