Now Ershad showers Hasina with praises
Contradicting his own claim just six days ago when he stated that there was no democracy in Bangladesh and the country was witnessing a one party democracy, former military dictator HM Ershad yesterday said it was for the “skilled, determined, courageous and honest leader of the state”, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, that the world was coming to know of Bangladesh's democracy.
“It was for Bangabandhu that the world came to know about Bangladesh,” the Jatiya Party chairman said in a statement congratulating the Awami League president on lawmakers from her party being elected to lead international parliamentary bodies.
Speaker Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury and lawmaker Saber Hossain Chowdhury were recently elected chairperson and president of Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) and Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) respectively.
Terming the victories significant for Bangladesh in the contemporary world, Ershad said, “This is not only a victory of the two candidates -- this is the victory of the sky-high image of yours (Hasina) at the international level. This is the victory of Bangladesh's democracy.”
He said it did not matter who had become the IPU president rather the big issue was that the person was nominated by Hasina to contest the country's parliamentary election and that the person was a member of a parliament being led by Hasina.
On Saber beating the Speaker of Australia's House of Representatives in the election, Ershad also stated to have failed to recollect whether there was any instance of such international recognition of Bangladesh's democratic progress under her leadership.
The special envoy to the prime minister also said people would always remember this success with respect.
On democracy in the country at Thursday's views-exchange meeting at his Banani office, Ershad said, “We don't want this kind of a system. People want to get rid of this situation.”
Several times earlier after the January 5 national polls Ershad had lambasted the government on different issues, saying that it has no right to hold power for failing to run the country properly.
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