Tale of borrowed fangs and claws

In human society, too, when people of insignificant antecedents somehow get the taste of power they often become dishahara, meaning dazed and confused, in exercising their faculty of judgement. They fail to perceive the limits of their newly-gotten and sometimes ill-gotten power, and they never understand how comical they appear when they try to look intimidating, wearing borrowed fangs and claws.

They rehearse acts of ferocity in the company of sycophants with the illusion that their enemies out in the real world would just shrink in fear. Apparently funny, but such behaviour has a far-reaching impact on society -- at least the civil part of it. Citizens dwelling on this side of the divide are not used to seeing midgets arm-wrestling with giants. But in the uncivil parts it's a dog-eat-dog-game, which no one minds, maybe.

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For these power-wielding people, wise men had said decades ago: "Absolute power corrupts absolutely." How assiduously this maxim gets translated into action in Bangladesh! The hunger for power and the utmost desire to apply it once it is in their possession makes some of them look for some prey, like the tiger with the acquired taste for blood. But in their pursuit they sometimes make the mistake of chasing big prey, little realizing that they may not be able to chew what they have bitten. This unwholesome desire to go for big game stems from the inbuilt complex of being small, and wearing borrowed claws and fangs. And this falsehood easily falls off once janata (people) pull them down.

But, it is also true, as long as these powerful midgets remain in power, they remain a potential threat to those who believe in and practise sanity. As a result, the number of real enemies and perceived enemies of the midgets run into thousands and in between they have no real friends. History is replete with stories of such men. If one would study history books a bit deeply, one would find that there is a comical touch in the exit of people who misused authority in their short-lived honeymoon with absolute power.

In the last scene of the drama, these people walked up the gallows with their once ruthless and blood-soaked hands tied behind. They placed their once proud and arrogant heads under the guillotine. They got thrown into the dungeon dressed only in hessian clothes. The feasts, the fiesta, the orgies, the carnivals, the bows and the parades became things of the past. The end of such men has always been the same.

Since independence, Bangladesh has also seen the unheralded entry and comical exit of a good number of midgets wielding ill-gotten power. But, unfortunately, none of these power-drunk people took lessons from history. They went on doing the same things for which their distant cousins had met ignoble ends. They always seemed to have been predisposed to exit through the back door.

Strange bed-fellows

Politics is the only profession/occupation where one easily agrees to have a strange person as a bed-fellow. At times of dire need, politicians go out in the dark alleys looking for willing persons to take home and to bed. Can anyone think of any other profession/occupation where such needs arise, or where one would agree to have strange fellows sharing the bed? Such unwholesome needs are now becoming conspicuously evident in Bangladesh with politicians frequenting dark alleys for partners.

Then some politicians have started to visit graveyards to resurrect skeletons of people who had once rendered politics trivial in this country. These people have been sent to the dungeons of infamy by the same politicians who are now trying to dig out the skeletons and add flesh to them. They want to use the resurrected people in the next elections, that are scheduled to be held next year.

Politics in Bangladesh has entered such a pitiable phase that it now resembles an asylum of mentally deranged people. One can find the mindless actions and words of politicians amply reflected in those trapped within the bounds of Pabna Mental Hospital. Most of the major political parties remind one of a ragtag army, not looking smart and disciplined. The slogans are stale, the programs are rather annoying than inspiring, manifesto is old wine in new bottle, vision is myopic, antecedents are not spectacular.

These politicians have no earthshaking plans for overall development, no intention of leading the nation on the path of progress harnessing the hidden potential, especially that related to technological advancement. Their sole aim is to go to power jenotenoprokare, meaning "at any cost" in Bengali. Development can happen later. And development to these people means building new roads, culverts and bridges. But isn't that the development plan of the fifties? Who cares?

It's a pity indeed that when other South Asian countries are already thinking in terms of facing the challenges of the next century; thinking about reclaiming land from the sea or setting up space stations and so on, our politicians fight gun battles over tenders for culverts and plunder public money in the name of cutting grass! If we only had some trace of shame left in us!

Shahnoor Wahid is Senior Assistant Editor of The Daily Star.