Take the latest instance. The President/CA himself set up a four- member committee of advisors to work out a solution to the political problem acceptable to all parties. The committee worked as fast as was possible, met all the political parties and has finalised its report. Throughout Thursday the committee members frantically tried to meet Prof. Iajuddin to give him their final report and seek his decision for future action. The President did not have time for them. Instead the issue is now to be discussed in the regular cabinet meeting scheduled for Monday -- a good four days later. Why? Is the political impasse such a low priority that the President/CA can take four days just to look at it? Meanwhile, he had time, on Thursday (the day when the Committee was desperately trying to squeeze in a moment to meet him) to meet Jamaat, a group of Ulema, and hold a nearly two-hour unscheduled meeting with the Election Commission.

The President/CA's delay becomes all the more inexplicable in view of the four-day deadline, finishing Sunday night, that the 14-party has given before it resumes its political programme. We agree that the caretaker government cannot function under any threat or time limit of a political party or group. But at the same time we also cannot accept the fact that the President/CA is behaving in a way as if there is no political crisis facing the country at the moment and that there is no urgency in finding an acceptable solution to it.

What raises our concern more is to see, within a few hours of former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia's demand that poll schedule be announced, the President/CA suddenly finding time to hold an unscheduled meeting with the EC for nearly two hours discussing precisely what Khaleda demanded -- election schedule.

Honourable President/CA appears not fully aware about how controversial he is becoming. Please note the following facts. First, he sent two advisers, on 2nd.November, to speak to the AL chief Sheikh Hasina about postponing their first deadline of 3rd November 2006. Then when the BNP cried foul and said that the advisors met AL chief (Their not using the official vehicle was a mistake and should have been publicly acknowledged as such) without his permission he kept quiet and issued no official clarification to defend them. But we have learnt from several independent sources that the President/CA actually did ask them to communicate with the AL chief to persuade her into postponing the date of political agitation which was to be announced from Paltan maidan the next day. The effort under his instruction paid dividend but he did not take credit for it because the BNP was criticising it.

Then he sent, on November 6 or 7, General Mashhud, another adviser, along with his Military Secretary, to meet the Chief Election Commissioner to persuade him to resign. Again when a controversy arose because the CEC denied being approached by the caretaker government, he kept quiet and Gen. Mashud himself was forced to go public to tell the truth to the world, which embarrassed all including the President/CA and his office. It appeared again that he did not defend the persons whom he assigned to perform a certain sensitive task.

Thirdly, he read out a speech in which he claimed that the government we now have has acquired the form of a Presidential system just because he, as the President, has become the Chief Advisor. He still hasn't told the public why he said so and under what law he did it. It had to be clarified by reiterating his commitment to the constitution, meaning we still had a parliamentary form of government.

Then came the most serious faux pas of the President/CA's tenure. Suddenly on November 12 a home secretary-signed government notification was sent to all deputy commissioners alerting them of an impending army deployment. This was done without the consent or even discussion with the council of advisors. Though it was verbally cancelled the following day, it took several days of uncertainty for it to be withdrawn in writing last Thursday. This delay between a verbal decision and its written follow-up created an impression of a serious gap between the decision of the council of advisers and its implementation. However, the issuance of that order happened miraculously fast!

We still don't know who authorised this crucially important notification that dealt with such a sensitive matter as involving the armed forces (we have reliably learnt that the army was not in the know of it). In fact, we have a very serious problem here. In the meeting of the council of advisors, with the President/CA presiding, the home secretary was taken to task for having issued such a notification. However, to the Voice of America and the BBC the home secretary stated that he issued it under instruction from the President/CA himself. So far there has not been any denial of this claim from the President's office. So who is telling the truth? Once again, questions have arisen about the transparency and workings of the President/CA's office.

And now comes the latest act of the inexplicable delay of receiving the adviser committee's report by the President/CA that we started our commentary with. What are to make of all the points raised above? As we said several times before, the President/CA is our last “hope” to make democracy work. But increasingly and alarmingly he seems to be quite oblivious of his task and even nonchalant about his responsibility. If this is deliberate, and has to do with his partisanship, then he is playing with the future of the nation for which history will judge him most harshly and in a most unforgiving manner.

We have pleaded with him earlier, and we do so again and urge him to rise up to the occasion. Save democracy, give the nation a free, fair and credible election that will give us a truly representative government. Remember that flawed elections create illegitimate governments that fall under public wrath. Such an election will not solve our problem. It will only complicate matters further. We plead with the President/CA to wake up to the enormity of the task, the complexity of the situation and the urgent need for its solution. This is the worst possible time for a four-day rest. Please see the committee report today and decide on a course of action that will save us all from a lot of anxiety, trouble, clashes and economic loss.

In the meantime we appeal to the opposition to opt for a form of political agitation that does not cripple the economy, imprison people in their homes and create street violence. We plead some more patience.