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CROSS TALK

The scope of anger

The BGMEA lost its temper because this government didn't do its job. Yet the main job of this government was to enforce a change in the political weather which shows the signs of rebounding its way back to square one. To know the depth of despair that the garment manufacturers have showed, it has to be mulitplied many times more to measure the despair seething in the hearts of 150 million people.

Mohammad Badrul Ahsan
AN irate BGMEA has let out steam. According to its president the government has "fully failed" to protect the billion-dollar industry', proof of it being in the arson attacks on garment factories. In as much as this matter remains between the two sides, the word "failed" has a ring of many meanings to it
First of all. it has the ring of a story we heard as children. A simpleton rows his boat all night long until his wife tells him in the morning that all that time the vessel was tied up at the landing. Not to add insult to injury, the BGMEA attack has the potent touch of an irony. We might hear of disappointments more often as an increasing number of people are going to argue that the political transformation since 1/11 has been much ado about nothing.
Between sincerity and snake oil, let us say this government has tried to fix a few things. Let us say this government is now facing the repairman's ^dilemma, not sure if he should leave ’ the damage as it was found or aggravate it by tweaking further. If anyone
is asking for a comparison, it looks desperately like someone who has locked up himself inside a room and lost the key.
True, what comes in has to get out. Yes, this government has to find an exit. But must that exit be in dire straits so that it makes entry sound hopeless? From text to subtext to context, things are now on the verge of pretext. Politicians are being released in hordes. Court cases against the politicians are
being stayed. One politician sentenced to 13 years in one case has been granted interim bail (?) in another. Those who were arrested in connection with Gatco and Niko cases have been released on bail. One former minister who stands accused in both cases left the country before the arrests and hasn't been touched since his return.
Moreover, the government decided to push ahead with the city corporation and pourashova elections even though a major political party didn't participate. Now we hear rumours that the leader of that party and even her son could be released from jail any day. Again, those who won these elections
have refused to relinquish their party posts. They are threatening to go to court, challenging the electoral rules which make this provision binding on them.
I am sure the government has its reasons for doing what it has been doing. I am sure it's doing everything it can to restore our political process. But it's beginning to look like a coconut, hard on the outside and soft on the inside. It looks as weak as it once looked tough. What
started with a big bang is ending with a whimper.
It could be a problem of time management. It could be that the government waited too long to start and going too fast to finish. If the garment factories are burning, prices are soaring, corruption is still thriving and a growing sense of incontinence is gripping this nation, it's probably because caution is being perceived as compromise, speed as surrender, and desperation as defeat.
No matter what, the government is now drawn into firefighting more than anything else. The reform of political parties appears remote. Stamping out of corruption looks
futile. The chance of an acceptable election is flimsy. On top of everything, the fear of relapse is real. People who were thrown in jail for corruption could be strutting soon on the streets, wearing their freedom like a badge.
How is history going to judge it? How are the historians going to look at this exceptional hiatus in our history, when an abnormal government was created for the sole purpose of creating a normal
government? How are they going to judge this meddlesome period, when a concourse of changes did no more than a reconfiguration of the constant, when a reform campaign turned into a roundtrip from status quo to status quo?
It's said that all men are deceived by the appearances of things, and even Homer, the wisest man in Greece, was deceived by boys catching lice, when they said to him: "What we have caught and what we have killed we have left behind, but what has escaped us we bring with us." Almost twenty months after this government took power, it appears that lot of things have escaped it. It is bringing with it
a lot of things it had promised to leave behind.
One wonders if it's the same sword in the same scabbard, how is it going to hurt differently when it cuts? The familiar faces are returning to politics. The familiar politics is returning to us. How will a clean wash come from dirty hands? How will the game change if same players make the rules? These questions are already haunting this government, and it hasn't even left office.
The BGMEA lost its temper because this government didn't do its job. Yet the main job of this government was to enforce a change in the political weather which shows the signs of rebounding its way back to square one. To know the depth of despair that the garment manufacturers have showed, it has to be mulitplied many times more to measure the despair seething in the hearts of 150 million people.
Right now the country is floating on lot of rage. People who went to jail are clearly upset. People who wanted to see those people in jail aren't happy they are coming out. People who wanted the change are disappointed. People who liked the staus quo are pissed off.
After the elections are held in December and an elected government sits in power, there should be a serious study ofwhat went wrong. No need to know who is to blame. No need to know if there was a sabotage. We simply need to know the scope of our anger and next time around do it right.
Mohammad Badrul Ahsan is a banker.