Staying in power at all costs

One minister last year suggested using Rab against journalists. Another minister denigrated the "freedom of the press" as "freedom to lie." A third minister recently suggested that shutting down these news media would eradicate the Islamic militancy.

Whacking the press at every opportunity has become second nature for many of our ministers and law makers these days which, among others, include the foreign minister and the finance minister. These two ministers who often travel to foreign countries where freedom of the media, principles of democracy, and the rule of law are cherished and upheld as sacred as their religion if not more, should be mortified for their media bashing demeanour.

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Rejecting outright the Prime Minister's call for national effort to combat mounting and intensifying militancy all over the country, Awami League (AL) General Secretary Abdul Jalil said: "This proposal for dialogue is to mislead the international community and divert public attention at home." He further suggested that there are no other options or alternatives for the ruling alliance but to resign to rescue the country from the present predicament.

As expected, within hours of the AL rejection, BNP Secretary General and LGRD Minister Mannan Bhuiyan asked the opposition to reconsider its decision.

While this writer does not question the genuineness of Mr. Bhuiyan's call for a dialogue, he finds enough reasons to suggest that the ruling alliance has not given up its trickery of using "carrot and stick" on the oppositions. So Mr. Jalil's tendentious rhetoric that the ruling alliance wants to mislead the international community and divert public attention at home is not totally nonsensical. My own belief is that a democratically elected government loses its legitimacy if it fails to

• adhere to democratic principles of governance;
• enforce the rule of law uniformly to all citizens;
• punish corrupt politicians and bureaucrats;
• ensure accountability and transparency of governance;
• provide security to life and property of its citizens.

The time has come for the ruling alliance to realise that they have failed to a great degree in all five aspects. It is they who are responsible for defilement of the country's image -- not the media. AL's recurrent hartal observance certainly did not help the country's image and the economy. But in many instances the government through its overzealous actions and challenges insinuated many of the hartals and lockouts (e.g. November 23 and 24 hartals) to say the least.

However, the ruling alliance is the first government which, because of its proven mismanagement of development funds and poor governance, major donor countries, World Bank and IMF set preconditions for releasing funds to Bangladesh and in some instances, ordered the government to reimburse unaccounted for funds.

There is one but no other compelling reason why the main opposition AL should come to unhook the bone out of the throat of the ruling alliance. The one compelling reason to have dialogues is to save democracy and freedom of the media from the escalating fundamentalist fervour that threatens our very existence as a peaceful, multicultural, and multi-ethnic nation. But before the AL and other opposition parties venture such a dialogue, there needs to be a brief post-mortem of events to modify and edify the ruling party's current and future behaviour, if at all possible.

The way the ruling alliance has been treating the opposition and the media makes it increasingly evident that we chased out the Pakistani thugs from our soil only to substitute a brand of our own. Those who agree, please fasten your seat belt.

Only people who want to cling to power at all costs but seem running bankrupt in wisdom can make all those asinine accusations against the same media which fought and brought freedom to some of the same people who are enjoying the glamour of power now.

So if AL decides to participate in a dialogue, it must set a precondition with freedom of media as an untouchable institution of public trust.

The AL central committee meting on December 2 noted that: "State-sponsored terrorists made the grenade attacks on Sheikh Hasina's rally on August 21 last year and killed 24 of its leaders and workers including Ivy Rahman. It also held the ruling coalition goons responsible for the killings of SAMS Kibria, Ahsanullah Master and some 30,000 party activists in last four years."

Certainly there were political killings. Although I have no evidence to refute the killings of 30,000 party functionaries, the number seems too high. However, what is irrefutable is that the chronology of political killings and brutal attacks on political rallies were meted out only on one side of the political equation -- AL and its leaders have all along been the target of political violence and extremist's target. Some notable incidents are:

• On August 21, 2004 the frightful grenade attack in front of AL office in Dhaka killed many and gravely injured dozens. Sheikh Hasina had a hair-breadth escape.
• On August 7, 2004, a bomb attack on an AL meeting in a Sylhet city hotel left office secretary of the city unit killed and more than 30 seriously injured.
• Subsequently, the country has watched with horror and abhorrence bomb explosions at various political rallies and assemblies which included AL office in Narayanganj, Bagherhat and AL meetings in Sunamganj, to name a few well publicised ones.
• Earlier this year we also witnessed the brutal killing of the former AL government's finance minister Kibria in Habiganj.
• Government use of police and other security apparatus against the 14 party alliance's grand rally and meeting on November 22 is a flagrant violation of the freedom of political association and speech.
• On December 2, 2005, Sylhet City Mayor Badruddin Kamran (AL leader Sylhet City Unit) narrowly escaped a grenade blast while speaking at the opening ceremony of a badminton tournament.

Besides, numerous violence and killings were consummated since March 6 1999. A few examples are: March 6, 1999 bomb explosion in Jessore; October 8, bomb attacks on Ahmadiyya religious centre in Khulna; grenade attack on the British High Commissioner on May 21, 2004 in Sylhet; the August 17, 2005 countrywide synchronised bomb explosion, and recent suicide bomb attacks in Chittagong and Gazipur.

All these indicate that the terrorists killed political functionaries belonging to AL, innocent bystanders, minorities, and judges. This writer could not find a single incident in which attack on any ruling alliance functionaries were targeted in recent times. Could the reason be that the terrorists know that if they kill some lawmakers and ministers, they might inadvertently kill one of their own?

The current predicament of Bangladesh was not built in a day. Every government since independence must share some culpability. The ruling alliance's four years of misrule only hastened it, intensified it, and has now blown it into an unpredictable situation that is increasingly getting out of control. How petty can a group of people be that even in these times of national despair they are subjecting the media and the opposition parties with vituperative diatribes?

The AL's insistence that the BNP alliance government must resign is not a feasible proposition for the country. On the other hand, BNP's insistence that caretaker government reform is not debatable is also a definite non-starter. For BNP it is also not a feasible option to break loose its alliance with the Jamaat-e-Islami just because AL demands it.

If BNP's association with the Jamaat is the last ditch hurdle for a dialogue between the two major parties, then only Jamaat party leaders can save the country from the boiling crisis by calling the alliance quits and thus make a small gesture as partial recompense for its misdeeds of opposing the liberation war. The BNP functionaries must realise that when the soil under the heels is crumbling, all desperate maneuverings to stay in power at all costs may steer a third force to their disgraceful ouster and to the demise of democracy and freedom of the media.

No matter what, for the sake of 140 million people, a dialogue must ensue before it is too late, and by all rationale, it should be primed on equal terms with the opposition parties. There must be give and take, forgive and forget all acrimonies, and good will must underscore all efforts from all quarters for the country's sake.

Dr. Abdullah A. Dewan is Professor of Economics, Eastern Michigan University, USA