Staff Reporter:
Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir yesterday said the consistency of polls ensures accountability of elected persons to the countrymen as there is no alternative to democratic practice to take the country ahead.
“Democratic practice is very essential (for our country). If there is consistency in the elections, account-ability persists among the elected representatives,” he said as the chief guest at a discussion titled “Social Security: How does it secure?”
Arpon Alok Foundation, a platform of state thinkers, organized the event at the Manik Mia Hall of the Jatiyo Press Club yesterday.
“The deposed Awami League has ruined this country for over the last 15 years. So, there is no reason to think that you can fix everything in one or one and a half years,” the BNP secretary general said.
Stating that there is no alternative to democratic practice to resolve the country’s ongoing crisis, he said a citizen’s social security depends on their state structure and social system.
“Our current social system has various complexities. To solve a problem, a school teacher has to come to Dhaka. If irregularity and discrimination continues, it will be very difficult to change everything over-night,” he said.
“Still, we hope that the efforts the advisers of interim government have made so far, along with the inte-grated decisions of the reform commissions, will allow all of us to move towards an equitable future for Bangladesh,” he added.
Referring to a representative government, Fakhrul said, “Now, if we can form a representative govern-ment, if we can establish a union parishad, upazila parishad, and parliament through a free and fair elec-tion, we will be able to create a system of accountability to the people. That will be a good path for us, through which we may be able to solve some of the problems.”
Everything, including education, health, employment, and production, depends on the state and on how the elected representatives govern the country after coming to power, the BNP leader added.
Arpon Alok Foundation founder Bithika Binte Hossain conducted the program.
Chairman of the Nationalist Democratic Movement (NDM) Bobby Hajjaj, Chief Coordinator of the Ganosanhati Andolan Zonayed Saki, among others, spoke at the event.
