No Nonsense
De-hartalisation of political culture
IF hartal were an English word, it could have been effortlessly adopted as a fitting abbreviation for "harmful (h) action (a) required (r) to (t) achieve (a) leverage (l)."
However, one wonders, if observing hartal is the appropriate course of action to gain some leverage over state affairs by the opposition parties -- one that inflicts economic loss to the detriment of the people.
The adverse consequences of hartal are now well known, and I also analysed those in my March 25, 2005 piece "The political economy of hartals."
It's precisely because of the enormous loss the country had to withstand that the business leaders, on November 16, urged political parties to abandon the culture of hartals and strikes in the greater interest of the economy. The same urgings are in the veins of all hardworking citizens of the nation.
Strikes (a labour driven boycott of work for better wages, benefits, and working conditions from employers) aren't rare in the US (auto workers, sports team and so on) and other developed countries, while lockouts (an employer driven shutdown of factories and business to realise a compromise on wage and benefits contract from labour unions) aren't very common.
Politicians aren't factory workers but they resort to strike anyway, such as boycotting the parliament. In many instances, politicians are also known to instigate/support labour unions' strike as a prelude to creating a charged environment for countrywide shutdown of nearly all activities -- an improvident act by any measure.
Although not factory workers, most elected politicians and leaders are factory (or business) owners. For example, in the last parliament an estimated 75% MPs were businessmen. As experiences would show, these politicians were always willing partners of hartal, while sacrificing their own business as well as country's interest.
All things considered, hartal doesn't benefit anybody, although I may be a lone exception -- it made me a columnist of The Daily Star (DS).
On my way to Comilla on March 11, 2005, I bought a copy of the DS when stopped by a traffic jam. An UNDP report of 3 - 4% annual GDP loss due to hartals had aroused my attention. During my stay in Comilla when hartal was underway, I wrote my first newspaper article, which I sent to the DS soon after my return to the US.
I argued: Even if the magnitude of GDP loss is an exaggeration as claimed by some quarters, the eventual loss doesn't reflect the true measure of the overall welfare loss caused by hartals (e.g: inconveniences, economic hardships, anxieties, discouragements of foreign investments, potential loss or delays of supplies of exports and imports due to holding back productions, distribution, and so on).
The article stressed that calling for a countrywide hartal was tantamount to a call for an "economic boycott" of our own goods and services during the period hartals were in effect. I went a step further to call hartal a blatant act of economic terrorism.
Political protests, open dialogue and debate are the fundamental rights of the citizens. Radical action such as hartal may be warranted when everything else has failed and the issues raised are compelling public concerns -- not the demand for realisation of the wish list of an egocentric party leadership. Historically, our politicians have shown that they're gratingly hypocritical -- promise to work for betterment of the people but end up ballooning their own bank accounts after getting elected.
Parliament provides the legal forum for reasoned and thoughtful political dialogue and public discourse. Resorting to hartal to turn the government dysfunctional cannot solve real problems. Such eccentric protest movements only push the country onto the pyre of lasting partisan flames.
The ruling party and the opposition bench must be equally conscientious to solve people's problems. Was there any incidence on record that observance of hartal brought a resolution to such problems as corruption, health care, public transportation, deteriorating law and order situation, lack of clean and safe drinking water, road side city garbage disposal, shortage of electricity, gas etc., which aggravate the life and living of every citizen on a daily and hourly basis.
All issues of national significance, and those concerning political reforms, law and parliamentary affairs, must be debated on the floor of the parliament, if possible with live TV broadcast. The ruling bench must allow open and timely forum for the opposition parties to voice their grievances and suggestion for remedies. If the country feels that the opposition's disquiets are reasonable and compelling then they win their cause. Failure of the ruling party to attend those issues will guarantee that the opposition bench is the next government in waiting, while there's no guarantee that hartal will take them there.
To resolves all possible irreconcilable issues there could be a 5-member team of nonpartisan mediators who could be entrusted to find common ground to avoid hartals.
Our politicians in electoral defeat cannot accept that the voters have rejected them. To cover up their humiliation in defeat they look for scapegoats -- blaming the EC and whoever they can find to point fingers at. To our disgust, BNP's beyond the pale leader Delwar Hossain has already started that blame game in anticipation of its defeat in the upcoming national election.
Instead of conceding graciously and congratulating the winner, our politicians warm up to launch hartals and other forms of protests. Thus it's no coincidence that, weeks before the national election, the business community is openly pleading to the two leaders to abandon hartal as a weapon of protest and movement.
Within two weeks of the November 4 US presidential elections, Senator John McCain flew to Chicago to meet president-elect Barack Obama to extend his cooperation for the success of Obama's presidency. McCain's gesture showed that graciousness in defeat can, paradoxically, be turned into the most powerful leverage of all.
Expecting such a graceful demeanour from our present politicians is a far cry. Would such a gesture come by in the future? I don't see how -- given that the new political breeds out of our universities, the nouveaux riches (politicians family breeds, and business associates and the retired officials joining politics follow the trails and teachings of their current leaders).
Some commentators believe that the last two years of relative relief from the perils of hartals may have set the stage for a new beginning for our politicians -- maybe an era of the politics of reconciliation and reaching out may have dawned as the two former prime ministers reciprocated pleasantries through hand shakes on the armed forces day -- for the first time since 1990.
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