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Resolution of political conflict is imperative

Dr. M. S. Haq writes from New York
***A satisfactory resolution of the conflict could be a win-win situation for both the ruling parties and the opposition. Because it could, among other things, afford the opposition and the ruling parties an opportunity to demonstrate before the people of Bangladesh and others their willingness and effort towards resolving the conflict in a collective manner.***
THE nature, scope and outcome of pro and anti hartal activities in Bangladesh are, in an average sense and under the present context, not conducive to the advancement of progress and prosperity of Bangladesh, its people and the people of the world at large in an accelerated and sustainable fashion. The negative consequences of hartal have, among other things and in varying degrees, been:
-- threatening the country's hard earned democracy which is still at a nascent stage of its development;
-- affecting human rights and the right to life of Bangladeshis that are yet to be fully and satisfactorily ensured;
-- constraining the efforts towards eradicating hunger, poverty, inequity and distribution related disparity from the country; and
-- hurting the image of Bangladesh which is under a constant pressure from several fronts including the country's present corruption status.
In Bangladesh, political intolerance, as well as arrogance is on the rise. One of the reasons is: the politi-
cal parties are not presently competitive enough to offer to people: something new and lucrative than those they largely inherited from the non-democratic era; or strategies that are more responsive to the requirements of an evolving global order; or both. Closely related to it are the facts that the country's election market is relatively less demanding and that the political accountability is yet to become fully instrumental in help guiding and directing the country's political activities in a more productive as well as responsible way.
The political culture of 'old wine in new bottle' in terms of election promises and their eventual outcomes has till now faced a little or no opposition from a vast majority of people due, among other things, to the latter's increasing preoccupations with the survival and coping activities.
A more or less uninterrupted continuation of the above culture in the country's political dimension is, in some respects, responsible for: the development of political shortsightedness of many Bangladeshis -- in varying degrees though; slowing down the cultivation of cutting edge politics in the country; and the marginalisation of the people's power; to mention a few.
Under the present circumstance, political reform is a need of the day. To that end, a more result-oriented demonstration of the attributes (etc.) such as: respect for people, as well as the rule of law; protection of the national interest, as well as image; fairness; cooperation; collaboration; innovativeness; mutual trust; foresightedness; honesty; peaceful co-existence and hard work for common good, at individual and collective levels, would afford Bangladeshis including the political
parties the latitude required for promoting and sustaining the reform mentioned in the country. The people of Bangladesh should be able to ensure the commitment of the political parties to reform agendas through their voting decisions and subsequent follow-up actions. The development partners should be able to support Bangladeshis in their effort to do so. In addition, the political parties should be able to deliver their commitments to the people and the partners through redefining inter alia their strategies, priorities, activities and implementation modalities in pertinent areas.
The impacts of hartal on the life, as well as living of Bangladeshis and for that matter the world people have both arithmetic and geometric rates of progression, relative to time and space. Further, the cost of hartal is increasing in the country due, among other things, to an increasing scarcity
of useable and affordable resources for developmental purposes, the less than optimal utilisation of the available resources, the increasing replacement costs of the assets damaged during the hartals and the loss of investment opportunities in somewhat image driven environment of global competitions. Besides, the hartals are creating opportunities for the lawbreakers to destabilise the country, for example.
One of the strategies for dealing with the hartal could be to resolve the hartal issues through negotiations and other peaceful means in order, among other things, to eliminate the possibility of future hartals or their escalation or both. Given the recent hartals called by the AL and other political parties and the impact of the hartals on the wellbeing and welfare of the people, I believe the time is
now ripe for the President of Bangladesh and the Speaker, as well as the Deputy Speakers of the Parliament to intervene jointly into the matter with a view to resolving the conflict between the government and the opposition in pertinent areas. In the event, it is expected the people of Bangladesh and the development partners will be kept informed about the development and the outcome pertaining to the conflict resolution effort.
A satisfactory resolution of the conflict could be a win-win situation for both the ruling parties and the opposition. Because it could, among other things, afford the opposition and the ruling parties an opportunity to demonstrate before the people of Bangladesh and others their willingness and effort towards resolving the conflict in a collective manner. In case the conflict is not resolved, both the government and the opposition should be ready to explore other peaceful and cost effective means to resolve the conflict in the shortest possible time.