We must not forget 1971: Mirza Fakhrul

Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir has said, “We must not forget 1971 and keep in mind the gradual struggles of democracy since 1971. Today, we have come this far through those struggles and the sacrifices of the students.”

He made the remarks while speaking at a session of the two-day national dialogue, “Unity in Which Way”, organised by the Forum for Bangladesh Studies at the Krishibid Institution Bangladesh in the capital’s Farmgate on Friday.

The BNP leader said, “Bangladesh is currently crossing a very crucial political period. Today, the questions that have come to the fore are about unity, reform and election. We are such an unfortunate nation that we have to talk about these even after 53 years of independence. It would have been so good if we had stepped forward after working on it from the very beginning.”

At one point in his speech, Mirza Fakhrul Islam stated, “There is something that is absolutely necessary - we must not forget 1971 ever. We all must keep in mind the gradual struggles for democracy since 1971, as well as everyone who was involved in it. We have come this far through these fights and the sacrifice of the students.”

Saying that the BNP started a struggle, as well as stood against fascism in 2012, he added, “Many of our political leaders were killed, maimed and jailed in that time. Six million people of our party face trumped-up lawsuits, more than 700 leaders and activists become victims of enforced disappearance; over 20,000 people were killed and everybody knows about secret detention centres.

“We never stopped. We have tried to be vocal since the beginning and we did not find many people with us at that time. But we see them now on the front rows and we feel good,” he sarcastically noted.

Mentioning the BNP’s Vision 2023 announced in 2016 and 10-point and 31-point demands announced in 2022, Mirza Fakhrul expressed that the party is very sincere about reforms. “BNP has been in favour of reform since the beginning.”

Mirza Fakhrul further said, “It is unfortunate that some remarks are coming that BNP wants elections, not reform, but this is not correct. We want to go to elections after the minimum reform required for a credible election.

Nothing is possible by imposing anything, he said adding, “Elections were credible under caretaker governments. People deemed this system necessary and accepted it. But had we gone for a presidential system I think people would have not accepted it. I think nothing will be possible without people. You must prepare the people.”

The BNP secretary general expects those, who are in various commissions, will arrange a system to maintain communication with the people.

He said, “Constitution reform commission head Dr Ali Riaz has revealed that the commission received over 100,000 proposals. It is very good news. I have heard the commission would submit recommendations to the government, and then the government will sit with the political parties. I think it would have been better and more effective if the commission had sat with the political parties. Now the government will sit with the political parties and hold dialogues, and it will take more time. I think the more time will go by, the problems will intensify more. The actual problem lies elsewhere. With whom will you implement those?”

Explaining his question, Mirza Fakhrul said, “Your administration, the government machinery are still entirely trapped in fascism. Nothing has changed. If there is no structure, we cannot do anything quickly even if something is just imposed from the above. So, our structure and institutions must be fixed. We will succeed in democracy once institutions are built pro-democracy.”