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KALEIDOSCOPE

Unfulfilled expectations

Syed Fattahul Aum
UPON completion of the incumbent government's four years in office, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, in her address to the
nation on Friday, has sought people's support for another term in the upcoming 10th Parliamentary election.
To justify her claim to a consecutive second term in office, she dwelt at length on her government's achievements during the last four years. Given her short speech, the list was rather long. And, of course, it all sounded hunky-dory.
Admittedly, the quantitative references she made of the revenue collection, budget size, allocation for the Annual Development Programme (ADP), remittance sent home by migrant workers, the amount of forex reserve, etc speak of something impressive. But is it not also the fact that those figures represent the cumulative sum of the progress in those sectors made over the years during the successive governments including the incumbent one?
The nation is not standing at the same point as it did, say, some 5,10 or 20 years ago. Such achievements were claimed during all the governments of the past regardless of their being elected or non-elected ones. With time, everything is growing in number — the population, the size of the budget, the volume of trade and commerce, and so are growing the transactions in the banks.
There is no doubt that the incumbent government has some achievements to credit. The attention given to agriculture under its able Agriculture Minister Motia Chowdhury has largely been behind the success in agriculture in terms of surplus food production. Similarly, Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid deserves credit for reaching the textbooks to the primary and secondary level students' doorstep and that, too, in time. The government's safety net programme has definitely benefited a section of the very marginally subsisting population. But is it not only expected of an
elected government to deliver according to its electoral promise?
Unfortunately, it has become the practice among all our governments to beat the drum for some things that are purely their routine tasks as a government.
But in her half-an-hour long speech the PM did not say a word about the prevailing political standoff between the main opposition alliance led by BNP and the rifling Awami League including the grand alliance it heads. Neither was there anything in her speech that could be interpreted as a hint to engage the opposition in a process of dialogue to get over the existing crisis. On the contrary, in her speech marking the fourth and penultimate year of her current term, she made no change in her characteristic style of coming down hard on the opposition. From holding it responsible for bringing the infamous 1 /11 to its agitation programmes and what she termed "subversive activities" along with Jamat-e-Islami in a bid to save the war criminals, to the comparisons she drew between the successes of her government to the lack
of it in the case of the previous BNP government and so on, she basically stuck to her characteristic style of opposition-bashing.
But in this election year, what the people were expecting was a critical self-assessment of her government's performance. People were certainly waiting to know from her about what the government has done in addressing sensitive issues like the secondary stock market in which thousands who invested their life-long savings had gone broke. Losing everything, some even committed suicide. Nothing has been done to bring the culprits involved in the scam to justice. Regrettably, the finance minister has dismissed those poor investors as mere speculators. The prime minister could at least hold out some hope to those hapless people. But she had nothing for them in the speech.
So went unaddressed the issue of Padma Bridge loan and the corruption allegation brought by World Bank and all the bad press that it received in the national and international media. The law and order situation that she claimed to be fine also
involved enforced disappearances like those of Chowdhury Alam, Elias Ali and others. Murder of journalist couple Sagar-Runi, the recent killing of Biswajit Das and the excesses being committed by the Awami League's student front, the Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL), etc also remained ignored.
Even if the government is oblivious, the people never forget. How so often the public, once they get the opportunity, have demonstrated that! The problem is that political parties, once in power, conveniently forget so many things.
The most important and nagging question that is haunting public mind at the moment is the government's latest stance on the issue of the election-time government and its form. Since her rhetoric-laden speech had all the features of one given on the election campaign trail, it was common expectation that she would at least say something about it. Particular mention may be made of the main opposition BNP's demand to hold the election under a neutral, non-partisan caretaker government.
But as there was nothing in the speech for the opposition to feel reassured that their demand would be heard, the nation is left wondering how the next general election is going to be held. Now the opposition is still rigid on its demand with the added threat that it would not only not participate, but resist any election under the incumbent government, if their demand is unmet. Doesn't it all give the public enough reason for concern? Is the country then inexorably heading towards anarchy?
The people were waiting eagerly to hear from the prime minister answers to such vital questions. They wanted to know what specifically her government was going to do to address these vital issues in the next one year of her government. In sum, the people were looking for a guideline, a roadmap, for the transition to the next government through a fair and peaceful poll in which all the major parties could participate. But their expectations have so far remained largely unfulfilled.
The writer Is Editor Science & Life, The Dally Star.
E-mail: sfalim@gmail.com