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4 YEARS OF OPPOSITION PARTIES

Strategic flaws hinder role in, outside JS

SHAKHAWAT LITON
The opposition bench in the last four years of the 4-party coalition rule could not play its due role in and outside parliament owing to strategic weakness, lack of vision and, to some extent, repression by the ruling alliance leader, BNP.
The main responsibility of the failure mostly lies with Awami League (AL) and Ershad-led Jatiya Party (JP) -the biggest two of the five opposition parties represented at the current Jatiya Sangsad (JS).
The opposition camp, which in our Westminster-type democracy traditionally forms and runs a shadow cabinet, failed to mobilise the masses on a string of crucial issues including essentials price spiral, uprise of Islamist militancy, repeated bomb attacks, and law and order downslide.
The parties could not unite in or outside the House in public interest. Neither could they put enough pressure on the government or launch any strong movement to correct the situation.
Contrary to parliamentary norms, the main opposition AL and the second largest JP also differed in their parliamentary affairs strategies. While the AL seemed to prefer keep-
ing away from parliamentary proceedings, the JP tried to keep up a good relation with the treasury bench staying in parliament in an apparent bid to ensure development allocations for its constituencies.
A DISAPPOINTING
MAIN OPPOSITION
Despite the existence of a number of issues of public concern, the AL failed to marshal any mass participation in its antigovernment movements. It lacked an active participation in the JS, while its political activities mostly remained confined to sporadic street agitation on unimportant issues. From the very beginning of the BNP-Jamaat-led coalition regime to date the main opposition has been persistently demanding resignation of the government. It had no major focus on issue-based movement that could have mobilised people against what the party dubbed misrule of the government.
Demanding fresh polls, the AL refrained from joining the House for about eight months and when it did join the House had already passed more than 70 workdays. In truth, the joining was but a nominal one, as the AL lawmakers faced the risk of losing their membership if they remained absent from the House for 90 consecutive days.
Then it started boycotting the House, accusing the ruling BNP and the Speaker of gagging its lawmakers in parliament. According to some political analysts, the opposition party unwittingly walked into the very trap the ruling coalition had laid for it. The frequent AL walkouts actually benefited the treasury bench, which feels more comfortable in running the House with its archenemy out of the way.
Out of a total 297 workdays of the House, the AL so far has taken part only in 87 days. In consequence, its role in the JS was not strong enough to balance out different executive steps that affected people's life.
Its participation in parliamentary proceedings and its parliamentary strategy as the main opposition party were better in the fifth JS than the current one. That time, it had joined the maiden session of the House and continued until the end of 1994. The party started boycotting the House only from its 13th session and did not return up to the dissolution of parliament in 1996. The seats of the AL lawmakers in the fifth JS were vacated during its 20th session on June 19, 1995 on their absence for 90 consecutive days.
At present, the main opposition that has been boycotting the House since last year is in a dilemma whether to return to parliament or to let the seats of its MPs be vacated for absence.
Though Awami League has not shown any enthusiasm for participating in parliament proceedings, its lawmakers have been enjoying all the benefits and privileges. Some of them have also accepted perks like foreign trips.
The party needed more than a year to recover from the 2001 election debacle, which was totally unexpected to it. It nominated its lawmakers to the parliamentary standing committees about one year into their formation. And except a few senior AL MPs, most of them failed to play any significant role on the committees on different ministries, mainly due to the absence of adequate briefings by the party high-ups.
However, it achieved a major success in this area by compelling the parliamentary standing committee on law, justice and parliamentary affairs ministry to scrutinise the much talked-about presidential mercy to a BNP man. The committee's examination revealed a shady role of the law ministry in arranging the clemency.
After the 2001 general election, the AL experienced another debacle this year, as the April 30 deadline set by it for unseating the government miscarried to the utter frustration of its midlevel and grassroots leaders and activists.
The party could not maintain a consistent stance on contesting the by-elections under the coalition regime, too. First it decided to boycott by-elections, later it reversed the position, and then again abstained from competing in by-polls.
ATTACKS ON AL
In the last four years, the main
opposition party has suffered a number of attacks and repression from various quarters.
The ruling coalition has filed allegedly false cases against thousands of AL adherents. To quash AL-led antigovernment movements, the government also carried out blanket arrests twice last year -ahead of the April 30 deadline for toppling the government and the October 3 opposition grand rally in the capital.
A number of its frontline leaders including Ivy Rahman and Shah AMS Kibria, Ahsan Ullah Master, Manzurul Imam and Mamtajuddin Ahmed were assassinated.
The party came under a deadly attack on August 21 apparently aimed at eliminating its core leadership including the party chief. The grisly grenade attacks on a Bangabandhu Avenue rally killed 22 people including Ivy Rahman and maimed hundreds of others.
After that the party, which so far has enforced around 50 hartals, intensified its one-point movement to overthrow the government of Khaleda Zia, but has failed to turn it into a popular upsurge.
In retaliation to the attacks, the AL undertook an initiative to launch a united antigovernment movement with the left 11-Party alliance and other like-minded opposition parties. The 11-Party however did not agree to form a broad-based unity with the AL, but joined the 14-party opposition line-up in staging antigovernment agitation programmes simultaneously.
The AL's attempt to get the Ershad-led JP in its oust-government movement also failed, as the ruling party used a number of cases against HM Ershad to manipulate and keep his party out of the proposed opposition alliance.
DUBIOUS JP ROLE
In contrast to the AL, the activities of the JP remained confined in parliament. But the JP lawmakers could not make their voice heard on important issues for their reported 'dubious' roles in keeping good relation with the treasury bench.
One or two JP MPs however tried to criticise the government for its failure to arrest price hike of essentials, spread of Islamist militancy, terror attacks, and law and order downslide.
On several occasions JP insiders confirmed that the pending cases against Ershad were the main obstacles to the party's taking an active antigovernment stance. In fact, for the last four years, most of the JP lawmakers have been acting in parliament like pro-government opposition members.
Being the second largest opposition party, the JP tried to bargain with the treasury bench on several issues. The party lawmakers walked out of the House on several occasions, protesting against harassment of Ershad, barring him from going abroad, discrimination in allocations of development funds and abusive remarks by a deputy minister against JP MPs. However, every time they returned to the House on government assurance to resolve the problems.
THE LONE RANGERS
The remaining three opposition political parties -- Krishak Sramik Janata League, Jatiya Party led by Anwar Hossian Monju and Bikalpa Dhara Bangladesh, have only one lawmaker in the House each.
Of them the role of Krishak Sramik Janata League lawmaker Abdul Quader Siddiqui, though aimed at playing a balancing role as an opposition lawmaker, has been unpredictable. Manju, too, tried to play a constructive role.
The third, Bikalpa Dhara MP Mahi B Chowdhury, does not attend the JS proceedings regularly.