Embedded Files
Published on: New Age
Date: 9th April 2014
Democracy in Bangladesh faces an existential threat from within. A hand picked all party election-time government under the leadership of the Awami League has mobilized and unleashed all the instruments of state power to repress the electorate and deny them their inherent and constitutional right to exercise their will through free, unimpeded voting. December 29 2013, will be remembered by the people of Bangladesh, long after Sheikh Hasina and her AL cohorts have passed from the political and national stage, as a day when they delivered a grievous blow to democracy and freedom. The raw images on the television screen of police barricades throughout the capital city, of armed AL activists (abetted and protected by the police and law enforcing agencies) attacking unarmed opposition party activists throughout Dhaka (even within the premises of the Supreme Court and the Press Club) does not fully convey the outrage of the people as that of the deployment of hundreds of uniformed and plain clothed police, RAB and intelligence agencies in front of the residence of Begum Khaleda Zia, leader of the BNP.
The stationing of sand filled trucks for the purpose of blocking the exit of the main opposition party leader and preventing her from going to a political rally is unprecedented in Bangladesh tumultuous political past. A so called elected all party government laid siege of the capital city of the country from within and without, reminiscent of the tactics of dictators and fascists. It made a mockery of everything this nation holds dear the values and aspirations that energized our War of liberation freedom, democracy and economic emancipation.
The events leading up to and those of Dec. 29, 2013, (including 154 Members of Parliament already elected), is a tragic preview of what this nation can expect to witness on the scheduled Jan 5, 2014 elections. It lends credence to the opposition claim of why a non-party election-time government is necessary for the perpetuation of the democratic processes in Bangladesh and to free it from the clutches of a political party that has arrogated to itself the right to govern our country in perpetuity. It should motivate patriots and freedom loving citizens, irrespective of political persuasion, to reject what is being forced down the throat of this nation in the name constitutional politics.
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