Editorial
Speaker's Third Letter
WHY should the opposition take the Speaker's letter to Khaleda Zia seriously? Humayun Rashid Chowdhury slavishly carried out the ruling party's bidding during his tenure as the Speaker so far. There is not a single instance when he took a firm stand against the Treasury bench to uphold the position of the opposition. The nation watched with disbelief when after publicly promising time to Dr. Baddruddoza he sheepishly surrendered to the insistence of the PM that he shouldn't. The four-point agreement reached earlier between the Treasury and the Opposition benches was signed under his initiative. Yet he did not lift a finger when the government side did not implement it. In fact there was a second accord to implement the first. Yet the Speaker did not insist on the government that his credibility would be greatly compromised if the latter would fail him once again. Was he too eager to firm up his OIC job and did not want to displease the PM in any way by pleading the opposition's case? He did nothing to earn the respect and trust of the opposition when the going was good. The Speaker's most shameless act of partisanship was not to refer to the EC the case of the two BNP members who joined the AL government. Later he was forced to do so under the order of the Supreme Court. By that time his credibility was in shambles. So he is now reaping what he himself had sown over the last three and half years - mistrust and disrespect of the opposition.
So we repeat the question: Why should the opposition leaders take Chowdhury's yet another letter to Khaleda Zia seriously? We think they should. Simply because the country and the future of democracy is far more important than any one person. Equally significant, the institution of the parliament should not be made to suffer because of the personal failures of its Speaker. We think the opposition has been able to make the point well that till now its demands were not taken seriously by the ruling party. But having made it rather effectively, the opposition should not go on an 'ego trip' of its own and feel that the government offers can now be ignored with impunity. There is an unfortunate tendency in our politics. At first the government ignores the opposition. But when under pressure the former relents, the latter feels that it has the upper hand and starts ignoring the government. This game of double folly leads to no where except to more follies. We have seen it when BNP was in power. And now we are seeing it when AL is running the country.
We urge the opposition to respond positively to this letter of the Speaker and start at least talking with him on what needs to be done to get the real talks going. Khaleda Zia, please understand that continuous NO to all offers of the government will get us NO WHERE. There is a time to stand firm. And then there is a time to be flexible. That is what good leadership is all about.
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