Boycott culture continues
Boycott has become an important part of our parliamentary democracy.
What we have seen in the past is that our two major parties made such boycott a culture. When the winning party forms the government, the loser invariably decides not to cooperate with their rivals and starts boycotting the sessions for this or that reason.
The latest example was the opposition's boycott of 9th parliament session. The reason for that boycott was the "sitting arrangement" created by their own speaker before leaving office. In that session their main concern was the best seats and not the parliament session. However, after a lot of bargain the opposition finally attended some of the sessions.
In the second session which was a very important one, the budget session, the opposition again started boycotting in the similar fashion. This time the people do not know the reasons for their boycott. I believe, it was pure egotism, in Bangla we call it "maan", meaning vanity. Our experts suggest that it is the duty of the government to bring the opposition to parliament. This means that the opposition may boycott any time at their sweet will and the government is duty-bound to bring them back to make the parliament sessions meaningful. The opposition MPs have no responsibility to attend and speak for their voters.
This government is only five months old. It is not possible for the government to deliver all the services it promised to the people. But our opposition seems to have become impatient and is trying to drum up public support against this government. They are looking for a ground to start agitation to compel the government to refrain from an in-depth investigation of 10-trucks of arms, trial of BDR carnage, war criminals and investigation into ex-parliament bosses' irregularities and many more.
The cats are getting out of the bags and if this continues many more will come out to the opposition's embarrassment.
Is there any way out? Can our experts create an atmosphere for meaningful parliament sessions? The people of this country need cooperation of all for their progress and prosperity. Let us all forget the past and work together towards that goal.
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