Democracy, not family grip, most important: Menon
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The
Workers Party president, Rashed Khan Menon, has said
all political power should not be concentrated in
some families or a clan although it is difficult to
detach politics from ‘family tradition’ in all
cases.
“It is not important if an entire family is involved
in the politics of a particular party. Rather it is
important to see whether democracy exists in that
party,” he said in an exclusive interview recently
with the news agency.
The veteran leader, whose party is a partner of the
Awami League-led alliance, said the meaning of
reforms people were talking about was not clear to
him.
He blamed the previous military governments for
criminalisation of politics and corruption. ‘Now the
democratic practice has vanished from the political
parties,’ Menon said. |
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A member
of parliament in 1991-1996, he said no matter whatever was
happening to the political arena, at the end of the day
politicians would run the country.
“Now various sections are trying to strip politicians of
their images in the name of talking about reforms. But at
the end of the day politicians will run the country. So,
if reforms need to be carried out there is no way but to
sit with political parties.”
Menon claimed himself a vibrant advocate for reforms.
“The political parties are voluntary organisations. Nobody
can dictate how the political parties will run their
activities. A free, democratic environment needs to be
there in the first place so that people can express their
thoughts on possible reforms.”
Menon criticised some politicians, for what he said, not
taking a rational way to make their suggestions.
“If one says a person would not be eligible to hold prime
minister’s office more than twice, that’s not logical. It
does not go with the parliamentary democracy. Margaret
Thatcher and Tony Blair are the examples.”
He criticised the so-called civil society, which is
talking about political reforms now.
“They are just repeating what politicians have been
advocating for long. They did not support us when we
raised the issues of reforms.”
--Bdnews24.com
