Special Correspondent: BNP met with Chief Advisor Professor Dr. Muhammad Yunus and gave its opinion and suggestions on the current situation in the country and the need for early elections.
In a written opinion, the party said, we have expressed our support to you (Dr. Yunus) and want to trust you. You will fulfill the great responsibility of restoring democratic rights to the people of the country as soon as possible. We believe that the national elections are possible by December after the necessary reforms are completed.
BNP leaders presented these written opinions and suggestions to the Chief Advisor on Wednesday (April 16) afternoon. BNP media cell member Shairul Kabir Khan gave this information.
The written advice given by BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said that Bangladesh was freed from fascist rule in July-August 2024 in an unprecedented united struggle of students, workers and the public, following the Language Movement of 1952, the mass uprising of 1969, the achievement of independence through the great Liberation War of 1971, the end of military dictatorship, and the student-mass uprising of 1990. The leaders of the rulers, including their numerous associates, escaped and saved their lives, while the rest were either imprisoned or went into hiding.
At every stage of these struggles, countless people who love the movement have sacrificed their lives. In the past 16 years of struggle alone, more than 1700 opposition leaders and activists have gone missing, more than a thousand have been killed, and more than 6 million leaders and activists have been injured, disabled, and imprisoned in cases of disappearance and subjected to endless harassment. In the groundbreaking mass uprising of July-August 2024 alone, more than 2,000 young people, students, workers, women and children, people of various classes and professions, and political activists who were in front of the leadership, sacrificed their lives, and several thousand more women, men, and children were injured and disabled. Such a continuous struggle to overthrow fascism and restore democracy is a glorious history of infinite sacrifice and courageous struggle for any nation.
It also says that BNP, as a proud active partner who led every struggle to restore democracy and human rights starting from the great liberation war, has tried and is doing its best to make the benefits of every struggle effective for the people. For that purpose, this time too, we have expressed our support for the establishment of an interim government under your leadership, as a distinguished, loyal, non-partisan and universally acceptable person at home and abroad, in accordance with the country’s constitution, in order to prepare a sustainable platform for dedicating the benefits of the July-August student-worker-people uprising to the welfare of the people and fulfilling their aspirations. We have assured you of our full cooperation in carrying out your duties and will continue to do so.
BNP said that the natural expectation of the people, who have been deprived of democratic rights for almost a century and a half, was for you and the interim government formed under your leadership to bring the fascist party, their party government and their allies under the law as soon as possible and prosecute their anti-people and anti-human crimes, prosecute those who looted the country’s resources through corruption and injustice and recover the laundered money, provide adequate compensation to those killed and injured by the fascist government, provide good medical treatment and rehabilitation, and control prices and law and order, destroy all the evil circles and syndicates of the fallen government, and return state power to the people through a free, fair and impartial national parliamentary election as soon as possible with the aim of re-establishing democracy in the country. So that they can collectively ensure fair politics, a developed economy and the human rights and dignity of the people.
We know that the fallen fascist government has corrupted the country’s constitution, laws, rules, institutions and even responsible persons in such a way that changes and reforms in many areas are inevitable for holding a free, fair and impartial election. We have expressed our support and cooperation to your government’s initiatives in this regard.
BNP believes that there is no alternative to democratic governance to protect the interests of the people and ensure their permanent welfare. And reform is an ever-ongoing and inevitable process in a democratic state.
Just as the previous fascist regime’s ‘development first, democracy later’ was a tactic to snatch away the democratic rights of the people, the ‘reform first, democracy later’ argument of some individuals and groups is still a false one. Development for all is possible only by strengthening and implementing the democratic system, and to fulfill this objective, reform of the state system, laws, policies, and regulations is essential. All of these are complementary to each other, none of them is an alternative to the other, nor are they contradictory to each other.
