PM hopes BNP won't boycott

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has said the BNP will commit a “political mistake” if it boycotts the next parliamentary election over non-restoration of the caretaker government system.
She said this in an interview aired by BBC Bangla radio yesterday. In another interview with BBC World Service the same day, Hasina said BNP had to participate in the elections if it believed in democracy.
“…Either directly or indirectly they [BNP] will participate,” she added.
In the radio interview, the prime minister said, "They [BNP] might commit a political mistake if they don't take part in the election."
The BNP and its allies say they will boycott the next general election if the caretaker government system is not reinstated. The system was scrapped through a constitutional amendment on May 30 last year.
Asked why her government did not accept the High Court suggestion that two more national elections could be held under caretaker governments, Hasina said, "The High Court did not give any order; they just gave their opinions."
The caretaker government system has been abolished to execute the main rule of the High Court, she added.
Back in 1990, Hasina said, the three opposition parties decided by consensus that the next three general elections would be held under caretaker governments, and that has already been done.
Besides, she continued, the experience with the 2007 military-backed caretaker administration had been anything but pleasant. Coming to power as an interim government, the caretakers clung to power for two years, oppressed political leaders and businessmen, put them in jail and sought to implement a “minus-two formula”.
"I wonder if the opposition leader has forgotten how she suffered at the hands of the caretaker government. Her sons were made to leave the country after giving undertaking; cases filed against her by the Anti-Corruption Commission are still going on," Hasina said.
"Still, she [Khaleda Zia] wants the caretaker system reinstated. Who can guarantee these incidents will not be repeated under the caretaker government in future?”
The prime minister said the Election Commission, not her government, would conduct the next election. She claimed that all elections held under the AL-led government had been free, fair and credible. For example, she said, the ruling party-backed candidates had been defeated in the Narayanganj and Chittagong city corporation polls and in the Habiganj by-election.
“It amuses me when the BNP wants to forge a movement for a caretaker government. When we campaigned for the caretaker government system, they said there were no neutral persons in Bangladesh except for lunatics and children. Now I don't know if the opposition leader has found any such person.”
The BNP should rather work to gain the trust of the people who “have not yet forgotten the terrorism, corruption, misrule and nepotism of the BNP-led four-party alliance”, she added.
Queried on how confident she was about the opposition's participation in the next national polls under the incumbent government, she said, "There will be a new election commission. The honourable president has already taken an initiative to that end; he is holding a dialogue with the political parties.
"His instructions after the dialogue will be followed. We want the main opposition party to join the dialogue and give its opinions. They can say whom they want as election commissioners and what the selection process should be.”
On the war crimes trial, the prime minister said the government would not tolerate any attempt to foil the trial. “The trial of the war criminals is a national demand and proceedings have been initiated in line with that demand,” she said.
“If anyone thinks the war criminals can be protected by exploding bombs on the streets, setting fire to buses and burning people to death…that won't work.”
Hasina claimed that relations between the government and the opposition were all right save for the issue of the war crimes trial.
She said she was working to make good on the pledges she had made before the last election. No retaliatory attacks like the ones by the BNP after the 2001 election were made on the opposition parties after the 2008 election, and all parties were carrying out their political programmes independently.
Television Interview
Speaking about the state of democracy in Bangladesh and Pakistan, the prime minister said a continuous democratic process is needed to develop a country. “The people of Pakistan have suffered from the lack of a democratic system. But now there is a democratic government, elected government. We hope that in future they will make progress…no doubt about it.”
Hasina said, “But in Bangladesh we are doing our work, in our own way. We have targeted plans, we have vision 2021 to build up Bangladesh as middle income country. So we will do that.”
On criticism of the standards on which the war crimes tribunal has been working, she said, “In this tribunal we have given many liberties to them (the accused). Even after the judgment they can appeal to the higher court. But in this world many war trials, you know, have taken place. No other tribunal has allowed this liberty to them (the accused). But we did it.”
On the opposition party's claim that elections cannot be free and fair without a caretaker government, Hasina said, “We follow a Westminster type of democracy. The way in which elections are held, we will do that and our election commission is working totally independently.”
Will you go ahead with the elections, if the opposition does not participate? The premier said, “I think at last they [BNP] have to come, they will join. If they believe in democracy, they have to come.”
About the opposition's firm stance on a boycott of the polls, Hasina said, “Well, in politics they say many things. But at last, whatever happens either directly or indirectly, they will participate. That's what they will be doing.”