Ominous trends

Regrettably, there has been a growing tendency on the part of the police to resort to the extreme measure in their attempt to curb violence. The result is in front of us in the form of deaths in police firings in Kansat, beating in Demra, and in the unfortunate incident of the death of a student of Shahjalal University and in the many random acts of mob violence and violent police actions that have occupied the space and time of the media recently, topping off, however, with the recent violence that resulted in damage and destruction of more than a hundred RMG factories in Savar and Dhaka with police playing not a very assertive role.

And nobody can vouch that there are not a few of those that are waiting to exploit the flux to serve their ulterior motives.

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Several of the recent incidents have created a sense of consternation in the public mind. One wonders what provoked the police to fire on the students in Sylhet SUST? The police often fail to determine the level of appropriate force that is required to quell a particular situation, and have very little understanding of the precept that it is in the withholding of the precipitate action and not the other way round, that helps in quelling an aggressive situation. And if death and injury sustained by the students of SUST were a despicable event, no less was the act of vandalism by the students who decided to vent their spleen by putting the VC's house on fire following the death of one of their fellow students in police firing the previous day.

Violence does nothing to further the cause that one is espousing but it is highly infectious, and that was proved once again when students of two private universities in Dhaka, aggrieved by the authorities' inaction, let out their anger physically.

Perhaps the most serious of the lot has been the very recent incident of destruction of several, and vandalisation of dozens of garment factories in Savar and Dhaka city. What started off as worker unrest in one factory in Sreepur spilled over to more than a hundred RMG factories in Savar and surrounding areas.

What is most alarming is the aggressive attitude assumed, on the one hand, by those that are ventilating their grievances, and on the other by the law enforcing agencies entrusted to tackle those situations that arise out of public demonstration of popular complaints. Very noticeable have been the picture of the protesters coming prepared armed with sticks and staves, something that has become a trend following the Kansat protestors, a very foreboding one indeed.

And such a situation appears to have spread all over the country, and the example of Kansat, a situation where violent agitation was resorted to as a means of redress of public grievances, is being sought to be replicated elsewhere. What is disconcerting is that the government for some inexplicable reason is unable to contain the spread of violence. In certain cases the over-reaction of the police and in some their late reaction, have caused the situation to get out of hand.

While one may find it convenient to lay the entire blame on the administration one fails to rationalise the actions of those that are expressing their grievances through public demonstration but turn their wrath on private and public property, as we witnessed on the day that the Biddyut Bhaban was laid seize to. One is also at a loss to understand why, in seeking the rightful remuneration for their labour, the workers had to put to torch two garment factories and ransack and destroy hundred others, without realising the immense damage that they are wreaking not only on the state but also on themselves. Or are those that are resorting to such acts have other motives?

While it is an undeniable right of individuals to protest injustice or seek justice, individually or collectively as aggrieved party, the propensity to agitate and protest in a violent manner appears to have become the norm of late. And when protestors become a mob and set upon private and public properties, two things happen. One, the cause for which the demonstration is being organised is severely diluted, and even more seriously, a chain reaction of violence is set in motion, where the core issue is lost track of, if not totally forgotten, and the matter takes the form of a law and order issue. That is a situation that allows the administration to justify the use of the coercive machinery under its command.

It seem that we are yet to identify the causal factors that propel people to the path of violence. Is it perhaps that they have reached a level of despondency and find violence as the only recourse to the solution of their problems? Or is it that they have lost confidence in the system and take up the law in their own hands? While the former cannot be condoned the latter is a dangerous development.

Needless to say these will impact adversely on our internal security, adding to the vulnerability that such developments entail. If this situation is allowed to continue it will jeopardise our overall national security. It has now become the bounden duty of both the government and the opposition to come together to put a stop to this particular pattern of lawlessness that might eventually lead to anarchy, because that may jeopardise democracy in Bangladesh.

This is neither the time to seek political mileage of the situation at the expense of the nation, nor take pleasure in the predicament that the government finds itself in. These are trends that might leave a permanent imprint on our psyche which might not be easy to purge, and may even continue to be manifested in future, irrespective of the party in power. It is therefore essential to determine why such a situation has come about and take remedial measures immediately?

Our foremost duty should be to secure the safety and integrity of the country above everything else.

The author is Editor, Defence & Strategic Issues, The Daily Star.