How will the government of Sheikh Hasina survive the disease of acute deficiency in legitimacy by crucifying opponents and through raising hullabaloo over issues devoid of public interest? And how many days, months, or years?
Sorry if that sounds outspoken, but perhaps it’s better to cut the euphemisms.
Haunted by fear of losing the throne, the prime minister, her cabinet, and party colleagues are firing salvos of criticism at BNP chief Khaleda Zia and her family members. Civil society critics are not spared either.
The ruling party, in its hostile attitude, is showing that it doesn’t deserve to govern the country. We need and expect some moderation, even if not from this regime.
There was talk in town recently that one of its strategies to divert public attention from the seven murder case in Narayanganj and some other disturbing incidents was to delay the recovery of a capsized launch that claimed over 100 lives.
Whether or not Ziaur Rahman was involved in the August 15, 1975 coup is not an issue. The allegation is being raised to defame the founder of BNP and thus deflate the morale of the BNP leaders and supporters. When opportunists called Zia – a valiant and recorded freedom fighter – a spy of Pakistan in 1971, one has to marvel at the extent to which a smear campaign can be taken.
A breaking news item read former premier Khaleda Zia had a hand in the August 21 grenade attack on an AL rally, according to accusations by Sheikh Hasina, who, however, escaped death at that time. Just to recall, late Palestine president Yasser Arafat had objected to the expression “escaping death” as he told CNN in 1993 that what had not happened was not destined to happen.
If the prime minister is so sure of her predecessor’s involvement, why didn’t her government make Khaleda Zia the number one accused in the case?
If there is no substantial proof, then we can safely assume that nasty politics is being perpetrated just to harass the BNP chief and prevent her from leading a potential movement against the illegitimate regime.
A few AL stalwarts and a bunch of political parasites, who have emerged as trusted comrades to the head of the government, are giving lectures on history, criminology, financial crimes of old days, militancy and counterterrorism, genocide, ethnicity, theories of Nobel Prize, aesthetics of the saree, defamation, and propaganda.
The list goes on and on but excludes what they are supposed to do lawfully and politically to ensure that the country and various institutions function like a pluralist democratic nation.
Look at some of the (mis)deeds – swindling of bank money, share market scams, the Padma Bridge corruption scandal, extra-judicial killings, abductions and disappearances of political leaders, presidential clemency to murderers, campus violence, crackdown on Hefazat-e-Islam, politicisation of the administration and the police, question paper leakage, manipulation of tenders and recruitment tests, an A-Z manipulated ballot, and making parliament a farce.
Many of us wonder how dogged they are in their pursuit: They are also not ashamed of amassing vast wealth and grabbing public and private lands by ruling party men including the vocals.
Against such a long list of “achievements,” there are the unfulfilled promises of wealth statements by the ministers and members of parliament, combating corruption, creation of massive jobs, improving governance and promotion of democracy. Have the voters really forgotten everything? No sane person would say yes, seeing the results of any fair election in recent years?
The premier, well-equipped with information and strategies to attack her key political rival, is not, unfortunately, aware of the exact number of unemployed youths, or homeless people, or cancer patients suffering without treatment.
This administration has nothing better to do than constantly demean the opposition to justify their clinging to power against the will of the people. But these followers of Goebbelsian tradition don’t ask their conscience how theirs could be considered a representative government in the slightest sense of democratic norms.
So, offence, in the manner of a barking dog, is widely believed to be the best defence.
History has plenty of instances where power went to one’s head, creating a state of delusion, where a section of people resort to waves of rhetoric, saying things that have very little meaning in actual terms. Many current leaders are in that state, firing off platitudes without thinking properly.
Lest they forget, no position is fortified for eternity, and in the universal rule of history, all powers have to face a day of reckoning. It’s a pity that ruling politicians fail to recognise that the Bangladesh society, a dormant volcano today, can and will erupt tomorrow or the day after.
