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1/11 Perspective

'Two ladies' pledged positive politics

2008 poll manifestoes of AL, BNP also assured nation of changes in political culture

SHAKHAWAT LlTON and SHAM1M ASHRAF
Ahead of the December 2008 parliamentary polls, Khaleda Zia promised acting responsibly no matter what the result was, while her archrival Sheikh Hasina, confident of winning a majority, said she would involve the opposition in the political
process.
The two leaders made the statements in separate meetings with the then US ambassador James F Moriarty while discussing the need to break the culture of winner-take-all.
“Almost from the beginning, however,
both sides began to back-trackfrom their pre-election pledges," Moriarty wrote in a cable toWashington, mentioning that politicians from all parties had pledged to make the parliament effective and improve governance.
“...on a whole Parliament has been a disappointment," he wrote as he listed down the key issues of conflict between the two major political parties the “two ladies" lead -- BNP and Awami League — in the cable dispatched on January 13,2010 on the eve of one year of ninth parliament that started its journey on January25,2009.
Also, after the bitter animosity between the two major parties had pushed the country toward a civil war-like situation by the end of 2006, people from all walks of life raised voice for a change in political culture.
But the reality is completely different.
In their election manifestos, both the parties promised to make the House effective and to take strong stance to end the House boycott culture. AL, now ruling, then pledged to formulate on consensus a code of conduct to end the pervasive confrontational culture of politics.
The code of conduct was not formulated and the main opposition BNP boycotted 190 parliament sittings out of total 241.
Moriarty's predecessor Patricia A Butenis, one of the busiest foreign diplomats, held discussions with different political parties, caretaker government, army officials and civil society to find a way to meeting people's expectations.
After she had left Dhaka in mid-2007 ending her 14 months of eventful and exciting assignment in
Bangladesh, Moriarty arrived in April next year and continued an active role to the same end.
As part of the move, he met BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia at her new office in Gulshan on October 13, 2008 about a month after her release from prison on bail in the several graft cases filed during the army-led caretaker government rule.
“Zia assured the Ambassador that she would play a positive role in opposition if the BNP lost the election. She also denounced political violence, which has been common among supporters of both parties in previous election campaigns,” Moriarty wrote to report on the meeting the next day.
The caretaker government advisers had promoted a summit between Khaleda and Hasina to work out an election campaign
code of conduct and postelection agreement on good governance, “...the Advisers seek to avoid a return of Bangladesh's traditional 'winner-take-alT political ethos rooted in the bitter personal animosity between the two women.”
“Zia told the Ambassador she had 'no problem' with such a summit,” the cable said, adding that Hasina had reportedly said she was open to the idea but would not decide until she consulted her party colleagues.
In another cable, sent two weeks later, Moriarty wrote that AL President Hasina's inner circle had argued against agreeing to a pre-election summit with Khaleda.
The US envoy quoted in the cable the then AL acting general secretary Syed Ashraful Islam as saying that he backed high-level talks between the AL and BNP to see whether they
could agree to a code of behaviour under which both parties would be more accommodating to one another.
“Hasina has not ruled out a pre-election summit with Khaleda Zia to discuss such matters, but Ashraf said he favoured a summit only if the parties could first hammer out areas of agreement,” Moriarty wrote, identifying Ashraf as one among AL leaders who saw the return to democracy as an opportunity to reform the party.
During the meeting with Moriarty, the AL leader said the manifesto for ninth parliamentary elections would include “a number of measures to promote good governance and weaken the “winner-take-all” political ethos that pervades Bangladeshi politics”.
“Ashraf said he supported measures to ensure
Parliament elects a national President that is acceptable to all parties; to scrap a Constitutional requirement that members of Parliament always vote their party's position; and to require Parliamentary standing committees to meet in public except when sensitive security issues are involved," Moriarty added.
Citing discussions with Hasina two weeks before the ninth parliamentary elections, Moriarty wrote: “While clearly suspicious of the BNP's intentions, Hasina appeared confident that her rival would take part in elections and would participate in the process after the results were tallied.”
“Hasina appeared confident the country's voters would return her to power and predicted she would be able to entice the opposition to participate in the
political process,” the cable read.
Things did not proceed the way expected and promised by the politicians.
Stung by their election debacle, the BNP remained outside parliament for most of the year. While the initial excuse for a parliamentary boycott involved Differences over seating arrangements in the assembly, by year end the opposition had announced a list of 10 demands before they would return.
“For its part, the ruling party members of Parliament watered down a number of Caretaker reforms, including those on local government,” Moriarty wrote.
“While the Parliamentary Committees were formed and have been active, on a whole Parliament has been a disappointment.”