Editorial
Say 'no' to hartal
High time primacy is accorded to economy
LIKE many occasions in the past, business leaders have once again urged the political parties to refrain from calling country-wide hartal, as a way to bargain with the power that be. With the people expecting a qualitative change in politics the call has a special ring of relevance to it. Such call has come from a sense of urgency for keeping economy at the centre of national priority objectives. The ongoing global economic meltdown further reinforces the need for constructive politics as opposed to hartal-centric confrontational politics.
Hartal by all means is extremely detrimental to the normal economic activity of the country, as large industries, factories, sea ports, railways, banks, wholesale markets, educational institutes, offices and transports are forcibly shuttered down by the hartal supporters. More often than not, in the past such occasions turned violent, with supporters vandalising on the streets in a despicable manner, damaging cars and buses, setting fire to overturned vehicles and pelting stones at business houses. The cost of a day-long shutdown proved to be colossal for a developing country like Bangladesh.
The nation has been a witness to many such anarchic situations created in the name of exercising political rights. But, unfortunately the thought had never dawned on the politicians that by forcing one to stay home on a working day they had impinged on the rights of others. We, therefore, believe the business leaders have spoken not only for themselves but for the masses as a whole. The common masses, especially the daily wage-earners and those seeking medical help, suffer most acutely because of the forced deadlock.
Actually, the political culture that breeds hartal should be eschewed by the politicians. In view of the intense global competition, they should come out of the hartal mindset and collectively evolve other means to press forward their demands. There is no denying that parliament is the right place where they should exercise their rights and settle issues. Therefore, the upcoming political governments should be tolerant of dissent and give space to the opposition in parliament so that they can voice their demands on national issues without interruption. At the same time, the way government uses its machinery to block opposition meetings and rallies and stifles other forms of democratic expressions will have to be discarded so that the opposition is not pushed into an agitational mode. In a world where the breeze of change is blowing across, politicians in Bangladesh should also bring a breath of fresh air into their political culture.
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