Editorial
Ending hartals
Time to bid farewell to the politics of self-defeat
The government and the opposition today stand at the edge of a great opportunity for them and for the nation. The opportunity that we speak of is the chance to unite to bring to an end the culture of hartal which has done so much damage to the nation's economy and made a mockery of parliamentary democracy for the past decade. No single reform could have as beneficial an impact on the economy and polity of the nation as an understanding between the major political parties to refrain from the politics of hartal from now on.The opposition has previously offered to refrain from calling any more hartals on condition that the BNP pledge to make a similar commitment and if the government agrees to cease its oppression of opposition party workers and activists. These seem to us to be reasonable conditions and ones that the government would lose nothing by agreeing to. In turn, the BNP leadership has responded very favourably to the proposition, with the secretary general of the party offering to open up a dialogue with the leaders across the aisle to discuss how best to achieve the desired result. The opposition has cautioned against passing a law to make hartals illegal, and we at the Daily Star, while opposing hartals in all cases, agree that a law passed by a mere majority which did not enjoy the support of the minority would be unlikely to provide a workable long-term solution. Only a law passed by bipartisan consensus would be sufficient to satisfy the public. Even a written agreement reached by bipartisan consensus would have a salutary effect. The willingness of the government and the opposition to sit down together and to jointly attempt to resolve this thorny political dilemma is the most positive development in domestic politics for quite some time. Coming on the heels of the opposition's return to parliament, we hope that it signals the start of a new era of maturity in the affairs of state, with issues discussed and debated with civility and common sense in parliament, as it is meant to be in a democracy. Let the political parties strike while the iron is hot. Right now there appears to be a bipartisan consensus against the calling of hartals. This is a great opportunity that should not be missed. Our politicians have the ability to do themselves a great service by acting in a statesmanlike manner and to be of invaluable service to the country. We wholeheartedly applaud the initiative for talks on the subject of ending hartals and hope with all our heart that a bipartisan consensus to end hartals is reached. It would show that we are well on our way to becoming a mature democracy and would signal nothing less than the dawning of a new and promising political era for the country.
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