The economy is hostage to hartals

The people of this country have seen the immense damage done to the national economy by the endless spate of hartals that have been observed since the return of parliamentary government in 1991. The political parties of the country have resorted to hartals as political action to press the government for accepting their demands. The major political parties did not agree to find a substitute for hartals over the last thirteen years considering the huge damage caused to the national economy by hartals.

The Awami League Finance Minister late Shah AMS Kibria told a seminar in 1998 that Bangladesh suffered a loss of Tk 386 crore in a day's hartal. If this assessment is correct, then the national economy has already suffered a loss of Tk 4,632 crore for 12 dawn-to-dusk country-wide hartals enforced by the major political parties during last few months. The civil society and the business leaders have been repeatedly requesting the country's mainstream opposition political leaders to put an end to unabated politics of hartal, considering its harmful effects on the national economy and business.

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The major opposition political leaders were seemed to be responded to the repeated calls by the civil society and FBCCI leaders to find a substitute for hartals with a view to save the national economy and business. They devised the human wall programme to press the government for accepting their demands, which was rather a good way of political actions. This new non-violent device for protest and to register no confidence in government, after all had no harmful effects on the economy and business as in the hartals. The history of this land provides ample proof of positive role that the hartals had played in the political evolution of the country since early 1960s. But now the hartal has lost its positive role and effectiveness as a political tool that the opposition parties are using to achieve their political goals.

The country has been experiencing hartals one after another from the mid eighties for which both the major political parties Awami League and BNP are equally responsible. The BNP also imposed several hartals during their opposition period, demanding resignation of the Awami League government, accusing it of indulging in corruption, harassment of political rivals, and failure to run the administration. Being agitated by repeated country-wide hartals, the then Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina had promised that her party would never enforce hartals, even when it would go to the opposition. Now opposition leader Sheikh Hasina claims that she is forced to impose hartal as the government does not accede to her demand for resignation. Nowadays the hartals are not observed by the general people spontaneously. The shops remain closed in fear of violent attacks and damage by the opposition activists and the supporters of hartal. The mechanized vehicles also do so.

The general people of the country are looking helplessly to get rid of the curse of unabated politics of hartal. But they could not see any ray of hope as the opposition political leaders have not found a substitute for hartals. The human wall was a good way of protest as it did not interfered with the day to day lives of the general people. But the opposition leaders were not happy with the human wall programme, as they have again resorted to hartal. The people of the country are extremely shocked at the tragic death of Shah AMS Kibria. But they disagree with the hartals given one after another by the Awami League to protest against the killing. Hundreds of people, wearing black badges and carrying black flags, stood in silence on the city's street on February 4, to protest against the grenade attack in Habiganj that killed Shah AMS Kibria and four others. The cross section of people including women and children came out to the streets as Asma Kibria, widow of Kibria, urged all to join the half hour programme to protest against the political terrorism.

According to the separate estimates of the Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association, the economy has incurred loss worth above Tk 500 crore due to the recent hartals while export orders worth about Tk 600 crore have been held up. The huge loss includes production loss, bank interest, labour cost, port charges and cancellation of export orders. The economy has come to the verge of collapse as the destructive political programmes enforced by the opposition political parties, said the president of MCCI. He also said that, the chamber would soon make public the final amount of loss caused by the six days of hartal.

The fall-out of the hartals on the economy is really devastating. The national economy frequently becomes the casualty of political actions like the shutdowns and hartals. In fact, the national economy is now a hostage to hartals. As such, the common people of the country are looking helplessly to get rid of the curse of unabated hartals. The political protest is a matter of right in any democracy. But the way the political parties of our country are exercising their democratic rights is certainly not acceptable to the people. Such political actions are leading the national economy to disaster. The country's foreign trade virtually came to a halt during the recent six days of hartals. It is time for all political parties to pause and ponder as to whether they could shun hartal for expressing their political dissent and instead adopt some other effective, non-violent, and harmless means of exercising their democratic rights.

ANM Nurul Haque is an Assistant General Manager, Sonali Bank.