The New Nation - Internet Edition

The EC has made a fresh vow on Monday (25th Feb) that it wants 'not to be national traitors - Jatiya Baiman' by not holding the much talked about (if not much needed too) polls by the end of 2008 as per roadmap it announced earlier.

CEC Dr. ATM Shamsul Huda, as head of the team, made this vow after holding talks (Second Round) with Awami League and others on Monday.

We welcome CEC's comment with a full-heart. We also thank Dr. Huda for recoining the word 'Jatiya Baiman' which was first coined in 1986 by Begum Khaleda Zia when AL supremo decided to join hands with Army Ruler Gen. Ershad changing their earlier joint decision not to go for polls under military rule. However, the events of the past are not our concern. What is now our point of concern is that the Election Commission and its members must not be induced or influenced (or for themselves indulge in) by cheap emotions. They should be empirical and guided by the ground realities. They should, under all weather, be impartial and not react emotionally.

But unfortunately, in some of their words and deeds the EC members, particularly so far their handlings with BNP and Begum Khaleda Zia, are accounted for, have failed to prove their unquestionable impartiality. It rather seems they lack maturity in dealing with matters that bear political manifestations.

Some say, this is not unlikely from an EC whose members are all bureaucrats - both civil and military. For, bureaucrats are more prone to go by orders or dictates by nature and seldom they can move on their own.

What we feel is very simple. The EC should work in silence. They should not make much sound. For that (making noise) there are many stakeholders - the politicians, the professionals, (unfortunately the professionals are mere extended hands of the politicians), the so-called development partners and foreign friends (!) and the CTG bosses - who set things moving basing on the undercurrents that run beneath the political surface and international cross-currents. Unless things are settled at that level, the EC cannot or should go for such tall talks which will cast on their very image and drop it down to the lowest ebb.

We hope the learned EC members are not that incapable to read this plain truth.

Abu Musa Miah

Lalbagh, Dhaka