Summer of our discontent

One minister justifies the price level claiming that it is still the lowest. Another says that none has yet died of starvation. The redoubtable commerce minister has conveniently put his hands up with regard to price control. The month of Ramadan is also around the corner. All these ominously suggest that there is more public misery in store. Leaving the public in despair the authority seems to have courted defeat before the market manipulators -- in the name of free market economy which cannot however be an excuse for unfettered market exploitation.

Then there prevails a nerve-wrecking political uncertainty that totally wears one out and puts all of our calculations haywire as to the future shape of things to emerge. Will there be an election due early next year? Notwithstanding the establishment's repeated assurance that the election is on the cards, there are few signs at least of a credible election. Even if it is held, nobody knows yet what kind of election will that be: with electoral reform or without it? Will it be an election with the participation of all the country's political outfits or a comic reputation 1996 election followed by prolonged political turmoil?

Tap here to add The Daily Star as a trusted source

The constitutional requirement is to complete the election for ninth parliament by January 15, 2007. Yet there is no sign of pre-election preparations like publication of electoral roll, delineation of constituencies, fixing up polling centres and arrangements for ballot boxes. In earlier elections they used to be done or ready almost before a year. The updating of electoral roll undertaken by the present discredited election commission has already bogged down for the lack of fund and adequate qualified manpower. The commission's progress in this regard was found to be delusive when checked on the ground.

People's discontent emanating from their economic hardship and prevailing political flux can however hardly reach the corridor of powers where the ruling set-up is posited in a dream world of its own. Totally divorced from reality the power wielders spout their wisdom from an exalted height with no public response.

As a result, the nation's future seems to be getting worse, confounded with the bigwigs on the both side of the political divide chipping in with what one would call the product of warped mind about how things would go with the election next year. It is a complex web of confusions that only obfuscates the future and the prospects it may be holding for us.

Nevertheless, the people are united this time through a free and fair election to give a befitting rebuff to their tormentor in the garb of ruler. Their discontents however turn into gripping frustration when they find that the next election is going to be doctored by the power manipulators. Even after universal condemnation of the election commission from all quarters, the people cannot get rid of it which has already sullied the institution. There are booby traps laid all the way along and there are few chances of rescuing people's democratic right without a reform.

The summer is not usually a time for agitation. But look at the way the people take to the street, braving hostile weather. Even nature has turned hostile with the thirsty earth not yet soaked with the sing-song rain drops of the monsoon. Over and above, the lathi-weilding and gas-spraying law enforcement agencies are there to discipline them in the name of protection. And the people chanting and fighting for a credible election are branded law breaking pro-anarchy mob. But the stakes are high indeed. The next election is virtually an operation "Rescue Bangladesh" from the clutches of BNP-Jamaat predators.

In the meantime, the mood is buoyant also in the opposition camp which is preparing to field their candidates while giving lip service to reforms. But when they find themselves caught unawares in a web of temptation and then intrigues in each layer of the election mechanism, they will try to complain of election rigging in the usual way. Can the bankrupt politics of the opposition match the intricacies of BNP-Jamaat election management strategy? At least in the post-1975 milieu, it never has.

Brig ( retd) Hafiz is former DG of BIISS.