Dr. Kazi S.M. Khasrul Alam Quddusi :
During their previous regimes, both the major political parties of Bangladesh have had successes. However, hardly could they give firm shape to democracy by their integrity. Both the groups tried to manipulate state power for self-aggrandizement. Moreover, the previous BNP-regime was tarnished with infamous 21 August Grenade attack and political killings of popular leaders. The Awami League government did well in terms of development. However, they could not improve the situation in terms of good governance. Though BNP’s 1991-1996 tenure was one of modest success, its 2001-2006 tenure was indeed a forgettable chapter for them.
However, how to name the current phenomenon of indiscriminate hurling of petrol bombs for burning people to roast? Is it not human-roast movement for capturing power on the one hand and stubbornness and absolute abuse of power in protecting demonocracy (not democracy) on the other? One group is not ready to leave any stone unturned for clinging to power and the other group is not ready to budge an inch on the question of getting back power. And, in the process, helpless working people are being burnt alive to roasts and ashes by the petrol bombs hurled by the miscreants hired by the so-called political leaders.
The government terms the miscreants as opposition activists and the opposition terms them saboteurs being used by the state machinery. The law-enforcing agencies have been more visible in brandishing their weapons and less effective in hunting down the criminals involved in this heinous act against humanity. Has the Economist been exaggerative in terming the current situation a result of dysfunctional two-party system in Bangladesh? Yes, the current government can claim to have done a lot of development works. However, can it efface the stigma of farcical elections it staged last year?
At the same time, can the opposition hope for an early ascendancy to power banking on the human-roast movement? There might be variations. But, both groups have already had great shares of crimes being committed against democracy and humanity. To be candid, if the ruling party has defamed democracy, the opponents have defaced humanity. For what do they need democracy in this unforeseen brutalization of humanity? Did our martyrs liberate the country for such horrible conditions of common people going out in search of bread for their families?
How many in the country can afford to stay inside the homes for days and months? How many in the country can feed their families by remaining confined to their houses for days, let alone months? Don’t they have any right to their livelihood? Are not they citizens of the country? Has the land become a forbidden land for the working people? Have two parties, or rather, two ladies taken lease of the land for doing whatever they wish? Why have the conscious people of the country become so clueless in reining in the rampaging Begums?
Various civil society groups have long been trying to press home the demand for liberating the country’s politics from the claws of unabated criminalization. But, what to do in the face of current pace of brutalization? The people are awfully fed up with and scared of the callous and inhumane activities of our major political parties. They are raring to have respite. The people just cannot remain bogged down in the quagmire of resurfaced political bankruptcy. Political leaders also should reform their mindsets immediately so as to avoid being jettisoned by the people.
Though agonies of the common people might fall on deaf ears of our political leaders, forces against democracy are always on the lookout for capitalizing on the disenchantment of the citizens. Can our leaders afford to relax and wait forever? Have they forgotten the context of 1/11 and crucifixion of political leaders thereafter? How have they forgotten so soon that the anti-corruption campaign turned into depoliticization-crusade during the post-1/11 scenario? Why don’t they think that there might be a rebirth of 1/11 and the crusade against politics might restart with all the vengeance?
Few days back, eminent left-leaning leader Mujahidul Islam Selim commented on a talk-show referring to the comments of some people that there might be 2/22 this time, not 1/11, signaling that the intensity of depoliticization might be double this time around. How have our political leaders remained assured that their wrongdoings will remain unaccounted for long? The author is not a connoisseur of 1/11 type of government. However, where is the country heading for? When will our political leadership of both the combatant camps realize that their unending hatred and politics of mutual extermination is beckoning extra-constitutional forces?
Anyway, however, the situation now must have reached such a pass that people cannot bear with any longer. Life has come to a standstill. Fear of people is turning into phobia. Fear and phobia have engulfed the whole of society. No one knows whether he will be able to come back home unhurt and unburnt. In the so-called protection of and movement for democracy, humanity is becoming casualty in an unabated manner. The hellfire seems to have been spread beyond measure by the political leaders, the arrest of which is the need of the hour. Awakening of the political leadership brooks no delay, the failure of which might well warrant heavenly intervention.
(Dr. Kazi S.M. Khasrul Alam Quddusi, Associate Professor and ex-Chair, Dept. of Public Administration, University of Chittagong. E-mail: [email protected])
