& çâÌæÚUæð´ ·¤è ¥ôÚU Îð¹Ùæ ÁæÚUè ÚU¹ð´ ¥ÍæüÌ ¥ÂÙð ÜÿØ ÂÚU ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´Ð ãæÚU Ù ×æÙð´, €UØô´ç·¤ ·¤æ× ·¤ÚUÙð âð ¥æÂ·¤ô ©gðàØ ·¤è Âýæç# ãôÌè ãñ ¥õÚU ÁèßÙ ·¤æ ¹æÜèÂÙ ÎêÚU ãôÌæ ãñÐ ÖÜð ãè ÁèßÙ ×ð´ ç·¤ÌÙè Öè ·¤çÆÙæ§ü €UØô´ Ù ¥æ°, çÁ™ææâæ ¥õÚU ©ˆâæã ÕÙæ° ÚU¹ð´Ð ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´, ÜÿØ ã×ðàææ ¥æÂ·Ô¤ Âæâ ãôÌð ãñ´ çÁ‹ãð´ ÂæÙð ·Ô¤ çÜ° ÂýØæâ ¥æÂ ·¤Öè Öè àæéM¤ ·¤ÚU â·¤Ìð ãñ´Ð

PLEASURE IS ALL MINE

Social resistance, the last resort

Shah Husain Imam
MEATY One-Liners 11 /f author Ken Alstad said: JL J- "Never approach a bull from the front, a horse from the rear or a fool from any direction." But a gyan papi (knowledgeable sinner, or an informed person) posing as uninformed should perhaps be approached from all directions whatever the harm done to the one taking issue with them. For, that is all freedom of press or the right to know is all about.
In Finance Minister A.M.A. Muhith's shrinking universe, the stock exchange scandal and now the Sonali Bank-Hall-Mark scam have been the handiworks of dushtoo lok (notorious people) and the media. Find a scapegoat for every act of misgovernance!
The latest spin to his narrative on Hall-Mark loan corruption enacted through involvement of by far the largest chain of bank officials is the finance minister maintaining, had the media not divulged it, the entire sum of over Tk.3,500 crore could have been recovered. But now the government would have to be content with 50% recovery.
There can be three deductions from what the finance minister says: One, Sonali Bank, the Bangladesh Bank and the banking division of the finance ministry were in the know of things and that they were biding time to pounce on the culprits. Is this credible even to an infantile? Assuming that it happened that way, they are clearly guilty of not nipping it in the bud. Two, if they had known it and yet not acted on available information, then they were party to it and those on the sidelines virtually abetting in the crime. Three, they would have swept the corruption spiral under the carpet, if they could.
That they have been denied that opportunity through the whistle-blowing by newspapers goes only to the credit of the media.
Jatiya Sangsad Speaker Abdul Hamid warns MPs against reckless comments in view of the addition of a designated children's corner to the visitors' gallery in the House. Our children are going to see firsthand how the parliament works. Seeing is believing, MPs beware! Whereas they need to imbibe the right messages from the JS as future leaders of the country, if they are fed on a diet of bad mouthing, as greenhorns they will be a generation of lost innocence.
If, however, we have to depend on children's presence in parliament to ensure sobriety of the MPs' behaviour, then we stand on a very tenuous ground as far as propriety of parliamentary practices goes.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in parliament on Wednesday blamed inept public administration and weaknesses and irregularities in financial management for overall bad governance. She is very much right. But isn't the administration headed by her and as such she has to take the responsibility for the misgovernance? Should she discover that something is seriously wrong in public administration and financial management into the fourth year of her tenure, where goes her Din Badal agenda?
The ruling party has failed people, so has the opposition. In a context where the whole country is critical of the both, the question is who is in charge?
As the government runs rudderless, society gets fragmented and factionalised, and is, therefore, pulling in different directions without any purpose except coterie self-aggrandisement. Vandalism and violence have become the order of the day as these are effective means to having demands met. When a road accident takes place or a rumour spreads about it or feuding breaks out, be they students, or garment workers, or transport operators, they would wreak havoc on the street, smash or torch vehicles or block traffic, making people suffer for no fault of their own. People are the boxing sack.
Picture the helpless children and women caught in a car smashing orgy, they are panicked victims to the rule of jungles. Shame on us.
Rule of law is simply not working for a host of reasons we know all too well. While the civil society including various rights activists groups organise demonstrations and form human chains to protest a plethora of excesses committed by law enforcement agencies and gender violence they are curiously silent over the phenomenal rise in vandalism and street violence at the slightest of provocations.
Where the government, opposition and the institutions fail, social resistance is the bulwark of the last resort against spiraling street violence. Who but the civil society can lead such social resistance duly backed up by volunteering neighbourhood committees? They may have the advantage of moral strength to galvanise people around their cause, but they can only work effectively under some protective umbrella of a composite apolitical law and order force.
Citizens' committees offer the best line of defence in a society of decaying values.
The writer is Associate Editor, The Daily Star. E-mail: husain.imam@thedailystar.net