Dr Manisha Chakraborty, central committee member of a left-leaning political party Bangladesh Samajtantrik Dal (BaSaD), has termed the current parliament as the funeral of democracy and said they do not have any expectations from this government.
“We have expectations from the people. We want the people to be vocal. We want the people to be voicing their demands for their empowerment,” she said while speaking at Dhaka Tribune seminar on setting the next five years agenda as the ruling Awami League formed the government for the fourth consecutive term after January 7 election.
Shahriar: Bangladesh warned neighbours about Rohingya challenges in 2017The leading English daily Dhaka Tribune organized the seminar with the support of the embassy of Norway.
Former state minister Md Shahriar Alam MP; Shama Obaid, organizing secretary of BNP, Prof Dr Imtiaz Ahmed, professor of international relations at Dhaka University, and Prof Nuzhat Choudhury, daughter of Dr Abdul Alim Chaudhury, one of the martyred intellectuals during the 1971 Liberation War, were in the panel, moderated by Dhaka Tribune Editor Zafar Sobhan.
Prof Imtiaz: Dhaka is much safer than New York and Chicago“We would like to see people being empowered, which is absent, which is not happening in Bangladesh. We will want to see the people getting the power in hands, the democratic process,” Dr Manisha Chakraborty said.
“It doesn't matter actually how much you decorate the event with flowers. If it's a funeral, it's not a celebration. So, what we are seeing in parliament is the funeral of democracy. So, it doesn't matter how much you decorate it, how much you adorn it with beautiful words and verses,” she said as the opposition BNP and its allies did not participate in the last elections.
Shama Obaid: BNP will fight for democracy as long as it takesShe said in this parliament the people are powerless and the parliament is opposition-less.
“It is a lifeless democracy we are watching, and this democracy is not what we will get some accountability from. There is no accountability, there is no commitment,” she said, adding that: “There is no reason by which the government will be liable to listen to the people because they are not elected by people and people can't want answers from them.
Bangladesh in next 5yrs: Norwegian envoy stresses the need to look ahead“And we are seeing some symptoms already like it's not been a month,” she said, adding that the prices of essentials could not be controlled despite Awami League’s pre-election pledges.
On the contrary, she said the government declared that electricity prices would be raised and soon there will be no subsidies in this sector.
Dr Manisha said the subsidy is given by the public money and public money needs to be spent for public reasons for serving the public.
Nuzhat Choudhury: I have to look back to look forwardShe said the government collected money in the name of the Gas Development Fund by cutting 46 paisa from 2009. But there is no accountability to that fund, she said.
“This is the condition of that parliament. So, what can we expect from them? We don't actually have any expectations from them.
For the future, she said investments for health and education should be made.
“The picture is that we have the lowest education budget in South Asia. We have the lowest health budget in South Asia.”
“We are not actually spending our public money for the public,” she said, the money is being spent for projects like Karnaphuli tunnel in Chittagong which she found useless.
“It has two bridges over the ground. I don't know what is the biggest necessity (underwater tunnel) because it costs Tk10,000 crores and we don't get that budget in many sectors where we need it. Public money is being spent not for public purposes, but for the government's own decisions, own agendas.”
“So, we think that the main agenda that we want to see in the next five years is people standing up for their empowerment, people raising voices for their empowerment,” she said.
