Editorial
BNP's persistence over seat issue
We fail to understand rationale behind it
The opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party has since the convening of the ninth Jatiyo Sangsad been whipping up a storm over seating arrangements in the House. The party held a series of meetings with Speaker Abdul Hamid, who for his part appears to have gone the extra mile to accommodate it. In fact, after the recent bye-elections, he rearranged the seating in a way that could accommodate such senior BNP leaders as Moudud Ahmed and Jamiruddin Sircar. That does not seem to have mollified the BNP, which has continued to demand seats in the front row beyond what its numbers in the JS allow it. Indeed, the five seats the party now has on the front bench are in excess of the numbers it is entitled to in the House.
Considering the circumstances in which the JS was constituted following the December 2008 general elections, the BNP, greatly reduced in strength, cannot logically expect more front bench seats. To stretch the issue beyond this point, therefore, will give rise to the public perception that the party is trying to prepare the ground to walk away from the JS and so render it an exercise in futility.
A party which has twice been in government and once in opposition since 1991 is surely expected by the nation to demonstrate a degree of maturity regarding the role of political parties in Parliament, especially that of the opposition. The BNP has observed the workings of Parliament from both sides of the fence, which should enable it to appreciate political realities better. But the impression that has grown about the BNP in these past five months is that it is yet to come to terms with the results of the election, despite some earlier signs to the contrary.
The BNP has been raising issues such as the Tipaimukh dam. It has also been talking about the investigations into the BDR mutiny. The party has also been concerned over the Asian highway. But by not discussing these are matters on the floor of the House, the party is abdicating its responsibility to have its say on them. But the mistake the opposition is making here is by raising these issues and yet staying away from Parliament. In a democracy, it is always Parliament where matters of public importance are discussed and thrashed out. By raising such issues outside the House and sometimes threatening street agitation over them, the opposition is certainly not doing anything that can add substance to the principle of government by the consent of the governed. Worse, this sort of attitude shows a willful disregard of parliamentary democracy.
We think it is time for the BNP leadership to reconsider the entire issue of its non-participation in the JS. It owes it to itself and to its followers across the country to speak for them in the House, particularly at a juncture like the present. Democracy becomes a throbbing, thriving affair when both the treasury and opposition benches engage in productive discourse and debate in Parliament. Any other course can only place the nation's future at risk.
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