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Correct attitude to boost democracy

Ripan Kumar Biswas
HE used the word "change" 16 times in his speech, but he gave two paragraphs to Hillary Clinton, whom the crovv'd greeted with sustained applause.
"Our party and our country are better off because of her. and I am a -■better candidate for having had The Honour to compete with Hillary Rodham Clinton," Sen. Barack Obama (ILL) evaluated Sen.
Hillary Clinton's (NY) milestones in her career in front of a rally at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minnesota on Tuesday, June 3 after clinching the Democratic Party's 2008 nomination for president It was not just praise for Clinton, but an attempt to revive the Clin ton brand.
On the other hand, she issued a call for unity that emphasised the cultural and political milestones that she and Obama represent. Amid tears from her supporters, she urged them to use their energy, ktheir passion and their strength to put Barack Obama in the White
House.
"I congratulate him on the victory he has won and the extraordinary race he has run," Clinton placed herself solidly behind her Senate colleague from Illinois.
According to the White House spokeswoman Dana Perino, President Bush congratulated Sen. Obama as, according to his personal experience, the presidential nominating process was a' grueling one and Sen. Obama had come a long way in becoming his party's nominee, and his historic achievement reflected the fact that the country had come a long way, too.
Republican nominee-in-waiting John McCain (AZ) also called him to congratulate him for becoming the presumptive Democratic nominee.
The reason for quoting the speeches and remarks of the above politicians against their rivals is to show the respect in politics and respect for public opinion where political sovereignty is retained by the people.
According to her lawyers, before
leaving for the US on June 12, Sheikh Hasina, the chief of Awami League (AL), said that if their party was rewarded the driving seat of the parliament in the next general elections, it would do its best for the general people, and strong measures would be taken to uproot corruption from the soil of Bangladesh.
? ( Shp promised the sarye in front of a huge crowd and newsmen at Logan International Airport, Boston on June 13. "People want the long-stalled parliamentary polls to be held without delay, and handover of power to a democratic government," she said.
As we all know, on October 1, 2001, AL responded to its landslide election defeat by announcing a boycott of parliament by saying that her party would neither take oath as members of parliament nor join the parliament.
When Begum Khaleda Zia, chairperson of Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), was in the opposition from 1996 to 2001, she too boycotted parliament. It is not a worthy attitude to find negatives all the times. We are not going to cite what the main features of AL's Election Manifesto were in 2001. Was it about institutionalising democracy in which the National Parliament would be the centre of all political activities? Or was it about good governance and administrative reforms that make a corruption-free and people-oriented administration?
In this changing world, people are now very much concerned about how people or groups or political entities behave with each other. To establish a proper balance between the individual; the society, and the government, a rationale for politics and a code of public behaviour are important.
In politics, for providing an objective, quantified approach to explaining and predicting political behaviour, tact, diplomacy, and hospitality are essential.
How the former premier was released from prison after an apparent deal between the interim government and her party to facilitate her treatment overseas might raise questions about due procedures of law, but the conversation between her and the Chief Adviser Dr. Fakhruddin Ahmed over phone regarding the upcoming polls and her health condition, hours after
her release, was a good sign of respect for each other.
The presence of Bangladesh envoys to UK and US at Heathrow and Logan airports, respectively, to welcome Hasina, was a change in a government's attitude towards a leader.
Although political leaders from different political parties expressed mixed reactions on her release, people became happy when former premier Begum Khaleda Zia expressed satisfaction over the release of her once arch-rival Sheikh Hasina.
For humanitarian considerations and a smooth, orderly transition to democratic governance following the promised general elections, the present government should take necessary steps for proper treatment of the BNP chairperson and her two sons.
This will surely uphold the level playing field attitude towards everyone, and will pave the way for the present dispensation to set a good example for Bangladesh politicians.
There's always a vast gap between the country's problems, candidates' agendas, and people's expectations. Politicians in Bangladesh aren't perfectly truthful and respectful towards each other.
Politics is mostly about offering up convenient scapegoats and instant solutions for voters' complaints, even if the villains and promises are often false. Of course, people want their politicians to be candid, but they also want them to respect their opinions and other candidates' opinions.
Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair was confronted by a ticket inspector as he travelled to London's Heathrow airport to catch a flight to the United States. In 2001, when Blair was in power, his wife Cherie was forced to pay a ten-pound fine plus 7.90-pound fare when shewascaught traveling to Luton from London Blackfriars without a ticket.
People always like to see their leaders live as commoners. This is why the Nepal's deposed King Gyanendra will get some degree of public sympathy as he respected the abolition of the centuries-old Himalayan monarchy.
To earn the trust and confidence of the citizen, political leaders in Bangladesh must continue to demonstrate the correct attitude and spirit of unity to regain hope of re-establishing democracy.
Ripan Kumar Biswas is a freelance writer based in New York.