BNP attack on the AL council

From the elaborate road blocks that were set up on the various routes around Munshiganj town and the meeting venue itself, it is clear that the main objective of the BNP men was to foil the holding of the AL district council. The AL central leaders were also prevented from reaching the meeting venue due to the barricades set up on their route from Dhaka.

Foiling opposition rallies or meetings is an old tradition in Bangladeshi politics. We recall how some notorious AL stalwarts tried to prevent the BNP chief's motorcade from reaching its destination by putting up barricade of abandoned trucks on the main roads. But that is precisely the type of politics we want to move away from.

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What we find most disappointing and deplorable in the BNP politics of today is that they seem to have learnt nothing, absolutely nothing, from the politics of the past. In fact they have only repeated the most vicious aspects of old politics with more venom and violence.

Following the PM's offer of co-operation, the opposition leader Sheikh Hasina rejected it. We considered that rejection to be impetuous and ill thought out. But given what happened in Munshiganj we are forced to re-evaluate the sincerity of the PM's offer and feel less inclined to blame Sheikh Hasina for her stance.

Have we learnt nothing from the experience of politics of the last 13 years, following the restoration of democracy in December 1990? Haven't we seen over and over again that trying to suppress the opposition only weakens the government and not vice versa? How can the BNP forget the repression it suffered at the AL hands and how it grew in public support as a result? The same process is in operation now.

We have done it in the past and do so again -- vehemently condemn the nature of present day politics of fighting political opponents with violence and repression. The sad fact is that unless our political culture changes, little else can be expected to change.