Return power to people, not the state

Columnist and poet Farhad Mazhar yesterday said a new Bangladesh under a new constitution must be founded on three fundamental principles.

The first principle, he said, is that the state cannot enact any law that undermines an individual's rights and dignity. Secondly, the state cannot adopt any law or policy that harms life, the environment, or nature. Thirdly, he said the state must not formulate any law or policy that endangers the lives and livelihoods of its citizens.

He made the remarks at a discussion with journalists at the Bogura Press Club.

"If we can establish these three principles, and if political parties launch movements based on them today, it wouldn't take more than six months to change Bangladesh...," said Mazhar.

"The power of the people must be returned to the people," he said. Mazhar explained that the message of the uprising is to return sovereign power to people and to establish a decentralised system where sovereignty and power of the people are paramount, not that of the state.

"The ultimate authority should not lie with the state; if so, then bureaucrats will govern us," he said. "The main point of democracy is local government, not the central one," he said, advocating for decentralising power through district administrations.

He also criticised the interim government for failing to understand the public will.