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The nation's collective shame

PERSPECTIVES

M Abdul hafiz
**How the polity has been shaped up in the image of the both are evident from their perception of each other. Yet in a democracy they could hit a common ground had they been shorn of the prejudices they so far lived with. Far from that prospect coming true the two premier political parties of the country are set on a collision course of unpredictable horror.***
ENOUGH ignominies were already smeared on the face of the nation ever since its emergency -- thanks to numerous omissions and commissions of our ruling class. But seldom has the public conscience been so profoundly stirred as of now when the established norms and values are crumbling down and the societal order and cohesion going haywire. Or else how could an episode of police brutality involving the women activists of Opposition Awami League could at all take place early last week. The nation aghast at the spectacle of a woman dishonured in the street wonders just how many more notches will it go down in ignominy if the trend goes undeterred.
On 27 September last when an unprovoked swoop was made on what was reported to be a peaceful procession of women activists to protest against rising prices of the essentials, among other things, and some of processionists were stripped, it at once put the nation to a collective shame for it was an aberration of civilisational dimension. It inexorably pushed us towards the brink of an abyss -- the abyss of bestiality and desecrated the soul of the nation. It could not to be looked upon as just another incidence of insignificance -and the nation stunned by its sheer ugliness will take long to recover from the trauma of it.
As the diverse sections of the public opinion were vocal in condemning the police action and stridently accused the establishment for the obscenity of the incidence, the four-party alliance and its supporters came up with a grotesque explanation of the tell-tale pictures published in the newspaper. They alleged that the agitating activists themselves were responsible for their debasement. It was perfectly in line with their earlier refrain while countering the AL allegation of the alliance government killing its men. The alliance government always insisted that it was AL itself which killed its own men to make an issue out of it. The question, however, remains open if some one or some entity would make an issue through self-annihilation and its own debasement.
In BNP's utopian vision the country ruled by it could indeed be hunkydori, but for the AL's perfidy while the AL is convinced that the only impediment in their way of turning the country into 'Golden Bengal' are the usurpers of post-1975 Bangladesh. Caught in the middle the public concern is where the both are taking the country! How the polity has been shaped up in the image of the both is evident from their perception of each other. Yet, in a democracy they could hit a common ground had they been shorn of the prejudices they so far lived with. Far from that prospect coming true the two premier political parties of the country are set on a collision course of unpredictable horror.
We are witnessing only the syndrome of that horror with both the parties going berserk in debasing each other. If no good to the country , they have been able to bring it to a pass where even the honour of the women is not spared. The perverse attitude developed by both blind them to distinguishing between what is decent and what is not and can go to any extent to score political mileage.
It is a typical 'Awami' mindset not the accept the legitimacy of an overwhelming mandate received by the BNP-led alliance in last election and to harp on a conspiracy theory of the latter winning it through rigging . Much of the AL's politics and political agenda follows this notion which is both counterproductive for the party itself and pernicious for the country's healthy political development. Had the AL accepted the result in food grace and participated in the democratic process of the governance of which the opposition also is a vital part , the picture could be different. Instead, in its doctrinaire rigidity, the party stuck to its archaic way only to lose further its once-acclaimed mass appeal.
The AL's chronic inability to accept unpleasant reality has not only left the party in lurch it has also been in a great measure, responsible --among other things -- for the prevailing deadlock is national politics.
Similarly, the debasement of the national politics is no less the product of the BNP's chronic inability to deliver and pass the buck to its political opponents for all of its failures. The party's strong arm-tactics in dealing with its opponents only reveals the hollowness of its authority and it is likely to adopt still more hardline in desperation only to an impending peril for the polity.
Unless good sense prevails on both the parties there can be many more repetition of the horror in the street we witnessed early last week. Till then we pin our hopes on the arts of possible and keep our fingers crossed, although it is only the weaklings who believe in miracles to happen to change their destiny.
Brig ( retd) Hafiz is former DG of BIISS.