The mood of the nation is interrogative, apprehensive, despairing. New Year’s Eve celebrations in TSC are out; the New Year starts with blockades.
As I write, two bombs explode somewhere nearby, perhaps in the New Market area. The Dhaka Metropolitan Police Commissioner has announced that people in some areas, including the area I live in, should not venture out after 8pm. Virtual curfew on New Year’s Eve! What else can you say about the mood of the nation?
One thing is certain to me: The Election Express will reach its destination on January 5 with very few passengers on board. What the destination is, nobody is sure about. I have lost my voter ID. And since there is no campaigning in my constituency, I assume I don’t have a candidate either. My choices have been taken away both by the loss of my ID and AL’s unyielding position about upholding the letter of the constitution. But then we can never rule out a dramatic reversal in the final act of this very high drama that we are witnessing.
This is nothing if not a modern-day game of thrones and the stakes are very high. The only people directly involved in this game are those who benefit from it, or hope to benefit from it. Battle lines are clearly drawn between the AL and BNP-Jamaat axis. Ershad, for the time being, appears to have gone back into the wings.
Disinterested people (that is, basically people not interested in plundering), not necessarily pro-BNP, important and articulate members of our civil society who express concern about the nation’s plunge into chaos and suggest that the January 5 elections should be cancelled, are lambasted for reasons which seem like non-sequitors. If you are not with the government then you must be anti-liberation and pro-BNP. This is simply not true for a large section, perhaps even the majority, but their voices are not heard.
BNP’s “March for Democracy,” did not, could not, take place. Instead we saw violence on the streets, clashes between the police and pro-BNP lawyers in the High Court area, clashes between AL cadres and pro-BNP lawyers, scufflings and exchanges of hot words between pro-AL and pro-BNP journalists. The PM’s media adviser, once a firebrand critic of the government’s inept handling of the Sagar-Runi murder, has now become the government’s loudest and most vehement spokesperson, and consequently sunk in the estimation of many. But what does it matter. He is now a man of importance.
Perhaps one of the most shameful political moments that we all witnessed, all in the name of constitutionality and democracy, was the manhandling of a female lawyer by AL thugs while the police stood by and watched in silence. And then of course, there was the drama in front of Khaleda Zia’s house, barricaded by several trucks laden with sand, forcing her to abort her march for democracy, all to protect the people and the constitution.
But where are the people for whom the constitution is being safeguarded and the attempted “March for Democracy” undertaken? They are nowhere in sight. We have only seen the police and army following orders from the government. We have seen AL and BNP-Jamaat thugs out on the streets, and we have seen pro-BNP lawyers protesting and university teachers out to march for democracy. The people seem to have been erased from the equations and become completely voiceless while battles are being carried out in their names.
Teachers and lawyers are out on the streets because they want to be seen to be out on the streets by the leader, Khaleda Zia, and eventually rewarded for their partisan loyalties. This has happened in the past and will happen in the future. AL teachers with high visibility on TV or out in the streets after 1/11 have all been suitably rewarded. Now the BNP people think it’s their turn.
Over 20 years back, when there was a real people’s movement against the regime of Ershad, a frail university teacher, then president of the Dhaka University Teachers Association, fell down on the street while he was leading a procession. Later, when BNP came to power, he rose to be president of the nation. Such ambitions run high among many teachers, doctors, lawyers and other uncritical partisan professionals.
The people who suffer most are disinterested people who see most clearly the swirling anarchy that surrounds them, who do not support the BNP-Jamaat axis, who are strongly, unquestionably pro-liberation, and who feel that this election is just not the way it should be.
I have a hunch that Khaleda Zia will indeed change Gopalganj’s name if and when she comes to power.
