Last week was not one to fondly remember. It started out with very sad tragedy that hit our small Embassy community like a brick wall. We are still mourning as a result. Then it came the Savar collapse. It seems like bad news just would never stop coming!
And yet today, there is hope again. The Prime minister Sheikh Hasina invited the opposition leader, the BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia to sit down for a dialogue to resolve the current political impasse of the country.
Now for an outsider to Bangladesh this would be like such a normal thing. What is so ordinary about the two leading political sitting down to talk about the upcoming elections?
Having been here for three months now I realize this is a potentially major breakthrough. With less than a year left for the next elections to be held as per the Constitution, there is still no agreement on how to do that. So far, the ruling Awami League (AL) and the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) have been unwilling to hold a dialogue, even though the United Nations and all foreign countries have pleaded for talks.
The is a lot of bad blood between these two ladies and it is a foregone conclusion that until and unless they start talking to each other no headway would be made in holding the next elections.Any future parliamentary election, boycotted by any major party, will lose its credibility and therefore, will not be acceptable. Add in the mix the fact that not a single election in independent Bangladesh was ever accepted by all the parties, winners and losers alike, as free and fair. And you are coming up with the perfect political tsunami in the Bangladeshi politics.
I will come back to talk about the two iron ladies in another post, but for now i will just take my piece of good news. After all, we all need a little hope!
And yet today, there is hope again. The Prime minister Sheikh Hasina invited the opposition leader, the BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia to sit down for a dialogue to resolve the current political impasse of the country.
Now for an outsider to Bangladesh this would be like such a normal thing. What is so ordinary about the two leading political sitting down to talk about the upcoming elections?
Having been here for three months now I realize this is a potentially major breakthrough. With less than a year left for the next elections to be held as per the Constitution, there is still no agreement on how to do that. So far, the ruling Awami League (AL) and the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) have been unwilling to hold a dialogue, even though the United Nations and all foreign countries have pleaded for talks.
The is a lot of bad blood between these two ladies and it is a foregone conclusion that until and unless they start talking to each other no headway would be made in holding the next elections.Any future parliamentary election, boycotted by any major party, will lose its credibility and therefore, will not be acceptable. Add in the mix the fact that not a single election in independent Bangladesh was ever accepted by all the parties, winners and losers alike, as free and fair. And you are coming up with the perfect political tsunami in the Bangladeshi politics.
I will come back to talk about the two iron ladies in another post, but for now i will just take my piece of good news. After all, we all need a little hope!
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