ZahurulAlam :
Disagreements are natural phenomena of human society. Existence of different interest groups in the society causes differences of opinion, approach, behavior and functioning of the opposing forces leading to social disagreements. The astuteness and weight of disagreements depend on the nature of the issuesin question and the manner of addressing those issues by the opposing forces and numerous other elements related to those forces and those issues. Social harmony and prosperity inevitably depend on the intention and ability of the opposing forces to efficiently mitigate those differences and work together. Thus, the history of mankind is the history of never ending struggle of man and at the same time the ability of man to resolve differences and work together. Socio-political and economic stability being the most important prerequisite and precondition for prosperity thus inevitably depends on social agreements. Some of these social agreements take place spontaneously- by the set rules of the society (ethics, custom, culture and historical norms), while there are many others that need to be resolved with proactive, judicious and intelligent involvement of the social leaders, organizations or the commanding societal machineries.
People are at the centre of every contradiction and they are the catalysts for all changes.Having said that we must believe that solutions to the problems or disagreements lie in the ability of each opposing force to understand clearly the objectives of the other opposing forces and the intention to address optimally the demands of the opponent while establishing self interest.
The bottom line in conflict resolution or mitigating social or any other disagreement or confrontation should be the intention and capacity to uphold the fundamental principles of benefit of the mass, if that concerns society, nation, religion or broader segments of the population. In resolving political contradictions the question of people’s aspirations, achievements and prosperity must account for the fundaments of conflict resolution, disagreement mitigation or confrontation elimination process.
This implies that the parties in question should understand correctly the achievements and aspirations of the people. Any disagreement in defining these fundamental matters will never allow confronting forces come to any agreement. This situation warrants for the liquidation of one of the two confronting forces.
By Assigning above hypothesis into Bangladesh’s political quandary let us try to comprehend how far the never ending political confrontation can be mitigated, resolved or can those at all be attained within the existing framework! Blending the current political impasse by personalizing in unacceptable manners by many (such as the ‘quarrel between two ladies’) is not an ordinary mistake; it is a gross senselessness.
The main contradiction lies in the differences in belief about the fundamental questions of the formation of this state and the principles on which this state should run. That is precisely the reason of complete exclusion of one party by the other in all matters.
Since all changes take place at the will of the people and with their active participation. Any aggression against the people’s interest would ultimately not be supported by the mass.
The political programs should not provide people any feeling that their interests will be endangered due to that. The people of this country made supreme sacrifices when that concerned national interest and this nation will again and again do that if situation arises. People want to have a peaceful and prosperous future for themselves and for their children. Surely the mass will support those forces which will sustainably demonstrate in words and in works that they are going to be the ones to fulfill people’s aspirations.
Leaders are the leaders because they lead the people according to people’s will – at the people’s interest, for materializing people’s dreams. People’s leaders remain sincere to the cause of the people throughout the whole struggle. Leaders guide people in the right direction.
A leader belongs to a political ideology which is at par with the people’s aspirations. At different stages of struggle the leader makes corrections, modifications and alterations of the strategy and tactics of the struggle for adapting to the newly emerged situations. A successful leader brings peace and prosperity for the people at the end of day, if he is given that much of time by the people, or if he is not assassinated. History witnessed many such assassinations of leaders. Bangladesh has witnessed assassination of the Father of the Nation and other leaders almost immediately after the liberation. These assassinations are demonstrative of the fact that the enemies of the people are not eliminated unless they are identified and punished in time.
A general rule of any war is intrusion of enemy agents in the people’s army to destabilize the movement or destroy that. With that purpose they try to capture top positions of the movement. These agents acquire trust and confidence of the leadership in various manners and fulfill their evil design once time comes. So, the duty of the leadership at any point of the struggle is to identify those agents and eliminate them at the cause of the people. The eliminations do not always imply physical destruction. Ignoring deliberate destructive attempts of such agents have brought painful results for the people’s movements and of course of the leadership in many countries including Bangladesh.
A leader’s skill builds a nucleus around him which stands as the core leadership of an organization that stays at the leadership of the people. So, there is always an organization behind a leader that upholds the philosophy of the nucleus in accordance with the will of the people.
That organization plays the role of vanguard during the people’s struggle. Thus, there is no people’s struggle that succeeded without the leadership of an organized political force. The distorters of the history trying to defame leaders always undermine the role of the leadership or abolish leadership’s role in the struggle. There are many in our politics who knowingly deny the political leadership of our liberation war. This fundamental disagreement has, in fact divided the nation in two opposing camps.
At the backdrop of attempts of Bangladesh’s opposition parties’ movement against the government, it is to be underlined that the parties, trying to build anti-government movement should be intelligent to agree to the principles on which this nation state emerged in 1971 after long years of political and socio-economic confrontation with invaders.
The movements are people’s when they are aimed at people’s benefit. Success of such attempts completely depends on active support and proactive participation of the people. For bringing the people under one’s umbrella, he needs to convince mass about the pro-people character of his programmes. This requires popular mobilization, not terrorism.
(Zahurul Alam Ph.D is President, Governance and Rights Centre (GRC), E-mail: [email protected])
