Staff Reporter :
Civil society platform Nagorik Oikya on Monday called for a unity of the civil society towards a participatory parliamentary election.
Mahmudur Rahman Manna, convener of Nagorik Oikya, placed the call at a seminar on corruption at the Jatiya Press club in the city.
“But the fascist government is not letting the civil society to unite,” Manna said.
He termed the “staged election” by the incumbent government as its “biggest corruption”.
The Nagorik Oikya convener also demanded revelations regarding the forced disappearances and cross fires across the country.
“We want to know under whose instructions the forced disappearances and cross fires are being held,” Manna said. He concluded by asserting that change is inevitable.
Speaking at the seminar, former adviser of the caretaker government Barrister Mainul Hosein explained that there used to be two sources of power for a government to continue. For the democrats, the source of power is the people. For the communists, it is the barrel of the gun. But in Bangladesh we have a third force of power and that is the power of corruption. This government does not depend on free election or public support.
He affirmed that the spirit of liberation war is being abused by undemocratic leftists to oppose and destroy the spirit of the people’s democracy. They forget that our people’s liberation war was for democracy.
Barrister Mainul expressed sadness for the violent attack on Prof Zafar Iqbal and said we must fight both leftist extremism and religious extremism to end terrorism and not one to save the other.
He elaborated by saying that some leftists, under the protection of the government, are abusing the spirit of liberation war for their anti-democracy and anti-Islam politics. It is not intellectualism to propagate hatred against Islam and incite religious extremism. Now we have the leftist extremism against Islam and Islamic extremism against the leftists.
It is not right to blame police, Barrister Mainul emphasized, for safety and security where politics is not helpful for peace and safety.
Only by upholding the original 1972 democratic Constitution starting with impartial election under an impartial government, Barrister Mainul concluded, that we can have a corruption free system for our free country.
Founder of Gono Shasthya Kendra Dr. Jafrullah Chowdhury said, different sectors of our country are controlled by India and the root of all corruption is government.
Dr. Jafrullah was very critical of involving the army men in big commercial projects. It cannot be good for the army.
Former advisor of caretaker government Hafiz Uddin Khan said, a combined and united movement is needed against all the evil, otherwise the present situation cannot overcome.
He laid emphasis on a participatory national poll for greater interest of the country and added we don’t want an election like January 5.
Professor Anu Muhammad, member-secretary of the National Committee to Protect Oil, Gas, Mineral Resources, Power and Ports said, there is no scope to talk about big project because of big project means big corruption.
“They destroyed all kind of democratic institutions,” he said, adding, “There are two groups of ‘fundamentalists’ in the country, one is religious fundamentalists and another is ‘fundamentalists in government’, and the second group is not caring the people’s demands of getting rights’.
Professor of Dhaka University Asif Nazrul mentioned two reasons for corruption. Firstly, absolute power in one hand and secondly, no accountability. The accountability is only confirmed by holding a fair election but in our country there is no election. Here election is held without people’s participation. They destroyed the judiciary also.
Former Bangladesh bank Governor Saleah Uddin Ahmed said, no development is possible by the reckless political system. The banking system of Bangladesh has completely destroyed. And the Bangladesh Bank heist is the best example, he added.
A keynote paper on ‘Corruption’ was presented by the Nagorik Oikya’s central member, Jahid- ur-Rahman.
