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PLEASURE IS ALL MINE

Peace is in PM's hand
FAMOUS American baseball player Yogi Berra proves to be a crystal ball gazer for Bangladesh. Between his two sayings — "It ain't over till it's over" and "Future ain't what it used to be" — he sums up the current political oudook of Bangladesh.
Looking around, you con-
front two questions: First, who is in charge and control of the administration. Second, who does the prime minister depend on for good, selfless, and maybe this-is-not-what-you-want-to-hear kind of advice?
Currently, political initiative is in her hand, though it is not constructively engaging the opposition given the hardline approach she has taken towards them. Administratively, if the manifest disorder is any guide, then she hardly appears to be in control.
When an MP takes a potshot at people, a policeman grips a man by his neck almost strangling him in public and a colleague of his tramples a protester under his jackboot, you ask: what is left of her grip? Everyone dressed in brief little authority, to use a Shakespearean phrase, abuses power being left to his or her own device.
Arrogance of power and human rights violation these are, but there's a comical side to it: display of heroics with a cinematic special effect and a show of surpassing loyalty to bosses.
You could continue in this light vein, but before long your sense of humour dies down because it is overpowered by an explosion of impunity blowing in your face. Why blame police when they are used by the party in
power? Their integrity as a state institution has been heavily compromised by the legacy of politicisation. If the buzzword from the top is to get tough, how brutal it can get on the ground we have seen many times over.
Such incidents are outrageous but they pale before the political tempest and breakdown of order in prospect leaving aside a fatalistic notion that things will somehow work out in the end.
After bludgeoning the opposition, the prime minister has warned she has run out of patience and she knows how to bring the opposition in line.
In record quick
time, the 33 arrested senior BNP leaders have been charge-sheeted, disallowed bail twice and put in jail. They await petitioning before the High Court or the Supreme Court Appellate Division for bail. This
has left BNP leaderless in the run-up to its ultimatum of June 10 whereby the ruling party either signals restoration of caretaker system or faces tough opposition programme. Maybe the ruling party will keep it that way in the face of BNP's threatened June 11 mass agita-
tion programme. If it doesn't, then it may be an indicator of flexibility and conciliatory gesture from the party on the basis of signals received from the opposition that it would not go for the June 11 programme.
Discerning politicians have, however, observed that none of the Jamaat leaders against whom warrants were issued in the same cases the BNP leaders are accused have yet been arrested. Some news reports point to behind the scene efforts to alienate Jamaat from the four-party alliance through giving them some concessions in terms of its vulner-
abilities.
Whilst the ruling party keeps up pressure on the opposition, a parallel development is taking place among the Mahajote allies of Awami League. JSD leader Hasanul Haq Inu held a breaking newstype press conference on Wednesday. He said they were considering an alternative framework of interim caretaker arrangement apparently with a prime ministerial nod. The Mahajote allies are set to meet the PM any
time soon.
Their position is there's no question of restoring the previous CTG system because it has been constitutionally abolished. Inu pointed out that HC advised against judiciary's association with the caretaker system in the event it is opted for. Thus the whole issue is open to renegotiation and resetdement. There is not only scope but also a need for a negotiated settlement on the CTG issue based on all-party consensus.
Present genre of political leaders seldom consults old timers. Bangabandhu would court advice of Maulana Abdul Hamid Khan Bhasani and Maulana Abdur Rashid Tarkabagish whenever required. The first Indian Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru always valued dissenting views, whether articulated by media or by his political opponents. He would seek advice from veteran politicians on and off. He would go on retreats to Kulu Manali, his favourite resort, to unwind and pause for reflection away from the humdrum of prime ministerial life.
Today, prime ministers and presidents rely on spindoctors drawn from different segments of professional and civil society communities. Kitchen cabinets are falling out of fashion.
Our prime ministers have had advisers at the government and party levels but the head of government has been usually surrounded by relatives and close associates. Her inner circle in its bid to keep the opportunists at bay creates a barrier even for persons who could give serious, dispassionate and unselfish advice to the prime minister. Once in power, our leaders lose touch with humility and thus with reality on the ground. Can they afford it?
The writer is Associate Editor, The Dally Star.
E-mail: husain.lmam@thedallystar.net