Mainul Hosein : When the government is boastful in claiming overwhelming popularity then it simply does not make sense for such a popular government to rely on firepower to continue in power.As it has been proved many times before that our leaders can only enjoy the pleasures and arrogance of remaining in power, but do not know how to give up power peacefully. Stealing of election is their main exercise to capture power. It is reported that some political leaders from the government and professionals met the Indian High Commissioner in Bangladesh Thursday last. On the other hand some EU diplomats met a section of BNP leaders the same day. The US Assistant Secretary Anne C Richard is arriving Dhaka on January 20. The international community has reasons for doing something to stop senseless violation of human rights and ruination of our national economy.However, shameful it is, but when our leaders cannot sit and solve the problem of election that was promised by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina herself we have to welcome any role the international community can play for peace and safety of our people. Any sensible person knows that violence begets more violence, no matter who is to be blamed more and who less. Let us be honest and talk about the solution to the crisis readily available. I find it unable to believe that we do not have the capacity or honesty to solve such an elementary democratic issue as free election. If the world laughs at us, we are to be blamed.It is really a great shame that the people of a free country have to face indiscriminate deaths and destruction over the arrangement of free and fair election, especially when the prime minister herself agreed to the need of a fresh election. It is known to all that the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina also did not claim the election of 5th January as satisfactory. She then promised a fresh and inclusive election in consultation with other parties.It is a mistake for the government to be advised that denying the people of their right to vote is of no consequence. The government has superior firepower to suppress any opposition. This is the recipe for brutal power struggle with no certainty of the result. They cannot see that free election embodies the desire of any free people to live under a government of their own choosing.The problem lies in the outsider advisers of the government. They surely want to perpetuate their unjust gains. It is a gross blunder on the part of the government not to be ready to keep its promise of a fresh inclusive election. Not only that, the government felt free to confine the leader of the opposition Begum Khaleda Zia and apply police power excessively to suppress any opposition. Most of the other leaders of the largest opposition party BNP have been arrested and in jail.Further, the government was challenging and teasing repeatedly saying that the opposition has no capacity to start a movement. They will not be allowed to come out in the street and if need arises the BNP will be banned as a political party.We are obliged to narrate how the crisis has been fomented. The development of events so far has to be accepted for the sake of unbiased truth and honesty by those who are honestly anxious to see deaths and destruction of the countrywide violence to end not in self interest but in national interest. The finance minister Mr Abul Maal Abdul Muhith admitted the crisis for the country’s economy as hellish. But he added that he has nothing to comment because it has to be a political decision.For the government to be tougher with the opposition, it has recently deployed border guard force – BGB – in 22 districts to stampede the rights to conduct political assembly and establish a culture of intimidation, and the Director General of the Border Guard Bangladesh felt motivated enough to declare that his men will not hesitate to use firearms. What he has forgotten is that his arms are bought with the people’s money not for using against the people. He should not have crossed the bounds of his duty.Our foreign friends are also anxious to be helpful and again and again have been expressing concern about the path of self-destruction which both sides have resorted to when there is an easy way to resolve the crisis. So many deaths and so many clashes of desperate violence for the simple demand to hold an inclusive election as promised by the prime minister herself could not have any justification. But such concerns are not heeded. In our present style of politics, power is more important than human lives. Apart from the loss of human lives and the country’s economy being crippled, the gross violation of human rights as going on everyday is most painful indeed. The widespread violation of human rights is not only a matter of grave national anxiety but also of international. For saving the people from the destructive activities by both sides, the country appears to be leaderless. We need international cooperation to stop the massacre of human rights by both sides. Our people must be saved, if not by us, then through international cooperation. The end of terrible violence and unending deadlock over the election has to be settled once and for all.
