Editorial
Local leaders make a difference
Worth emulating
WHEN politics at national level is marked with confrontation, local level leadership in Khulna seems to have struck a different chord. Mayoral candidates from all the warring parties sat on the same dais, held each other's hand and pledged to the audience that they would work for all-out development of the city.
This is something rare in contemporary Bangladesh politics and also immensely reassuring. Though city corporation elections are supposedly a non-party affair, the fact remains that the candidates represent some major players in national politics like the ruling Awami League, the opposition BNP and the alliances these parties lead.
The mayoral candidates from Awami League, BNP and Jatiya Party also devised a novel way through lottery to avoid the speakers' scramble for grabbing the mike.
As a result, all the candidates could smoothly and peacefully deliver their speeches to the audience assembled at the city's Hadis Park.
The Khulna event has a lesson for the leaders in national politics. The local leaders of Khulna have been able to scale the wall of difference raised between them by the two major political parties of the country. In fact, they have been able to set a trend for those in politics to emulate.
Will the leaders of ruling Awami League and BNP, forever at daggers drawn, come around to bury their differences for once to break the existing political stalemate and engage themselves constructively in the greater interest of the nation? Khulna is a glaring example before them.
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