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GROUND REALITIES

Images of a putative democracy

Syed Badrul Ahsan
In a responsible democracy with two experienced, responsible politicians in charge, you do not expect the institutions of the state to be played around with as if they were trifles. But that is what is happening here.***
These are interesting times we live in. Something of the pungent, something of the exciting has come into our politics. Of course, politics has always been exciting in this country, but of late the excitement has taken a dimension you do not and will not see replicated elsewhere around the world. A newly elected mayor — and we speak of Comilla — had his large vehicle block the path of a rickshaw the other day, the better for him to come out of it and land a few good punches on a lawyer riding that rickshaw. Of course, as is always the case, the mayor (and he has not yet been sworn in) denied that he had assaulted the lawyer. Why would such a good man do that?
So there we all are, caught between acts of desperation and a flurry of quick denial. Not that we are surprised. When you watch all those politicians on all those ubiquitous talk shows about to hurl themselves at one another, you know how much more enjoyable politics has got to be. Not many years ago, a lawmaker elected on the ticket of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party cheerfully wore a crown of gold gifted to him by his constituents. He was not at all ashamed to do so, even after reports on the scandal appeared in the media. That was one of the earliest of signs that in our putative democracy, politicians were fast turning into lesser men.
That truth only gets to be reinforced when you see a young parliamentarian from Rangpur descending with as many as five hundred goons on a medical college because he is determined to have a quota of jobs for his supporters. He and his goons are then given a good thrashing by citizens. Images of the MP lying flat on the ground are not exactly edifying, but then again, he has brought it all on himself. We do not feel sorry for him. We are only sorry that such men of evil intent are in politics at all.
As if that were not enough, you have the ruling Awami League lawmaker from Mirpur happily and ferociously assaulting a woman journalist and then, with a straight face, denying that any such incident had at all taken place. He spends the fifteen minutes given to him by the latiyo Sangsad speaker to reflect on the president's address in a vitriolic attack on the media. That is interesting, for two reasons.
First, you get a sense ofhow morality is today a missing factor among the political classes. Second, politicians are angry because the media are always catching them with their pants down. Which is not a bad thing after all, considering the damage politicians have been doing to the country of late.
And what exactly has been happening? For a start, in the aftermath of these reports of a failed coup attempt, the prime minister has been going around warning the opposition that it cannot ride to power on the back of the army. In her response, the leader of the opposition, probably with images of Tahrir Square in mind, informs the government that it will be brought down not through a coup d'etat but by a mass upsurge.
Both women, without quite being aware of it, have been making light of the army. In a responsible democracy with two experienced, responsible politicians in charge, you do not expect the institutions of the state to be played around with as if they were trifles. But that is what is happening here. And no one is happy about it. In a land where nearly every organisation exists in two halves — for the Awami League, for the BNP — must we now have our politicians create a condition where the armed forces too will turn into factionalised images of themselves?
Perish the thought. Else you will be in a bad state of agitation. In a country where a minister informs you that the state is not concerned when it citizens are killed on the border, you wonder why this minister is there at all. If we had a proper, functioning democracy, he would be out of government by now. And yet he stays on, in the way that the former minister of communications stays on with a new portfolio when he should have been shown the door.
It is a beautiful word, democracy. Every day and in every way we are being initiated into newer interpretations of it. The opposition wishes to march on the streets, but the police come in the way. You would think a state of emergency was upon us, or a martial law regime. And then comes that other new addition to democracy. If the opposition marches, the ruling party must not be far behind: it must schedule a rally on the same day and send the political temperature shooting as high as possible. That is ingenuity. And ingenuity is also what you spot when the police clamp Section 144 on us as a way of keeping both the groups away from the streets.
These are beautifully bizarre happenings. And when the American ambassador tells you that there will soon be a time when Bangladesh will rival China in asserting itself on the global stage, you are not quite sure if you should weep or laugh. You are not amused. Does Dan Mozena really mean what he says? What secrets does he have of Bangladesh's potential that we do not have?
These are questions you ought not to seek answers to. Neither will you come by an appropriate government response to the threat held out by some irritants calling themselves political parties: they will put all "Indian agents" on trial in future if the trial of the war criminals is not put to a stop. These elements are guilty of more than nonsense. They are making a mockery of our independent statehood. The government looks away. And you and I can do nothing about it.
But, yes, life is terribly exciting. Even if there is mediocrity all around you.
The writer is Executive Editor, The Daily Star. E-mail: bahsantareq@yahoo.co.uk