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Download PDF Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan, former secretary general of BNP, yesterday urged the party workers to strengthen the party by uniting under the leadership of Khaleda Zia, forgetting all the past confusion and disputes.
“I hope the unification process would be completed any time as there is no alternative to unity,” he told journalists at his Gulshan residence prior to heading out for the court to surrender. “…unity is now a matter of time,” he added.
Many leaders, activists and followers of Bhuiyan gathered at his residence since the morning and tears roll down their cheeks when he left the house at around 2:40pm.
Mannan Bhuiyan served as the secretary general of BNP for about 11 years. The party’s Chairperson Khaleda Zia appointed him secretary general soon after the general elections of 1996. She expelled him and his close aide Ashraf Hossain, a joint secretary general, from the party on September 3 last year before her arrest, accusing both of violating constitution of the party. She also appointed Khandaker Delwar Hossain as the new secretary general of the party.
Bhuiyan, who was reinstated by BNP standing committee as its member, said, “The country is passing a critical juncture and unity of nationalist forces is essential for the sake of the country and the people. As BNP did in the past, it has to play a vital role in the struggle for development of the country and restoration of democracy.”
The top leader of the ‘reformist’ faction of the party said, “I devoted my labour and merit and have been working for the party for a long time along with other leaders and workers of the party.”
“I also believe that party leaders including Chairperson Khaleda Zia would be released soon and Khaleda Zia would bring about timely reforms [in the party] through council of the party,” he said.
Mannan Bhuiyan hoped that the party leaders and workers would engage themselves in reorganising the party in field levels following the ideology of late president Ziaur Rahman, the founder of the party.
He also hoped that the people of the country would work together to restore democracy and achieve economic freedom as the country is now going through a crisis.
When the chairperson expelled him from the party and appointed Delwar as the new secretary general, Bhuiyan claimed that the chairperson did not follow the constitution of the party while taking such actions.
Earlier, on June 25 last year, Bhuiyan, accompanied by a number of other BNP leaders, unveiled a 15-point reform proposal that was seen as an attempt to dislodge Khaleda Zia from the post of chairperson. Khaleda Zia was practically under ‘house arrest’ in her cantonment residence at the time.
Bhuiyan and his aides, without any consultation with Khaleda, also initiated a move to hold council of the party to bring about the amendments in the constitution.
Bhuiyan in his proposal said the absolute power vested in the party chief must be curbed by amending the party constitution so that BNP can be turned into a democratic organisation. According to his proposal, the chairperson would be elected for three years, as opposed to two years at present.
The proposal angered most the leaders and workers of the party and they especially did not support his proposal regarding the tenure of the party chairperson either.
On July 8, 2007, Khaleda Zia, addressing a Jubo Dal meeting in New York over the phone, said, “Those who joined BNP from other parties are conspiring to destroy the party in the name of reforms, taking the opportunity of the state of emergency.”
“The conspiring leaders who came from other parties do not love BNP, they just want to stay close to the state power at any cost and have no ideal — they just love power,” she added.
Meanwhile, in a dramatic turn of events, the BNP standing committee in a marathon meeting on October 29 last year appointed former finance minister M Saifur Rahman as the party’s acting chairperson and replaced Khandaker Delwar Hossain with Major (retd) Hafizuddin Ahmed as acting secretary general.
The meeting of the highest decision making body of BNP also disapproved the expulsion order of former secretary general Mannan Bhuiyan. Khandaker Delwar was absent in the meeting due to unknown reasons.
Delwar later alleged that he was threatened with death and was told not to attend the meeting. Four members of the standing committee later in affidavits submitted to the court said that the meeting was not a formal one as they were invited for tea only.
In the meantime, Bhuiyan and his followers’ attempts to unify the party failed due to negative response from the pro-Khaleda leaders.
The ‘reformists’ led by Bhuiyan recently had a major blow when their acting chairperson Saifur Rahman, before leaving Dhaka for Singapore on May 7, shifted his stance and put the blame on the reformist leaders, saying that the reformists cannot bring a party together, they can only divide it.
Saifur Rahman also said his leadership became ineffective when the party’s standing committee members withdrew their endorsement in him through affidavits.
Mannan Bhuiyan and other reformist leaders continued to hold series of discussions with their rivals to unify the party and leaders of both the factions even reached a consensus for the unity. The initiative however failed as Delwar refused to be a part of the process until the decisions taken in the meeting of October 29 were declared cancelled.
May 20th, 2008 at 1:29 am
Mr Mannan Buhya Bhaya,, How long you cowards will hide under the ACHOL of women They are gone, New Young leaders are needed Who are honest , Patriots, be they from Army or from Civil servants.
We want a selective Board direct appointments.
Let Dr Fakeruddin be President, Dr .Kamal Prime Minister & offer portfolios to Honest Bangladesh Civil Servants.