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It was this way in the early 1970s

Syed Badrul Ahsan
WE will not speak of conspiracy theories today. And we will not because of all the portents around us of conspiracy, In that collective and overall sense of the meaning, beginning to take form and substance. It was this way back in the early 1970s, when every stone and every mudball was brought together to undermine Bangabandhu's government. The Nixon-Kissinger team would not help us with food because we had the gall to try to do trade with Cuba. The Pakistanis and their 1971 Bengali collaborators were fanning out all over the Middle East telling kings and sheikhs and dictators there of the "anti-Islamic" nature of our secularism.
At home, pathologically anti-Mujib editors created deliberate confusion through writing of "65 million collaborators" and the need for a "Muslim Bangla;" someone tried setting the Adamjee jute mills on fire; extreme leftists like Abdul Haq went on waging war against the newborn country; and military officers like Ziauddin went underground, in order to foment a revolution. And, of course, there were the seeds of chaos and unconstitutional government Khondokar Moshtaq and his civilian-military cohorts had already begun to plant.
It is this remembrance of the old con-
spiracies actually coming to pass that worries us now that Abdul Jalil has spoken. Or you could sit back and ask yourself if indeed it was Jalil who said those words or someone or some others who had spoken through him. Observe the glee with which rightwing politicians and all those ubiqui tous talk show hosts have now begun to emerge with the thought that something must have gone wrong or some insidious hand must have been at play at the elections in December 2008.
Khondokar Delwar Hossain is inclined to leap for joy, for Jalil has vindicated him and his party on the matter of the "truth" about the elections. An army officer, unwilling or not possessing the moral courage to identify himself, calls up a talk show and proffers "eye witness evidence" of how Bangladesh Nationalist Party supporters were prevented from casting their votes in his locality.
It is all falling into a pattern. The tragedy here, the real and not the feigned one, is that the government does not appear to be taking serious note of it. Yes, it is perfectly all right to dismiss Jalil's comments as the rant of a disgruntled politician. But shouldn't the government look beyond that loud mouthing of charges and go deep into an inquiry of them?
There are reasons why Sheikh Hasina and her colleagues must now suspend their periodic forays into putative global
diplomacy, must put their travel plans on hold, must speak less and do more. Indeed, it Is time for them to take stock of reality. They should be properly worried about some of the charges Jalil has flung at them. Think here of the purported shadow Sheikh Rehana has been casting on the government. The prime minister needs to get her priorities right here. Having her sibling in tow every time she travels over seas or conducts government business at home, and being seen speaking to prospective foreign investors with her son beside her, sends out not just wrong but very bad signals to the country. If people have been whispering about a kitchen cabinet Involving her clan, about the decisions that such a circle may have been making about who should be going where and why, Sheikh Hasina must pay attention before things get out of hand.
When you look around yourself, when you are incessantly being told of all the JMB hideouts being discovered, you have a fair enough idea of the people ready and willing to run this government into the ground. And do not ignore that other, rising menace: in the southwest of the country, the old leftwing extremists have re-commenced their old job of hunting down "class enemies" and disposing of them. Remember the 1970s?
It is not merely the men who see national sovereignty slipping away with the withdrawal of soldiers from the Chittagong Hill Tracts who must be watched. It is not just elements who, as is their forte, have consistently seen the Awami League "sellingout" Bangladesh to India and who therefore pose the biggest threat to the government and to this nation. There are too the malcontents and the positively disgraceful ones within the
circles of the ruling dispensation -- the marauding factions of the Chhatra League, the lender-seizing elements of the Jubo league, et al -- that need ruthless handling. But ruthless, meaningful governance happens when the government of the day steps back, observes what has been going wrong and then resumes its walk with new perspectives in mind.
Those new perspectives must now come to Sheikh Hasina and her government. There are a few corrective measures she needs to take. The first is to move, seriously, out of the one-woman show government has become. More delegation of responsibility is what the prime minister needs to bring about. But before that can happen, let her politely show her advisors, all seven of them, the door. They are an encumbrance and an imposition. The second step will be for her to jettison a good number of ministers and ministers of state who have simply done a bad job or no job at all. The third move should be a rethink about the veterans emasculated at the last party council. Tofail Ahmed, Abdur Razzaq and Suranjit Sengupta should be called back and given berths in the cabinet. The difficulty with new faces is that they are unabashedly loyal and therefore beholden to the prime minister. The beauty about old faces is their experience and their willingness to say no to the head of government.
In simple terms, the government is in need of an autumnal spring-cleaning. That is because the threats to it are very real. Bangabandhu's government was destroyed by conspiracy. There is no earthly reason why Sheikh Hasina's government should not learn from that tragedy.
Syed Badrul Ahsan a Editor. Current Altars The Dafy Star E-matl bahsantareq@yahoocouk