Editorial
The road march
Follow it up with a dialogue
The road march organised by the 14-party opposition combine ended on an upbeat note, with the demonstrators walking along the streets of the city and seeking support for the opposition in the forthcoming elections. The prime objective of the peaceful road march, which did not invite any police action of the usual kind, was to mobilise public opinion in favour of electoral reforms -- an issue high on the opposition agenda at the moment. The whole programme proceeded generally smoothly with no provocation or intimidation from either side. They maintained a safe distance from each other, which was indeed a welcome shift from the confrontational course that the two sides almost always catapulted on to in the recent past. However, the point that we want to make is that there should be an immediate dialogue between the government and the opposition. The proposal for a meeting between BNP Secretary General and LGRD Minister Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan and AL General Secretary Abdul Jalil has been on the table for long with the people expectantly awaiting its materialisation. There is a visible communication gap between the two major parties which needs to be bridged for stabilising the political ambience before the polls. The AL claims that its long march has drummed up public support for electoral and caretaker government reforms. If that is the AL perception, then they must feel the necessity for holding a meeting with the government even more acutely, since time is a very important factor here. Nothing would be more wholesome for the prevailing disorderly politics than a negotiated settlement to the issues that still keep the two sides far apart. And nobody will be more benefited by such a deal than the people in general who have been badly affected by violent politics. If the least dislocation to public life is what the political parties want to ensure while pursuing their goals, the road march was a fairly successful programme. Nevertheless, its organisers should not overlook that there were traffic jams in many parts of the city when the march was on. Anything peaceful in the political arena is appreciated by the people who are tired of having to endure seemingly endless political bickering and violence. So, the two major parties have to agree to hold a dialogue and hammer out a mutually acceptable solution to the problems existing between them.
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