What are political parties offering the voters?
WITH the election knocking at the door, political parties are yet to unravel their plans and programmes for serving the people. Completely oblivious to and unrepentant about what they had done to derail democracy they seem to be unprepared to address the problems of the day. To say the least, they made a farce of governance and rule of law, and concomitantly the nation was subjected to political, ethical and moral erosion of massive magnitude. The real issues facing the nation were subsumed in endless confrontation and battles of attrition between major political parties. But there is no sign that they have become wiser. On the contrary, today they make attempts to create new issues and talk about political movement as if living in the past.
Against this backdrop, an opportunity has presented itself for a new beginning to be made. But politicians not only showed a lukewarm attitude to the reform agenda, today, with the national election at hand, they have yet to go public with their mission and vision.
We feel that while they are busy extracting maximum benefits from the government and the Election Commission, they seem to remain insensitive to the aspirations of the people who want a sea change in the way the country should be governed in the future. But so far we have not heard anything substantive from them on how they plan to address burning issues like price hike, energy crisis, law and order, and effects of climate change and global economic crisis on Bangladesh and so on.
The reform process would remain unfinished when the caretaker government will have handed over power to the elected government. So, the pertinent question is on top of handling the issues of governance what plans the elected government will have about completing those reforms.
Therefore, people now have the right to know what the parties stand for and what they are planning to do regarding bringing about reforms where these are most needed to ensure better governance in the future. Politicians owe this much to the people.
Politics in Bangladesh remain intrinsically confrontational and full of rhetoric. But this needs to be emphasised that such outdated mindset will not take us anywhere unless we have clear policies on the drawing board envisaging a real change in the direction. Politicians this time around will have to basically do their homework well to take on the challenges of the 21st century lest Bangladesh lags behind other nations.
Comments