Gono Forum chairman Dr Kamal Hossain has called for forming citizens' committees in all thanas of the country to organise citizens for a nationwide movement against the 'sick politics' practised by the two main parties.
"People want to see a working democracy, accountability, and the rule of law prevails. They want to see the security of life and property provided by the state," Dr Kamal said in an interview with Dhaka Courier, a sister concern of UNB.
"If these are being undermined we need a unified assertion that challenges the process through which it is happening," he said.
Dr Kamal, the architect of the country's constitution, professed his unassailable faith in the power of the people to be agents of change, against the efforts of the main political parties to 'capture the state', that yields fundamentally undemocratic actions such as the January 5 election. But for them to realise this power, citizens need to be 'organised'.
"Take those who were denied their right to franchise in January. This is a minimum expectation for anyone living in a democratic society. It showed total contempt for people's rights, contempt for public opinion," he said.
Asked what people can do in such a situation, Dr Kamal called for conscious citizens' activism that prevents the people from turning themselves into 'passive subjects'.
"The essence of citizenship that everyone must get is that if you own something, you must be willing to exercise your right of ownership. We should be having meetings in every thana. I say, through citizens' committees where we articulate what we've lost with our right to vote being taken away," he said, keen to point out that the denial of the right to vote was not a 'BNP issue. It's true for everybody'.
The Gono Forum president went on to bemoan in the influence of black money in politics.
