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Politics of Egos

Farid Hossain
SHEIKH Hasina and her team are already in the field, ready to play the election game. Her bitter rival Begum Khaleda Zia is not even in the dressing room. While the prime minister has vowed to go ahead with the vote, if necessary, without the opposition BNP leader raising political tension, the voters are being forced to endure untold sufferings mainly due to the waves of hartals called by the 18-party alliance led by Begum Zia. The political deadlock over the parliamentary elections, likely to be held in the first week of January, has led to violence that has left more than 30 people dead in just over two weeks.
A Bengali saying goes: One can't clap with one hand. It's true with the two most powerful women in today's Bangladesh. Surely, there are two sides of the story and both of them have to take the blame for leading our politics to a disaster threatening democracy for which they fought together over two decades ago.
Khaleda's game: She and allies are convinced that the upcoming election will be free and fair only if it is held under the supervision of a neutral non-partisan caretaker administration, which had been a constitutional provision until its abolishment in 2010 by the parliament
schedule is announced. She has been crisscrossing the country using her official programmes also to campaign for her party. Her Awami League party has opened the shop to sell election nomination forms to aspiring candidates. The first form has been collected on her behalf by the party's general secretary Syed Ashraful Islam. Hasina will contest from Gopalganj-3 constituency.
Hasina is also going ahead with her plan to form what she says a national government comprising members from all the political parties which have representation in the parliament, including Khaleda's Bangladesh Nationalist Party. BNP have refused to be on board.
Hasina does not mind. After her historic telephone conversation with Khaleda crashed before it could lead to a crisis-resolving dialogue, Hasina seems determined to play the election game without her arch rival forcing her out of the field.
Khaleda's ineffective and unpopular hartals can't stop Hasina from executing her plan. Hasina can be stopped only if Khaleda can cause a mass upsurge, which seems to be unlikely.
What next? The days ahead will definitely witnesses more chaos and violence. Judging by what has already happened, the nation braces for more bloodletting paying the price for a venomous power game being played by the two ladies.
Here is a possible scenario: Hasina forces through the polls amid a Khaleda boycott and wins the one-sided game. In doing so, she toughens her crackdown on the opposition even putting Khleda behind the bar or under house arrest. That Khaleda can be arrested and face charges same as brought against her party's leaders such as Moudud and MK Anwar has been made public by Information Minister Hasanul Huq Inu and State Minister for Law Qamrul Islam in their speeches on the first day of the 84-hour hartal.
Not that Hasina is unaware that an election boycotted by the main
heavily dominated by Hasina's ruling alliance. She has vowed to boycott and resist the election if it is overseen by Hasina's government.
In order to force Hasina to bow to her demand Khaleda has resorted to the age-old tactic of staging one hartal after another so that the government machinery gets weak and exhausted and then leave power.
So far, Khaleda's method has failed to work. Instead of hurting the government the hartals are tormenting all sections of the society, from a rickshaw driver to a wealthy industrialist, from a school student to a transport worker. Hartals have shown how a still-respected leader can incur public disgust because of resorting to unpopular political tactics.
In response to unpopular hartals the government has hardened its stance and cracked down on the opposition arresting some top leaders like Moudud Ahmed and MK Anwar and raiding houses of many others. Khaleda's house and office in Gulshan have been put under a high security net. Confined to her house she is unable to meet with her political colleagues, most of them have gone into hiding. This has left the playground entirely to the control ofHasina.
Hasina's game: With Khaleda caught in the hartal trap, the prime minister has the field all to herself. She has launched the election campaign long before the
photo: palash khan opposition creates more problems for her than resolving any. She knows that she should not be tempted to hold a 15th February-like election making bitter a triumph Khaleda hated to taste in 1996. At the same time Hasina has now reached a stage where the possibility of a compromise with the opposition is slipping away with every passing day.
Khaleda, on the other hand, thinks she will never be allowed to win an election held under Hasina's supervision. So, boycott is better than participation. Resistance is better than contesting. Even if she fails to resist the vote, Khaleda would like to live for another day.
Both the ladies are wrong. In their drive to outrun each other they have distanced themselves from the people to whom they may still be popular but surely not as respected as before.
Hasina must understand that a victory in an election without Khaleda's participation may satisfy her ego for a while, but makes her a loser in the long term. Khaleda too should realize that her strikes are compounding only the public sufferings, not really sending the cause of democracy.
Hasina and Khaleda will do a great service to the nation if they leave their egos and become really bold to make big concessions. They should know what those concessions can be.
The writer is former Bureau Chief of AP, Bangladesh.