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Containable frailties, path to salvation

KAZi ALAuDDiN AHMED
IN one of my humble contributions to the pages of The Daily star, published this september, I concluded with the expectation that it was time that politics in Bangladesh sustained a positive change to decency and decorum and to the norms of a civilized society. shortly thereafter, I beheld the hitherto extinguished candle of hope re-kindled. Prime Minister Khaleda Zia's address to the audience at the Political science Association provided just such an enervating feeling. Her speech contained her express realisation that politics in Bangladesh was totally rotten and that something ought to be done to effect a change. she spoke of mutual tolerance, respect and restraint between the government and the opposition.
No sooner had she come out of the hall, however, than she appeared to
have forgotten what she had said inside. Perhaps her state of mind was influenced by the gathering of educated and enlightened intellectuals. she gave her supporters a speech to be proud of and provided them with the opportunity to claim that their leader was very open and willing to change the present state of mutual mud-slinging so rampant in Bangladesh politics.
But away in the open, public meetings that followed immediately thereafter, her harangues invariably assumed a harsher tone. In this connection, The Daily star Editor Mahfuz Anam's commentary on October 23, deserves special mention. The editor was alluding to the PM's speech marking the 2nd anniversary of the coalition's rule which he found "both shocking and depressing. " According to him, she was not talking like a "democratically elected leader but more like a believer in force, threat, intimidation and not in persuasion or dialogue."
Indeed this has been a perpetual malady with our leaders. Personal vilification has been a favourite pastime of theirs. This generalised observation applies to many of our political leaders, either in government or in opposition. These are the ones who appear to have been more keen on basking in the abysmal labyrinth of ignorance rather than in the sunshine of knowledge and credibility. The pitiable deficiency in their language can be easily attributed to such a state of ignorance. And we know that ignorance breeds anger or more precisely that anger is the child of ignorance.
This is, however, not to say that politicians are incapable of being knowledgeable. But as long as they
allow themselves to be pampered by their sycophants, their vision of the realities of life will ever remain eclipsed.
While politics is at its lowest ebb, the day-to-day life of the common people has been at its nadir. Unbridled hikes in the price of essential commodities over the past several months have compounded the miseries of low and middle income earners. The government has not so far been able to contain the spiraling of prices.
At long last the prime minister herself tried in her own way to intervene. so long had she been duped by the feedback of the commerce ministry and other agencies that she got a real shock from the feedback received from her own domestic help whom she
had sent to different markets. They confirmed that whatever the daily newspapers had been publishing was correct. The commerce minister was later reported to have been severely admonished by the prime minister when he reportedly stated that the price of onions was Tk 22-24 per kilo when the prime minister's men informed her that if was selling at Tk 36 that day.
Not only in the price of essential commodities but also with the law and order situation the same misinformation persists. The feedback the prime minister has been receiving from the home minister and the state minister and from other intelligence sources on "shantrash" (violent crime) is too often untrue.
Recently a lot of drum-beating was heard about extortion in the bus terminals and with the handing over of the three city terminals to the private sector it was announced that from now onward there would no more be any such mischief in the bus terminals. The latest report (Nov. 1) shows that the defunct extortionists have reorganised themselves with the blessings of some "powerful ministers and leaders" to restore their "usurped" rights.
Talking about the ever galloping rise in the price of vegetables and other edibles produced in the country, one businessman made a very cogent comment. He agreed that the bad elements in the trading community were responsible but stated that there
were other reasons as well. He suggested that by pursuing a misguided policy the IWTA was not able to restore the navigability of the rivers in the North Bengal area. As a consequence, vegetables and other perishable goods produced in abundance in the northern districts could not reach the city as hundreds of truck loads of such items remain stranded at the ferry ghats connecting the north to the rest of the country. The ferries take longer to take a single trip due to heavy silting in the river beds. He claimed that the IWTA does the dredging of the rivers when the waters are at lowest ebb. Consequently, the earth dredged at one place resettles nearby making the whole process of dredging an exercise in futility. He suggested that the dredging should be technically feasible at high tide so that the removed earth floats out with the current and cannot settle.
The transportation debacle may very well be linked to the price hike. And the debacle is known to have
been compounded by the hoodlums and extortionists actively operating on the highway.
It is no use bickering over the past. Nor will the old Awami League dishes ever be palatable to the common people. Our advice to the prime minister would be this: see if you can do anything of your own. Instead of using the AL as a bogey, now is the time for you to show your strength, wisdom and farsightedness to extricate the nation from its present miserable plight. You should try to identify and solve the problem. And take care of the self-seeking sycophants and make an immediate shift to the saner part of your party who are presently being elbowed out by the extremists within. You promised to change the type of politics in the country. Why not start working in that direction right now? Take the first step forward. This is our humble entreaty.
Kazi Alauddin Ahmed is an industrial consultant.