The fall of the Awami League government has certainly brought in renewed hope for Bangladesh. Not least because our students brought down a government with clear authoritarian intentions, but more because the nation is finally presented with a genuine chance at reforming some of the most deep-rooted issues which still plague our political landscape.
Certainly, corruption is one such ailment, with the unchecked corruption that the previous government engaged leaving an indelible mark on the country. Which is why it is both disappointing and concerning to see the BNP, the AL’s main opposition, engaging in the same malpractices that the party had been criticizing the previous government for more than a decade.
According to a recent Dhaka Tribune report, BNP leaders and activists have been accused of taking over various businesses, including jhut (leftovers) warehouses, dish and internet services, and engaging in land grabbing and extortion after ousting Awami League leaders in Savar, with claims also being made that that the practice of taking over businesses is already underway in factories within Ashulia.
The reports also elucidate that those who have taken over are influencing the designation of defendants in police cases.
This is unacceptable.
The student movement which toppled the Awami League government was entirely centred around the need for reform in every aspect of our country. For a major political party to essentially resort to the same corrupt and extortionary tactics which it accused the previous government of engaging is not only hypocritical but goes completely against the very idea upon which the students united.
This is a new Bangladesh, one where the old ways of strong-armed corruption have absolutely no place in. Our established political parties absolutely must subscribe to the idea of reform themselves, anything less would be an insult to all the lives we lost in the student movement.
