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The Bangladesh leader said: “Democracy needs to be
closely watched at all times; it has many enemies and they are
powerful.” She listed “unconstitutional ambitions coupled with
muscle power”, “poverty”
and “illiteracy” as three major hurdles against democracy.
Hasina was invited by Harvard’s Council of Women
World Leaders and a host of other organizations to give a talk on
“Leading a Country in Transition: Challenges and
Opportunities” before an audience of Harvard students and
community members.
Introduced at the forum by Kim Campbell, former prime
minister of Canada and currently the chair of the Council of Women
World Leaders, Sheikh Hasina said: “ With widespread poverty and
illiteracy, it is difficult for democracy to take roots and
democratic values to flourish.”
In this connection, she pointed out, poverty and
illiteracy will continue to be there if there is no democracy.
“We are caught in a vicious circle,” she regretted, holding
out hope: “God willing, we will come out of it. We must.”
Highlighting the achievements of the four-year-old
democratically elected government of her party Awami League,
Hasina said, we believe in transparency and accountability and
that’s why we have introduced parliamentary reforms. The
Standing Committees on Ministries are no longer chaired by the
ministers concerned but by other members of parliament.
The Bangladesh
Prime Minister further said that her government also worked for diffusion of
tension in South Asia following nuclear tests by India and
Pakistan, and played a key role at UNESCO and the United Nations
for promoting peace in the world.
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