Recycling Ershad

The fact that "love makes strange bedfellows" does not preclude the realization that politics makes strange bedfellows as well. This means that political interests can draw together people who otherwise have little in common. This proverbial saying is adapted and politicized from a line in the play, The Tempest, by William Shakespeare: "Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows." It is spoken by a man who has been shipwrecked and finds himself seeking shelter next to a sleeping monster.

After being deposed from power in disgrace, serving time for criminality, and having sixteen or so cases hanging around his neck, Ershad has been in more predicaments than the fellow from the wrecked ship in Shakespeare's Tempest. He is now in the process of being accorded shelter, although not next to a monster, but in the company of the prime minister.

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Politics being the art of compromise, it is not hard to see how Khaleda and the anti-liberation and anti-democratic forces formed an alliance, despite having diametrically opposite ideological orientations and beliefs.

Hasina also gathered thirteen other parties in an alliance, but they have many common ideological fronts. Admittedly, nothing is quite as deplorable as Khaleda's move to join hands with a former deposed dictator who is widely perceived to be an unpredictable character. In fact, he is a man who has no character.

Referring to the possibility of the fourteen party alliance boycotting the election, he started hallucinating that he had become the prime minister or president. I guess, anything is possible in the world's most corrupt country.

Surfing the Internet, I found four models which conjecture why politics makes strange bedfellows:

• Both the leaders are completely apolitical, in which case differences in political ideologies and beliefs are essentially non-issues, instead winning the election becomes the overriding consideration.
• One leader is highly political, while the other is basically apolitical and is content to support the other partner's interests. This can be a winning formula, for the apolitical partner provides some balance to what could otherwise be a rather obsessive pursuit.
• Both leaders are highly political and share the same beliefs. This is fairly sure to succeed, although political burnout could be a problem.
• Both leaders are highly political but in opposite directions. This scenario, for obvious reasons, is the most problematic of the bunch.
• Considering their early backgrounds the first model fits the profiles of both Khaleda and Ershad. Khaleda wants the alliance with JP to secure her position and protect the wealth her family and party people are alleged to have amassed. Ershad pleaded that his inclination to join the Khaleda-Nizami cartel is based on the ideological similarities between BNP and JP. So, what are these similarities?
• Both BNP and JP were created by two army generals who commandeered the presidency to perpetuate their position in power. They did not have by any ideological roots whatsoever. Both parties gathered apolitical tabaders (courtiers) looking for milk and honey. Some of them were politicians from either the extreme right and the extreme left and the others were numerous unwanted discards from other parties.
• Both BNP and JP are crowded with a privileged class of business people who benefit from the state's patronage through multiple import-export licenses, unsecured bank loans, and black money.
• Leaders of both parties have high-handed demeanour. For example, Khaleda recently warned her party leaders and workers to refrain from disobeying decisions on candidature or face expulsion. The BNP standing committee had no role in party activities since the 2002 meeting until last week. Ershad has unilaterally decided to join the Khaleda-Nizami alliance, and in a meeting on August 23 declared that: "Negotiations are on and I'm doing that alone."
• After successive acquittals from graft charges, Ershad declared: "I am getting justice as the government is not interfering with the trials of the cases. I will be acquitted in all the cases if the trials are conducted neutrally." Really? Who is he kidding? Are not the acquittals part of his quid pro quo deal? Thus, it seems that neither leader is much burdened by moral inhibitions.
• Ershad has been incarcerated for corruption and also heftily fined. Khaleda and her family members, and most BNP ministers and lawmakers, are alleged to have amassed wealth illegally.
• Khaleda formed an alliance with religious extremists. Ershad declared Islam as the state religion only to grab votes of the religious parties.

With these shared attributes, one may characterize the potential alliance as being openly desperate, publicly deplorable, and internationally embarrassing.

While the country's think-tanks are working hard for the nomination of honest and competent candidates, BNP's leadership is netting corrupt and convicted felons to recycle them into their political cartel. What a party leader! What a prime minister of a so-called democratic country!

Back in high school, many of us learned a few proverbs, such as "a man is judged by the company he keeps." Khaleda may not realize that this proverb is gender neutral. Since the proverb does not say "a woman is judged by the company she keeps," she probably thinks it is OK to join hands in politics with Ershad-type characters.

A second proverb: "birds of a feather flock together" is also worth noting. Who could have thought that both of these proverbial statements would match so perfectly with the demeanours and profiles of two leaders in Bangladesh's politics?

An intriguing question is what can Ershad contribute to the country's welfare. If, by recycling Ershad into politics, the BNP-Jamaat political cartel wins the majority again, three people will benefit while the country will lose big time. Khaleda will be re-elected as prime minister for another term and the country will sink further into corruption and absence of rule of law.

Ershad will gain the most. By becoming president he will enjoy a high life in the presidential palace amid all the pomp and grandeur. With his heart condition, he might even have go to Bangkok or Singapore for health at the state's cost. Why not? The cost of the incumbent president's recent heart surgery was picked up by the tax-payers.

The last one to benefit is this writer. I will stop being a columnist and spend my time on fishing expeditions. What shall I write if Khaleda returns to power? She is not known to read newspapers too closely, let alone the English dailies. Besides, who in the world would read my recycled commentaries all over again?

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