Masum Billah
The country was again gripped by a 60- hour hartal beginning from November 4. According to the World Bank, the equivalent cost of a day’s hartal comes to roughly US$ 200 million in lost productivity. Going by our experience of hartals in 2012 we are looking at a loss of an estimated $2 billion per annum from the GDP. But who bothers about it? We are very democratic and patriotic when we are in power and just the opposite when out of power. A survey conducted in the face of the conflict between the government and the opposition by a Dhaka daily reveals that despite the adversarial political environment, a large 62 percent of people believe the next election would be held in a peaceful manner with participation of all political parties. But what was interesting is that 35 percent voters seem disenchanted by the bipolar political system and would like to see a third party in the politics. An overwhelming 77 percent respondent’s feel the next election should he held under a caretaker government. It is interesting enough that the government says that the people don’t want to see a an unelected government to oversee election.“There is no alternative but to continue our agitation on the streets as the government remained silent over the issue’ of election under non-party neutral govenrment—Moudud Ahmed, the standing committee member of BNP said. It is assumed that if they fail to go to power their existence will be threatened. Out of this fear they are adamant to win power. On November 4 about 30 lakh pupils were supposed to take JSC and JSC exams. Giving a blind eye towards them the opposition called hartal. For whom it is? It proves that our politics is not for the country, nor for the people. They should however remember that they did the same thing when the present AL was in the opposition.
The government again and again reminds the nation that the objective of the opposition is to ‘kill the people burning cars. But this does not attach any value as they did the same thing. If the BNP is elected to power of the state, the AL will do the same thing as track record in our political history shows. Then what the BNP will say? All parties will behave in the same manner as ‘ hartal taken as the only means to realise the demand of the opposition ‘.
How long the people will bear the brunt of it? The real owners of the state are the people, not a particular party. We wonder when our leaders will realise this. A particular party is voted for a certain time to run the state affairs. But the real owners and players remain seriously neglected and ignored by such brands of politics. A new system must be evolved where the real wish of the owners of the state can be reflected effectively without any bloodshed. The top down approach of the politicians will not work. No pretension of doing everything on behalf of the people will be allowed to play.
There id no use of shedding crocodile tears for the people. There must not be scope for politicians to show that they are everything, they are the only change agents of the state. The book ‘American Democracy’ composed in 1934 tells that the root of democracy in America is deep and strong only because the role of civil society is stronger there. But in our country the role of civil society is seriously frowned upon.
What is the role of general people in a democracy? Just to cast votes after a certain period of time. If their desired candidate wins the election, they feel satisfied. If the desired candidate does not, they are subjected torture and pain by the undesired candidate. This is their reward in this nascent democracy. If their desired candidate is unable to satisfy their demands after a certain period of time, is there any way to oust him? No. only by applying muscle power or battle in the street one may have a chance to oust him. No systematic ways have yet been developed in democracy to oust the ones the people don’t like even after their choice through the ballot.
People are to take to the streets and chant slogans, create anarchy, and only when the situation goes beyond control the authorities become active enough or try to listen to them. This is the sort of democracy we witness now. The display of power, muscle and the ability to show more weapons and creation of anarchy on the streets is the picture of democracy. The party which can gather many people, enforce more anarchy and create more blockade becomes the winner. And this is the true face of our democracy (!).
Usually power transfer is supposed to be through elections. But in the name of Constitution or other laws the party in power never wants to do it smoothly. The present government is doing the same thing as the previous BNP government did. They want to arrange an election which will ensure their win. Until and unless they become sure of it, they play different kinds of games. Paradoxically the entire game takes place at the cost of untold public miseries, loss of life and heavy economic loss to the country.
Now questions arise in the public mind why the party in power always does not want to leave power and abhor the role in the opposition. The reasons stand like these. First of all, the country faces manifold problems. It is the common belief that all these problems cannot be addressed by a government in five years. The people get annoyed with the government after sometime.
The opposition knows this and tries to win the election capitalising on the same. Actually, they don’t do any positive or different thing while in government. Again, political parties do not accommodate the dedicated and genuine politicians. Some try to cling to one party or the other for benefits. They do accrue benefits by virtue of being in the government. These people put pressure on the party to cling to power at the cost of everything. Actually it goes beyond the democratic norms, public suffering increases and democracy does not get scope to be institutionalised.
Again, some hardliners of the ruling party try to inflict severe pain and torture out of vindictiveness on people belonging to the party in the opposition. They again remain in tension or fear as the same thing will happen to them if they go to the opposition. So, they want to perpetuate their power at the cost of anyhing. But every party must have some genuine leaders who really want public good even at the cost of their own loss and sacrifice. These leaders must take active roles during the crises as the nation is now facing. When everything goes in vain, nature takes its own course to teach the wrong doers lesson as all men are equal in the eye of God. Should we wait for that?
(Masum Billah is Program Manager, BRAC Education Programme and Vice – president: Bangladesh English Langauge Teachers Association ( BELTA) Email: masumbillah65@gmail.com)
