Staff Reporter :Speakers at a roundtable have urged all the educated people as well as intellectuals to be united to get rid of any sort of undemocratic attitude and egotism of the government to establish human rights in the country. They also urged the government to learn from the world’s worst offenders and the worst rulers about the end result of undemocratic attitude. Like other parts of the world, the speakers also laid importance on establishing a regional human rights watchdog with judicial power and due jurisdiction on the state parties.”Whether few of us or all of us is immaterial but the fact is that the educated ones among us by betraying with their conscience and submitting to the selfishness of their own have brought upon the whole nation the crisis of insecurity of life and total uncertainty about the country’s future,” said Barrister Mainul Hosein, former advisor to the caretaker government while speaking as a guest of honour at the roundtable on “Human Rights and Governance in Asia” at a city hotel on Saturday.”The people tolerated for too long the lies and arrogance of false heroes of the Liberation War creating a situation where security of life is now the grave national concern. But no more if the nation has to be saved,” he added. Barrister Mainul said that those who want to look for anti-liberation forces everywhere should look for among the anti-democratic forces and that will be the best way to make the country safe for life and development.”Most pressing challenge for us is to have a government of the people elected by and for the people,” he said.”Peace and progress has to be achieved through unity among the people and adherence to democratic good governance. Those who are talking development without democracy are talking of corruption without accountability,” he added.Center for Governance Studies and Bangladesh Political Science Association jointly hosted the roundtable.Chaired by former professor, Department of Political Science of Dhaka University Ataur Rahman, it was attended by former ambassador to Japan Rashed Ahmed and Professor of Law Department of DU Asif Nazrul as the guest of honour.S. M. Ali Reza Ph D, Associate Professor of the Department of Political Science of DU, Md Jahangir Alam, Associated Professor of Japan Study Center, DU, Takaki Takeda, Advisor to the ambassador of Japan for Bangladesh Sahidul Islam, Research Fellow of Power and Participation Research Centre (PPRC) and Policy Research Institute (PRI) Harun-ur-Rashid were the discussants, among others. Associate Professor of the Department of Political Science of DU Md Shariful Islam attended the programme as the keynote speaker.”North Korea is on the top position of the list of world’s worst offender for the last one-decade. So you can learn from a worst country about the result,” Ataur Rahman said.”Paranoid gives a paranoid country, so you need a democratic leadership to establish democracy,” he added.Rashed Ahmed, in his speech, accused unlimited greed of elite for the prevailing worst ever situation in the country.”We all have become greedy, greed for power, greed for money and greed for name and fame have made us blind. Educated, elite and the intellectuals now cannot see difference between good and bad. They are eager to earn their own bread,” he added. Asif Nazrul said educated people, especially we the intellectuals are responsible for what is happening in the country.”Who ever speaks against the government becomes violator of laws, extremist, anti-force of democracy and against the sprit of Liberation War. So in such a situation, it is not possible to establish democracy here without being united,” Asif Nazrul said.However, Md Shariful Islam pressed the need for establishing a human rights watchdog with judicial power and due jurisdiction on the state parties to establish people’s rights.”Unlike the other parts of the world, Asia is yet to establish a regional human rights watchdog with judicial power and due jurisdiction on the state parties,” said Shariful Islam.”Asian states are still in dire need of reforming their judiciaries, prosecution system, policing and such other institutions,” he added.
