Bangladesh to move towards election through legal basis of July Charter, says Nahid

Bangladesh will move towards elections through a legal basis of the July Charter containing state reform initiatives, says National Citizen Party (NCP) Convener Nahid Islam.

He said, “Muhammad Yunus must issue the order of the July Charter from the point of the mass uprising. July Charter shouldn’t have any note of dissent. Whatever points were agreed on (should be mentioned) and the public will the decide the rest. We’ll move towards the elections through the legal basis of the July Charter.”

He made the statement at the launching ceremony of the University Teachers Forum organised at the Kabi Shamsur Rahman Auditorium of the Bangla Academy on Friday.

Nahid said, "There will be a Reform Council in the next parliament. Work will be done for a new Constitution. Therefore, all the stakeholders in the mass uprising should be in parliament."

At the beginning of the event, the convening committee of the University Teachers Forum, the new organisation of teachers, was announced.

The committee has Dhaka University’s Prof Sirajul Islam as the convener and Dhaka International University’s teacher Dr Shamim Hamidi as the secretary.

Nahid said, "One of the contexts of the mass uprising was the economic crisis; the youth were the biggest victims in particular. We had two options before us, getting a government job or going abroad. But even in government jobs, quotas became a big obstacle."

He said, "Now that elections are approaching, many political parties are talking about creating 'crores of jobs’. None of the young people will be unemployed anymore, they say. But when we say these things, we must mean it. No one is able to come up with a proposal on how we will provide employment, or how we will empower the youth."

Nahid said they included education in their 24-point manifesto.

For youth employment, investment, entrepreneurship, and jobs are all needed, he said. “However, to address the core, we need to work on the education system,” he added.

Nahid said in the last 16 years, the education system has deteriorated. “All institutions were ruined. There was corruption. There was no valuation of merit.”

“Whether someone would get a promotion, become a vice-chancellor, proctor, or principal, depended on their party affiliation. A vice-chancellor of our university opened new departments to provide jobs to his relatives."

He said, "The fascist structure still remains. There has been no commission formed on education. But there is no discussion about the other commissions that have been formed.

Everyone was interested in only six commissions, which are related to elections and politics. We couldn’t drag the discussion out of it. Now, even in those discussions, we can’t reach a consensus."

According to Nahid, people are looking forward to a change. Without a change, the mass uprising, the elections, the consensus commission, everything will be futile, he said.

“If the benefit of the uprising does not reach all people but to only a few and certain political parties, then there will be no change. In that case, the public will take to the streets again.”