PM's scare tactics

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has warned Opposition Leader Khaleda Zia that the latter's advocacy of a caretaker government could well boomerang on both of them in the sense that such a government could end up staying in power forever and sending them to prison. Frankly, one does not quite understand what the prime minister means by the scare tactics and the term 'forever'. Why is she so certain she will be taken to jail? What has she done that she has such fears?
But what concerns us is the scare tactics Sheikh Hasina appears to be employing against those calling for a restoration of the caretaker system. Our point is simple: it is time for the government and the opposition to engage on the issue. The reason is obvious: what the country needs today is a preservation and strengthening of democracy. To that end, whatever degree of compromise or negotiation is necessary, let it happen.
The prime minister has consistently been drawing attention to the nation's experience of the last caretaker government. That sounds rather intriguing, for the fact remains that she welcomed it "as the harvest of her own movement." Had it not been for that government, the free and fair elections which led the Awami League to victory in 2008 would not be possible simply because of the fake voters with which the voters' list was replete. Besides, to argue now that a return to a caretaker system could take the country back to a long period of undemocratic rule is to ignore the objective realities in 2006-2008 and now. Then it was a matter of cleaning up a mess created by Iajuddin-led caretaker government. Today, the problem is simply one of organizing clean, credible elections in the interest of democratic continuity.
The prime minister's position is thus fallacious. One has hardly any reason to agree with it.