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Commentary

Halt this slide to chaos or we are all doomed

by S M Ali
With the stage set for what some fear will be a bloody con -frontation between anti-government protesters and the police over the Golam Azam issue near parliament on Tuesday, we have barely 24 hours to halt this dangerous slide to chaos.
To avert the disaster, what we need is a phone call from Prime Minister Khaleda Zia to Sheikh Hasina — or from the Awami League chief to the BNP
leader — asking for a face-lo-facc meeting to explore all the avenues for restoring sanity to the present madness.
• Whoever takes the initiative will earn the gratitude of the whole nation, not simply for averting one crisis but for setting a new trend in motion, one that may eventually produce a reasonable,working arrangement between the ruling party and the opposition, within the framework of par-
liamentary democracy. But to do so, the two leaders would require political courage, farsightedness and the ability to place the interest of the nation above their narrow partisan gains and losses.
Yet, the two must know that this political courage would not be even a fraction of tbe boldness that our national leaders, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Shaheed
Zlaur Rahman, had shown , again and again In their com mltment to the future of ^^’"therc has ever been a time to honour the memory of these two leaders, through action rather than in hollow rhetoric, the time is now.
It will be presumptuous on our part to suggest what the two leaders should say to each other or what formula they should devise In hulling the present drift, By winning the electoral mandate, they have earned the right — and the re sponsibHity —. of finding solutions to our problems. When they fail to exercise this right or carry out the responsibility that goes with it. they would not be where (he nation has put them today.
All we can ask the two leaders is to look around and sec for themselves the scenario of the crisis situation that developed during the past few days, starting with the boycott of parliament by major opposition parties to the transport strike in which over 200 vehicles were damaged, some beyond repair, from the police rampage against journalists at the Press Club to the chase given. to panicky fleeing teachers by a group of students at the Dhaka University.
This is not all. Add to it the untold hardship of ordinary men and women caused by the transport strike. the rising prices of essential food Items due to the uncertain supply from the countryside and the suspension of all classes in the university. Then, one starts wondering what may happen next in the vicious cycle of violence and lawlessness prevailing in the country, especially in the capital; the heart of the administration.
To the man in the street, it is no consolation to know that . the administration is probably being sabotaged from within and that there arc plots and conspiracies being hatched against the ruling party — or for that matter, against the opposition — to derail our
hard won democratic system.
Another dimension of the crisis may be slowly coming into focus.
The national budget will be passed, with the country entering ■ new fiscal year, under the threat of lawlessness. work stoppages and genera) tension. Does Finance Minister M Saifur Rahman — or anyone else in the government — expect that In such a situation, the private sector will give Its best, foreign investors will rush In. the export will go up and all other targets pul forward by Rahman will be met to the satisfaction of the aid agencies and donor nations? The optimist may say. we can set things right In a matter of months, if not weeks.
But a pragmatic technocrat like Rahman knows it is not that simple.
Finance Minister Saifur Rahman should not be the only one in the government to warn the Prime Minister of the crisis the country is faced with, just as Tofacl Ahmed and Kamal Hossain should not be the only leaders tn the Awami League to suggest to Hasina that moderation should not be confused for weakness. And there arc others. I can name them here and report on their sense of frustration and anguish. But let's give them a chance, a ^hance to speak up to their leaders, before the country's slide down to chaos becomes a grim reality.