Editorial
Khaleda's speech
Vague generalizations only, no sense of direction
On Tuesday last we were given out the BNP's riposte to AL's end-of-two year performance report presented by the Prime Minister last week. The speech by the PM was largely self-congratulatory followed by a call for patience and the reply to it by Begum Zia was full of sweeping generalisations without substantive pronouncements on any particular issue. Overall, it gave no sense of direction nor any alternative vision for future.
If Begum Zia thought that the PM had resorted to falsehood and distortion it was for her to point out exactly, for the benefit of the public, as to what the lies were and where the distortions occurred. Surely, everything that the AL has done could not have been bad, and we feel that the BNP would have done everyone and itself great service by acknowledging the achievements of the AL in the last two years and pointing out where it had failed, and where indeed the BNP could have done a better job and how.
While we had criticized Hasina for not being self-critical enough in the appraisal of her government's performance, we feel that the BNP has done nothing to acquit itself as a responsible opposition either. We wonder what message the BNP was trying to send out and for whom? If it is for the public should she not be aware of the fact that the public is already aware where the ruling party's failings have been. That is all too known and what the public would be interested now is in knowing how effective an oversight role has the opposition been playing without participating in the parliament. Is she, in the very least, doing justice to her own constituents who had voted for her party?
It was not only natural but also incumbent upon the leader of the opposition to have the right of reply. But when it comes through a press conference, one expects a more objective and direction-oriented statement rather than the ordinary run-of-the-mill speech that we got. It was amateurish, particularly to extent that she was not even prepared to take questions from the journalists.
The leader of the opposition could have not been less convincing in offering excuse for continuing to abstain from the parliament. She will do the country a lot of good if what she articulated to the press were said in the floor of the house and she held the government to account in the parliament. Unless that happens, her critique of government performance will remain a mere statement.
We would be remiss if we did not point out that the government has done disservice to its creditability as a protagonist of right to information and freedom of speech by reportedly preventing the private TV channels from carrying Begum Zia's speech live, as claimed by the Leader of the opposition.
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