Terming reforms in the political parties and the whole political system a must, they said reforms will have to come from within the parties to have a meaningful impact on politics or bring positive changes to it.

They advised the political parties to elect party leadership democratically, establish collective leadership, and ensure accountability and transparency in operating party funds to have a meaningful reform.

"The reform will not bring positive results for the country if it is forced or means splitting the existing political parties," said former adviser Dr Akbar Ali Khan at a discussion titled "Reforms of political parties: Contemporary thoughts and debates" at the Jatiya Press Club.

Coalition for Good Governance in association with Neeti Gabeshona Kendra organised the discussion with former Dhaka University vice-chancellor Prof Emajuddin Ahmed in the chair.

Firoz M Hasan, former Liberal Democratic Party leader, moderated the programme while Mahbubul Haque Ripon of Neeti Gabeshona Kendra presented the keynote paper.

"Solution will not come if only the parties are split in the name of reforms," Dr Akbar said, adding that if reforms are enforced, those will not work properly and it would be tough to keep them existing.

"Reforms will have to be carried out gradually. First, we have to identify which reforms we can carry out and which we cannot," he said, adding that the reforms should be limited to some select fields.

Akbar, also a former finance secretary, suggested that the accounts of earnings and expenditures of political parties and donations from businessmen must be published for establishing transparency.

He said the two major political parties formed grand alliances only to go to power and this practice must be stopped as this has made politics a game. The electoral system will have to be changed and a national integrity system has to be developed for this, he added.

Akbar said the constitution has some problems in it and those will have to be identified and solved so that the past cannot repeat.

To have a meaningful reform, the Election Commission, the Anti-Corruption Commission, the Public Service Commission and professional bureaucracy, which have been politicised in the past, must be given the authority to function independently.

Prof Emajuddin said big countries that want to rule the world for the next 50 to 100 years want to keep the small countries of the subcontinent including Bangladesh unstable.

"They have been plotting to make Bangladesh a failed state for the last six to seven years and exclude the chiefs of the two major political parties--Awami League and BNP--for the last four years," he said.

"Reforms will have to be brought so that the country is not turned into a failed state according to the plot of this vested group," Prof Emajuddin said.

Mofazzel Karim, adviser to the BNP chairperson, said if the targets of the current reform initiatives are not transparent, then the situation before the declaration of the state of emergency will come back.

"If reforms are not planned to be carried out honestly and candidly, the initiatives will prove to be farces and means to avoid arrest," said Mofazzel, adding that reform is not a process to force and it must be implemented from within the party.

The pro-reforms BNP leader said "command politics" will not go ahead. He asked the authorities to allow politics to go in its own way. "If necessary, give guidelines, but do not try to control it," he said.

Criticising the constitution of the BNP, he said it must be changed to have democracy in the party.

The Election Commission and the government will have to take strict measurers to stop use of black money and criminals in the elections, he added.

Jatiya Party (JP) Presidium Member GM Quader said the JP gave its chairman absolute power after the 2001 election when there was conspiracy against the party. "If we all want a leader, it is democracy. Why will someone force to change the leadership?" Quader said.

Defending politicians and politics, he said nomination selling, influences of black money and thugs during elections are the failures of the EC.

AL Organising Secretary Mahmudur Rahman Manna termed the ongoing reforms initiative a "cultural movement" and said reforms must be carried out openly after discussing it in the party forum.

Manna suggested reforms for his party that include elections through secret ballot for electing leaders at each level, ensuring collective leadership and formation of constituency-based committees to stop nomination selling.

On Hasina's arrest, the AL leader said it has rather enhanced the image and popularity of the AL chief. On one-person leadership, he said leadership has become personified at many places in the world and leadership in the AL has also become personified because of the country's cultural context.

JP Presidium Member Ziauddin Bablu suggested bringing changes in the mindset of politicians alongside the political reforms, otherwise nothing will work properly even after the reforms. He criticised dynasty politics and said it must be stopped to have a meaningful democracy within the party and the government.