No more trading in deception

No more trading in lies and deception. It took nearly ages for our beloved opposition Leader to sever links with a gangster and killer like Joynal Hazari and his goons. God alone knows how much time the ruling class will take in ridding itself of the religious fundamentalists who are slowly and surely creeping in and getting ready to eat into the vitals of our nation challenging its very foundation. The Kalashnikovs, small fire arms, the occasional murders here and there, every now and then, may one day come to a tolerable level and "stabilise", but this rising head of the serpent called religious fundamentalism must be crushed now. It is high time that the entire political hierarchy irrespective of their party affiliations must be united as one against this deadly scourge. Let no one use this as a tool for gaining political mileages over one another. Our leaders must shed off all personal jealousies and refrain from concentrating on the ways and means of being in the seat of power now or in the coming days, months or years, instead sincerely work towards containing any further rise of religious fundamentalism.

Needless to say that Bangladesh can ill afford a Bali style incident now or ever nor incidents of the kind which have become a regular feature involving the streets and the mosques in Karachi, Pakistan. Already the world's 'godfather' is stretching his hands for providing intelligence services to help us arrest rising incidents of deteriorating law and order situations in the country. Of late I remain scared of his unsolicited love for us.

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Irrespective of whatever I have said so far, I am also aware that given the prevailing situation it is indeed a tall order. Yet we must make the beginning here and now. The civil society, the intellectuals, the professionals all must play their respective roles in real earnest without consideration for partisan interests and self- profiling. We must no longer have any hidden agenda rising above any form of temptation and rapprochement. I have always wondered if the fundamentalists, who are far lesser in number can work as a unified force why cant we! Surely we can, if we are able to rise above selfish interests. The fundamentalists also have an edge over other political parties, to the extent that they happen to be far more committed to their cause and certainly free from any material and moral corruption.

The nation's salvation today lies in working towards establishment and revitalising of key democratic institutions like the Judiciary, making it independent by separating it from the Executive, appointing the Ombudsman, revitalising and cleansing of the BAC, establishing an independent Human Rights Commission, ensuring the independence and working of a free and independent Election Commission so on and so forth. We do not need a "third force" or some revolutionary spirit to accomplish these tasks. All that is required is the motive and the good will on the part of the Government on one hand and an effective continued well-orchestrated political pressure brought about by the Opposition. How sad and unfortunate that even Pakistan whose political heritage we often tend to be acutely critical about does have these democratic institutions in place. I know of my own knowledge Pakistan has a very strong and effective human rights commission which is routinely engaged in being extremely critical of General Musharraf's actions leading to human rights violations in that country.

In all this, both the electronic and the print media can play a very important role. I am afraid here both the government and the media have failed miserably. Government must stop intimidating the media particularly the print media while the media bosses must also refrain from indulging in partisan and yellow journalism. Any intelligent reader today can see that we now have two categories of newspapers, one which follows Awami League, the main opposition party and the other the ruling class. Here too I wish to cite the example of the Pakistani Media which operates in a much more freer environment and is comparatively more independent than many in the region. If the government has failed us in this regard so has the media bosses.

Concluding remarks: Our politicians whether of the ruling class or of the opposition must learn to behave and act in a more rational way. While the government must put an end to all its highhanded actions the opposition must also shun its path of indulgence in wily political maneuverings. The opposition must simply return to the Parliament and stop its so-called movement of toppling the government.