Almost all the epoch-making reforms or positive changes in the history of politics and economy of this country have come through the hands of BNP. Multi-party democracy, parliamentary system of governance, caretaker government system, strengthening of local government, independence of judiciary and media, formation of Anti-Corruption Commission, introduction of stipends and women’s and technical education, employment in the country and abroad, free market economy, agricultural development, medical services, rural electrification, export of non-traditional products, starting from sea fishing to voluntary canal and river excavation, village government, village defense force, cooperatives, development of small and cottage industries, thousands of such examples can be mentioned.
When no political party in this country has spoken about reforms, it is noteworthy that the 19-point program of martyred President Ziaur Rahman, Begum Khaleda Zia’s Vision-2030 on November 18, 2016 and May 10, 2017 to strengthen the Election Commission, the 27-point program of BNP Acting Chairman Tarique Rahman on December 19, 2022 to repair the state structure, and the 31-point program of state reform announced on July 13, 2023 with the opinions of other agitating political parties are noteworthy.
In the written advice, BNP said that those who talk too much about reforms today and are trying to identify BNP as a force against reforms – we draw their attention to the reforms proposed and the changes they have expressed in their Vision-2030 and the 31-point program of state reform.
In the 31-point program, BNP said that if anyone makes a better proposal than these proposals, it will be accepted in the public interest. That is, the ongoing process of reform is part of BNP’s declaration. BNP believes that not all changes are reforms. The purpose of reforms is positive and constructive change. In this regard, BNP welcomes reasonable discussions on all proposals. But BNP does not support the strategy of depriving the people of their right to vote and the right to establish state ownership by wasting unnecessary time in the interests of the party or group and in an attempt to denigrate and make politics or political institutions irrelevant. BNP, determined to implement all the reform proposals outlined in the 31 points and adopted by consensus with the consent of the people in the interest of the country and the people, expects everyone’s cooperation.
BNP told Dr. Yunus, earlier on November 21, 2024 and last February 10, we had conveyed some of our concerns and some suggestions to you in writing. Unfortunately, we were not able to know your position on those issues nor was there any discussion on these issues. It is worth noting that although 764 officials of the administration cadre, who were discriminated against and denied promotion by the fascist government, were promoted to various posts including secretaries, the government’s activities and development efforts are being hampered by the fact that not a single one of them has been promoted so far and the state is being run by the cronies and beneficiaries of the corrupt government’s misrule. It is logical to ensure promotion and posting of officials and employees who are discriminated against in other cadres as well, so we think it is important to complete it quickly.
BNP firmly believes that coordination in the statements and opinions of the chief executive of any state and its government is very important. Recently, some exceptions to this have worried us. We have expressed our support to you and want to trust you. But the public statements and positions of some individuals in your government and some individuals and organizations claiming to support you have created confusion in the public mind. I hope you will take necessary measures in these matters.
BNP further said, we have said before and we want to say again that the great responsibility entrusted to you to restore the democratic rights of the people of the country – you will fulfill it as soon as possible. We believe that the national elections are possible by next December by completing the necessary reforms in the laws, rules, regulations and changes in the relevant institutions for a free, fair and impartial national election. In this regard, as per your assurance given during the previous meeting with you, we call upon you to take the necessary initiatives to immediately announce a specific electoral roadmap with the aim of holding the elections by next December. We also propose to place the NID project under the Election Commission and to quickly resolve the legal complications regarding the re-delineation of constituencies.
At the same time, we call for the prompt trial of the fallen fascist party and those associated with that party government, to clear the political arena of corruption, to take immediate effective measures for compensation and proper treatment of those killed and injured in the July-August coup, and to take more initiatives to improve commodity prices and the law and order situation and bring dynamism to economic activities. At the same time, we demand the immediate withdrawal of all false and harassing cases filed during the illegal government of 1/11 and the fallen fascist government.
In its written opinion and advice, BNP said, we reiterate our decision to continue supporting all the positive efforts of the government under your leadership. In addition, we call for the end of all the confusion created in the public mind by quickly completing the necessary reforms and announcing a specific roadmap for holding the national parliament elections by next December.
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