RIDAY, MARCH 08, 2013
PLEASURE IS ALL MINE
Did we vote for insanity?
SHAH HUSAIN IMAM
The answer is, yes. We voted for change by massively mandating the AL to govern the country while the BNP found itself in the opposition, thanks largely to its misrule. But what we have got now is insanity all around. All the glass ceilings have been broken and the red rags to bulls zapped before them. There are war cries from the party drumbeaters as if we are in an African jungle seeing a Hutu-Tutsi duel unto death!
So fluid and danger-prone the current political situation is that not even the most well-informed, close to power and brainy people have any clue as to which way the country is headed. The senior leaders of both political parties including the clutch of advisers have abdicated their intelligence to the feet of their supreme leaders. Even the repertoire of prescriptions to alleviate the ailing politics has been overtaken by events.
The duopoly of Awami League and BNP is working towards the same goal actuated by a similar motive. They don’t seem interested in the election, far less a participatory election as far as the AL goes. An early election without fixing the loosened nuts and bolts of an interim caretaker arrangement appears suspended in the air. Their calculations have had a shift with a common denominator which is they simply don’t want to see each other in power and if that means courting an emergency, so be it. Jamaat perhaps literally looks forward to such a prospect because any change in the existing order could stall the war crimes trial. And, they have a new lease of life!
On the whole, the current scenario is unintellectual, irrational and undemocratic.
Yet, all is not lost; there are some ways out of the spiders’ web or spokes-of-a-wheel-like situation. Here are my antidotes to infective politics with its violent ramifications on the street that we have come to dread so much.
You can keep the police’s riot control weapons at the ready but not use them at the slightest of provocation. Such a tendency leads to dire consequences as we have often seen, the chief one of which is the opposition taking a harder line approach. For instance, the police had no business breaking up the peaceful BNP rally on Wednesday and inflicting wounds on some senior opposition leaders. If the ruling party for once puts itself in the opposition’s shoes it will be in a better position to understand the opposition’s psyche.
The opposition has the legitimate right to dissent, articulate its grievance and try and create public opinion in its favour. Operatively, it means giving the opposition a space both inside the parliament and outside. It is common sense that preventing the opposition from having their say or preempting them from taking out processions or staging a sit-in can only lead to tension and physical confrontation. Let the opposition programmes run their course as the police watch over silently from a distance rather than pouncing on them, usually on a political diktat. This will save both police and public lives.
So much for the ruling party. Now turn to what the opposition BNP can do. The latter can contribute significantly to defuse and lessen tension by siding with the forces of sanity. BNP’s alignment with the Jamaat-Shibir, since refashioned on a tougher line towards the government, needs to be revisited and revised. The BNP is not a terrorist party; it has freedom fighters among its leaders, let alone the ranks. It can delink itself from the aggressive, do-or-die approach of the Jamaat-Shibir combine and thus raise its popular standing.
From several district officials requests have flooded into the corridors of central government for reinforcements, going by some newspaper reports. They seek police, BGB and even army deployment with adequate logistic support structures thrown in.
Clearly, there is a good ground for strengthening law and order so that the panic that has gripped the public is effectively neutralised.
The reach of Jamaati influence has been grossly underestimated by the government. That they have support-base in some Islamic countries, external sources of financing to operate; domestically their protagonists outnumber those of other Islamic parties; and their cadres are determined, disciplined lot are facts to reckon with.
Like it or not, Jamaat’s politics must be dealt with politically rather than through use of force.
The real test of the government lies in implementing the agreement it has signed up to with Projonmo Chottor. When chips come down, the government will face the challenge of striking a balance between the competing concerns. Upon its successful handling of the testing situation, depends the future course of events. The precarious perch on which politics is placed now demands maximum sagacity, realism and persuasiveness to enable us to come to the other side, safe and sound.
So fluid and danger-prone the current political situation is that not even the most well-informed, close to power and brainy people have any clue as to which way the country is headed. The senior leaders of both political parties including the clutch of advisers have abdicated their intelligence to the feet of their supreme leaders. Even the repertoire of prescriptions to alleviate the ailing politics has been overtaken by events.
The duopoly of Awami League and BNP is working towards the same goal actuated by a similar motive. They don’t seem interested in the election, far less a participatory election as far as the AL goes. An early election without fixing the loosened nuts and bolts of an interim caretaker arrangement appears suspended in the air. Their calculations have had a shift with a common denominator which is they simply don’t want to see each other in power and if that means courting an emergency, so be it. Jamaat perhaps literally looks forward to such a prospect because any change in the existing order could stall the war crimes trial. And, they have a new lease of life!
On the whole, the current scenario is unintellectual, irrational and undemocratic.
Yet, all is not lost; there are some ways out of the spiders’ web or spokes-of-a-wheel-like situation. Here are my antidotes to infective politics with its violent ramifications on the street that we have come to dread so much.
You can keep the police’s riot control weapons at the ready but not use them at the slightest of provocation. Such a tendency leads to dire consequences as we have often seen, the chief one of which is the opposition taking a harder line approach. For instance, the police had no business breaking up the peaceful BNP rally on Wednesday and inflicting wounds on some senior opposition leaders. If the ruling party for once puts itself in the opposition’s shoes it will be in a better position to understand the opposition’s psyche.
The opposition has the legitimate right to dissent, articulate its grievance and try and create public opinion in its favour. Operatively, it means giving the opposition a space both inside the parliament and outside. It is common sense that preventing the opposition from having their say or preempting them from taking out processions or staging a sit-in can only lead to tension and physical confrontation. Let the opposition programmes run their course as the police watch over silently from a distance rather than pouncing on them, usually on a political diktat. This will save both police and public lives.
So much for the ruling party. Now turn to what the opposition BNP can do. The latter can contribute significantly to defuse and lessen tension by siding with the forces of sanity. BNP’s alignment with the Jamaat-Shibir, since refashioned on a tougher line towards the government, needs to be revisited and revised. The BNP is not a terrorist party; it has freedom fighters among its leaders, let alone the ranks. It can delink itself from the aggressive, do-or-die approach of the Jamaat-Shibir combine and thus raise its popular standing.
From several district officials requests have flooded into the corridors of central government for reinforcements, going by some newspaper reports. They seek police, BGB and even army deployment with adequate logistic support structures thrown in.
Clearly, there is a good ground for strengthening law and order so that the panic that has gripped the public is effectively neutralised.
The reach of Jamaati influence has been grossly underestimated by the government. That they have support-base in some Islamic countries, external sources of financing to operate; domestically their protagonists outnumber those of other Islamic parties; and their cadres are determined, disciplined lot are facts to reckon with.
Like it or not, Jamaat’s politics must be dealt with politically rather than through use of force.
The real test of the government lies in implementing the agreement it has signed up to with Projonmo Chottor. When chips come down, the government will face the challenge of striking a balance between the competing concerns. Upon its successful handling of the testing situation, depends the future course of events. The precarious perch on which politics is placed now demands maximum sagacity, realism and persuasiveness to enable us to come to the other side, safe and sound.
The writer is Associate Editor, The Daily Star.
E-mail: husain.imam@thedailystar.net
E-mail: husain.imam@thedailystar.net
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