13th JS session

The government must be prepared to take all reasonable steps possible to ensure that the parliament functions properly. The opposition must be given full leeway to speak on the issues that it wishes to address for as long as it wishes. In the aftermath of August 21, the government has called for national unity and sought the cooperation of the opposition, and the 13th JS session is the perfect forum for it to show that its professions of unity are sincere.

One way in which the government can signal its commitment to positive change in the running of parliament is for it to permit the parliament to be pro-active in extending a helping hand to getting to the bottom of the carnage of August 21. The government has yet to win the confidence of the opposition or the nation in its handling of the incident, which has certainly left much to be desired. The 13th JS session is the chance for the government to put its recent missteps behind it and to regain the trust and the credibility of the people.

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In the past three years, the government has made many overtures to the opposition, each time pledging to amend its high-handed manner in parliament. Each time, we took the government at its word and pleaded with the opposition to return, only to see that the government failed to live up to its promises. This time, too, the government is making the right noises and the signals it is sending about cooperation and conciliation sound very encouraging.

But the government must follow up its words with action. This is the acid test for it. It must do everything in its power to make the parliament a functional body again. The nation deserves nothing less and anything less could have catastrophic consequences. Our plea to the government is to do what it takes, to bend over backwards to be accommodating, to avoid even the appearance of unfairness, and to not get provoked. What is at stake is the democratic process itself.