“I think that there was no alternative available to us for making the Parliament functional and lively as well. What we’ve done is the best,” he told Parliament explaining as to why his party decided to be a “complete opposition” after joining the 11th general election as a part of the Awami League-led grand alliance.
“Complete opposition” denotes that this time JP is not holding any cabinet position while sitting on the opposition benches, unlike in the 10th JS.
GM Quader came up with the explanation participating in the general discussion over thanksgiving motion on the President’s speech in the House. He said Jatiya Party participated in the 11th national election continuing the grand alliance with the Awami League-led 14- party coalition.
BNP and Jatiya Oikyafront were their main competitors in the election, he added. The Deputy Opposition leader said there was a condition that Jatiya Party together with the 14 parties would join the election and form the government together, if elected.
“But we noticed a debacle for our competitors (BNP and Jatiya Oikyafront) in the election results. Their elected representatives are very few in number and their decisions was also uncertain whether they would join the Parliament,” he said adding that the Parliament was constituted with only the grand alliance’s elected MPs.
In this context, there were three options before the Jatiya Party and the grand alliance, he said. The first option was that they might form a ‘national government’ with all parties where there would be no opposition, but it would not be a national government actually as there is no participation of BNP and their Oikyafront in it, he said.
In that case, the Parliament would also be ineffective in absence of the role of opposition in the parliamentary democracy, he added. GM Quader said the second option for Jatiya Party is to play the role of opposition alongside joining the cabinet in small scale like what the party acted during the 10th parliament. But such role normally creates distrust among the people. Besides, the experience of the last parliament said playing the role of opposition alongside taking share in the cabinet would not be acceptable to the people, he said.
The third scope for Jatiya Party was to play the role of a complete opposition and ensure accountability of the government in the parliament. And the Jatiya Party chose the third option, he said. The Jatiya Party leader said the grand alliance leaders reached the decision through discussion, particularly the Prime Minister perfectly realized that Jatiya Party needs to act as the opposition in Parliament.
He also refuted some allegations against Jatiya Party that the party is artificial or fake opposition. “It is said that the opposition has been created artificially. Or they say it is ‘maky’ (fake) opposition,” he said. “It may be slightly true that it was created artificially as we were component of the ruling alliance and we’ve become the opposition through discussion. But Jatiya Party is a party that participated in the election with its own electoral symbol and politics,” he said.
Noting that the Jatiya Party governed the country as well as played the role of the opposition for a long, Quader said, “It can’t be question that we can’t be the opposition separately and we will be maky (fake). If we want to be the opposition, we can do so as we’ve independent politics,” he said.
Placing some recommendations to make the parliament more effective and lively, the Deputy Opposition Leader said the ruling party should treat them as rivals not enemies. “We’re rivals not enemies. You will have to count us as auxiliary force,” Quader said.