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Columnists, commentaries, and politicians

Abdullah A. Dewan
WHILE reading Syed Badrul Ahsan's (SBA) September 16 piece about the law secretary's apology and its post hoc acceptance by parliament's law affairs committee, some questions came to my mind: What Impact, if any, do columnists and commentaries have on politicians' behaviour and the country's governance? Simply put: Do commentaries matter?
Over the years, since March 2005 when I started writing my weekly column, whenever I met a politician I always introduced myself as a Daily Star columnist, hoping I would be recognised through my articles. To the contrary, I was utterly disappointed -- politicians don't have time to read newspaper articles. I then started asking for their email contacts but, as one would expect, many don't have one and those who do couldn't remember off-hand what it was. Anyway, the few 1 could collect receive my articles once they' re published - - and some even ardently offer their comments.
It's understandable why elected politicians would be time constrained to read commentaries. They have many other pressing matters to deal with - - lobbying for their cronies, courting their bosses and high officials, and of course, running their self-aggrandising businesses and ventures.
Politicians often take public interest decisions as long as they're not in conflict with their own and their party's interest. They dismiss commentaries as mere opinions, even though they reflect the prevailing public concerns and reactions on issues of national and community interest. Rightly or wrongly, politicians in general show indifference to commentaries because they see them as mere depictions of their failures and indiscretions. They consider critical views as partisan opinions even though they're premised on objective analyses. However, there are a few who’d read commentaries only if they agreed with the views expressed or if they were about the opposition parties.
In any media-sawy society, columnists play an important role. They provide information and refreshing ideas, and often opinions and interpretations on many issues. Columnists usually have a unique voice, which distinguishes them from other writers. Dedicated and gifted columnists develop a loyal readership that looks forward to reading their columns on a regular basis. To increase that base, they research, investigate, interpret, and communicate news and public affairs issues in their own creative ways through their columns so that their readers can relate to those and also want to read about them.
For politicians and general readers, it’s
impractical to compile information from a multitude of sources as columnists do in one short piece. The intricate task is presenting the information within a limited number of words In a logical and sometimes humorous style, so that the readers can appreciate and identify with the issues involved and at the same time relish read-Inglt.
The failure of the Parliament's standing committees (PSC) to make controversial officials appear before the committee for a hearing is simply unheard of in a true democracy. If that culture isn't enforced and established now, the when will it happen? SBA's article is highly germane to a much broader question: Do newspaper commentaries, academic seminars and discourses on political and governance issues have any discernible influence on the politicians in power?
Ever since democracy was restored, political parties have been promising instituting of local government. Numerous seminars, talk shows, and newspaper commentaries were devoted to this issue. The outcome: politicians did what they thought would serve their cause while disregarding the aspirations of the people and the elected local officials.
Everyone recognises that students' politics affiliated with political parties is the primary reason for deteriorating academic standard and campus violence. Despite overwhelming call from all circles to segregate student politics from national political parties, nothing has changed and nothingwill.
Take another case - international disrepute of being the world's number one in corruption. So much has been written and talked about in seminars and street pro-
tests, but to what avail? Instead of eliminating corruption as promised -- die ruling party eliminated all corruption charges against its party's alleged "corrupticians" as politically motivated cases. Instead of strengthening the Anti-corruption Commission to fight graft, they turned it into an office of acquiescence for withdrawal of the graft charges against the ruling party's politicians.
What about democratic reforms? Are there any words left unwritten or unspoken in any forum about the exigencies of democratic reforms in political parties? The outcome is: both major parties sidelined their reformists from party hierarchies and in some case even disbanded them altogether. These are just a few examples to show that no matter what the intellectual community say and think, politicians have their own agenda to implement.
Finally, something has happened. I felt somewhat encouraged after I learned that my last week's article, "Climate change equity," has been distributed among the parliamentary committee members on climate and environment. This should be initiated by members of all other parliamentary committees and public institutions whenever information rich commentaries are published in national media. This will develop an enlightened nexus between columnistsand politicians.
Lastly, criticising Awami League’s failings and imprudence does not necessarily mean that an alternative party such as BNP is preferred -- it simply means we want to see a new and reformed Awami League, the sooner the better.
Df. Abdullah A. Dewan, founder of poWaxxxrry.com. is a Professor of Economics at Eastern Michigan Untversriy