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PLEASURE IS ALL MINE

For God's sake, rise to the occasion!

Shah Husain Imam
WITH the past haunting us and the present in a shambles, "the future ain't what it used to be," according to Yogi Berra, one of the most quoted personalities of mid Twentieth century United States of America. Another
quote from him is widely used in the contemporary world: "It ain't over 'til it's over."
Both the sayings are apt to describe our current political situation. First, our leaders are not constructing our future but doing everything to undermine it, so the future "ain't what it used to be." At the same time, they are going right down to the wire like a nail biting cricket match which "ain't over 'til it's over." The difference is there's no collateral damage from a fiercely fought cricket match. With politics, the fallout can be huge.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and opposition leader Khaleda Zia are fighting each other, all guns blazing. But in one significant aspect, they are united in their thoughts. Khaleda Zia has hinted at a "third force," meaning possibility of extra constitutional intrusion. Hasina too has warned of a repeat of 1/11.
The natural question to ask is: Since their realisation is the same what stops them translating their apprehension into remedial action?
But the way their minds work, they perhaps are fixated on the idea: "I will not relent, you will not either, so jolly well we hunker down to a distorted outcome instead of risking defeat at the polls."
Little wonder, the leaders have become a fair game for universal critiquing, not only at home but also abroad! World attention is assuredly transfixed on Bangladeshone way or the other. Economic "basket case" we are no more, but politically the basket looks
empty and hollow enough. This is a supreme irony in a country that had aspired for democracy, got one but now losing its way. That is a shame upon shame when we look around and see other nations struggling for a rudimentary democracy.
Two features are common to their ranting. First, they make a political bonfire of any occasion, trading salvoes against each other. Words completely irrelevant to the time and place or the plat-
form being used or indeed the audience addressed will be spewed out as though a masterstroke in political wit has been delivered. No sense of timing, level, proportion nor propriety! Secondly, the bad mouthing finds no parallel in any democracy in the world.
Some samples speak for themselves: Sheikh Hasina in a public meeting in Noakhali surprised many by taking a highly personalised dig at the opposition leader. She said: "I realise her plight; she only had passed in Urdu, Arithmetic and Bangla tests in her matriculation examination. So how could she have
gracefully accepted the fact that Bangladeshi boys and girls were coming out with flying colours in their academic life." Please, note this is a mellowed version of what she actually saidout of respect for the high position she holds and that of the leader of the opposition.
The opposition leader for her part, on the substantive issue of dialogue in the backdrop of AL general secretary saying talks were going on behind the scenes, made
an ill-advised and impolitic comment Said she: "She has no time for amusing gossip or pep talk." She flatly refused to have anything to do with Awami League unless it declares a caretaker framework for talks.
Only the other day, joint secretary AL Central Committee, Mahbubul Alam Hanif put out a threat to opposition leaders that they might meet the fate of Mirza Fakhrul Islam now in jail seeking bail without success.
On the other hand, BNP leaders never tire of reminding their AL counterparts if they don't restore caretaker system there will be a stampede as they scramble to flee
the country in hot haste with no time in hand.
When Sheikh Hasina floated an idea of 10 MPs from AL and equal number of MPs from the opposition forming an interim arrangement, presumably with the PM as its head, it was no-go from the moment she had uttered it because she was perceived to be part of it. But what stopped BNP matching her with its counter proposal? An opportunity lost, one would have thought.
If the terms of reference are predetermined and preconditions set to sitting for talks, then we are looking to a monologue and not a dialogue.
The important first step needs to be taken to start a dialogue here and now, in some form or the other. The urgency comes from the fact whether it's reversion to caretaker system or merchandising it in a different package, the process is going to be arduous. There are many difficult stages and bumps on the way of reaching a negotiated settlement. Previous experience suggests so.
The art is long and the time short. Management of time and splitting the whole process up into doable connective parts leading to fruition would take a lot of deliberation, political intelligence, patience and glass-with-care-kind of handling. There is certainly the national genius for it if only the political parties should care breaking out of their trenches holding up a white flag of peace disengaging them from a hard line political confrontation.
This is a national exigency they cannot turn a blind eye to anymore. If they fail to rise to the occasion, one may be impelled to hear the echo of what Gene Wolfe, an American science fiction and fantasy writer, said many years ago: “There is no limit to stupidity. Space itself is said to be bounded by its own curvature, but stupidity continues beyond infinity."
The writer Is Associate Editor, The Dally Star. E-mail: husain.lmam@thedailystar.net