Matiur Rahman 

            Both Awami League (AL) and Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) have been dominating the Bangladesh politics for over 30 years with two leaders inheriting distinct family legacies.  About 75% of the adult population in Bangladesh is almost evenly distributed along the party lines.  The remaining 25% (better-educated and well informed) are, perhaps, searching for an alternative with no good luck yet.  Thus, this undesired political duopoly is still in a survival mode in Bangladesh.

            The common people view them as both sides of the same coin in a negative sense.  The negativities stem from near-equality in unchecked corruption, greed and incompetence.  Sadly, people in Bangladesh remain caught between these parties with no viable alternative in sight.  Relatively, one is bad and the other is worse.  This is certainly not the case that one is good and the other is better.  To gain comparative advantage in politics, one party has to prove that it is bad and the rival party is worse.  This is how the voters in Bangladesh have to make their choices.  If so, the ultimate outcomes are obvious.

            For these two parties, personal enmity prevails over intra-party rivalry.  To say the least, this makes the political environment suffocating.  Open-minded and fruitful political dialogues to resolve any vital national issues of common interest, for the greatest good of the largest number, become the casualty, as a result.  Prevailing sense of enmity at the tops of two parties is seemingly personal due to arrogance and ignorance.  This keeps both parties apart.  Absence of political dialogues and boycott of parliament are in violation of electoral pledges.  As records show, the party in power (whether AL or BNP) remains adamant to be re-elected by any means while the party in the opposition becomes desperate from day one to recapture the power by inactivating or even toppling the government.  These are their only agendas.  All their activities revolve around them.  For them, ends thus justify the means.  In this undemocratic and heinous power battle, the nation becomes the sole victim.

            The two parties have no fundamental policy and ideological differences.  Relatively, pro-liberation forces concentrate heavily in AL and its grand alliance.  In contrast, BNP has relatively heavy concentration of anti-liberation forces with Jamat in 4-party alliance that it helped rehabilitate in the post-liberation era.  Allegedly, both parties have a lot in common in terms of lack of democracy inside, short-termism in politics for personal gains, lack of long-term vision for the well-being of the common people, competing in corruption, nepotism, favoritism, vengeance, incompetence, unconditional loyalty of party-men to the top, etc.  They are together in all the above to fulfill their common self-interests and they almost equally excel in them.

             This will be unkind to say that nothing positive occurred on a national scale during their rules that historically rotate as musical chairs.  The country slowly moved forward to economic prosperity without going backward with the notable help of the private sector.  But the country could proceed faster and further to such prosperity without the aforementioned negativities of both AL and BNP.  Let us hope that the two leaders at the top will overcome their perceived personal animosity and come together in clear hearts for constructive dialogues to build consensus on vital and common issues of national interests.  No doubt, they are good human beings, not evils.  They need to be free from the evil influences of sycophants to free the nation that no longer needs to be held a hostage to their political whims and arrogance.  May Allah bless them all and help Bangladesh.