I have a confession to make – I have not been following the grim political theatre that has captivated the country for the last month because I find it boring. I find it profoundly, mind-numbingly, spirit-crushingly boring. This is not because I’m in a position of privilege where I don’t “have” to care about what is happening since it doesn’t affect my life or livelihood.
Most of the people I know who have been spilling a lot of ink on this topic and foaming at the mouth discussing it are barely affected by the outcome of this grotesque theatre. In fact, many seem to take a kind of perverse pleasure in it. The cycle of political dysfunction, like clockwork, is necessary to ensure the relevance and livelihood of so many of our so-called intellectual elites.
My boredom comes from a much more cynical place. It comes from the conviction that all the mayhem, loss of lives and posturing is ultimately meaningless.
For as long as I can remember, the politicians in Bangladesh have been toying with the fate of the country and the lives of ordinary people with impunity. Not much in this toxic political culture has changed, no matter how many revolutions we’ve had or which party has come to power. So why should this time be any different?
One clue to why the status quo never changes might be found if we look closely at how we select and what we value in our leaders – be it of the political variety or the intellectual.
It is no secret that the “elite” of Bangladesh is a fairly small and closed group, the majority of whom are located in Dhaka. As a repatriated Bangladeshi who has lived in Dhaka now for just over six months, I am struck by the fact that the same group of people tend to show up at all the important meetings, roundtables, and even cultural events, such as prestigious international literary festivals.
Membership in this group is a difficult to gain and one could even say that you need to be “born into it” to have a reasonable chance of gaining entry. While the starkest example of this is the two main political parties, other parts of the elite ecosystem are also governed by similar rules.
This very small group are not only divorced from the reality of the majority of the country (the 99%, if you will), they also have very little vested in changing the status quo. If the current system ensures them a place of privilege and a comfortable life fueled by cheap labour then why would they?
A few weeks ago I read a rather amusing op-ed in this very newspaper lamenting the lack of superheroes in Bangladesh. I wanted to write to the author and ask him if he has had a conversation lately with his maid or chauffeur.
Consider the struggle of the working poor against the odds to earn enough to feed their family or send their children to school, or the journey of a young illiterate boy from a village to a foreign country where he doesn’t even speak the language. If these acts don’t count as being heroic then I would seriously question our understanding of what that word actually means.
But of course that’s not the view we have of the working class in our society, is it? I can’t count the number of times I have witnessed members of the intelligentsia or the cultural elite here berate and mistreat servers at restaurants. Maids and chauffeurs working for expat friends have told me that they prefer working for foreigners since they are not only paid more fairly but are treated with more dignity there.
The media is just as complicit in perpetuating the status quo. We tend to glorify the so-called “successes” of those who were already born with silver spoons in their mouths but disregard the acts of courage and perseverance of the “normal” people who keep this country afloat.
We are even busy telling our next generation how to be “global consumers,” which products would make them “cool,” instead of helping them connect to the reality of the country that they live in and how (or even whether!) they should contribute to making it better.
I’m not trying to minimise the contribution of entrepreneurs and the business class in their work to steadily improve the overall economic condition of the country.
However, let us not forget that their success is only made possible on the backs of the poor men and women who see little of that prosperity trickle down to them. The struggle of the RMG workers in securing a “decent” minimum wage, which is still far below a “living wage,” only provides proof this fact.
In governance literature there is a term used to describe the type of power imbalance that exists in our country between the elite and the rest. It’s called “elite capture” –“where resources transferred for the benefit of the masses are usurped by a few, usually politically and/or economically powerful groups, at the expense of the less economically and/or politically influential groups.”
One would be hard pressed to find another country that is so thoroughly in the grips of this phenomenon. As long as this problem persists where the interests and the voices of the working class, the real backbone of the country, are not represented and we continue to leave the future up to the disinterested elite then it matters little who wins one particular election.
Five years from now we will read again the news of “ordinary” people being sacrificed by the hundreds so that one party or the other can fulfill their aims. Until we can change our perception of who the real heroes are, the curtain on this grotesque theatre of folly won’t come down.
