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KALEIDOSCOPE

After the rallies what next?
FTERthe storm over -A Jkthe rallies, the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party's (BNP) decision to join the Jatiya Sangsad (IS) has offered the tensed people a refreshing respite from endless slanging matches on the streets interspersed with venomous broadsides hurled at each other by the two major political camps.
The opposition BNR which remained outside the IS for long and raised their demands for holding the next parliamentary polls under a caretaker system as well as for registering their protests against the government's overall performance in the areas of economy, maintenance of internal law and order, arresting price hike of essentials and other spheres of national and international concern, now looks certainly wiser. That is because they have now turned their attention to the House of the people, where they truly belong, as their constituents have sent them there exactly for the purpose of saying their say in the last general election.
But they need also to be aware of the fact that the people are watching. There is widespread speculation that the good sense of joining the JS has dawned on the opposition at this moment because some of their lawmakers stand to lose their parliamentary seats unless they meet their constitutional obligation to participate in its business during the extended session of the current JS session.
So, after all these days of truancy, it is natural that the electorate will now expect from them a more responsible role in the House. They should get hold of this opportunity and turn it into the ultimate public platform to address the day to day problems of the people as well as the most crucial issues facing the nation at the moment.
The issue of restoring the caretaker government system for which the BNP has been holding all those rallies
and long marches on the streets, they must now place in the JS in a constructive fashion.
In this connection, Awami League (AL) General Secretary Syed Ashraful Islam was rather reassuring when he welcomed the BNP and its allies' decision to join Parliament with the words: "We are eagerly waiting for the moment when the opposition will turn up in the House." It would indeed be an exemplary show of goodwill towards the opposition from the AL leader had he confined himself to those words only. Ironically, he did also comment in the same breath, as quoted by another daily, that the BNP was returning to parliament only to save their JS seats and the pay and allowances that go with that.
With such an oblique reference towards the opposition, he has not been able to demonstrate anything better than being just a chip off the old block. At this juncture, people
expect more than what is predictable from the leader of a party that enjoys the leadership in parliament as the majority.
It is expected that the Treasury Bench members would show more tolerance towards the opposition lawmakers, allow them enough space so that they can speak in an unimpeded manner and not unnecessarily provoke them and supply them with the excuse to leave the JS sessions and slink into the wasteful boycott culture again.
What demands especial mention here is what the BNP lawmaker Barrister Moudud Ahmed said about the opposition's real intention on the issue of joining the JS. According a report in this paper he said: "We are not going to place any formula or proposal in parliament on an interim government..."
Raise its other demands in parliament, the BNP must. But then why should they wait for the AL to come
up with its own proposal for CTG or interim government system? To make the problem stickier, the ruling Awami League has already been insisting on BNP's producing its own proposal about restoration of the CTG or interim system.
And if either party again returns to their old habit of stubbornly holding on to their respective grounds, there is little prospect that anything useful will emerge from the opposition's return to parliament with such fanfare.
Even so, the onus is still on the ruling Awami League to show a way out of the crisis. It needs to prove that it is really earnest to resolve the ongoing stalemate created over the caretaker government issue. To this end, it needs to soften its present inflexible posture towards the opposition.
In a bid to convince the public of their impartiality and credibility, the ruling AL often showcases the results of some local government polls like those of Narayanganj and Comilla. The public are a hard customer to be impressed so cheaply. In fact, it would be as good as living in a fool's paradise to think that the common voters are not aware of the different stakes involved in these two different types of polls.
So, the ruling party should not even in its wildest dream think that the next general election will be acceptable to the people if it is held under the incumbent government. Even if they win, AL will still be in for a big moral debacle.
Neither would it be wise for the opposition to indulge itself with the notion that through violent street programmes it will be able to bring down the ruling AL to its knees to accept its demand.
So, it is better for both of them to chose the golden mean and engage in a construct discussion forthwith both within and outside the JS and thrash out a solution on the caretaker government issue acceptable to all the parties.
The writer is Editor Science & Life, The Daily Star. E-mail: sfalim.ds@gmail.com