The AL's moment of truth?
DEMOCRACY is essentially the function of divergent views, outlooks and ideologies pursued by their votaries who, along with its (democracy's) stakeholders, strike a common ground by using its institutions. And the wheels of democracy move on. Yet, in our politics, feuding with one's opponents is hardly unusual. Particularly after an electoral victory, the winners invariably pounce on their political opponents with vengeance and try to dislodge them from their vested interests. It's a familiar practice in our political culture, though it is unfortunate and condemnable.
In the recent past, the BNP-led four party alliance took this option as a matter of policy. But an intra-alliance feud was rarely heard of and was indeed few and far between, if at all. Their corruption, plunder, repression and excesses were developed into an art form and were carried out with surgical precision, leaving no tell-tale evidence, neither did they encroach on each other's borough of control.
A new breed of Awami Leaguers, now in power, showed little restraint in this regard and seemed to be in a hurry, as is evident from their crude management of the same immoralities. Even if they selectively took on their BNP opponents the battle for grabbing raged among themselves, and they vied with each other to control the sources of material benefit.
They went berserk not only in grabbing potentially profitable offices, institutions and business -- they did not even spare their compatriots in the process. Such a naked intra-organisational scramble for the booty after the party's big-win was seldom witnessed before. Neither could an exasperated prime minister rein them in, and all sermons from her repertory seem to be exhausted, but the AL hoodlums are still on their warpath.
Why not? They are privy to how black money becomes white, a convicted criminal returns duly garlanded, and how an elite-friendly government pampers the high-ups both in the party and in the establishment. They become increasingly sceptical about the wisdom of abiding by the law and ethics. Amid those who think that the country is an Eldorado and sieze the opportunity -- one appears stupid with something he cannot vend.
In spite of the prime minister's pious pronouncements after her electoral victory, neither the AL nor its front organisations took a chance and swooped upon all materially beneficial institutions capable of giving them handsome largesse. In our still client-patron political culture, a lot lies with the one holding the scepter of power.
At the other end, there are people who can extract favours from the power wielders by virtue of their subtle sycophancy and maneuverability. They can worm into the core of the power structure with surprising ease. This country has produced plenty of them, though not a single true patriot. These flunkeys can be found all around us -- in the media, civil society, bureaucracy and among innumerable hangers-on.
The AL's umpteen activists, sloganeers and processionists are obviously a left-out lot. Where will they go to be obliged? The party stalwarts who once embraced them, now -- as ministers or something big -- cold-shoulder them. It won't be surprising if some of the neglected ones become the foot-soldiers of some of top grabbers and the lackeys of a godfather.
At the heart of the intra-organisational clash lies the dispute over the share of the spoils of power. In the arrogance of power acquired after a long hiatus, the MPs who were nominated under the prime minister's care because of their clean image and, of course, loyalty, have been behaving obnoxiously -- whether it is in Cox's Bazar, Gafargaon and now in Chittagong where, in a bizarre development, the stalwarts of Chittagong AL clashed over the occupation of WTC office. It was so far the AL's worst intra-organisational clash, which by itself speaks volumes about the hollowness of today's Awami League. The Chittagong episode depicted a horror story when the TV channels rolled out their footage and the papers splashed horrifying pictures on their front pages the next day.
The AL, which will celebrate its 60th founding day in a few days, seems to have drifted from its ideals since its inception. It is, at best, left with ministerial berth, government largesse, an odd residential plot, or a consolation job to offer to its ranks -- something much below the party's standing at its outset. So, what's there to celebrate really?
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