The big picture

One point of view is that Bangladesh has never had a history of fundamentalism and is not likely to in the future. It is generally accepted that the strength of the fundamentalists stands at roughly ten percent of the population, more precise figures being hard to obtain, and that the support for religious extremism among the general population remains miniscule.

This perspective dismisses out of hand the notion that Bangladesh may be heading in the direction of a fundamentalist state and suggests that those pushing such an understanding, both inside the country and out, are doing so to benefit politically from such a perception.

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On the other hand, there exists a body of thought that casts a concerned eye over the growing strength and influence of the fundamentalist political parties, the rise of religious extremism, and the growing prevalence of social trends such as the hijab and madrassa education that signify the mainstreaming of fundamentalism in the country.

Both perspectives are incomplete because they do not ask the right questions about fundamentalism and its attractions.

The fact that Bangladesh does not have a history of fundamentalism is irrelevant to the current situation. History can never be more than the roughest guide to what the future portends, and it is precisely because we never have had a history of fundamentalism that it might appear so attractive to the disenchanted and the marginalized.

The right question to ask is whether the fundamentalists offer a vision of the future that is more compelling than anything else on offer.

The short answer to this question would be that the fundamentalists do offer a more compelling vision than anyone else in Bangladesh for the very simple reason that no one else offers any kind of vision at all.

The point is that things in this country are far from ideal. Don't get me wrong. Things are not getting worse and it is not as though the situation has been an easy one to manage. Since independence, we have added some sixty million people to the population, and the fact that we have been able to dramatically cut the rate of poverty and malnutrition and improved health and welfare and posted steady economic growth is not to be dismissed lightly.

But while we have succeeded in keeping our head above water and have posted incremental gains in a number of areas, we are barely just staying afloat, and certainly not advancing at a rate necessary to keep up with the rest of the continent.

There are too few jobs and no government has had the vision or foresight to make the investments necessary in the infrastructure and in education that are necessary to create opportunity and to keep us competitive. Planning for the future has been non-existent.

The fundamentalists are the one group that has a credible explanation for why things are the way they are and a credible vision for how to dramatically change things for the better. The fundamentalists are the ones who feel our pain.

They are the ones who speak to the part of the Bangladeshi character that senses that at a fundamental level everything is wrong and that we have somehow lost our way in the world. They are the ones talking about the sickness at the heart of our society and the ones speaking about the social reform necessary to turn things around.

Look around you. Be honest and be unsparing. There is a sickness in the system, and until it is cured we will never advance. The reforms that we all talk about -- political reform, judicial reform, administrative reform, electoral reform -- all are ultimately covers for the most pressing of all reforms that we need -- social reform.

The dysfunctions in the polity and the judiciary and the administration are all reflections of a deeper societal dysfunction. Things are the way they are because we are the way we are. These things didn't occur by accident or by happenstance. It is not just bad luck that we are led by petty, unworthy, self-seeking politicians and their sycophants, and that their writ is enforced at the local level by their cadres of hired thugs.

The only people making this argument at the political level are the fundamentalists. They are big picture people. Their explanation for the rot and their vision for the future is as simple as it is compelling.

Their elegant explanation for where we have gone wrong is that we have strayed from the path of righteousness, and that salvation lies in a return to a more traditional and conservative and Islamic (as they define it) society.

The fundamentalists promise a more moral and orderly and caring society, one that is not in thrall to western materialism or decadence and one in which every Bangladeshi can live in dignity with his or her head held high and would not have to gaze at the west with covetous and inferiority-ridden eyes.

It's a pretty compelling vision. If I didn't know what was in the fine print I might be tempted to sign up myself.

But I worry about the rights and treatment of women and minorities in the fundamentalists' world. I worry for the freedoms of thought and conscience and expression that I know they would extinguish. I know full well that the fundamentalists do not have the grasp of economic and technological and geo-political realities necessary to successfully navigate a changing world. I know that they would lead us not to a golden age but back to the dark ages and that they have no more regard for truth or justice than any other political entity. I know that the fundamentalists have not delivered a better order anywhere in the world and that they won't here either.

But they do have a vision -- of sorts -- and what vision -- of any kind -- does anyone else have? Nothing as far as I can see.

The lack of vision among our politicians and their supporters in the ruling class, and their inability to envision, let alone plan for, the future is breathtaking.

They focus on nothing except power and how to get it and how to keep it. They spend no time thinking about what they are going to do with that power once they get it and this is why they have achieved so little.

To be fair, this is not merely the fault of the politicians. It is the fault of all of us.

There is no public debate on the root causes of our problems -- the cancer at the heart of society and how to remove it. There is no national discourse on social reform -- reform of who we are and how we think, and how that might be holding us back, and most importantly, what to do about it.

In terms of a solution, no one has a big vision of how to change things around.

There is no one trying to envision what the future will look like -- in Bangladesh, in the region, in the world -- and planning for it.

We need to first try to envision the future, and then see what needs to be done to find space in it for us, and then work to make it happen. Since in Bangladesh we have never crossed the first hurdle, it is no surprise that the result is a chaotic and ad hoc country with seemingly intractable problems.

The question is whether either of the main political parties can deliver this vision and if not them, then who. Can either of them transform themselves into the party of the future or will they always remains the parties of the past?

Nor is this a question for the political parties alone -- it is a question for all of us.

If we ever want to achieve more than merely keeping our head above water then we need to be able to do two things: we need to be able to look squarely at our shortcomings on a societal level to appreciate fully how we have got to where we are, and we need to initiate a national debate to envision the future so that we can begin to take the steps necessary to develop into an advanced nation with opportunity for all.

Too much time has passed already. Let us begin the debate today.

Zafar Sobhan is Assistant Editor of The Daily Star.