We feel called upon to express our anxiousness when the political leaders express divergent views about what should be the role of the army. The BNP Chief Begum Khaleda Zia does not approve the army men “build roads and buildings. Their character is thus being undermined”. She claims, she has built the army and not Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.The Prime Minister also asked, in the recent past, the army members “to continue their works with prudence, professional efficiency and dutifulness for the country’s progress”. She further assured them of extending all kinds of support for the development of Bangladesh Army.What is surprising is why, of late, it should be necessary to publicly emphasise what the army should or should not do. There is a caution also for misdirecting the Armed Forces to do things not for them to do. The inherent and in-built obligation of the Armed Forces is to remain vigilant so that no harm comes to the country or the people from within or from outside. There should not be any need for reiteration differently by different political leaders. It is most unusual for any eminent political leader to publicly and openly analyse the role of the army.Army is no longer maintained for invading another country. It does not mean that we have to accept subservience. The role of the army everywhere is to preserve the country’s larger interest while remaining all the time above party politics. Their only concern is national interest. They are committed to lay down their lives for the cause of the country. Nothing but selfless service to the nation is what makes them so distinct and so unifying.The political leaders must not forget their responsibility to solve the problems of the people before telling others what to expect from them.Whatever wrongs the people are now suffering have resulted from bad governance and lack of political leadership. Violence and corruption are used as tools of politics and police have been actively politicised to deal with politics of the opposition. Prosecution of criminal cases has become politics and police carrying the blame as not being impartial law enforcers.Begum Khaleda Zia assures now good governance and democracy, but when in power she did not do anything different to organise good governance. Now also she does see the need of organising her party to be a democratic alternative. In truth, our politics has been depoliticised while others who should not have been politicised have been politicised creating a situation of conflict and confrontation harder to contain.When there is an unanimity in the claim that huge amounts of money being smuggled out of the country everyday there is not much to be said about progress in the country.Those who are telling the people of amazing progress are looking at themselves and not at the general public. The people are helpless as never before. They are bearing the brunt of sinking economy silently. They are not sure who will be taken away by people wearing plain clothes. Nothing works like corruption. Nobody feels any accountability to the people. The country needs political leaders to guide but in our country the leadership has been delegated to the bureaucracy.No country can grow in the midst of violence and uncertainty. Gobbles type propaganda machinery is working for repeating the lies to make people believe that those are true. But it is not working. Let the people have their say in a free election — all deceptions will be unmasked. Let us not divide ourselves. Let us unite ourselves as one nation and one people. No nation can walk tall on falsehood. Pakistanis divided us for continuing their misrule. Why should we now remain disunited fighting each others — this is the question our leaders must answer.
