Interim government should make way for a ‘more efficient’ set-up: BNP leader Rumeen Farhana

Rumeen Farhana says law and order has broken down in Bangladesh; expresses scepticism about scope of reforms launched by the interim government since taking charge on August 7

With countrywide incidents of lynching of political activists from the deposed Awami League and growing violence in the Chittagong Hill Tracts, the condition of Bangladesh under Prof. Muhammad Yunus-led interim government has turned ‘clumsy’, said a leading member of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) Rumeen Farhana.

Former BNP member of Parliament, Ms. Farhana said the law-and-order machinery in Bangladesh was not functioning and called upon the Yunus administration to make way for a “more efficient” set-up.

“The interim government is not elected by the people, and it is only an elected government that can be held accountable for its acts of omission and commission. The interim government should hand over power to a more efficient government if they are unable to deal with the present challenges,” said Ms. Farhana, who is also the Editor of Ittehad. Ms. Farhana had been a member of Parliament during the Sheikh Hasina years and was noted for her fiery criticism of the Awami League Government. Earlier this month, she however surprised the political scene of Bangladesh by calling upon the Yunus administration to step down.

“If this government is still not able to control law and order strictly, they should surrender after giving the reins to those who are more capable,” Ms. Farhana had declared in a TV interview calling out the Prof. Yunus-led government for failing to address protests in the garment sector, violence in the Chittagong Hill Tracts and the insecurity of the minority communities of Bangladesh.

In her telephonic interview with The Hindu, Ms. Farhana, daughter of the late Oli Ahad, a leading figure of the 1952 language movement, expressed scepticism about the scope of the reforms that the interim government had launched since taking charge on August 7.

The BNP’s London-based Acting Chairman Tarique Rahman on September 28 indicated growing impatience with the interim government and called on it to “clearly define” the road map of reform.

Six committees

The interim administration led by Prof. Yunus and his team of advisers has launched six committees that are expected to come out with reports suggesting reforms in various sectors such as election, judiciary and economy. But the reform agenda of the government has been overshadowed by frequent reports of ‘mob justice’ or lynching of activists of Awami League’s student wing, looting and extortion of private entrepreneurs.

Social media in Bangladesh in recent weeks has been rocked by the videos of brutal lynching of young men by mobs with sticks, machetes and axes, indicating a general breakdown of law and order.

Ms. Farhana said that the lack of strict policing against the perpetrators of such crimes had generated an impression that the police forces of Bangladesh were disinclined to act against them, adding “The situation under the interim government is really clumsy. The police are disinterested in enforcing law and order and there is no clarity about the timeframe for democratic process.”

She also blamed the past Awami League government for instilling high tolerance level among the police for politically motivated mob lynching.

Ms. Farhana described the interim government as a ‘revolutionary administration’ which has brought an ‘utopian’ agenda of reforms. These remarks on the interim government have added to the call for election by the General Secretary of BNP, Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir.

The democratic process got a boost last week after Army Chief General Waker-uz-Zaman had called for election in one and half years. However, Shafiqul Alam, the press secretary to Prof. Yunus said on September 27 in New York that the elections would be held 18 months after the completion of the multi-sector reforms.

Published - September 29, 2024 10:21 pm IST