Let us be honest to ourselves and admit that the people ceased to be important politically in free Bangladesh when their basic rights to vote could be refused by stealing. When that was found difficult the government directly used police to ensure its “election” victory. Prior to that when the victory of people’s liberation war became a victory shared between a particular group among us and India. All this was inconceivable during the history of democratic struggle in united Pakistan days.
The government thus became of the group and for the group. The question of responsibility and accountability of the government to the people disappeared.
That did not make the government structurally coherent and integrated. As unrepresentative government its weakness was exploited for personal gains by all quarters. The government was afflicted by a kind of political coronavirus eating away its heart and lung. The administration is dysfunctional or paralysed.
The political coronavirus sapped strength of the government leaving the government machinery unprepared for fighting the disease coronavirus. Everyday the people are dying in large numbers mostly for the unpreparedness of the health care system.
The lockdown of people at home to be effective but it is necessary that a massive and fast identification of the people affected is to be underway. So that the people affected by the virus can be put in medical quarantine for treatment the sooner. That way the spread of the pandemic will be contained among the unaffected people and the nation will also be able to return to normal activities. Easier said than done.
Because the fight is proving insurmountable. The identity kits are either ineffective or not available. Even in rich countries face masks are freely supplied.
But our health system is pathetically unprepared to treat the coronavirus patients. The money allocated for healthcare in the past went to the pockets of those who had no fear to be caught. There are negligible number of safety gears for the doctors and nurses to be in the frontline of the war. The hospitals are in shortage of bed and essential equipment like ventilators. Testing kits are shamefully in short supply. The government, that is weak within and not ready to listen to others outside its own loyal circle, is naturally in no position to ramp up the healthcare system.
The persons surrounded the government were chosen for their sycophancy, not fit for efficient running of a responsible government. The health minister is so relaxed that he asked our television channels to have more entertaining programmes.
The war against corona needs to be thoughtfully planned and executed by medical scientists, doctors and nurses. It is essential that the nation is united in its all out efforts to organise healthcare system. The people must trust those who ask them to make sacrifices. If the people trust them then the international help providers will also trust them.
The other day the government’s spokesman minister raised the question why there should be the need for a national task force. This is an important question. He is at least trying to know about the depth of the crises. He is yet to understand the importance of experts and expertise for meeting the challenge of the coronavirus pandemic.
The demand of urgency for right kind of vigorous efforts by competent ones cannot be overemphasised. This is not the time undeservedly singing praise of political leadership. Think of saving lives and working together.
The biggest hurdle for this government is that the people have no trust in them. In no sphere of the government there is competence to show. The economy of the country has been brought to a coma through indulgence in corruption. The government could not arrange honest distribution of whatever relief materials it could provide.
The answer to the question is not too difficult to find if there is eagerness. One has to look to other countries to see how tirelessly all sectors are working in consonance to be helpful to the people in this time of national hardship and worry.
How active the policy making ministers are in trying desperately to secure essential tools for the doctors and nurses who are in the front line of war. In England an old and fragile war veteran raised more than 15 million pounds by walking with a push cart hundred feet. This donation also signifies the admiration and trust the people have for their national health service. Our doctors and nurses are not less dedicated but they need the tools and care. Still some doctors and nurses sacrificed their lives in the service of humanity. They are heroes and deserve our full praise.
Declaring the lockdown and shutdown means government taking full responsibility of the people so confined. In many other countries not only the government but also private bodies, even individuals, are directing their efforts tirelessly to reach cash and food packages to the distressed people. The whole nation is mobilised for each to do their best.
Our government that has denied the people of their votes and called itself the people’s government, cannot be in a position to unite and mobilise the nation to meet the crisis together.
Any government that is sure of itself would have decided long ago to have a non-political task force in the greater interest of the country.
The lockdown or shutdown is not fighting the pandemic as such because the real fight is to be organised by medical experts through a ramped up healthcare system. Lives of entire nation are at risk in its absence. The lockdown and shutdown by themselves are not the solution. We have to survive till a cure is invented.
Let the politicians remain happy with the politics of coronavirus. There is no aspect of our national life that has not been mutilated by the political coronavirus.
But if the nation is to be saved from the deadly disease coronavirus then a national body outside politics is to be in place urgently. The body will comprise of experts and specialists able to give the needed leadership in the fight against killer virus for which there is no cure yet.
This body will know how to make lockdown and shutdown tolerable for the people. The most important task of this body will be to invigorate the healthcare system with international help.
Saving people from the deadly virus cannot mean people should die of hunger.
When nobody is safe and death seems too near let those whose courage, competence and love for the people can make a difference for the good and make that difference. It cannot be acceptable to our pride as a nation that the people live and die helplessly for want of commitment of those who are powerful.
