BNP's Vision 2030

The BNP has come out with a document that it calls Vision 2030. It is perhaps the first time that a major political party has revealed a long term plan for the country's governance and economic development. And that should be welcomed for the reason that a political party has gone to the people, and the people have come to know the stand of the party on various issues, well ahead of the general election. And one can predict with some degree of certainty that the next general election is not likely to be boycotted by the BNP.

Having said that, the 256-point vision paper has engendered several questions in our mind. While the document contains some good suggestions that would resonate with the people, these are the very issues that the political parties had at one time or the other, since 1991, articulated in their election manifesto only to give them a short shrift after the election. These issues were extant even during the two tenures of the BNP, like police reform, extrajudicial killing, making administration free of political interference, freedom of the press etc., but nothing palpable was done to address those.

A notable matter that is not mentioned in the vision is internal democracy in the party itself. Given that a good part of the 256 points deals with democracy and empowerment of people and free speech, absence of these very underlying features of democracy within the party is incongruous.

While the proof of the Vision will be in the implementation, the vision lacks specificity of how these will be made effective. However, this is a good step by the BNP but the Vision will need more calibration and perfection. And its implementation would eventually demand good intention and rising above party and personal interest.