Renowned English Daily ' The Daily Star' has published an exclusive interview of the Secretary General of Bangladesh Jammat-e-Islami, Mr. Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed, on last 21-10-2008 about his view and latest stance of his party regarding the upcoming election as well as the latest scenario of Bangladesh.
Committed to PEOPLE'S RIGHT TO KNOW
| Point Counterpoint Talking Polls and Beyond 'They cannot touch Jamaat if only the corrupt are their target'
Ali Ahsan Muhammad Mojahid, is the secretary general of Jamaat-e-Islami There is a feeling that only Jamaat remained untouched during the military backed caretaker government, what is your comment? The government says they have caught those who were engaged in corruption. They cannot touch Jamaat if only the corrupt are their target. We had two ministers, and we can challenge that we did not make a single taka through corruption. But the caretaker government made the mistake of not holding the trials in an open court, and tried to find allegations after arrest. They wanted a balance as no action has been taken against those who supported "reform." The procedure adopted to reduce corruption was wrong. You held an "unprecedented" meeting with the BNP chairperson in the sub-jail. Who arranged that meeting? I was in jail during Ayub, Yahya, Ershad and Hasina's regime. It is possible to meet anyone if the jail authority allows it. It was not a meeting but a call. In fact, a free and fair election is our target. The call was organised ahead of the election. She [Khaleda] is our alliance leader and it was necessary to know her view. She also has no objection against me, and we visited her after getting permission from the jail authority. Who gave the proposal first for that meeting -- the government or the four-party alliance? We wanted to, and Delwar Hossain also applied officially. It [meeting with Khaleda in jail] happened on the basis of our desire. I will not tell you anything more in this regard. Earlier, the High Court awarded bail to Motiur Rahman Nizami but the government did not appeal in time. This time, the court issued an arrest warrant against you but the police said that you were untraceable. How do you explain this? No, the government has appealed against the bail order of Nizami. And about myself, I think I am innocent. I did not commit any wrong, and that is why I am doing my normal activities. Secondly, the investigating officer submitted the final report, saying that no documents wee found against us. But the ACC did not like it, so they asked for a new charge sheet against us. That is absolute injustice. But you participated in dialogue with the chief adviser when there was an arrest warrant against you. The court did not impose any restrictions on my activities. In the meantime, it adjourned the Barapukuria coalmine case for three months. Do you support the view that only parliament should be empowered to impose emergency to ensure democracy? It has to be said that emergency might be imposed if necessary, but it must be ensured that it is not misused. If people want, a preventive clause should be included in the constitution to prevent emergency from being misused. The next elected parliament can consider the matter. But we are not giving our final opinion on it now. There are a lot of questions about the activities of foreign diplomats and representatives of donor agencies regarding election and political activities? What do you think? Donor agencies interfered in our internal political affairs to foil the January 22 election. The roles of some of them contributed to the creation of the unwanted situation. We have asked the UN delegation to explain about their letter, issued before the aborted January 22 election, that concerned a peace-keeping mission. We also said that the coming election was our internal matter, and that, in the name of donor partners, nobody should interfere in our internal affairs. People should be aware of this. What is your evaluation of 1/11? It would be better if it had not happened. The country has gone backward in the last 20 months. But the parties should be self-critical, and should have respect for each other. Have you heard about any list of leaders -- that has been given to the two major parties -- who cannot be nominated for the coming polls? We have, but so far as I know we did not get such a list. What is the outcome of the recent dialogue between Jamaat-e-Islami and the caretaker government? We participated in the dialogue and placed our logical and practical demands ahead of the election. It seems that the chief adviser and other advisers have understood our logic and want to hold the December 18 election. So, there was a consensus that the election must be held, and it's a positive sign. Why are you opposing election under emergency? We are opposing emergency as all the fundamental rights are suspended and it is not possible to practice the constitutional rights of the citizen. We cannot even hold rallies under emergency. But the education adviser has already said that emergency will continue, to ensure the security of voters. It has no logic. If one thinks this way, emergency will have to continue forever. We have seen elections in festive mood in 1991,1996 and 2001. And our people never engaged in violence centring elections. The latest city corporation poll was not error-less as many ballot books have been recovered from different places. Even the CEC himself apologised for such errors. What will be the position of Jamaat if emergency continues during the upcoming election? The December 18 election is a must for the nation, and I am not thinking negatively that the government will be irresponsible and create obstacles in the holding of the election. Why are you opposing the revised Representation of People Order? Some clauses in the amended RPO are in contradiction with the national constitution. We have placed alternative proposals to uphold the constitution -- like scrapping the amended RPO or making changes in some clauses and sub-clauses. But some initiatives, like party registration, are necessary to bring the political parties under accountability. Do you support it? It is not a task of the Election Commission. Leaders of political parties will have to be responsible before the people if democracy and parliament exist. We never opposed the registration process in principle. We asked them [EC] not to do anything that would delay the election, or take the easy way for registration. They amended the RPO in August, but in the meantime they had to make changes twice. The constitution will force them to make more changes. There is an opinion that the four-party alliance took a stance against registration and RPO due to Jamaat. Is that right? Those who made this allegation are blindly against Jamaat. Because, primarily, Awami League, BNP and Jamaat took the same stance on registration and RPO. We have heard that Jamaat took the initiative to bring changes in the party constitution for getting registered with the EC. What kind of changes you are making? We have no problem registering with our existing party constitution. We are a dynamic party and have brought changes in our constitution 12 times till now. We are thinking of making the 13th amendment, and a committee led by the secretary general is working on it. Are you bringing changes to ensure 33% woman representation to fulfil the EC criteria? The EC has asked the parties to do that by 2020, so it is not necessary to hurry. About 54 women leaders are regularly attending the meetings of the Majlish-e-Shura. But we think this is not a matter to be imposed. No institution, even the EC, has the right to impose it. What about your preparation for coming poll? Have you prepared the manifesto? We were ready for When will the processes of seat sharing in the four-party alliance start? How many seats will you want? We are now trying to understand our position so that no problems arise in reaching a compromise. We got 34/35 seats for the January 22 election, but I will not disclose the number of seats we expect for the coming poll. But we will emphasise on winning. What will be your party's stance if the question of not giving nomination to the convicted leaders come to the forefront? We will accept the verdict of the highest court if trials in all stages are held in an open court. The constitution says that a convicted person can take part in election if he has filed an appeal petition in the highest court. But emergency rules say that a convicted person will not be allowed to participate in the poll. This is injustice, and interference in the constitution. A crime like corruption cannot be removed by injustice. There are a lot of allegations of corruption against the BNP-led alliance government. Do you think the image of that government was tarnished due to Hawa Bhaban? All, including Awami League, had alleged that Ershad had nationalised corruption. Later, corruption allegation rose against the BNP and Awami League governments. The allegation and counter-allegation are going on. But the reality is that corruption has spread out everywhere in the world and it has eaten all in our country. We must be corruption free, but it is not possible by creating a flood of cases. It needs an elected government, motivation, changes in test curriculum, and positive role of media and fear of the Almighty. But three elected governments ruled the country, so why has corruption grown? We just talk about this, but could not take effective measures to eliminate corruption. Will the BNP-led alliance continue the ongoing anti-corruption drive if voted to power again? We tried when we were in power. Even 6/7 ministers had been dropped because of corruption. I think the current anti-corruption drive has failed. So I can assure you that we will take tough steps against corruption in future. |
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