Impossible dreams?

One is baffled at this continuous hide and seek game being played upon the people by the government. When Lord Hutton started his enquiry into the alleged suicide of Dr. David Kelly (in which Tony Blair and Jack Straw had to appear) the progress of the enquiry had been telecast on a continuing basis. Now Lord Hutton is reportedly writing his report and has refused to give an advance copy to the Prime Minister. One may advance the argument that it took the West hundreds of years to reach this state of openness and transparency. But such arguments are fallacious ab initio because if we have no hesitation in taking advantage of the material advancement of the Western civilisation then why should we argue that liberty is an exogenous concept for us and our society should be excused for its normative disorder. Such fragile arguments trying to stretch the meaning of words beyond the realm of credulity, such confutative attempt to befool a percipient public can only invite comments such as those by EU Commissioner Chris Patten who expressed European concern over deteriorating law and order "as illustrated by endemic criminality and the inability of the police to respond in an appropriate manner. The nexus between the police, criminals and certain politicians is particularly worrying".

These days conscience appears to have gone on a holiday. We have forgotten to be outraged .Our faith in the institutions, indispensable for a democratic dispensation, is dwindling. People listen to politicians with such skepticism that affirms their belief that promises are meant to be broken. Enslaving politicisation of different branches of society, without a dash of contrition, is being done with impenitent and ferocious speed. The task becomes easier and cheaper because black money can buy muscle power of millions of young people joining every year the vast multitude of the unemployed. Increasingly petty crimes are being graduated to bestiality. Ordinary conversation is getting coarser, devoid of civility, which should be the right of every civilized society.

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Since the art of politics is to capture power politicians may not be averse to exploiting religion for political ends. In the light of the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington on nine-eleven, co-sharing of power with any fundamentalist Islamic party is pregnant with ominous and dreadful possibilities. However ill-conceived and grotesque Osama bin Laden's jihad against Western "moral debasement" and mono-centric policy had been, there is no denying the fact that bin Laden's brand of "transnational Islamism" could articulate Muslim frustration far better than the pro-West Muslim countries could do. Last month Indian Deputy Prime Minister L.K.Advani voiced serious concern over the activities of Pakistani intelligence service and Al-Qaida in Bangladesh trying to destabilise the North Eastern part of India. Predictably Bangladesh rejected the allegations and pointed out that such accusations cannot but arrest the growth of good neighbourly relations between the two countries.

Bangladesh is a predominantly Muslim country. The country's constitution was amended to declare Islam as the state religion. Most of the people are devout Muslims. Communal disharmony has been rare. Yet instead of resting on past laurels it may be advisable to ascertain whether there has been an increase of Islamic fundamentalism in the country. The recent demand, albeit by a small number of people, to declare the Ahmadyyas as non-Muslims is not a good sign. Attempts to rouse communal feelings on this pretext should be arrested. The core issue whether the Ahmadyyas are Muslims or not should be left to divinity to make a final determination. Bangladesh government has taken a prudent step in refusing the demand of the religious bigot to declare the Ahmadyyas as non-Muslims and by allowing them to practice their religion. But the violence perpetrated on the minority community immediately after the parliamentary elections explained as a result of "power vacuum" at that time has not helped Bangladesh's image abroad as a tolerant Muslim country.

It is well known that intra-state and inter-state migration of people takes place mainly due to poverty. If lack of physical security is added to poverty then the possibility of inter-state migration increases manifold. India has been alleging illegal presence of Bangladeshis in India for quite sometime as "economic migrants". Recently West Bengal Chief Minister alleged that more than one million Bangladeshis who had entered India legally had not returned home. Bangladesh government has naturally denied the existence of illegal presence of Bangladeshis in India. But given the porosity of Indo-Bangladeshi border and its length this issue, if it is an issue at all, should not be allowed to fester and should be resolved once and for all.

Any one who has lived in the European Union countries for any length of time and is familiar with European history cannot but be convinced that cooperation pays and confrontation does not. These days any foreigner holding Shengen visa can visit several European countries with the same visa while Europeans travel from one country to others without any difficulty. These days EU is debating the possibility of having a European Constitution for its twenty-five members. One may argue that it took Europe many years to graduate from European Coal and Steel Community to becoming a European Union and that but for the end of the Cold War additional ten members of the EU would not have been possible. But then the partition of India is also more than fifty years old and the fundamental(not cosmetic) relations of the two major powers of South Asia are still mired in antagonism the basic difference being rooted in religion with consequent effects on other South Asian countries.

