Saturday saw a long parliamentary exchange about Khaleda Zia's much commented upon article in the Washington Times on January 30 this year. The PM accused the leader of the opposition of calling for the removal of GSP preferences by the United States in the article. In response to Khaleda Zia's denial of this claim, Sheikh Hasina brandished a copy of the article in Parliament. All predictable political theatre perhaps, but then Khaleda Zia responded by saying the article was not written by her.
It is unusual to deny writing an article which clearly has one's name on it. Even more so, when it was so high profile and received a lot of media coverage at the time. Why deny writing it now? In an age when newspaper archives can be read online at the click of a button, it is insulting to the intelligence of ordinary citizens to make such a denial.
Moreover, as anybody can check online, the parts of the Washington Times article which actually referred to GSP were actually quite nuanced and important. Having made reference to the murder to labour leader Aminul Islam, Khaleda Zia's article stated ''that general preferences for trade will be withdrawn if those who support workers’ rights and have political views opposed to those of the prime minister are not now allowed to express their beliefs.''
She would have done better to have stood by her words, rather than deny writing them.
