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People to assert free will during polls

Dr Kamal tells Shujan convention

Staff Correspondent
The country's people are going to assert in the next general elections that they are not mere subjects of the two political parties, said eminent jurist Dr Kamal Hossain yesterday.
“It is not the people but unhealthy politics that is divided,” he said at the fourth national convention of Shujan, a civic movement for good governance, in the capital's Bangladesh Shishu Academy.
People are united and will hold their heads and dignity high this time with their right to vote. They own the country and those in the government can not castigate them for criticisms, said Kamal, also president of Gono Forum.
Youths who had a glorious political past, like those who took part in the language movement and movement against military dictatorship, have now turned their faces away from amoral politics. Dirty politics devoid of morality turn its followers into mere slaves, he said.
ASM Shahjahan, former adviser to a caretaker government and executive member of Shujan, said the current politics was moving only around material gain. “It is all about selfishness and greed for power."
Former Chief Justice Muhammad Habibur Rahman said good governance would remain empty words unless consti-
tutional institutions, like election commission, comptroller general, public service commission and the judiciary, were allowed to function independently.
The state's executive body has the unique power to withdraw any case in an extraordinary context for the sake of justice. But this foils the state's sovereign judicial power if applied in a wholesale manner, he said.
Local government institutions have consistently been ignored since the country achieved independence as central government representatives have been sidelining the elected representatives, said the former chief adviser to a caretaker government.
Benefits of good judgments of the higher judiciary for environmental protection often do not reach people due to a lack of good governance, said Syeda Rizwana Hasan, chief executive of Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association.
Good governance is not in place, as political leadership and public opinion are absent, she said.
Former adviser to a caretaker government Dr Akbar Ali Khan said Shujan was independent and uninvolved in government processes so as to protect civic rights against state aggression.
Shujan Acting President M Hafizuddin Khan chaired the convention.