The style of politics in Bangladesh, regardless of whichever party remains in power or in opposition, is essentially confrontational. The party in power uses state machinery to settle old scores of indignities inflicted upon it when it was in the opposition. The opposition repeats similar cycle of violence when it is voted to power. In this repeated score settling game the electorate gets the short shrift. What is worrying is the ferocity displayed by the government in "crushing" oppositional politics forgetting the fact that the opposition has a legitimate and constitutional right to criticise the government both within and outside the parliament. Unparliamentary language reportedly used by some members when parliament is in session, baring the personal life of political leaders is not only deplorable but may give rise to suspicion that such deliberate ploy is being used to keep the opposition out of parliament. Another worrying factor is the co-sharing of power with religious fundamentalists who were opposed to the independence movement.

In today's changed world after the events of nine-eleven one can not but be cautious about the possible resurgence of Islamic fundamentalism in Bangladesh which would attempt "to create a true Islamic society, not simply by imposing the sharia, but by establishing first an Islamic state through political action"( Neo-Fundamentalism -- Oliver Roy). Such attempts would be conflictual with the practice of Islam which Muslim Bangladeshis are enjoined by their religion to do. Though US State Department's International Religious Freedom Report 2002 observed that " religious minorities are disadvantaged in access to job in the government or the military and in political office" and that the police often are slow to assist the minorities who become victims of violence, yet the State Department's Human Rights and Democracy Record 2002-03 for South Asia has termed Bangladesh as a "moderate Muslim nation". Lest we forget in an unwitting passage to fascism we should remember that "religions have too often been used to justify the violation of human rights, in part through the hierarchical and selective use of the role of ethics and postponement of temporal justice to divine judgment or Karmic consequences. Yet the world religions have also proved a constant voice of critique against violation of human rights by calling for equality and universal compassion and love, calls which reach far beyond the mere protection of human rights'(Human Rights and Responsibilities in World Religions 2003).

Perhaps, one of the great difficulties faced by our politicians is to learn to rely on the people instead of on money and muscle and to accept defeat at the polls with good grace. After all in a democratic election for one to win some others have to lose. In neighbouring West Bengal CPM is in power for more than a quarter century not because of money and muscle but because they have been able to deliver political goods e.g.health, education, infrastructural developments and a myriad of wants of the electorate which have endeared them to the people. Chief Minister Buddhadev Bhattacharya lives a middle class life in an apartment and not in an opulent palace. In the recently held state elections in India Congress Party has been thrown out of power in Madhya Pradesh, Chattishgarh, and Rajasthan presumably because of the failure of the Congress governments to deliver political goods to the people combined with anti-incumbency factor. In Delhi Sheila Dixit's convincing win has lent courage to the Congress camp. The four Indian states have shown anew how democracy can work in a country whose developmental indicators are comparable to ours; whose social developments are similar to ours; only differentiating factor is that unlike India in Bangladesh political development faced artificial interruptions with consequent distortions in the growth of democratic institutions in the country.

It would be pessimistically judgmental to arrive at a conclusion that we are a cage bound mice where inevitable multiplicity in the absence of spatial expansion has doomed us to a future of nothingness. The consequent inability of our authorities to deliver goods to the people may invite in course of time intrusion of exogenous influence. After all, since we live (in David Held's words) not in discreet national communities but in "overlapping communities of fate", politico-economic instability in any part of the world will inevitably affect tranquillity in others inviting censorial glances from hegemonic powers. From an optimist's point of view one would hope that political leaders voted to power would devote their energy to servicing the people instead of servicing their own and take a long term view of national-interest projects regardless of the fact who will be in power when the projects draw to their conclusion. Traumatic birth of Bangladesh fuelled by inexorable will of the people to be free must be allowed to bloom in the globalised future of peace and prosperity.

Kazi Anwarul Masud is a former Secretary and Ambassador.