Editorial
Khaleda shuns Hawa Bhaban
We hope it also means she will shun what it stood for
THE news that BNP chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia will move to her new office very shortly does appear to be something more than a routine shifting of office. The reason is that she is leaving behind the Hawa Bhaban legacy, which the BNP cannot take pride in as the Bhaban emerged as representing so much wrong that BNP became associated with -- especially cronyism under Tarique Zia's stewardship.
The question, however, is whether Begum Zia has drawn the right messages from her Hawa Bhaban experience. Of course, changing the office premises will not be enough to send a positive signal, unless there is a marked departure from the Hawa Bhaban style of politics dominated by a handful of people close to Tarique Zia. The Bhaban was also believed to be a den of corruption which greatly undermined the party's position in the public eye.
The problem was aggravated by the sad truth that Begum Zia never admitted that Hawa Bhaban was an aberration. Surprisingly, she is still not ready to admit that there was any corruption or malpractice orchestrated from the infamous Bhaban. Her blinkered vision on this particular issue only helped the Bhaban and its political masters to carry out their myopic, highly partisan and illegal activities. Now, the BNP chief should realise that an outright disclaimer, that nothing had happened, may sound like a brazen attempt to cast aside the baggage of ill-conceived politics that the Bhaban was known for.
A much better course, one that will serve both the BNP and the country, is to accept the responsibility of the Hawa Bhaban affairs and opt for a fresh beginning.
And of course people are looking forward to some perceptible changes in BNP's political culture, attitude and even in its internal functioning where individual decisions and thinking often took precedence over collective ones. The BNP leaders should ask themselves why Hawa Bhaban was allowed to run like a parallel government and how the party suffered due to its presence in that capacity. The lesson to be learned from Hawa Bhaban is that miscarriage of governance becomes unavoidable when democratic norms and practices are replaced by plans and ambitions of individuals deriving strength from personal relations and connections.
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