DHAKA: In the world of Bangladesh politics, the more things change the more they seem the same.

The main opposition Awami League ended a lengthy boycott of parliament on Monday, only to walk out hours later when its bid to debate the country’s woes was ignored by the speaker.

“We are still at square one,” said Mahbubur Rahman, an executive at a state-owned firm and keen political observer. “Every time we hope for a change, we are disappointed. Our politicians will never unlock their horns,” he told Reuters.

Bangladesh’s short but turbulent political history has featured the brutal slayings of two presidents and endless enmity between key groups.

Analysts say the impasse has stymied the country’s efforts to eradicate poverty and improve the economy.

Awami chief Sheikh Hasina — the daughter of one of the slain former President’s — brought her party’s MPs back on Tuesday, promising a heated debate on the nations “endless woes”.

“Law and order is now at its worst in the country’s history,” she said after storming out. “People going out of their homes every morning have no guarantee of returning alive.”

The latest walk out came just two hours after the Awami League attended parliament for the first time since they lost last October’s election to Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia — the wife of the other slain President.

The Awami League had boycotted parliament to protest against what it called a “grossly rigged” election and the alleged persecution of party members.

But some analysts believe the absence of the opposition in parliament makes little difference to the way things are run in Bangladesh

“Like in the past the parliament is going to be a one-party show,” said Abdur Rashid, a senior political science lecturer at a state-run university.

“The opposition’s voice was never positively heard in Bangladesh parliament before and the same is obviously going to happen again,” he said.

“Our politicians will probably never learn to work together,” he told Reuters, adding that parliament served only the interests of the party or coalition in power.

Bangladesh’s independence leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and general-turned-president Ziaur Rahman were both killed in army mutinies in 1975 and 1981 as the armed forces took control of the country, one of the world’s poorest and also prone to devastating natural disasters.

Mujib’s death paved way for his daughter, Hasina, to establish herself politically, while Zia’s widow, Begum Khaleda, also stepped into her husband’s shoes.

But the two women have spent most of their time trying to politically eliminate each other.

Nearly half of the country’s 130 million people still live in poverty despite lofty promises by successive governments to change their lot.—Reuters