NEWS reports published in several national dailies on Wednesday quoted Jatiya Party (JP) MP Kazi Feroze Rashid as saying that the party is going through a difficult time as nobody is accepting it as the formal opposition party in parliament. As we see, he is quite right and this is because as he also knows it, that MPs from the JP have been selected to parliament under a seat sharing voterless election in the first place and then they are sitting in the Cabinet as part of the government. Why then people should accept them as the formal opposition in the House. JP leadership must know that people are not fools; they understand what is good and what is bad; what is a fair election as against what is a mock exercise in the name of election. The question is clear: if the party is not fairly elected by the people and its MPs are not performing the role of the honest opposition by criticizing the government actions why they should claim to be the opposition and expect that people will accept them accordingly. Why JP has fallen into this disgrace to help the ruling party in its bid to kill the country’s democratic process is known. As we see, people have already paid the JP back by refusing to elect JP candidates to Upazila elections.
Another news report moreover said that the government rejected a plea of the JP lawmakers to allocate Jamuna State Guest House to Raushan Ershad as the official residence of the leader of the opposition. The issue was raised in parliament on Tuesday that the villa allocated to Raushan Ershad is in a very poor condition and she deserves a good residence in line with those used by the President, Prime Minister and Speaker of Parliament. The Public Works Minister summarily turned down the request apparently demeaning the status of the leader of the opposition.
Highlighting the plight of JP in parliament and outside, yet another news report yesterday said the leader of the opposition is not only almost ignored in parliament; she is equally ignored by the members of the diplomatic community in the capital. Nobody pays her a visit to exchange compliments. Nobody bothers her. Even there was hardly any news in the media of her ever being congratulated by the members of the diplomatic corps on being elected as the leader of the opposition. Diplomats rather met HM Ershad on many occasions while Raushan remained unattended.
In fact, we hold the view that the biggest crisis that the country now faces is how to hold a free democratic election to be participated by all political parties and what may be the nature of a neutral government. Canadian High Commissioner Hither Cruden raised the issue, like almost all other diplomats in the capital, on Tuesday when she met Foreign Minister AH Mahmud Ali. We are afraid JP in its namesake role as the leader of the opposition has no place in this situation to make any contribution to resolve the crisis or claim people’s recognition as a viable political force. So the party may be ignored as long as the present situation will persist. This is the crisis of democracy in Bangladesh at this moment.
