The visiting UK minister of state understands dialogue between the two major political parties in the current political standoff is ‘difficult’ but reminded them of the fundamental rules of democratic politics so that elections could be conducted.“You have two party leaders who contest each other very vigorously, so dialogue is not easy when you are always in political combat,” Alan Duncan said replying to a question at a press briefing on Wednesday.
But he hoped the Constitution would work ‘smoothly’ and the elections would be conducted according to rules that “everybody has agreed on”.
“Democracy is like football. We set the rules of the game and then you can play the game very hard. But you got to have fair rules and we want everyone to agree those rules to make the constitution work and have election that everybody respects,” he said.
Duncan arrived in Dhaka on Monday on a four-day visit to discuss what the British High Commission described as challenges to the Bangladesh garment industry workers and businesses in the wake of the factory collapse.
But when he came on his third visit in as many years, the two major parties were caught in a political deadlock over the form of the government that would oversee the next general elections.
He met Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Leader of the Opposition Khaleda Zia and Foreign Minister Dipu Moni.
Duncan said Bangladesh needed free, fair and respected elections.
“Clearly this is an important period for Bangladesh as it looks to hold national elections. Bangladesh’s influence is growing around the world and therefore more people than ever before will be watching closely.
“Their attention has been raised further by the recent episodes of violence as well as tragedies such as the Rana Plaza building collapse,” he said.
The British minister said there were ‘of course a few uncertainties’ about how the rules would be applied for the poll, but hoped that “there will be sufficient agreement” between the parties so that the election can be conducted.
But he reminded that it should be free from violence.
“I’ll be looking to the leaders of both parties to disassociate them from violence and to condemn any violence that happens and make sure that all of their own party workers conduct the politics to the highest democratic standards”.
Duncan called upon the political leaders to make the parliament work, for, he said “when there is boycott of parliament and parliament is not working it does reduce the reputation of a country”.
“If you have a democratic system, you need to have a working parliament within it to go along with free and fair elections”.
The stateme minister said politics was about the resolution of different opinions “by civilised means and by the consent of voters” and “for that to happen it requires a working parliament”.
He hoped that Bangladesh’s parliament would be working in due course and even better than the UK parliament.
According to him, the relationship between Britain and Bangladesh remained ‘strong’, founded on ‘a long-standing and deep bond’ stretching across and beyond the last four decades.
He said Britain was committed to Bangladesh’s development and its ambition of achieving middle-income status within the next decade.
“Its economic prosperity and social development is important to us, as it also is to the half a million people of Bangladeshi origin living in the UK,” the state minister said.
He also announced a new UK aid for Bangladesh’s garment workers under which 100,000 low-skilled workers would be trained with skills trainings.
Duncan will leave Dhaka on Thursday. (Source: bdnews24.com)
