Politics of confrontation

The government and the opposition are locked in a battle for supremacy which seems to have no place for our collective interests or welfare. The ruling BNP had made it known that it would face the AL head-on in the streets, a clear indication of the willingness to apply muscle-power to clinch the issue.

As we had seen after the 21st August incident, so we are seeing now that the ruling alliance is blaming the AL for killing its own leaders. The perversity of the claim and the assumption that it will be accepted by the public raise serious doubts in our mind about the thinking process in the government. There appears to be a total disregard for the fact that pending investigation no government high official, leave alone a senior minister and secretary general of the ruling BNP, should say anything that may impact on the investigating process.

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The agitational programmes of the opposition and the counter programmes of the ruling alliance have made sure that politics will continue to be a dangerous proposition, insofar as the people are concerned. Though human chains and peaceful rallies elicited a spontaneous response from the members of the public in the recent past, the opposition is still using hartal as its sole weapon to put pressure on the government. But who is going to assess the huge losses that the country incurs because of such destructive and obstructive politics?

Civil society members felt the nation's pulse accurately when they concluded in a recent seminar that democracy is 'fighting for its life' under the prevailing circumstances. We urge the key players to listen to what is being said about the suicidal game that they are playing at the cost of the nation.