& çâÌæÚUæð´ ·¤è ¥ôÚU Îð¹Ùæ ÁæÚUè ÚU¹ð´ ¥ÍæüÌ ¥ÂÙð ÜÿØ ÂÚU ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´Ð ãæÚU Ù ×æÙð´, €UØô´ç·¤ ·¤æ× ·¤ÚUÙð âð ¥æÂ·¤ô ©gðàØ ·¤è Âýæç# ãôÌè ãñ ¥õÚU ÁèßÙ ·¤æ ¹æÜèÂÙ ÎêÚU ãôÌæ ãñÐ ÖÜð ãè ÁèßÙ ×ð´ ç·¤ÌÙè Öè ·¤çÆÙæ§ü €UØô´ Ù ¥æ°, çÁ™ææâæ ¥õÚU ©ˆâæã ÕÙæ° ÚU¹ð´Ð ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´, ÜÿØ ã×ðàææ ¥æÂ·Ô¤ Âæâ ãôÌð ãñ´ çÁ‹ãð´ ÂæÙð ·Ô¤ çÜ° ÂýØæâ ¥æÂ ·¤Öè Öè àæéM¤ ·¤ÚU â·¤Ìð ãñ´Ð

One Year of Awami League in Office

Any government in Bangladesh will need to put in extraordinary efforts to raise production, augment national growth and modernise infrastructure, to develop human resource and, in fact, to achieve all other ingredients for reaching the developmental benefit to the grassroots level of our population. But there is hardly any visible initiative or innovation in that direction

