Md. Nasir Uddin (Special Correspondent): Barrister Asaduzzaman Fuad, joint member secretary of Amar Bangladesh Party AB Party recently gave a special interview to Morning News on the ongoing political scenario of the country.Morning news special correspondent. Nasir Uddin accepted the interview. Which is exactly what is presented for the purpose of the reader.
Morning News: Former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina fled the country due to student uprising. Not only him, some of his cabinet, members of parliament and even the leaders of Awami League have fled the country and some have gone into hiding. Why such a situation of a large political party like Awami League?
Barrister Asaduzzaman Fuad: It is all about people's view. Do those you rule want to see you as a ruler? People have repeatedly tried to say in the last 15-16 years if you want to stay, take our vote. Which the Awami League government did not do. It has repeatedly deprived the people of this right.In this place of deprivation there is an explosion and people go to the place of rebellion. Sheikh Hasina was not allowed anymore.
The shooting death of Abu Saeed shook the whole world. The fact that girls were injured and bloodied in Dhaka University also caused a great stir among the people.
Another thing is the way the media was controlled in every movement in Bangladesh, for whatever reason the government did not try to control the media in this anti-quota movement. It may be that the government did not care about it.Or maybe Sheikh Hasina thought my Delhi and Beijing trip was a disaster so let the game go on.
We doubted whether the agitation was instigated by the government. Because the court's verdict was passed on June 5, but the movement gathered momentum after returning from Beijing in July. Then there was a fear among us whether the government was stopping the students.
What the government wanted to achieve by elevating the media did not materialize. The reality of the public mind was different. They developed sympathy for the agitators. In reality people were against quota. With all this, Sheikh Hasina had to flee on August 5.
Morning News: It is said that a new state will be built and the state will be reformed. Was it in the form of an agenda before the people in the anti-quota movement or how is it being implemented?
Barrister Asaduzzaman Fuad: The word Sanskar is not very old, nor is it very new. You will know that there is also a platform called Rashtra Sanskar Andolan. When we launched AB Party, our platform was "Bangladesh of Jan Akankha".We had this desire to reform, build the country anew, come out of the old norms and rebuild the country on the model of the 21st century.
This has become everyone's aspiration through mass uprising. You will see slogans coming "The country is not your father's, Shaheed Abu Saeed is impressed, the war is not over". Then it is said "Abu Saeedre firayya de or else kota firayya ne".What is said through these words, this country is not yours alone, not an individual, not a family.
Our declaration of independence said that the people own this country. We, we all fought together. It was not said here that it will be a state of Sheikh family. It will be an Awami League state. It was not said here that only Sheikh Mujib and his sons and daughters will rule the country.
Here people of all classes, occupations, all peoples were meant to be your state. All together this is our state. This aspiration has once again transformed into a popular revolution. Our team also has this slogan for the last few years "Bangladesh first not father not husband, son not father not first Bangladesh".Bangladesh is owned by everyone.
But many are starting to say whether the interim government will be elected. Their mandate is not just elections, it is not an electoral caretaker government. But they have come with a much larger mandate. That country came with the mandate of someone's father.
If the country has to be made by all, then what to do? The police should be reformed, the Election Commission should be made for everyone, my secretariat should be made for everyone. My constitution must be made for all,My Judiciary must be made whole, the looted property of the country must be brought back. Of course there will be an election. The interim government says we will go to the polls with minimal reforms.
So with the mandate they came to power, their work seems a bit slow but they are working. What has happened in the last 16 years, in the history of Bangladesh or if you consider since 47, no institution has been destroyed in this way that has happened in the last 15-16 years. Each institution has been made a party institution.
So those who have taken charge are eager to reform but they are faced with challenges. So much corruption, so much injustice, now institutions are not working, people are not working. People are not cooperating with them.The interim government has to face these challenges. No other caretaker government has had to face such a challenge, which has slowed down their work.
The government has also realized that the interim government is not able to meet the people's aspirations at the speed they want. They have this place of dishonesty. We should support this government.
Morning News: Today is 53 years of independence of our country. We have given blood in seventy-one years. Again, I gave blood in the 90's mass uprising. Now again in 2024, the people who gave blood in the desire to build the state system, social system, gave blood against discrimination, in the past days and now,Has the state been able to reflect the desire of people to sacrifice?
