No room for reconciliation with ousted AL regime: Deputy speaker

Deputy Speaker Barrister Kayser Kamal today (5 September) said there is no room for reconciliation with the ousted Awami League regime as their ruthless actions against citizens permanently disqualified them from participating in politics.

"There is no room for reconciliation with the ousted regime. Their criminal, inhuman, and ruthless actions against their own citizens have permanently disqualified them from participating in our political future," he said.

The deputy speaker made the remark while addressing a session on the concluding day of the three-day Bay of Bengal Conversation 2026 at a city hotel.

Pramod Jaiswal, research director at the Nepal Institute for International Cooperation and Engagement, moderated the session on "Justice, Accountability and National Reconciliation".

Kayser Kamal said the transition from autocracy to democracy is consistently threatened by the institutional residue of the former regime. "True transitional justice requires far more than symbolic gestures or premature calls for unity; it demands forensic, systematic dismantling of impunity," he said.

The deputy speaker said global reconciliation fails because it is deployed as a convenient political veil to shield perpetrators of state violence from legal consequences. "National reconciliation without justice is not peace – it is simply a pause between conflicts," he added.

He said 5 August, 2024, was not merely a change of administration; rather it was a fundamental redefining of the political paradigm in Bangladesh. "The citizens decisively rejected a regime built on fear, patronage, and the suppression of civil liberties," he said.

Kayser Kamal said this regime was so ruthless that it entirely disregarded the rule of law, institutionalising a system where the killing of people was treated as a legitimate act to keep an autocrat in power.

Consequently, the July-August uprising alone claimed 1,600 lives, of which 12% to 13% were children, he said, citing UN fact-finding reports.

The deputy speaker said this fearless and uncompromising generation fought for the restoration of democratic dignity and fundamental rights, and to build a new nation – a new Bangladesh – where every citizen is treated equally and where perpetrators are brought to justice.

"This justice is not only for punishment, but to establish a definitive precedent so that no one will ever dare to construct another authoritarian regime in Bangladesh in the future," he said.

"We are all aware that these perpetrators are now desperately trying to regain political relevance through sporadic acts of terrorism," Kayser Kamal said.

Unfortunately, some schools of thought both at home and abroad are advocating on their behalf under the guise of reconciliation, he said. "However, entertaining such an idea will only push the country towards conflict, leading to severe and unimaginable consequences," he added.

"One cannot reconcile with the apparatus that systematically weaponised the state against the very people it was meant to protect," said the Deputy Speaker.

He said Bangladesh is now working tirelessly for economic stability and reclaiming its dignity abroad as a truly independent and sovereign nation.

In the post-August 5 period, the people demand absolute accountability from their government. "We must not act as yes-men, but as custodians of the people's will," he said.

"We are committed to a future where government is structurally bound to accountability, ensuring that the dark chapter of autocracy remains permanently closed," he said.

Executive Director of the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies, Cambodia, Nikki Singer; New Age Editor Nurul Kabir; Professor at the University of Rajasthan, India, Karori Singh; and Researcher at Wits University, South Africa, Madalitso Zililo Phiri also addressed the session.