Election Manifesto

MANIFESTO AND PROGRAMME OF LIBERAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY

1. The people of Bangladesh today are whirling in a deep crisis that has descended upon them. The future of the people of this country has been made uncertain and aimless because of exploitation, deception, disparity, injustice, social degradation, corruption, terrorism, predominance of black money, poor governance and criminalization of the society.
2. We have a glorious past of a thousand years. The People of Bangladesh had struggled for a long time for a separate entity and building up an independent nation. Enriched in anthropology, ethnicity, linguistic homogeneity, economic lifestyle, and undivided regional characteristics and rich quality, the people possessed the ingredients to build up a modern, developed and prosperous nation state. For centuries, our ancestors forefathers struggled hard to create all these ingredients. They struggled against the British Empire for independence of the sub-continent which resulted in division of the country in 1947 and prepared the ground for our self revelation and national emergence. On 21st February 1952, Salam, Barkat, Rafiq, Jabbar, Shafiur and many other unknown martyrs laid down their lives to establish our mother tongue Bangla as the state language which sowed the seed for the birth of Bangladesh. Subsequently, through 23 years of our relentless struggle for cultural affinity, national identity, autonomy and independence – and finally through the war of liberation in 1971 – our long-cherished goal for an independent Bangladesh and battle for self emancipation culminated in success.
3. With a lot of hope and dream the People of Bangladesh gained an independent sovereign state in return for an ocean of bloodshed. Unfortunately, even after long 38 long years of suffering, we have failed to achieve the basic goals of our liberation war. On the contrary, the firm belief with which the great war of liberation was fought i.e. to establish a developed, prosperous, democratic and modern welfare state through uprooting colonial and backward system of governance, today the same legacy of colonial governance has been reestablished in the country in different forms. The defeated collaborators – the Al Badars, razakars and their strong political patrons – are wielding state power today and taking revenge of their defeat. The country under the curse of their mis-governance is turning into ashes. Through such a state of affairs, the future of this immensely promising land of 140 million people are gradually becoming uncertain.
4. Political leaders living in the upper echelon of the society are immersed in extravagant and luxurious life style. Their acts of limitless corruption, looting, and usurpation and a fierce desire for amassing of ill-gotten wealth has created an attitude of disregard for the rule of law, which in turn has incited restlessness in the entire society. Seizing the opportunity a group of people are trying to turn Bangladesh into a breeding ground for extreme fundamentalists and reactionary forces, capitalizing on the ignorance, superstition, poverty and under-development of the common people.
5. At this critical juncture of the nation, we cannot remain a silent spectator. It is a crime to avoid one’s responsibility by merely expressing grievances and frustration. It is not right to remain quiet and tolerate wrong-doings, injustice, oppression, torture and threats of dictators. We cannot accept the extreme uncivilized state of affairs and lawlessness such as hijacking, extortion, rape and leave the nation in deep uncertainty. The unbridled/uncontrolled rise of prices of essential commodities, closing down of existing mills and factories in the name of new industrial enterprises, unemployment of a large section of able workforce or invisible unemployment, neglectful attitude towards farmers in an agro based economy of Bangladesh has affected the people. Besides existing anarchy and indiscipline at all strata of the educational system, from primary to the university level, and “commercialization of education” in the name of establishing private educational institutions and stagnation in the cultural arena has made our life intolerable.
6. The country has to be saved from the scourge of political criminalization, economic mismanagement, and degradation of the society. It has become our national responsibility today to build up a safe, modern, prosperous, and humane society for our future generation. It is high time to shun the current negative politics. For survival and ensuring the continued progress of the country, healthy political practice endowed with democratic values is indispensable. It is our belief, that there is no possibility of evolving a healthy political system in the country with existing major political parties due to their numerous over-practiced policies, hegemonic ideologies, outdated programmes and traditional working strategies. As a result, people drowned in crisis are turning away from politics and losing confidence on political leadership and political parties.
7. The people of this country are now dreaming of a flourishing, healthy and democratic political process. Fulfillment of the needs of the time and society demands a courageous and bold initiative. It is necessary to have tested, competent, honest, enterprising and patriotic leadership to stand up against the adverse political environment. Also there is a need for a well disciplined, wide-spread and well coordinated party organizational framework. It will not be possible to achieve this through the existing political party system. What is needed is a suitable political framework to meet the hopes and aspirations of a changing society. To build a progressive, humane, respectful developed social system utilizing the advancement of science and technology, political leadership and political parties have to embrace ideas and thoughts suitable for undertaking new political reforms. They need to have a deep insight. Maximum utilization of technical expertise and wisdom in political decision making is one of the benchmark for determining competent leadership. People also have to rise up to free the country from the present crisis. The country can be taken forward by the tested leaders with honest, competent, courageous, meritorious, farsighted, experienced, patriotic and humane leadership qualities. But they need to unite in a modern democratic political party.
8. Due to long years of our direct association with all the existing political streams of the country and in light of our past experience vis-a-vis the contemporary reality, national, and uneven globalization in the international context and after critical judgment and analysis, we have realized the need for organizing a new political party. The new party, Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) will act as a vehicle/catalyst for transforming our thoughts and plans into reality. We are making a clarion call upon all conscious citizens who are liberal minded, democratically conscious, humane and having a broad outlook to support our initiative. Come, let us all work together to overcome the crisis. Let us free the country from corruption, poor governance, terrorism, insecurity and curse of criminalization. Let us put an end to exploitation, deception, disparity, unemployment, illiteracy, superstition, ignorance, societal degradation and darkness. It is our firm belief that with the concerted effort of all people with good sense, we can definitely end such a dark chapter of our nation.