Cracks in the order and the vision

The guarantee of the aforementioned fundamental rights is largely conditional upon the fostering and sustaining of a healthy debate on the country's social and economic problems by an articulate, independent, non-partisan and tolerant intellectual community. They need to take clear-cut stand on issues of national importance and fight for them. It would appear that our intellectuals are collectively indifferent to the future of the country, while the ruling classes instead of fostering the nationhood have deepened the crisis of conflict on basic political issues. The politicians have often used this as an alibi for their lack of performance.

Protest and restructuring
According to some observers, the most remarkable fact of our political life is the absence of public response to the erosion of order in civil society. The near supine acceptance of many indignities and excesses inflicted upon citizens by arrogant authorities is a blight for which the entire privileged and well-off section of our society and all thinking people bear responsibility. The privileged pay lip service to the idea of social change in order to ease their conscience and often they venture to search for alibis for their callousness. One does not find the timely exertion of enough pressures for reforms and restructuring. No wonder, therefore, that the leadership in different segments of our country reflect the prevailing values and power structure of the society.

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The premonitions
Our institutions are not in total decay, the present crack and all the efforts to create an institutional vacuum notwithstanding. It is true that violence is widespread in our society. The writ of the government does not run in some pockets. In urban focal points there is lawlessness, which has aggravated the feeling of insecurity. To make matters worse, there is the near breakdown of the urban infrastructure. However, for records it must be stated that many other countries have faced a similar situation at various stages of their history but their educated and privileged classes did not pronounce that their country was doomed. The fortunate in those countries played their part with responsibility and helped in bringing the country back on rails.

There are premonitions regarding the rise of Taliban type militancy. While it has to be admitted that religious fanaticism, bigotry and militancy are on the rise with allegations of foreign supporters and financiers and local protectors, the same definitely does not compare with the phenomenal rise of Taliban in Afghanistan in the yesteryears. The so-called fanatics or fundamentalists no doubt represent a new underclass with all the potential of causing unrest and turmoil in the country but democrats in our polity have not embarked upon adequate countervailing measures to ensure that the obscurantist elements do not strike deeper roots than the political party and taking advantage of the situation turn peoples resentment into a revolutionary movement. Such a scenario is likely in the background of the repression by state coercive authorities, the vulgar life style of the new rich and the stark disparities in income distribution. We have to take guard.

When our middle classes talk about a revolution, they perhaps wish the emergence of a strong, competent, upright and ruthless leader who will purge society of all corruption and punish the entire ruling class that has looted and plundered the resources of the country without any remorse. From where will emerge such a leader? Nobody knows for certain. There are people who speak about the virtues of the so-called third force since in their estimation the major political parties have failed to deliver. Unfortunately, in the present post-cold war era, neither the international climate is conducive to the imposition of extra-constitutional law nor does the third force have convincing prescriptions for our myraid problems.

The need for a vision
In contemporary Bangladesh there is a feeling that we are perhaps focusing too much on peripheral issues while ignoring the centre of the problem. At the political level, there is concentration on symptoms rather than on the disease. There is often emphasis on short-term simplistic solutions for complex problems. There is not much effort to embark on sustainable remedies. The obvious question is, if the problems are not appreciated in depth and the diagnosis made accordingly then how would we arrive at real solutions? There are recent examples which illustrate this inference. Urban unrest is taken merely as a law and order problem and treated as such.

Instead of changing the colonial police structure and stopping its use as a political arm of the government, an answer is sought in creating the so-called 'elite' forces, or increasing the number of police personnel. Similar myopia prevails in the education sector where new institutions are being established without ensuring their proper functioning.

Another related query is, are we having serious shortage of intellectual input from politicians, policy makers and planners? After the 'Comilla model of development' of Late Dr. Akhter Hameed Khan we have Dr. Yunus's, 'Grameen Bank model' for economic emancipation. Both the models have been adapted beyond erstwhile East Pakistan and present day Bangladesh with considerable success. However, we need more visionaries who can guide us in different spheres of national life. The solutions to our myriad problems demand broad conceptual framework made possible by the recommendations of the aforementioned visionaries.

In Bangladesh a great deal appears to be ad hoc and tentative and there is an impression that we are living from day to day. The question is, are we witnessing an institutional crisis of state authority? Black money holders and violators of other descriptions have created centres of power nearly parallel to that of the state, according to many discerning observers. However, for any programme of social and economic development to be durably implemented, it is necessary to fully establish the writ of the government and made it run throughout the country.

In the yesteryears there were public servants, professionals and politicians who practiced the frugality, simplicity and integrity enjoined by our religion. Now even the middle classes have developed highly acquisitive instincts and politics largely is a game of power, pelf and privilege. Whether the good folks of earlier times succeeded or not is another matter but many young men now prioritise government jobs only in terms of money and power. They perhaps cannot deliver because they do not want to excel in life by being proud of their county and their vocations. We definitely need idealists and dreamers as distinguished from the money-minded and the avaricious. We need people for whom money is not everything. Priority is for reasonably honest and down-to-earth leadership.

Muhammad Nurul Huda is a former Secretary and IGP