Cross Talk
A conspiracy in London?
ONCE I read something striking about conspiracy theories that they were like a black hole, which sucked in everything, irrespective of origin or content. Last week, that black hole sucked in words from London that the Awami League president held a series of meetings with Jatiyo Party leaders in the city of Big Ben. Ding dong, they talked about working together in a grand alliance. That is if they met. That is if they talked.
In my mind I couldn't be certain. No, it's not about the meetings. But I wasn't sure if they needed to hatch any conspiracy in a foreign capital when it was so conveniently done at home. I mean the awful thing was already done in 2006. The party, which led us to freedom in 1971, had done handholding with a military dictator, who was ousted in 1990 for usurping the democratic rights of our people. Not to mention that the military strongman served five years in jail that emblazoned his corruption.
It will run roughshod if we criticise something twice for the same reason. If the leaders of the two parties had indeed met, as the rumour suggests, then it could be over tying the loose ends from last time so that both sides were reassured the deal was on. It could be for many other reasons as well. Since the leader of the alliance is out of the country, she can be consulted only on foreign soil. It also could be that Jatiyo Party sensed grumbling from other alliance partners, and its leaders wanted to hear the last words from nothing less than the horse's mouth.
For the time being, I would like to believe that the meetings in London never took place. I mean if two wrongs don't make one right, why worry if a wrong has got an extension? It was wrong of Awami League to go in cahoots with a despicable dictator in 2006. It will be even more wrong if it continues to do so in 2008. What difference does it make whether the renewal of that continuation took place in Dhaka or London?
Now is the time to bring in David Icke, a British writer and public speaker, who is also a former football player, reporter, television sports presenter, spokesman for the Green Party and the author of 20 books. He has devoted himself since 1990 to research on who and what is really controlling the world, and concluded in his book, The Big Secret (1999), that the world was ruled by a secret group called the "Global Elite," or "Illuminati." The "Illuminati" are a race of shape-shifting reptiles known as the Babylonian Brotherhood, which includes many prominent names such as George W. Bush, Queen Elizabeth, American country singer Boxcar Willie and American actor-singer Kris Kristofferson.
Reads like a fantasy, but a good metaphor nonetheless. If not before, it should be clear by now that politics in this country is controlled by an elite group who use different doors to enter power and then mingle in the same corridor of greed and abuse. Perhaps that is also true for any other country where politicians are slithery beasts, chameleons of conscience who cut the coat of their personalities according to the cloth of their opportunities.
But our politicians stand out particularly for their short memories. Otherwise, how could the two largest parties in the country have even considered an alliance with the same man they had spent years to bring down? People died and the country suffered during those years of upheavals. How could a confirmed convict be once again allowed to figure so prominently on the political drawing board of this country? How could anybody talk about these two extremes in the same breath: "Democracy Day" smeared with the blood of martyrs like Nur Hossain and political alliance with an icon of that national misfortune?
The fact of life is that those who aspire to power indulge in conspiracy because so much lies in the gray between white and black. Nothing is wrong if Awami League wants to return to power. I don't even mind if the leader of the party sits with an Assistant Secretary of the US State Department in Washington DC if that is what it takes.
But why sit with Ershad and his party, which is an anathema to the principles of freedom? Why sit with him anywhere on earth, be it Dhaka, London or Gilligan's Island? What has he done since he stepped down from power that he has to be an integral part of our political solution?
So, it's not the conspiracy that should be of any concern to us. The politicians will meet and mingle, openly or behind closed doors, inside the country or at overseas locations. It's not where and how they meet that is important. What is important is why they meet, and that's where comes the shock. In the hubbub of a conspiracy theory which hit us like a passing storm, one thing has been cleverly positioned that Ershad and the alliance are going to stay put.
If there had been any consipracy in London last week, then that is only one layer in the labryinth of a larger conspiracy to alienate government from the people. As always, politics is still run by the elites of power, and that is one constant which hasn't changed since 1/11. We have failed to shift the circle because we have failed to shift the center. Signs are there of a full circle, end coming to where it started.
In 1840 Alexis de Tocqueville wrote in Democracy in America: "In countries where associations are free, secret societies are unknown. In America there are factions, but no conspiracies." That explains why we are still bereft of democracy. We have both factions and conspiracies chasing each other. United we collide, divided we collude, going round in cycles.
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