Awami League (AL) General Secretary Obaidul Quader asked his party men not to be revengeful to the opponent political parties following the ruling alliance's big win in yesterday's general election.
“We will have to consolidate this win,” Quader said while changing views with AL members in Noakhali this morning.
Qauder won Noakhali-5 constituency bagging 2,52,744 votes, his nearest contestant Barrister Moudud Ahmed got 10,970 votes.
The AL-led Grand Alliance won 288 seats, whereas Oikyafront and BNP-led 20-Party Alliance bagged only seven seats and others three seats in the parliament.
11:27 AM, December 31, 2018 / LAST MODIFIED: 11:49 AM, December 31, 2018
Don’t be revengeful to opponents: Quader
Awami League General Secretary Obaidul Quader. File photo
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Awami League General Secretary Obaidul Quader today once again underscored the need for dedicated and genuine leaders and activists to save the party as well as the country from setback.
“Wicked people are eating up government’s achievement like termite. Dedicated leaders and activists are imperative to save Awami League and the country as well,” Quader also road transport and bridges minister said.
While addressing the triannual council of Barishal city unit of Awami League held at Bangbandhu Udyan, Quader said no space will be given to the opportunists, drug traders, terrorists and corrupts in the Awami League politics.
Calling upon his party’s leaders and activists not to create any difference in the party, the Awami League leader said no one can be able a leader by pasting poster with a good photograph.
“Go near to the people and conquest their hearts if you want to be a leader of Awami League,” Quader said at the council.
Barishal city unit Awami League’s incumbent president AK M Zahangir and its joint general secretary also mayor of the city Serniabat Sadik Abdullah, were elected president and general secretary of the unit in the council respectively.
Awami League advisory council member Amir Hossain Amu inaugurated the council.
About BNP movement, Quader said their party chief Khaleda Zia has been passing her days in jail for the last two years on charge of corruption but the party did not be able to stand on the street for two minutes.
BNP has turned into a party that makes a complaint after being failed to gearing up anti-government movement, he said.
Claiming that former chief of army staff Lt Gen (retd) Mahbubur Rahman and Morshed Khan have stood aside from BNP politics, Quader said, “Only two wickets have gone and more are on the way. BNP is now suffering from an existential crisis.”
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Awami League General Secretary Obaidul Quader today said his party lacks true activists, pointing out the growing number of leaders, who he said were mostly driven by greed for power and money.
"It appears that the number of activists in the party is decreasing and that of leaders is increasing. We don't need so many leaders. What we need now are true activists," he said.
Quader, also the road transport and bridges minister, was addressing the triennial council of Rajshahi city unit of AL at Madrassa Maidan in Rajshahi, reports our staff correspondent.
"One can understand the scenario by looking at the tiers [of the ruling party]. We've no lack of leaders. Billboards on the streets portray pictures of leaders. Many of the leaders are not even well-known among the people; they made themselves leaders," Quader said.
It was once difficult to gather a hundred people to bring out a procession in Rajshahi, but now, more than a hundred people are found on the stage in public meetings, he added.
He said most of them are driven by greed for power and money, and these opportunists would leave the party during its bad times.
"Leaders must let go of greed for power and money, following the ideologies of Bangabandhu," he said.
He suggested that the party select its leaders wisely, as conspiracies are on to destabilise the country's peace.
Later, the AL leader abolished the present committee of the party's Rajshahi unit. He announced the new members of the committee with Rajshahi Mayor AHM Khairuzzman Liton as the president and Dablu Sarker as its general secretary.
He asked the new leaders to declare the full committee within a month.
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Awami League (AL) General Secretary and Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader today said the pledge of AL in the 21st national council will be eliminating militancy and resisting the communal forces.
“The challenge of the present government is stamping out the poisonous root of the communal forces and militancy. The AL’s committee this time will be more dynamic through the combination of young and older leaders to overcome the challenge,” he said.
The AL general secretary said this while briefing journalists after visiting the stage set up for the party’s 21st council slated for December 20-21 at the historic Suhrawardy Udyan in the capital.
Urging the party leaders and activists to strengthen the hands of Prime Minister and AL President Sheikh Hasina for implementing the party’s election manifesto, Quader said, “The government cannot be successful if the party is not strengthened”.
The new committee will work to make the prime minister’s visions a success aiming at realizing the dream of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, he said.
Terming the upcoming council as important one, the AL general secretary said the council will be held in a festive mood while some amendments will be brought in the party constitution.
AL Relief and Social Welfare Secretary Sujit Roy Nandi, central working committee member Mirza Azam, Dhaka City South AL President Abu Ahmed Mannafi and Dhaka City North AL President Sheikh Bazlur Rahman and General Secretary SM Mannan Kachi were present, among others, during the briefing.
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Obaidul Quader is an oft-quoted person – and for good reasons. I, too, shall quote him at the start of this column. Following the very recent by-elections to the parliament seats vacated by BNP members, he is reported to have said, "Democracy has won." And he is certain to flaunt the World Democracy Report that shows Bangladesh improving by two ranks. However, there is little to take comfort in the report since, in reality, our acquired marks remain the same; it's only that two countries have done worse than us.
