Inequalities cannot be removed overnight, he says

BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir today said reforming the state structure is inevitable if Bangladesh is to move towards an egalitarian society.

"The present system cannot yield justice and fairness, and calls for collective political commitment to ensure lasting change," he said during a seminar at the Jatiya Press Club in Dhaka.

The BNP leader said it is impossible to expect a functional democracy and just society without restructuring the existing state system, which, he said, fosters inequalities and corruption.

Fakhrul highlighted how bureaucratic centralisation forces citizens, including schoolteachers, to come to Dhaka even for minor issues that could be resolved at the district level.

This system, he alleged, is designed to sustain bribery and rent-seeking, extending from recruitment in schools to universities.

He also said inequalities, rooted in Bangladesh's state structure for decades, cannot be eradicated overnight, though structural reforms are essential.

"Instant solutions to long-standing issues of injustice, corruption, authoritarianism and structural discrimination cannot be expected," he said.

Fakhrul said reforms of the state framework and the electoral process are still at a preliminary stage.

He added the recent mass uprising has opened a new opportunity for change, but cautioned that sustainable reforms require well-defined planning, political sincerity and structural change.

The seminar, titled "How Well is Social Protection Secured", was organised by Arpon Alok Songho.

Senior journalist Sohrab Hassan, Ganosamhati Andolon's Chief Coordinator Zonayed Saki, Nationalist Democratic Movement (NDM) Chairman Bobby Hajjaj, former BNP MP Rehana Akter Ranu and Policy Exchange Chairman M Masrur Reaz spoke at the event as special guests.