Barrister Asaduzzaman Fuad: The struggle of a nation to become a nation is long. There is no scope for thinking that having your state means you are becoming a nation. Even nations that do not have independent states have strong nations.For example, Scotland is not independent, but the history of Scotland's ethnicity is hundreds of years old. Tamil people have a history of ethnicity for thousands of years but they do not have a state.We have a history of fighting. In nine months the state is not formed, the nation is not formed. Our centuries-old struggle is a place of ethnicity. History cannot be denied.
There is a secret struggle to become a nation and to form a state, a separate struggle. We have a battle of nationalities. There is a struggle of at least six hundred and fifty years.We have a long struggle to build a state since 1947. Every struggle creates a maturity within a nation. Makes a pillar. Brick on brick. Such is the history of making nation states in the world.
Even those who we call civilized today have fought for hundreds of years. We must keep in mind that it is important to continue the fight. I have seen one of our weaknesses, those who have led the political struggle have not been very successful in building the state.
Those who go to parliament do not understand good laws, do not understand the constitution, do not understand the state. Our union council chairman and a member of parliament have almost the same behavior, behavior and speech. Due to this weakness the state is not formed.
The big political parties of Bangladesh nominate those who go to parliament but they cannot run the country well. They actually depend on bureaucrats here. Those who can win, can run the country, qualified people are not nominated.As a result, we could not fight the fight to move our state and nation forward parallel.
We have always thought very emotionally. Our political parties have never tried to make the people of the country seriously aware people, make them good citizens, make them politically aware, and make them aware voters. They only want to go to power, to become MPs, to become ministers.As a result, the people of the country have remained in the previous place. Remains outdated. Now we have a refuge, now we have to work on these areas of weakness.Based on these changes, how can we create a new state, change the state, we have to work on the place so that it does not run like before.
Morning News: Because of the July coup, the people of the country are witnessing some such images after the coup. Do you think that the state can be taken out of this situation to create a welfare state based on power sharing by competent people comprising of large and small political parties?
Barrister Asaduzzaman Fuad: There is a place of desire in everyone. The politics that have been going on in the politics of Bangladesh before, the politics that everyone has done together, let this kind of politics not come again.It is important for the political party that wants to come to power to win the trust of the people according to the reforms they outline. But whether people trust you remains a challenge here.
This issue is also coming up regarding the formation of the national government. Forming a government with qualified people not only from big political parties but also from small political parties, which can ensure the basic rights and services of the people. This aspiration has its place but it is only a matter of time whether it can deliver.
What will happen to the political parties who have fallen now, Awami League and Jatiya Party? I have been saying that there should be a mass commission. Everyone's opinion needs to be taken here.It is true that it has the right to exist as a political party, but it should also be punished for the damage it has done to Bangladesh in the last 16 years.
They looted, committed crimes against humanity, smuggled thousands of crores of country's money abroad, destroyed the total institutions of the country, destroyed everything, election, voting. So he should be punished in some format.
As we recognize the rights of a political party or citizen, criminal offenses or violations of international human rights charters must be prosecuted as a group and as an individual.
Morning News: If the candidate of the small party does not win in the existing election system, will there be a chance to form the national government? Want to see how to reform the Election Commission at the same time?
Barrister Asaduzzaman Fuad: National government has been mentioned on behalf of BNP. Those who had participated in the anti-fascist movement would be partners in the national government.Now the question is how the election will be done, how the people of other party will be elected.
I don't think there are any shortcuts here. Elections should be done with the consent of the people. The way should be with the people. The responsibility of all of us now is how to make this community a political community.The public of the country should be made to judge the merits of good and bad. Reforming the Election Commission will not only be done by changing the law.
The people own the country. These people must have knowledge of its ownership. He should have knowledge of voting rights. The matter of making the people of the country from subjects to citizens should be included in the Election Commission reform.Accountability must be created to the people. The ruler will be a servant, and the subjects will be good citizens.
Morning News: As a politician, where do you want to see the state?
Barrister Asaduzzaman Fuad: We want to see the state in place of the welfare state. The state will bear all your worries from the beginning of life to the end. People will work, suffer, have fun but will not take any worries in life.All the worries of human life will be borne by the state. And in the establishment of this welfare state, we need to identify where there are weaknesses and find a way to solve them. How the state will become a state is its deficit areas to be identified.
Morning News: Thank you very much for your time.
Barrister Asaduzzaman Fuad: Thank you very much to you, your organization and everyone working in your organization from my personal side and from my political party Amar Bangladesh Party AB Party.
