With the National Consensus Commission, formed under the auspices of the interim government, coming close to finalizing the reforms necessary for the future of our democracy, it is now imperative that Bangladesh’s political parties cooperate with the incumbent administration to finally reach a consensus on how that would be achieved.
The commission has recently announced that, after reviewing reports from disparate reform commissions, that it is now ready to hold open dialogue with every political party, which means that the onus now rests on these parties to agree on a shared vision for Bangladesh.
To say that this is the first best opportunity Bangladesh has been granted on re-establishing itself as a democracy would be an understatement. After a decade and a half of a corrupt autocracy completely upending all corners of our nation at an institutional level, replacing the will of the people with that of a handful of crony capitalists, it behooves all parties from our political spectrum to cooperate with the interim government in ensuring that such forms of governance can never take root again.
It is now up to political parties to reaffirm their support for the interim government throughout the rest of its tenure but also commit to a Bangladesh that would not fall into the trap of autocracy and indeed go even further in establishing a system of checks and balances to hold future governments accountable.
The student movement which resulted in the downfall of the previous government was formed on the basis of a new Bangladesh, one that respects the power of the people over their elected government.
It is good to know that discourse surrounding the reforms is making good headway, and this will hopefully lead the way to a concrete roadmap for the coming elections soon.
