Sarjis Alam, one of the leaders of the anti-discrimination student-public movement and General Secretary of the July Shaheed Smriti Foundation, said, we must write it in golden letters in our hearts. We can take the country forward by keeping Maulana as one of the icons of the future in every place of our lives.
He said these things in response to questions from journalists after paying tribute to Maulana Abdul Hamid Khan Bhashani at his tomb on the occasion of his 48th death anniversary in Santosh, Tangail on Sunday (November 17) night.
Sarjis Alam said 2,000 people gave their lives without thinking about their family members just for an election. If such a thing had happened just for an election, then in the last 16 years, all the people would have taken to the streets together for this election alone. These people came together when every corrupt system of the murderer Sheikh Hasina was destroyed. People were being deprived of their basic rights in every place. When every common man was leaning against the wall to get a common service. People had to pay money, become hostages to syndicates, then people, students and the public united against these overall systems and took to the streets. So, a minimum demand in this uprising is to make a minimum reform of those destroyed systems. Now if any political party in Bangladesh thinks from their place that this destroyed election system, law and order system, judicial system and other important systems of Bangladesh can be reformed in six months, then we think from our place that they are definitely not doing it as much as we expect from their conscience. Because they did not do this from their place, the solution that needed to be done politically in 16 years, the fall of the murderer Hasina, the fall of the murderer Hasina, has been done through this movement of students and the public.
We think from our place that we are not talking about this interim government staying in power for three-four-five years. But if someone says six months, there can be no such unreasonable thing. Do I need only an election commission for a fair election? I need a transparent law enforcement force centered on this election system that will fulfill its responsibilities properly. If there is any misdeed in that place, if someone misuses power, I need a judicial system to bring them to justice and because of these overall issues, the people of my country cannot buy goods properly by taking the price of goods or going to the market. The syndicates have changed hands. Now, the syndicates have formed their own groups and now they are colluding. Without creating the ability to market properly among the people, how can we have an election story? From our place, we think that six months is a completely unreasonable period, and three, four, five years is a long-term period. We want these systems to be reformed in a certain reasonable period. And after that, the people's government must come to power through fair elections.
Regarding the new political party, he said, "From my place in present-day Bangladesh, I think that the anti-discrimination student movement started with a logical movement of students, then we were trying to connect with students all over Bangladesh, and in many cases, we did, but our movement ended with a student mass movement. Connecting the masses is very important to us because if we cannot unite those who actively participated in our uprising, fascists or fascist allies can strike back at any time. To counter this blow, we need to come together on a platform and remain united to keep this uprising alive. From this place, the National Citizens Committee is doing the work of organizing citizens throughout Bangladesh. And this young generation, where the political parties of Bangladesh have repeatedly tried and failed for the past 16 years. The people of Bangladesh will decide whether the young generation that brought down the murderer Hasina will form a political party or not. But from our place, we believe that they should unite and have a new political party." When there are four major political parties in Bangladesh instead of two, the competition between political parties to work for the people will increase. We need new and more important political parties in Bangladesh to get out of the practice of considering one party as an opponent, making negotiations or deals among themselves and coming to power once, and coming to power again. In that case, if the people of Bangladesh express their support from their place and the students form a political party in unity, then surely a new political party will be seen in Bangladesh very soon.
Present at the time were Mahim Sarkar, the central coordinator of the anti-discrimination student movement, Monirul Islam, the Tangail coordinator of the anti-discrimination student movement, Al Amin, Nabab Ali, Kamrul Islam, Al Amin Siam and other students of the anti-discrimination student movement.