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Prospect of dialogue after telephone conversation

MoazzemHossain
The turmoil that swept through the nation this week was unnecessary, to say the least. The 60- hour shutdown took 20 lives and scores have been injured, including police and innocent people. While all these incidents have been mind boggling, one, however, caught all eyes. Members of both the opposing forces have been fighting over custody of a corpse. Everyone knows that this person was an ordinary man and had nothing to do with party politics. One wonders if this type of behaviour can ever be seen in any other part of the world? Are we living in the 21st century? The BNP-led alliance certainly learned the lesson that this week's shutdown did not go well with the citizens and was counterproductive for its leader, who had been regaining ground over the last few months.
Khaleda Zia's ultimatum on October 24 to the incumbent was read like this, the PM has to put a clear offer on the table about the election-time government by October 26, or face the consequences, including imposition of a non-stop shutdown. The PM met this demand before October 26 by telephoning and inviting the opposition leader to dinner at her offi-cial residence (Gono Bhaban). This is unprecedented in the history of Bangladesh. The PM's proposal for forming an allparty election time government is rare in parliamen-tary democracies. Unfortunately, Khaleda's shadow kitchen cabinet
failed to understand the gesture of the Hasina government and continued with the shutdown, showing no respect even to their own leader's ultimatum which was met before the shutdown starts. Nowadays, even ultimatum is meaningless.
One would remember that whatever was said in the famous 37 minutes phone conversations between the leaders, two issues were nonetheless clear: the PM requested withdrawal of the 60-hour shutdown since she had responded to the opposition leader's ultimatum before it expired, and two, the opposition leader requested an agreement in principle on formation of a non-party CTG to hold the next general election. At the end of the conversation, both the leaders failed to come to an agreement on these issues and the phone conversation produced no immediate results. Apparently, it is not true that there was no positive outcome of the phone conversation. Indeed, whether we like it or not, the nation heard from the horses' mouth and the citizens can now form an informed opinion about our leaders and their attitudes towards each other. Additionally, it is a step in the right direction to keep contact and to create a cordial environment for a dialogue in the future.
The nation was always expecting the PM as head of the government to take initiative to break the impasse. Indeed, she has made the move and this must continue further with the support of all the parties outside the 14-party alliance. It is also true that the opposition leader seems eager to sit with the PM soon. It appears that she acknowledges that the timing of the phone call was not early enough for withdrawing the shutdown. At one stage of the conversation she said that if the call had come in the morning, there would have been time to meet her alliance members to discuss the PM's request for withdrawal. The opposition leader said that she was ready to talk after the shutdown was over.
Now is the time for the opposition leader to show restraint in adopting a hardline approach. This is a time to observe what comes out of the PM's dialogue with all other political leaders. If one goes through the phone conversation, there is no doubt that the PM acted as a genuine host to convince the guest to have dinner
with her. In my view, the conversation has opened up a new era of building relations between our two leaders, and the nation felt happy with the PM's gesture and that they are on talking terms again. We feel that this conversation has brightened the prospect of dialogue between the government and the opposition.
It was very encouraging to hear Khaleda Zia requesting Sheikh Hasina to look to the future, and that the nation needed Sheikh Hasina. It is also heartening to hear that the PM wants to hold an election without fear and favour, like other democracies in the world. It is certain, and I have no hesitation in saying so, that we are indeed stepping into a new era in politics.
The writer is an occasional contributor from Australia.
Email: m.hossainbhuiya@gmail.com