Election-a suggestion
Saif, On e-mail
Today (10. 1.07) I was reading the newspaper with a heavy heart. We live so far away from our family and relatives that every time something is happening in our country, it makes us worried and sad. It seems there is no hope for us. At the end of Ershad time, I just started attending classes in Dhaka University. We saw the demonstrations and sometimes took part in it. There was a hope that if the autocrat government goes, then we would get a government that would work for the country. We didn't lose our hope in 1996 and 2001. We thought it's a new democracy so there would be problems but we would learn. Now it's 2007 and see where we are standing. We destroyed the caretaker government system totally and I would put the blame on both the BNP and the AL. Both Khaleda Zia and Shiekh Hasina are responsible for the misery of the people. As we don't have any future for a third party and as we don't see one single politician who acts, talks and guides like a statesman, I feel very depressed. Some of us think if we have an election participated by all, then we will be out of this problem. That's not going to happen. No matter what happens in the election, I don't think either Khaleda Zia or Sheikh Hasina has any concern for us. We are tools for them to go to power and flex their muscles when they are there. The AL tried its best to put its own people in all important posts before it left power in 2001 and the BNP even went one step ahead in 2006. Starting from the first, second or third level leaders, I don't see anyone in either party who has the guts to stand up. I thought for a few days that Bikalpa Dhara (later LDP) will be something different but if you look closely at their activities you will see they have the same blood that runs through the BNP and the AL. We know who they are. We the people know it for the last 15 years but we still vote for them. We provide all the power they got. No matter how corrupt and bad they are when we go to the polls we look for the symbols. We start thinking that Bangabandhu did that or Zia did that so we have to vote for either one of them. We don't care about the actual candidate even if he is a murderer. So no matter how much we want to blame the politicians, actually we the people are also responsible for the crisis. I have a simple suggestion. Can we randomly distribute the symbols and take away the provision of one party getting one specific symbol? How about if each constituency randomly distributes its symbols? Then we the people will have to think before we vote. We will have to know a candidate before we recognise him by a symbol. Also, it will be difficult for the political parties to do ballot stuffing. It will be a bit more costly to implement but I think we have a better chance of nominating better candidates. It's time we the people took some responsibility for the actions of our leaders.
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