The saviors must seek to help avoid the post 1/11 mistakes

Mostafa Kamal Majumder

With the President poised to appoint an interim government to steer the country's transition to democracy, speculations over its content and likely terms of reference have caused people at home and abroad to express concerns over avoiding the mistakes of the past.

The 1/11 takeover of 2007 was also welcomed by the people when a grave uncertainty arose because the political parties and alliances pulled themselves poles apart over the election as the grand alliance led by the Awami League-led alliance boycotted the same.

The people had felt a respite from uncertainty. But a series of mistakes committed by the 2-year caretaker government put the country in greater dangers of mortgaging its sovereignty elsewhere and making the political arena unbalanced by disproportionately favouring one party that promised to give them legitimacy.

The nation has recovered from this danger through the student-led people's revolution of 5 August that brought an end to autocracy that all opposition parties fought for 15 years and the people went through the trauma of loss of liberties, enforced disappearances, wanton killings, and rampant corruption.

The government elected in December 2008 with more than two-thirds of majority at the instance of the 1/11 leaders never looked back and never gave democracy another chance. They always maintained the two-thirds majority by using whatever means they had at their command and nothing short of the revolution could stop them.

So guarantee of democracy and sustained development and progress comes form holding of free and fair elections without undue loss of time. Because some political forces have to take charge and responsibility for their work and be compelled to hold election at the right time. The mandate of the Interim government should not be more than this.

Right at this moment it should concentrate on the minimum but most pressing changes that the opposition political forces that spearheaded movements after movement for against all repressions all these 15 years. The barest minimum job is to hold a free and fair election with commitment from the participating parties to restore the caretaker system.

Reforms in the administrative and economic spheres are things for which elected people should take responsibility. One cheap slogan against this is that political parties X, Y or Z are different sides of the same coin. This erroneous concept is the creature of 15 years of propaganda against the opposition. All parties save the AL that ruled for 15 years were for the caretaker system.

Never ever did any other party oppose reforms for which there was unanimity of opinion in the political arena. About the objective of reducing the concentration of all powers to one hand also, there is an unanimity of opinion. But this can be done only by an elected parliament through a constitutional amendment.

We should be clear about why mistakes are likely to be created if the terms of reference of the interim government are made unusually longer. In the present of state of things, in the absence of an election, anyone can and will claim his opinion is right. And there are at least 50 parties and their spokespersons to make such claims. Which opinion will prevail has to be decided through election.

Certain draconian laws can be repealed by the interim government based on the unanimity of opinion that prevails now. None will oppose those. The interim government should concentrate on such surgical measures that would facilitate freedoms and enjoyment of liberties through stoppage of arbitrary arrests, abductions and killings. Substantive measures should remain the domain of the politicians who would get the mandate to do so.

The whole nation applauds the role of the patriotic Armed forces in not only stopping bloodshed, but also ensuring the change of regime without shedding more blood. This maturity would hopefully help them in taking of more matured decisions that the post 1/11 caretaker government failed to take and plunged the nation into not only 15 years of uncertainty but also curtailing the powers of our forces that protect sovereignty.

While the victory of the revolution makes all of us proud, we should all remain committed to uphold our freedoms that the people fought for and the goal of building a discrimination-free society and a welfare state of which all citizens are equal partners. - Mostafa Kamal Majumder