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Time for embracing confrontation free-politics

Moazzem Hossain
Regardless of what happened to the pro-liberation forces between 1975 and 2001. the nation was at least in some sort of comfort that the universally known war criminals had been kept at bay from grabbing power. But this was not going to last long.
In 2001. BNP struck a deal with Jamaat-e-Islami to form a coalition to win the 2001 election. Indeed, the BNP-Jamaat coalition worked very well and. finally, the war criminals elbowed in on die seat of
power, piggy-backing on the BNP We. the liberation generation, had no clue in 1971 that this nation would see anti-liberation forces and war criminals climbing to the seat of power in our life-time.
In recent weeks and days, it appears that the BNP-Jamaat marriage has tasted the inevitable. At the time of BNP's unprecedented trouble. the partner has been busy with either saving its own skin or knowingly remaining silent to avoid trouble. This is understandable since the marriage was not based on ideology, but was certainly a marriage of convenience for grabbing power. During the last one year, it has become clear through the actions of the CTG that the Khaleda-Nizami regime was not only after power, it was also party to an undeclared war against the people.
This nation was awarded the top place on tire world’s corruption list during the terminal years of the Al. government (1996-2001) and all of BNP-Jamaat term (2001-2006). We even remember that the BNP-Jamaat coalition had campaigned in 2001 election on a single agenda. The major thrust was that the AL government had brought the nation disrepute by dragging it to
the top of the world's corruption ladder (Dr. B Chowdhury's Shabash Bangladesh immediately comes to mind). Indeed, the voters, by and large, swallowed this pill prescribed by one of the eminent doctors of tliis land, and voted the BNP-Jamaat coalition to power with two-thirds majority in 2001.
I am sure the readers would also remember that the Jamaat, getting the smell of power, committed unprecedented atrocities within days of winning the election. A minority community and the opposition AL were attacked, which was reminiscent of 1971. Some BNP MPs also took part in these atrocities. After watching all this, everyone in the pro-liberation camp, including the media, was puzzled. Some instantly realised that a major mistake had been made by endorsing the BNP-Jamaat coalition for the general election of 2001. The rest of the story is well known.
The BNP-Jamaat rule of five years pushed the nation towards not only a state of calamity (parallel government run by Hawa Bhaban), but also to the camp of the failed states of the world. Even the august office of the president could not escape politicisation. On January 11,2007, the nation was re-born. The timely intervention by the military, like in 1971, rescued us, once again. Of course, no nation democratic or otherwise, takes emergency rule in any shape or form lightly. The rest of this piece is concerned with the concern of a prolonged rule under an emergency.
Gradual relaxation of emergency rule towards conducting a free, fair, and credible election in December gives rise to some hopes about the election, and all the rumours against CTG's intention have been quashed. It appears from the media that all the parties,
including AL and BNP, want immediate withdrawal of emergency. It is, however, abundantly clear that the CTG is not in a mood to heed this call. They want to adopt a go-slow rather than a big-bang approach in allowing nationwide free politics.
There arc many reasons for going slow. The most important is that the nation has not yet got a clean bill of health from the threat of the so-called Islamists against politicians and ordinary people. Since our politicians are very proficient in playing the blame-game, as has been seen in the past (August 21, 2004 attack in mind), any disturbed person could try to create anarchy by taking advantage of that. This fear has increased after the recent developments surrounding the Gatco case.
Having said all this, at the end of the day, it is impossible to conduct a free and fair election without freeing politics fully. Sooner or later, the concession has to be made for the 9th parliamentary election, promised for the third week of December. It is better if this can be done sooner, after the EC formulates a strict election code of conduct, for example, prohibiting huge outdoor public meetings. Let the politicians go door- to - door, which will pa ve the way for empowering the voters. If, God forbid, the election could be made controversial by any mob with legitimate documents, there will be no reason to believe that this nation will not turn into another Kenya.
Now, things surrounding the dialogue have certainly become too complicated for the CTG, and the nation is approaching the climax when anti-climax forces are out there to create chaos and anarchy. The nation hopes that all these complications will disappear after the successful conclusion of the
dialogue. The past experience of dialogue was not good. This time, the nation genuinely wants to come out of the dark days of the pre-1/11 period through dialogue.
First and foremost, all the parties in the dialogue and outside must recognise this reality and give birth to a new nation, with hopes and opportunities to survive in an era of conflict and uncertainty. It is unlikely that all the politicians will agree with this goal, since they were, in the past, a part of the conflict-making machine and creators of uncertainty.
The politicians will, hopefully, propose options for devising a confrontation-free politics, and the CA should give them a patient hearing in order to achieve the major goals of the dialogue. Certainly, the ball is back in the CA's court.
Dr. Moazzem Hossain is a freelance contributor to The Daily Star.