Ruling Party and Opposition Poised for Another Bout
Signs are indeed ominous. Dark clouds are again hovering over the horizon (the sky, however, had never been very clear either).War cries are increasingly becoming louder and the ruling party and the mainstream opposition combine appeared to have been poised for yet another bout in their do or die bid to elbow out, even to the extent of liquidating, their rival. What will be the outcome in this frenzy of knock-out is rather difficult to be predicted beforehand, but the masses in general and the hard-earned fledgling democracy in particular, stand ultimately to be the loosers. Despair and instability with their concommitant impacts in the form of rising anarchy, deep division, breakdown in the law and order situation have again cast their looming shadows on this unfortunate nation. Seemingly there is no flicker of light at the end of the tunnel and the long lingering political stand-off is assuming the proportion of a simmering cauldron with each passing day.
The recent decision of the cabinet to go for the draconian Public Safety Bill for what has been described as "the rising trends of violent crimes, hijacking, dacoities, destruction of public properties etc" has added fuel to the fire. In a defiant mood the ruling party has come out with redoubtable force after initially backing out under public pressure to place the controversial bill before the Jatiya Sangsad (Parliament) which has now been reduced into a one-party show due to continuous and prolonged boycott by the opposition parties. Independent analysts, observers and the print media as well as the political parties which take extra care in maintaining equi-distance from both the warring sides have almost in one voice slated the ruling Awami League for imposing on an unwilling nation yet another black law. The first Awami League government's legacy of the Special Powers Act is still riding high on the shoulder of the nation and cannot be shaken off despite persistent demand from the components of the civil society. All and sundry strongly maintain that the proposed law is absolutely unnecessary.
The people should not be asked to pay for the utter failure of the government in curbing violence and crimes and in maintaining law and order which was professedly the first priority of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina when she assumed power on June 23, 1996. The glaring dichotomy is that now her ministers are admitting that there is in recent times a rising trend in crimes in the country. The opposition has been made the scapegoat as is usually the case in such a situation. Mere enactment of laws cannot improve the situation when the factors contributing to the preponderance of crimes lies elsewhere. Apart from this, there is a plethora of laws in vogue for adequately dealing with the perpetrators of crimes. What is needed is sincerity and the will to do so forgetting party affiliations and coatings.
Burma's uncompromising pro-democracy leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi in one of her political eassys succinctly said it is largely out of fear, fear of mass alienation and the possible backlash arising out of such a dire situation that a government becomes repressive. According to her, repression is an indication of weakness and not strength of a government. The tragedy of history is that no body takes lesson from history. The BNP government of Begum Khaleda Zia enacted the time-bound Anti-Terrorism measures and the irony was that the Awami League, then in the opposition, was vociferous in its protest against the act. But with the change of its position it has itself prepared more repressive and no time bound bill. History, indeed, repeats itself and to quote the Bangla adage ' whoever goes to Lanka turns into Ravana', this latest step of the ruling party has exacerbated the already heated political atmosphere. It knows pretty well that it will have instant backlash from the BNP-led opposition and dwindle the modicum of the possibility of a dialogue for which it is inviting the opposition to join and posted the Speaker to use his good offices.
In a democracy the carrot and stick policy does not work. What works is gesture of goodwill and confidence-building. The folly of the ruling party was that this carrot and stack policy has rather helped the four-party opposition combine to iron out their differences. As expected the opposition has taken a united stand against the proposed Public Safety Bill and said it will be resisted at any cost. The opposition alliance apprehend that through the cover of this bill the ruling party will try to hold the Upazila Parishad and Zila Parishad elections (sub-district and district council elections) despite opposition boycott to have an effective local government power base so that when national elections are held under a neutral caretaker government as provided for in the country's constitution it will have an edge over the opposition. Monopolisation of local bodies by the ruling party supporters will be a safety-valve for it to influence the polling. Outwardly though not in power, inwardly the ruling party will be very much there. The opposition claims to have detected this tricks of the ruling party and vowed that it will thwart any such attempt at any cost 'even to the extent of effecting a screeching halt' of the country's economy.
The increasing confrontational politics will not augur well for the country. It is likely to have debilitating impact on the economy as well as on the overall law and order situation. The innocent people who have nothing to do with power politics will be the innocent victims and bear the brunt. Resolution of the impasse is therefore of utmost necessity to save the nation from the possible pitfalls. Even though the ruling party may not like, the President should intevene and himself initiate a dialogue in the larger interests of survival of democracy and the masses. Earlier when such a proposal was floated the Prime Minister was on record to have opposed it. The situation is almost reaching the precipitating point. No further time can be lost. The feeling of the people is that the President generally revered as the conscience keeper of the nation can no longer afford to remain a silent spectator but should exert his influence to bring the two sides to the negotiation table. In this effort the President will find the entire nation behind him which will be his strength and which neither the ruling party nor the BNP-led opposition will be able to ignore to the risk of their peril and isolation from the people.
Meanwhile, the ruling party should better pay heed to US Secretary of State Madeline Albright's advice to the leaders of new democracies the world over. In a speech to the Johns Hopkins University School for Advanced International Studies on January 19, 2000 she warned the elected leaders of the new democracies not to succumb to the temptations of' self-enrichment, self-glorification and self-perpetuation in power. The result is sham democracy. When elected governments depart from democratic principles, they run a grave risk."
The writer SAARC Gold Medalist, is a former Researcher at the Institute of South East Asian Studies and the Commonwealth Foundation for Broadcasting Development.
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