EDITORIAL : THE DAILY STAR, BANGLADESH

           

 

Opposition hartal call

Maximum restraint is the need

The call by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party and its allies in the four-party alliance for a day-long hartal on June 5 only ratchets up the political temperature in the country. Coming on the heels of the prime minister's emphatic 'no' to a continuation of the caretaker system in light of the recent Supreme Court pronouncement on it, the hartal can only create new complications for the country. We have already stated our position on the caretaker system through this column. Where hartals are concerned, we have consistently advocated a doing away with them in the larger interest of the nation. It has long been our view that the most appropriate forum for a discussion of political issues, major or minor, is the Jatiyo Sangsad.

We feel that nothing should be done that can only add to the miseries of citizens. Both the ruling party and the opposition should go out on a limb to exercise maximum restraint in their pursuit of politics, keeping in view the overall welfare of a citizenry already reeling under a multiplicity of issues affecting their day-to-day existence. The matter of the caretaker system of government is a hugely serious one and we cannot afford to have it dealt with lightly by either the governing party or the opposition. Let the entire matter be placed before the JS and let the BNP join the session in order to advance its arguments in favour of the system. The people of the country must feel convinced that their political leaders are seized of the critical nature of the issues facing them.

We take this opportunity to remind our political leadership across the spectrum that in the past, especially when they have gone to power, they have drawn attention to the negative effects of hartals on the economy. The BNP was in power for a good length of time. We are certain it understands the blow hartals can give the economy. We therefore urge it to rethink the issue and consider seriously a purposeful return to Parliament in the larger national interest. Politics being a high calling, it simply cannot be left to the streets when a parliamentary system of government remains operative.

Govt purchase should speed up

Ensure fair price to producers

Like in the past, this season, too, farmers are faced with a worry of being deprived of fair price for their produces, despite bumper production of boro rice. The problem has been further compounded by the delay in the government's buying the produce from farmers.

Farmers' plight is rooted in a multiple of factors. Since boro is grown in winter, peasants have to depend on irrigated water to grow it. Erratic supply of electricity as well as high price of diesel to run irrigation pump add to cost of producing rice. But the middlemen, who buy the rice before it is sold to the wholesalers, as always, cheat the farmers on price on various pretexts.

The irony is the market price of rice is still very high compared to what the farmers get when they sell their products to the middlemen or even the government. Obviously, the middlemen and the wholesalers mostly eat up what farmers could get had they any bargaining power.

Thus to get any return out of their bumper harvest, their hope hinges on the yearly government purchase of rice. This year, they were compelled to sell a part of their harvest to the middlemen as the government did not start the buying earlier.

Unfortunately, it has become a regular pattern that farmers do not get a fair price for their product of labour. It is a serious disincentive to them. And it seems, had there been any alternative to meet their rice consumption need, they would perhaps not go for boro cultivation on a scale they do.

To ensure that farmers might get due returns from their crop, it is hoped that the government would take its decision early with an eye to the harvesting time of boro. Power for irrigation has to be regular and cost of other inputs has to be kept within affordable limits. Last, but not the least, government should take some steps to protect farmers from the clutches of faria (middlemen) class.