by Brig (Retd) M Abdul Hafiz
THE wheel of fortune turned a full circle when still hesitant Bangladeshis. bitter with long years of nationalists' politics and particularly the ruling BNP's callous insensitivity to their increasing woes decided, in a last minute swing, to give their electoral verdict to Awami League a year ago. It was a great relief for the party which was virtually in political wilderness since 1975 although the popular verdict fell far short of a landslide victory which had always been the hallmark of AL victory or for that matter a triumphant comeback the party enthusiasts dreamt of. However, with a wafer-thin majority the AL was duly sworn in af ter a brief spell of suspense affording the party a taste of power after long twenty-one years.
Earlier in a toughly contested poll, as a badly vilified AL desperately sought to capture power, the public mood was favourable ana a majority of the electorate seemed bent upon giving the party another chance to prove its mettle. After all. it was the party of the nation s founding father with almost half a century's history behind it. Finally when the table was turned for the Incumbent BNP the sceptics lost no time in predicting the country's return to an 'Awami loot.' and its sale out1 to India while the admirers nourished cautious hope that it would certainly deliver this time notwithstanding its dismal record of the past. We have to wait for a few more years to find whether the AL is indeed capable of deliverance. Nevertheless. an interim survey of its prospect may perfectly be in order as the AL completes its one year in the office.
Many of us have the vision of an Awami League which virtually no more exists. The AL has since been shorn of its ideological trappings. Inspite of its socialist hangover and a secular inhibition till recently it has grasped well the grouna realities of the country's changing political landscape and by all indications would not allow them to be liability in its power politics. The virulence of its exclusive brand of nationalism also has sobered down and its top leaders prefer to keep it at a low key. It has also jettisoned along the way its lofty ideas.
traditions and a folk touch that once made the party an inevitable point of return for Bengali middle class and widened its political base among the masses. The changes incorporated in its policies and postures over the years have made it now almost Indistinguishable from other centrist political parties. In changed political culture and prevailing mood the party had few alternative, ft Is not thus surprising that the AL also has now in Its rank the turncoats, opportunists as well as nouveau riche seeking political safeguard of their acquired wealth. The party that was once endowed with a superiority of norms and values is apparently dislodged from its moral high grouna. Any assessment of the achievement of a party of this hue can be based only on its performance on the issues facing the nation.
A government's credibility is best Judged from the Internal order it maintains. What kind of internal order has the AL erovided to the nation? It may e recalled that none other than the AL itself had been more critical of the BNP’s chronic failure In providing minimum public safety during Its rule. Yet when the AL took over the administration the impact of the transition was hardly felt at least in the law and order sector. On the contrary, soon after the AL takeover several flash points erupted across the country bringing back the spectre of lawlessness the people wanted to get rid of. Worse still, the AL response to it had been little more than reactive and routine. . As a result an ever Increasing volume of lawlessness gradually became routinished and further entrenched. The resultant erosion of public trust in government ability to tackle the situation is reflected through occasional backlashes with the people taking law in their own hand. In sharp contrast to the government apathy to this vital issue of law and order almost simultaneously it devoted much more efforts in
rehabilitating the tarnished legacy of the party and reviving the heritage of Bangabandhu. the nation's founding father. Both had been the victim of organised vilification and few would dispute that the distorted history of our glorious struggle for independence should Hoe placed in right perspective.
But we live in the present -immersed in its problem and they merit priority to be addressed first. They cry of the hour was for a stable internal order. The sacrifices of 1975 and after could be best vindicated through coping up with the people's genuine expectations. Insteaa the AL chose to indulge in a futile exercise of reminding people of its role in the history. It found one of the medium of its projection In an extended celebration of the nation’s silver jubilee.
It did little to repair the dented image of the AL: on the other hand it reinforced appre hension about some of the AL’s preferences and proclivities. In the meantime, the law and order has recorded a new low with widespread campus unrest, political killings, and a fresh wave of toll collection, terrorism and repression of women. Earlier, a government call for the deposit of illegal arms in return of amnesty was virtually cold shouldered.
The AL has been fortunate in not having to face much of the street agitations from the opposition or largescale political violence. Yet the economic life has not quite picked up; neither has there been Incentive for investment. The seats of higher education are in doldrums and the administration in quandary. The corruption is still rampant and it permeates the whole society. A lack of the government's sense of urgency on these Issues of public concerns tends to suggest as if nothing much can be done about them and they are accepted facts of life. Although the AL kicked off a lot of dust on the question of corruption in the higher echelons of the adminis-
tration while in the opposition it went silent over it once in power. With an alleged Ershad connection the AL seems to have few incentive to pursue the corruption cases against BNP bigwigs even if there Is any.
Although the creation and bursting of the share market bubble has been identified as the biggest scandal of the regime the AL has taken some of the most controversial steps on the foreign policy front. It has signed a thirty years treaty for sharing the Ganges water and It could Justifiably be proud of it if it haa worked. Ironically. Bangladesh got the lowest ever recorded flow in the Ganges on a single day this very dry season. This is in the very first year of a thirty years treaty. When many more metamorphoses take place both In the physical geography of the Ganges basin ana public psyche on either side can this treaty work? Ominously the government Is known to be pushing for more treaties with India, one on transit and another on so called subregional cooperation. There are also talks about reviving 10 miles border trade which the AL government Itself abandoned in 1973 following pervasive smuggling across the border. The proposed treaties are known to be craftily designed and India as to be their main beneficiary. The way the Ganges water treaty has been framed without a guarantee clause incorporated in it many doubt our skill and expertise in keeping Bangladesh's interests on an even keel with India. The government seems to be living in a clever-clever land by shifting blames on Its predecessors for the inevitability of the transit and transnational highways without explaining its own position on tnese issues. Can an outfit of AL's standing be without its own clear perception of the subjects?
By any reckoning Bangladesh has been a problematic country. Problems mainly lie in its demographic dispensation, background of
colonial exploitation, poor resource endowments and frequent. natural disasters. The governance of a country of this background has been and is still far from easy But the governance alone will not be able to retrieve this country from the labyrinthine abyss it has been thrown into through a combination of historical circumstances. The opportunity to govern the country is however an essential step. Beyond this, the nation is to be led with the vision, sagacity and spirit of a messiah. to a desired objective. Sheikh Mulib was that messiah who crafted a country for us but bungled in its subsequent architecture. Yet he initiated a process of building up a policy with a mass orientation and for the wellbeing of the masses. The process remained Inconsequential with Its interruption when the state power was usurped in 1975. It was hoped that the AL would pick up the thread of Mujib's unfinished mission and carry it forward It was also hoped that people would be its principal focus.
come what may. There are few signs of AL treading that path.
Any government in Bangladesh will need to put in extraordinary efforts to raise production, augment national growth and modernise infrastructure. to develop human resource and. in fact, to achieve all other ingredients for reaching the developmental benefit to the grassroots level of our population. But there is hardly any visible initiative or innovation in that direction. There is no meaningful attempt as yet to achieve a national consensus — a prerequisite for the nation s march to greatness Instead, the government is still fiddling with a ridiculous notion of consensus by doing out scraps to a few in a hope for their crucial support during a possible crisis
And on wider national front its governance is confined to ritualistic functions that go with different ministries, departments and offices — let alone the question of leading the nation to a goal. If the trend continues, the findings will be nothing different even at the end of the tenure of this government. It will still be found running Just another government more in the footprint of its immediate predecessors to promote the interest and sustain the wellbeing of selected segments of the society.