The minister has cited the "peaceful atmosphere" that prevailed during the polling on February 1. Indeed, it was very peaceful. When fewer than 20 percent of voters turn up to vote, it is bound to be peaceful. When the opposition voters are told not to bother to come to the polling stations, it is bound to be "peaceful." When an opposition candidate goes into hiding, unable to withstand the pressure on him, peace is bound to follow. The recent by-polls represent the state of democracy in our country fairly accurately. The near-empty polling booths, if nothing, displays a lack of trust; in fact, it demonstrates people's apathy towards elections and voting. Most voters feel it is an exercise in futility under the present circumstances, the results a forgone conclusion.
This was the picture in 2014 and 2018 as well. "People couldn't cast their votes in that (December 30, 2018) election… They couldn't vote in the union parishad and upazila parishad polls." These are not my words but that of a leading member of the ruling party's coalition – the president of the Workers' Party. It is a sign of democratic regression set in motion a decade ago, and in this regard, the prognosis of Levitsky and Ziblatt, who in their both educative and frightening book Why Democracies Die, say, "Democratic backsliding today begins at the ballot box."
Thus, the quinquennial exercise, the national election, always brings forth pious utterances of the political parties – the two main ones in particular – about the state of democracy, how it has been reduced to nothingness by the other party, and of resuscitating it if elected to power. And the most voluble is the ruling party, who goes into overdrive trying to nullify the oppositions' criticism of its alleged disservice to political and economic egalitarianism. The ruling party has the added advantage, in addition to the public platform, of hogging the time and space of the parliament where, unlike a normal functioning legislature, it goes unchallenged in the absence of an opposition, unanswerable for its plans, policies, actions and deeds. It needs reminding ourselves that the current character of the parliament is unique in that the official parliamentary opposition is also represented in the cabinet.
It is no wonder, therefore, that democracy has come under criticism at home and is being subjected to scrutiny by our friends outside, for which the ruling party has taken umbrage. In this regard, very few can take issue with the Awami League when it decries outsiders' attempt to serve us homilies on democracy or elections. No self-respecting citizen can accept that and should vehemently oppose such attempts.
But in this regard, the Awami League has selective memory when it comes to the party's role as the opposition and its willing acceptance of foreign mediation, and at times direct intervention, in the events leading up to the general elections. It is convenient not to remember those actions since it avoids embarrassments. But we need to be reminded from time to time what the stances of the major political parties have been on various national and political issues in the past. For example, in 1994, the Awami League had no qualms in accepting mediation by the then Commonwealth Secretary-General Emeka Anyaoku, and accepted his representative Sir Ninian Stephen to sit between it and the BNP at the negotiating table. While the Awami League may not like to remember the role India played in 2014, history has not failed to record it. Were it not for the turncoats in Jatiya Party, who rebelled against Ershad or were compelled by circumstances to do so and participate in the 2014 election, things might have been different.
While one may not like to hear our development partners say that they would be watching the next elections very carefully, we have to lump it because we have afforded them the opportunity to comment on the state of our democracy. Hopes of a new dawn following our liberation was belied, first with the introduction of, though very short-lived, one-party rule, and then by changes brought about by the tragic events of August 15, 1975. Events of 1991 brought new hopes only to be dashed. If we were to concede Obaidul Quader's accusation that it was the BNP who destroyed democracy in the country, may we ask what the Awami League has done to put it right in the decade and a half that the party has been in power?
Sometimes, Quader reveals the real state of politics in the country. He is reported to have said recently at a public meeting, "We have not been able to make politics interesting… no good people want to join politics now. No educated, honest person wants to do politics. But they should. Otherwise, politics will lack character" (Dhaka Tribune, January 8, 2023). We wonder whether the minister has ever given a thought as to why it is that the good and the educated don't join politics. Politics does not only lack character, it lacks substance too. What we have today is a hybrid democracy where people have become irrelevant and clinging to power has become the be-all and end-all of politics.
The four indicators that Levitsky and Ziblatt warn us to look out for when democracy is in regression are "rejection of (or weak commitment to) the democratic rules of the game, denial of the legitimacy of political opponent, toleration or encouragement of violence. Readiness to curtail the civil liberties of opponents, including the media." For the observant political observers, these should ring a bell.
Brig Gen Shahedul Anam Khan, ndc, psc (retd) is a former associate editor of The Daily Star.
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Action will be taken against those misusing the digital security act, Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader said today.
He also said the home ministry will remain careful so that the law is not being misused.
Quader, also general secretary of Awami League, was addressing reporters at a briefing at his official residence, said a press release.
As the shopping malls and markets reopened on a limited scale, he urged everyone to maintain distancing and follow health guidelines while shopping.
He said mass allegations of rice theft against public representatives was not true, mentioning there are 61,569 public representatives at different levels in the country.
"Action has been taken against those who are guilty regardless of their political background. Gross allegations of relief embezzlement is not true," he added.
The road transport and bridges minister said following directives from the prime minister, so far, cash and relief goods have been distributed among four crore people across the country.
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