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| Bangladesh |
| BNP must undergo leadership changes for its survival |
| 2007-03-17 |
| Many leaders and workers of BNP believe that the party can survive the ongoing shake-ups in the political landscape only through a radical change in its leadership. They said no way will the organisation be able to retain its popular support if it remains under the leadership of Tarique Rahman and the other big names now detained for alleged graft. Some of them think that it might even face political extinction with Chairperson Khaleda Zia or her son Tarique at the helm as their image has suffered an irreparable damage due to "corruption to an unbelievable extent". Merely serves to reinforce my belief that democracy is no better than most other political systems unless it's founded on the concept of individual liberty. According to a BNP insider, a group of leaders want to reorganise the party under the guidance of Secretary General Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan. In last two weeks, leaders from different levels met Bhuiyan and requested him to take up the leadership and steer the immediate past ruling party out of troubled waters. But the former LGRD and cooperatives minister neither welcomed nor dismissed the idea. Things seem even more adverse for BNP with Tarique, senior joint secretary general, becoming known to have multiple foreign accounts. Allegations of graft are rife against most other senior leaders and key persons. "You just name one who should run the party. We want to do politics but who will be our leader. They all are corrupt and they have no right to lead the party or the country," a former BNP lawmaker told The Daily Star recently, talking about arrests of Tarique and a number of ex-ministers and lawmakers. A leader of the Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal (JCD), the student wing of BNP, said, "A popular party like ours cannot remain under the leadership of a group of thieves. Now we simply cannot do without self-correction." |
| Posted by:Fred |