“To serve or not to serve -- that is the question.
“Whether it’s our karma to witness rape and murder/ Or that the citizens look resigned to bribery and extortion/ The mafia are protected, the honest deserve injustice/ The youth’s dreams of jobs fade/ Are taxpayers bound to pay for inflated projects, suffer power outage?/ Shall depositors get back bank money? And how to raise voice again to bring change/ For the reforms promised miss action and diction/ Thus the masses quietly bear anger/ Then who are there to stand up for the powerless?”
This is a parody inspired by the soliloquy "To be, or not to be, that is the question" in William Shakespeare's Hamlet. The parody covers some of the current Bangladesh issues that are affecting people's life or creating resentment among the conscious segment.
Before the rape and murder of eight-year-old Ramisa in May, there was already a 35% rise in such crimes in April compared to the previous month. The law enforcement personnel had to remain busy dealing with quite a number of extortion cases recently.
Against this backdrop, the government of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) has spelt out some development pledges, crafted with jargons in the official 8th five-year plan, that were part of the party's pre-election manifesto to woo the voters.
Creation of 10 million jobs by 2030, turning Bangladesh into a $1 trillion economy by 2034, transformation of agriculture into a high-value sector, increasing investment in public and private sectors, widening export base, higher revenue mobilization, and raising the budget to improve quality of education and healthcare services are some of the major pledges in addition to the critical ones to rebuild systems and institutions.
Attractive, interesting, and timely, albeit ambitious. Yet, these are just promises on paper unless or until they are translated into new reality -- our record of execution of pre-poll pledges is not the best.
Now dealing with the unforeseen reality, will you focus only on addressing the evolving issues you are struggling with to pacify your critics, or concentrate on delivering services as per the manifesto, ignoring the contemporary issues?
In any case or in the pursuit of both the objectives simultaneously, the government needs to prove political willingness and acumen, capacity, determination, due diligence and prudence if it really means business in the delivery of public service.
Furthermore, in the age of social media, people no longer believe in some kind of “steps to be taken” approach. They want to know exactly what you have done or at least how the job would be accomplished.
In an objective scenario, any proponent of democracy would admit that the implementation of what the BNP as a political party promised the people before and after the fall of fascist Hasina regime, especially prior to the parliamentary polls, is simply not possible if the culture of governing the country remains the same.
In the meantime, public expectations and demographic distribution in the political landscape have quietly changed, as exposed slightly during and in the aftermath of the July-August 2024 revolution. Obviously, the state machinery with anti-people orientation and the baggage of about two decades would serve all but benevolent forces and the greater population, who took to the streets in 2024 and elected their representatives from whatever options were available in 2026.
That is the key challenge for Prime Minister Tarique Rahman because his elected regime has been assigned to set in motion democratic governance. Not to go ahead with Hasina's oligarchical rule, but to uphold national interest and ensure maximum public welfare.
A mere soft-spoken image and sincere wish of the incumbent head of the government won't bear fruit if he doesn't have a competent and dedicated team to materialize his words. Well-coordinated teamwork too may not produce the desired results unless the government's legal instruments and institutions work properly.
Unfortunately, the recent rise in incidents of rape, killing, and other forms of crimes and violence demonstrates fearless behaviour of criminals. Any leader would want to improve law and order but to do so, you have to deliver justice and end the culture of impunity. Is it possible to attain overnight what had not been possible without judicial reform, which has been neglected by allowing the executive to interfere with the judiciary?
You cannot guarantee either the citizens' rights or security by giving any signal that bureaucrats, law enforcers, and the men of defense establishment are above law. So, the National Human Rights Commission, if empowered, can excuse the political regime from undue responsibility of dealing with such sensitive issues.
When you've felt it is necessary to create millions of jobs, attain a double-digit gross domestic product (GDP) growth, increase investment manifold, and restore public confidence in banks by reviving them, it is imperative to carry out economic reforms. That is essential for smooth functioning of the economic lifeblood of every stakeholder in society, except plunderers of public resources.
If you are really serious about ending official corruption, bribery, commissions, tender manipulation, and abuse of power in broad daylight, there is no alternative to autonomous functioning of institutions such as a Anti-Corruption Commission.
We also need the media to be liberated from the clutches of external forces so that they may operate to serve public interests and ensure transparency and accountability of the authorities.
Any elected government in developing countries like ours is criticized for deficiency in the so-called good governance, although what we need is fair and equitable management in running the state. The people's representatives will not be able to deliver democratic, welfare-oriented governance as long as they are sabotaged by vested quarters. Hence, massive regulatory reforms are the only option.
A new democratic culture, as people had envisioned throughout the anti-fascist movements, shall not evolve unless we carry out political reforms and the politicians change their mindset. Otherwise, the political parties and politicians in parliament today may also face an existential crisis soon.
These political parties -- the ruling BNP, and opposition Jamaat-e-Islami, and National Citizens' Party (NCP) -- have a historic responsibility to work together for implementing the reforms they agreed upon earlier to build the foundation for uninterrupted democratic governance in the country.
Whether "to be or not to be" is a matter of their political choice.
Khawaza Main Uddin is a journalist. He can be reached at khawaza@gmail.com. Views expressed are the writer’s own.