Editorial
AL chief's unquestioned power re-established
Public expectations about open elections ought to have been fully met
THE Awami League has just emerged from its council session through re-electing Sheikh Hasina as party president and entrusting Syed Ashraful Islam with the responsibility of being general secretary. Public attention, it would be quite correct to say, was focused on the council and especially on what steps the party took about its passage to the future. Sheikh Hasina's re-election as party leader is once more a reaffirmation of the confidence the Awami League has placed in her since 1981. As for Syed Ashraful Islam, it was clearly his proactive role in keeping the party together in the difficult days following the imposition of the emergency in January 2007 that seems to have smoothened his way formally to the top. Both Hasina and Islam will now be expected to provide the party with the kind of inspiring leadership which can deepen the AL's roots countrywide.
Sheikh Hasina's call to her party workers and leaders to eschew any tendency toward arrogance and greed sends out the right message. Indeed, it should be regarded as a warning to those who have in these past few months not been averse to a crude demonstration of political clout in such places as educational institutions. At the same time, her remarks regarding those who attempted reforms in the Awami League during the period of her incarceration should mark a new beginning for the party considering the conciliatory tone of her message. The party chief was clearly intent on projecting an image of unity in the AL, a task made easier for her by the unalloyed support she appeared to get from the councillors gathered on Friday. Though there may be a few reservations about her emphasis on forgiving those who, in her view, stepped out of line in the caretaker days, there is little doubt that it is a unified party Sheikh Hasina now means to project before the country. She is eminently placed to do that.
For all the hoopla associated with the Awami League council, however, there are some realities about it that cannot be pushed aside. Granted that Sheikh Hasina's position as party chief was unassailable and there would be no challenge to her leadership, there was the hope that a full, open election would be held to elect the general secretary. In the event, it was by a simple voice vote or show of hands that Syed Ashraful Islam was elected to replace Abdul Jalil. To what extent such a method reflected the wishes or involvement of grassroots AL workers remains a question. More important than the election of the party president and general secretary is the manner in which the councillors have empowered the two to choose the other leaders for the party central committee and the presidium. For a party which has throughout its history stressed openness and a commitment to democratic ideals, it was only expected that a fully transparent process of electing members to the central committee and the presidium would be followed. That has not been done. Obviously, such inner workings place a huge question mark on the future of internal democracy in the Awami League or for that matter any significant national political organization.
All said and done, however, we wish the Awami League well as it moves into the future. It is on how it deals with the future that the future of the country, in very large measure, will depend.
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