Get the dialogue started

Much that we find the ruling party's half-hearted ap-proach to the issue of national importance unaccept-able, so also we hold that the opposition's demand that the ruling party agree in principle to their reform pro-posals amounts to laying a precondition to getting a dialogue started and moving. Besides, it is needless to mention that the Awami League as a seasoned political party would know it better than anybody else that a flexible and open-ended approach to a dialogue has better chances of yielding results.

At this point in time, we strongly feel that the imperative for the ruling party is to agree to the need for reforms and make its moves accordingly. That reforms are required has to be said by the incumbent in clear terms keeping no room for ambiguity. That is perhaps the principle that should be agreed upon by all sides, especially by the government as the initiator. As regards the specifics of the reform proposals, it is a common feeling that these should be left to the committee to thrash out on the table.

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It appears in the light of the development of the last few days centring on the reform issue that the serious-ness with which the government should have pursued the matter is absent and that people might not be off the mark in reading signs of evasion about the ap-proach of the government.

We still however believe that an opportunity for con-structive engagement between the government and the opposition is before them to iron out their differences on the reform agenda and proceed towards holding free and fair elections. For this to materialise the first order of business should be not to let the prime objective of carrying out the reforms bog down in time-wasting rituals.