Dhaka, Dec 14 (The New Age): Voicing grave concern over the ongoing political crisis, civil society
members at a dialogue in the capital Dhaka on Friday stressed the need
for an immediate initiative by senior citizens to make the ‘silent
majority’ vocal to establish real democracy in the country.
They said
the nation would run into a great trouble if the political parties fail
to find a fruitful solution to the dispute over the next parliamentary
elections.
The Concerned Citizens, a new platform of civil society
members, orgainsed the dialogue on current political crisis, titled
‘Nation Demands Peace’ in the CIRDAP auditorium, in the afternoon.
Moderated
by former caretaker government adviser Hossain Zillur Rahman, the
discussion, was addressed, among others, by Abdullah Abu Sayeed, former
attorney general Hasan Arif and constitution expert Shahdheen Malik,
former president of Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry Asif Ibrahim
and president of International Chamber of Commerce Mahbubur Rahman.
Abdullah
Abu Sayeed regretted that the country earned only the name of democracy
in 1991 after a long struggle against the military ruler. ‘But, now I
think, the situation has turned worse than what was during military
regimes. We’re now living in a state ruled by ‘autocratic democracy’,’
he said.
Sayeed said such ‘autocratic democracy’ started ruling the
nation of 160 million people since 1991, and both the major parties —
Awami League and Bangladesh Nationalist Party — resorted to autocratic
measures during their respective regimes.
‘So, we need to launch a united fight against this and forging such a unity is not easy,’ he said.
Asif
Ibrahim said the businessmen are the worst affected of the political
volatility despite their key role in bolstering the country’s economic
growth.
‘The most unfortunate thing is that politics controls the economy here,’ he said.
Mahbubur
Rahman expressed his concern over the current political situation and
blamed the major political parties for not practicing real democracy in
the country.
The platform placed a four-point demand at the dialogue to hold a free and fair election.
The
demands are immediate end to all destructive political programmes;
postponing the election schedule, ensuring a level-playing field through
reconstitution of the poll-time government, and initiating a
constitutional reform.