A Disquieting time

As the first opposition party, the Awami League came up, it was subjected to widespread vandalism -- beating up its activists, stiffling their voices and smashing down their assembly. The perception of governance seemed only that of presiding over doling out a limited national pie among its favourites. Intolerance and high handedness marked the conduct of the government.

In its roller-coaster treatment of the opposition its members were incessantly driven from the pillar to post. The forces of reaction reigned supreme pushing the country to a point of obscurantism.

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But then Bengal had been an exceptional place throughout its chequered history and true to the tradition of Titumir and Surya Sen its people seldom took things lying down. Through a relentless struggle spanning decades they brought back the country at least to the shape it was given under 1935 India Act, of course, with the Act's own limitations. A parliamentary democracy, fundamental rights and impartial judiciary thrived till the partition of the subcontinent.

A remarkable generation of the people of erstwhile East Pakistan spearheaded a movement that could reestablish some of the norms of a democratic polity in our clime. Consequently, 1954 provincial assembly election was indeed a milestone in our political development.

Alas! only after half a century of those heady days for democracy, liberalism and progress which were supposed to advance further towards a state of their perfection, what are we witnessing today in our benighted land!

In a violent throw back we are catapulted to the square one from where once we thought we embarked on our democratic odyssey. We are once again confronting the basic questions, issues and problems. We are caught up in a time warp when the people at the helm seem to have gone berserk in their reactions, utterances and the steps. A ludicrous combination of power, arrogance and a chronic inability the government of the four-party alliance has brought the country to a miserable pass.

While the authority is apparently in tantrum with its critics over unabated price hike, uninterrupted terror, uncontrolled violence and nagging extortion the country has been sinking deep in an abyss of despair. Worse, in the prevailing catastrophe the establishment is little more than bystander. The country, in the meantime, unmistakably and inexorably sliding towards despotism.

A time of infamy has already ensued when our establishment is not only incapable of giving basic security to the citizens and addressing their hard issues it also does not have clue to where is Jamaluddin, now forgotten abducted businessman of Chittagong; who carried out mid-night orgy at Banskhali; who god-fathered the slain dacoits of Noakhali chars; who killed Manjurul Imam or Manik Shaha at Khulna and who swooped on Humayun Azad in the heart of the capital or Dr Kamal in the hills. But it has 'clues' enough to know that at least the assault on Azad is the handiwork of a ragtag Awami League as a part of its pre-hartal provocation. A catalogue of such dichotomies will however be too long to be presented in this column.

True, the role of the Awami League, the only worthwhile opposition in the country is equally deplorable. A measure of patience and tolerance as well as a political savvy expected out of them are miserably lacking. Mere agitational impulses can not be talisman for success in an exercise like that of the transfer of power. Instead, it would do better in expanding its lost support base. It is a pity that the AL which once only turned to the people to co-opt their support behind issues it is fighting for is now pitched against the members of the law enforcing agencies in the street.

Nevertheless, it must be borne in the mind of the people that belittling the leader of the opposition and for that matter any genuine politician is a disgrace for the nation. When Sheikh Hasina is barred from entering a hospital to enquire about fatally wounded Humayun Azad doesn't it also insult the office of the PM which she once held? It is not understood how the nation's image is brightened when the country's former Prime Minister is barred from paying respect to the martyrs of the peace mission, for example. When the nations frantically try to stitch their people together we are only unravelling the binds that are already there.

The most dangerous is, however, the trend that is fast setting in -- giving political opponents an adversary image. Pakistanis tried it but only divided the nation. For this country Sheikh Hasina as well as her Awami League is as indispensable as the ruling formation is. This home truth, if adopted, will do the government enormous benefit. The country is admittedly passing through grave crisis -- the intellectuals are vulnerable, ordinary people are insecured and the poor are fast turning destitute. All we look around are travesties of governance and democracy. It is a heady brew to combine authoritarianism with democracy.

This is one of our worst times. This is also our best time. The decade of fifties produced language martyrs, a dedicated leadership central to which was Sheikh Mujib and an awakened people determined to remove the yoke of servility. Even if the repression may stiffen in the wake of growing despotism, historically it proved conducive to a new opening that leads to freedom, democracy and egalitarianism.

Brig ( retd) Hafiz is former DG of BIISS.