Continuity in governance breeds development by implementation of the definitive vision of one side of the political divide. This is posited regularly to make the case for longevity of the current government of Bangladesh. The assertion implies that prolonging a rule forces evolution, manifesting itself in the shape of better policies and greater accountability.
As with most sociopolitical theories, the Utopian abstract does not translate into any of the possible permutations of a positive reality. The harsh terrain of this loathsome existence is devoid of hope in underdeveloped countries condemned to teeter on the brink, as Bangladesh is. That the benevolent dictator has failed to reveal himself or herself as the country stutters into its fifth decade dispels the notion that he or she can possibly exist.
An entire population remains hostage to a pathetic game of badminton, where the two players are not ageing well and the pin in the hand grenade they chose for a shuttlecock slips out millimetre by millimetre with each contact with the decrepit racquets.
The merits of the methods employed by the current government to ascend to the throne, or, depending on the preferred narrative, cling on to the crown, continue to be debated. The futile exercise can be abandoned if only the simplest explanation is accepted as gospel: The Awami League, like every single one of its predecessors, was not ready to cede power a year ago. No man, woman, child, or politician has a right to question this irrefutable justification.
As a monarch has the divine right to rule, so everyone else has an earthly right to comply fully to subjugation and abuse. To think that the attitude of anyone else purporting to be a leader in a nation beholden to corruption, as humans are to mortality, would be any different is to be naïve to the history of the last 366 days as much as the last 366 years, to the point of irredeemable idiocy.
Criticising the undemocratic nature of the last general election, while excluding oneself from it and embracing violence, may seem perfectly reasonable for one day, a fit of rage borne of frustration at the Grand Poobah not being a monarch. That very song being stuck on repeat for a year, however, with no concrete solutions beyond the sacred doctrine of blame game that is much-beloved by the self-proclaimed leaders of Bangladesh, is unfathomable, tiresome, and vexatious.
The monarch, whose reign has just entered its sixth year, has a crown that is becoming increasing hollow. Documented disappearances of citizens – and regardless of how evil they may be, they remain citizens – add to the worrying inclination towards a police state, but that is to be expected of an autocracy where rights range from conditional to non-existent.
The rise in crime, with the numbers given healthy boosts by the unchecked nefarious acts of confident members of the ruling party, is a media conspiracy, masterminded by the cretins who refuse to see the emperor’s new clothes.
The suggestion of adverse effects of an oil spill is as laughable as global warming, and allowing the market to be manipulated is part of the sound economic policies that will eradicate poverty in three years’ time.
Mass homicide of the corporate and political varieties are the fault of the enemy that needs extra security and building materials every now and again, as are the murderous intents of roadwork and vehicles.
An opposition worthy of the title, or at least one that is fulfilling its obligations instead of being bought for a price that streetwalkers would turn their noses up at, would scarcely believe its luck at winning the lottery of this glorious litany of unabated catastrophes. Even a vanquished one would make hay, however few breaths it has left.
Yet, the government’s hits keep coming, keep being brushed aside or justified convincingly as its whims decree unconditionally, keep being tolerated. Taking responsibility for decades of misdeeds by all concerned is unsatisfactory, unpalatable, unnecessary. Compounding problems, or adding to the list, is considerably more fun than solving them, for solutions start with confessions that no one is willing to make.
The situation is not as hopeless as it seems. Bangladeshis need to make the extraordinarily difficult decision to forget about the immediate and near-futures, and commit themselves to the long-term. It betrays human nature to be selfless, but that is the only way to save the present. Only then can the nation as a whole look beyond the Hobson’s choice presented by the polluted parameters of the existing political system, parties, military, warts and all.
