The debacle in the five city corporation elections at the fag end of its tenure, seems to have unnerved the ruling Awami League, with its top leaders involved in a blame game and mud-slinging over the poor performance of the party in the mayoral polls. In the latest of such incident, sharp division among the ministers over construction of the Padma Bridge have come to the fore. Finance minister AMA Muhith on Thursday categorically said that the government cannot accept the 2.4 billion dollar Chinese proposal, whereas on Tuesday communications minister said the government was actively considering the Chinese proposal as it was a good one.
And hours after Muhith’s remark, Obaidul Quader on Friday blamed the finance minister over the issue, saying that due to the unrealistic position of the finance minister the government could not start the work on the Padma Bridge.
Talking to newsmen at Savar on Friday, Quader, who is a key political figure in the AL, also said that the finance minister often made sweeping remarks which was not desirable.
After the defeat in the mayoral polls, nobody is willing to take the responsibility. Rather, senior leaders have publicly said that wrong policies and strategy caused the defeat, thereby indirectly blaming the party high command.
AL presidium member Communications Minister Obaidul Quader admitted that the defeat resulted from growing distance between the ruling party and people. He also said that time has come to learn from past mistakes.
Joint general secretary Mahbubul Alam Hanif went a step further, saying that the party rank and file were not consulted while formulating the campaign strategy before the
Gazipur election.
Against this backdrop, AL president Sheikh Hasina is contemplating reshuffling key posts in the party, sources said, adding that after her return from Belarus, the Prime Minister had two rounds of meeting with senior party leaders.
The first one was held at Ganabhaban on Wednesday night and the second at the Prime Minister’s office on Thursday afternoon.
On the advice of senior leaders, including party presidium members Matia Chowdhury and Obaidul Quader, General Secretary Syed Ashraful Islam and Joint General Secretary Mahbubul Alam Hanif, Sheikh Hasina issued a statement asking party workers not to be frustrated.
Talking to The Independent, Hanif admitted that the party high command had the feeling that some sort of restructuring was needed to revamp the party, but did not elaborate on what was in the offing.
During the meeting with the party chief, some suggested changes in the cabinet, like dropping non-performers to send the message to the people that the government was serious in service delivery.
However, political analysts feel that the largest party of the country is apparently in a disarray due to lack of coordination among senior leaders, which was evident in contradictory statements by senior ministers on different issues.
Party insiders believe that Sheikh Hasina is wrongly advised on various issues. For this they blame her advisers and the group of young leaders who have come to the spotlight in the absence of veterans sidelined due to their pro-reform role during the post-1/11 period.
The dominance of these advisers, as well as the new leaders known as “hybrids”, in the party’s policy making forum, has put the party high command on the wrong track. This has compelled the party to take decisions which have proved fatal for the party.
The decision to capitalise on the Ganajagaran Manch at Shabagh Square and to start a crackdown on the Hefazat rally at Shapla Square was masterminded by this group, informed sources said.
The role of the party general secretary, Syed Ashraful Islam, is also being questioned by party workers. He is not the general secretary the party wants at this moment. He is educated but not pro-people and is responsible in many ways for distancing the party from the grassroots level workers, several AL leaders told this correspondent.
Even the grand alliance partners are gradually distancing themselves from the AL, apparently seeing the writing on the wall. When the Prime Minister herself was found to be sympathetic towards the Hefazat leadership and said that she would arrange for the safe return of the Hefazat chief to Chittagong by air, the comments of Ashraf that “the Hefazat will be pushed to the cave” and “Hefazat men fled folding their tails” hurt people’s sentiments, thereby eroding the party’s support base.
And lastly, during the Gazipur poll when the BNP’s acting secretary general was found to be hyperactive, Ashraf was nowhere to be seen. “Being the LGED minister, he should have been in the forefront coordinating the campaign,” a leader of the Gazipur Awami League said.
Many feel that right now there is a strong resentment among the party’s grassroots level workers about ministers and lawmakers. During meetings of district level leaders at Ganabhaban over the last couple of months, the grass-roots level leaders came down heavily on local ministers and lawmakers, saying that most of them were detached from people of the area and were busy in money-making exercises. A couple of weeks ago, local leaders at the Dhaka City AL office blasted state minister for law Quamrul Islam, charging him with being deeply involved in building personal stake, rather than looking after the interest of the party.
The top-rung of the party is divided into several camps centring around Syed Ashraful Islam, Obaidul Quader and Mohammad Nasim. Apart from this, party veterans like Amir Hossain Amu, Tofail Ahmed and Sheikh Selim have their own bands of followers.
Although it is widely believed that anti-government sentiments resulted in the defeat in the mayoral elections, party insiders feel that bickerings among the leaders and wrong policies were also major factors behind the poor results. Seeing the writing on the wall, AL partners in the grand alliance have started criticising the government on various issues.
Talking to The Independent, JP leader Feroze Rashid said there was pressure within the party to quit the grand alliance. Despite Ershad’s announcement that the JP would support the AL-backed candidate in the Gazipur poll, his workers defied that, signalling their sentiments, party leaders said.
Workers’ Party leader Rashed Khan Menon said on Thursday that his party would not take the responsibility of the anti-people activities of the ruling party as well as the government. He said that while finalising key policy issues, his party was not consulted by the AL high command. “So why should we take the responsibility if any of this policy creates resentment among people,” he asked.
-With The Independent input
