BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir on Saturday said long-standing inequalities rooted in Bangladesh’s state structure cannot be eradicated overnight, though reforms remain essential.
“Instant solutions to decades of injustice, corruption, authoritarianism and structural discrimination cannot be expected,” he said at a seminar at the National Press Club. Fakhrul added that reforms of the state framework and the electoral process are still at an early stage.
The event, titled “How well is social protection secured?”, was organized by Arpon Alok Sangha and attended by journalist Sohrab Hassan, Ganosamhati Andolan’s Zonayed Saki, Nationalist Democratic Movement (NDM) Chairman Bobby Hajjaj, former BNP MP Rehana Akter Ranu and Policy Exchange Chairman Dr M Masrur Reaz.
Fakhrul said the recent mass uprising had created an opportunity for change but cautioned that sustainable reforms require planning, political sincerity and structural transformation. “The present system cannot yield justice and fairness,” he said, calling for collective political commitment to build an egalitarian society.
He criticized bureaucratic centralization that forces citizens, including teachers, to travel to Dhaka for matters that could be solved locally, alleging the system sustains bribery and rent-seeking, from school recruitment to universities.
Zonayed Saki said his party aimed to represent working-class demands and accused successive governments of failing to build social balance, with class divisions and wealth disparity widening under decades of policies that fostered a plundering economy.
Bobby Hajjaj blamed both past and present governments for financial sector decline, pointing to last week’s closure of nine non-bank financial institutions. He said looting in the banking sector continued even after Sheikh Hasina’s departure, alleging Bangladesh Bank overlooked irregularities during her rule while failing to hold officials accountable.