Opinion
Miserable state of affairs
I am simply appalled at this senseless stand off and the growing bitter relationship between the Chief Election Commissioner and the current ruling class. A front page headline in one of the leading local dailies of 9 January reads "CEC crossed the line -- BNP high-ups say." I have carefully gone through the entire news report and find a comment made by one of the senior Ministers in the BNP Cabinet as rather unfortunate, uncalled for, derogatory and certainly tantamounting to character assassination of the CEC himself. Other things being equal, it also does not reflect too well on our image. To the best of my knowledge in all matters of election the CEC's "decisions" and requests are almost mandatory for the government to consider on a priority basis at all times. As a matter of fact CEC's intents in conducting of elections should get a priority over routine Administrative matters of the Government. The ruling class must realise that the office of the Chief Election Commissioner is not just another extended wing of the government machinery. Surely our venerable ministers have better things to do than blocking the path of the CEC and bringing a disrepute on the institutional infrastructure of the office of the Election Commission.
And now the episode on detention of Saber Chowdhury and others vis-a-vis the High Court ruling on granting of bails etc. It looks like by its repeated senseless actions the present regime is giving the signal that there is no need of the judiciary since it can act in all capacities as the judge, jury and the executor. What kind of historical heritage are we building for our coming generation? Today we are living in yet another kind of insecure and terrorized environment not far away from the terror alerts caused by armed gangs and extortionists. I sincerely hope that good sense prevails and the government will quickly act in reversing these anti-people, anti-democratic acts leading to serious human rights violations. Talking of human rights violations, this is an unending story. The way things are developing from the deaths in custody to chasing and hunting down of journalists the entire path resounds with horror stories of human rights violations of the worst kind. So acute that we now have many of the local mission representatives of the EU desirous of monitoring "the cases against opposition political leaders." Remember the messy handling of the two foreign journalists by the government in recent times and the EU's report on our alleged violations of human rights and the government's sharp reactions thereof. All these are a sequel to the resultant effects of government's immature handling of matters.
I believe that our foreign policy interventions are also wrongly focused. Looking towards East and China is fine but at the same time there is no sense in "going overboard". Despite the world turning into a global village in this age of globalization and the development of the IT technology, the fact remains that you cannot turn, twist or ignore the effects and historical realities and impacts of power-play as they exist in the region including other related geo-political considerations. In the past several decades both China and the US have been "known" allies of Pakistan yet, history has it that in times of national emergencies caused by wars and severe diplomatic debacles they have not contributed in any significant way. Just recall our War of Liberation and the so called arrival of the famous Seventh Fleet of America at the port of citation to the rescue of the Pakistani forces. Similar situation prevailed during the war between India and Pakistan in 1965. So much so that Pakistan had to seek the assistance of the then Soviet Union to mediate and in working out of a "respectable ceasefire." And now Delhi is planning to "push back into Bangladesh so called 20 million illegal Bangladeshi immigrants!" Our foreign policy is also packed with uncalled for rhetoric and accelerated propaganda based on too many assumptions of "quick returns".
Yet another headline in a local daily reads "Partial Army pull out begins in a week". Yes a good news which is now followed by an extraordinary news, the coming of the RAT (Rapid Action Team), a very specialized team of law enforcers designed to contain and sustain the good works(?) of the Clean Heart Operations. What happened to our regular police forces? Who is going to oversee their actions? Does the government plan to come up with yet another "extraordinary agency or agencies to combat and complement police failures"? Is there, indeed, "no way out" of this tapestry of miserable state of affairs?
Shamsher Chowdhury is a management specialist who earlier worked for ADB, USAID, WFP.
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