Staff Reporter:
Prime Minister’s Political Adviser Zahir Uddin Swapon yesterday said the parliament is now being worked effectively while the Jamaat-led 11-party opposition alliance’s long march from Dhaka to Chattogram to realize its six-point demand is contrary to the people’s aspirations.
The PM’s political adviser said this while addressing a roundtable meeting at Bangladesh Institute of Law and International Affairs (BILIA) auditorium yesterday.
In parliamentary politics, he said duty of an opposition is to keep the government under accounta-bility through the check and balance. But the tendency of shifting the debate of parliament to the street eventually violates democratic culture.
The roundtable titled – The review of first 180 days of the democratic government of Bangladesh: Good governance, accountability and development context- was organized by Citizen Forum Bang-ladesh and Bangladesh Center for Advanced Initiative (BCAI).
Chaired by Chairman of the University Grants Commission of Bangladesh (UGC) Professor Mamun Ahmed, the programme also was attended, among others, by former State Minister for Foreign Af-fairs Abul Hasan Chowdhury. Dr. Shakhawat Hossain Sayantha moderated the function attendd by noted politicians, educationists and researchers.
PM’s political adviser said it is a responsibility of the opposition to keep the parliamentary democ-racy dynamic and meaningful. But country’s conscious people must be alert about shifting the par-liamentary debate unnecessarily and quickly to the street and announcing the programme like long march.
It is beyond understanding why opposition political parties are organizing such programme as var-ious inside and outside evil forces usually wait to capitalize such unstable situation.
Highlighting the assessment of government’s first 180 days, Zahir Uddin Swapon said the govern-ment has paved the way to take the country in a right direction from the deadlock situation of fre-quent practice of fascism, fragile social system and economic bankruptcy.
The PM’s adviser, however, said the crisis was so deep that it was impossible to bring an overnight change of the situation, but the government already has taken concrete policy measures to ensure long-term sustainable growth.
Swapon said the country is suffering immensely with the power and energy sector which was due to long term import and faulty policy persuaded in the last several years.
No sustainable policy has been taken to explore natural gas, he said adding “It’s not only a corrup-tion but also a long fraud with the nation.”
Regarding the present government’s initiative to overcome the situation, the adviser said the Prime has expressed sincere regret to the situation and is exploring alternative sources and im-plementing own gas extraction initiative.
To restore good governance and economic stability, he said the government is exploring new im-port opportunities and minimize import cost.
Calling upon the opposition for constructive criticism in the parliament, the PM’s political adviser said blame game and focusing only on government’s failure without giving any constructive idea cannot be good example of good parliamentary practice.
“The opposition should not only criticize the government superficially but also to give concrete and pragmatic advice which would play positive role to take forward the country,” he noted.
The Jamaat-led 11-party alliance launched the long march on Saturday to press home a series of demands.
The demands what they said, implementing the referendum result, justice for July killings, ad-dressing energy and fertiliser shortages, action against extortion and corruption, improvements of law and order, and an end to partisan politics.
The alliance has planned more long marches from Dhaka to Rangpur on September 19, Khulna on October 10, Sylhet by rail on October 24 and a mass rally in Dhaka on November 14.
