An open letter to Sheikh Hasina
Happy New Year and many congratulations on this historic victory. While you surely know the peoples' aspirations, as you prepare to assume the vast responsibility in the New Year, we would like to briefly reiterate what we, the ordinary people of this country, expect from the new prime minister and her new government, We would like to declare in very clear terms that we do not expect your government to fulfil all election pledges. Let it be very clear that neither we expect to receive free fertilizers and rice for Taka 10/kg, nor do we expect you to flood the country overnight with electricity and build all those highways and seaports in immediate future. We are much more realistic than the architects of the Awami League Election Manifesto are and we know that much of the pledges are over ambitious and it may take decades for a government to attain those goals.
Having said the above, our expectations are too little but very fundamental in nature and overwhelmingly irresistible.
First of all, we expect you and all Awami League leaders to always remember what caused the Awami League to lose the election in 2001. Undeniably it was the free reign of godfathers like Joynal Hazari, Shamim Osman, Taher, Hazi Selim, Alhaj Mokbul, Dr Iqbal, Maya, Dipu and so on that made the Awami League pay dearly in 2001 election all over the country. Our first expectation is that we do not want to witness the comeback (and showdown) of those people and emergence of similar people in politics and this first wish (if not a demand) is non-negotiable and inflexible in the mind of the voters.
Secondly, we made it clear that we do not want free fertilizers or rice for Taka 10/kg. However, this is a must do for your new government to cut back prices of essential items in line with declining international prices and fundamentally break those local syndicates down that Dr Abul Barakat has been referring to for years now. Not only in words, but breaking down of those syndicates must be reflected in prices of essential items. Any failure to do this within the next 6 months or so will make people believe that the Awami League leaders are the new beneficiaries of such syndicates, as was the last caretaker government, according to Dr Abul Barakat.
Finally and more fundamentally, if we were to identify one single commitment which made voters (new voters in particular) to vote for the Awami League on 29th December 2008, it was a clear and unambiguous commitment to trial of war criminals. This one promise can not be kept pending for the next term as you did during 1996-2001. Now the Awami League (without any allies) has over ¾th members in the parliament and they can do and undo anything with the Constitution. A whole lot of a new generation is there with you to witness the trial of war criminals in immediate future.
The Awami League cannot relax a single day to prove that "promises are made to be broken". We can surely wait for years for new-elevated highways, sky and metro trains and deep sea ports, but we can hardly accept any relaxed mood (if not reluctance) on the part of the new Awami League government on this front. The trial must begin as soon as possible and we become really hopeful when Mr. Muhit says, while talking to a reporter from ETV on 30th December 2008, that a tribunal and a prosecutor will be there in place within six months. We have started counting days.
You may find our words a bit too emotional and pressing, but we could hardly be any less emotional and demanding, at least on these three points. You will surely agree with us that all three hopes are easily attainable as none of them is resource constrained. No extra taka is needed to (a) stop the godfathers' return, (2) break the price syndicates down, and (3) implement the trial of war criminals. These all are dependent on the political will and the truthfulness of Awami League manifesto. You badly need to prove immediately that you did not lie to our freedom fighters, to the families of our martyrs and to a hopeful new generation.
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