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Of sleazy politics and sick politicians

Brig Gen Shahedul Anam Khan ndc, psc (Retd)
infection called 'electic cure for it. Doctors say short; it gestates and di
WE do not have only sick politics but also sick politicians, who are having to be in that state on government diktat and may even have the pleasure of enjoying the bliss of an all paid up foreign trip in the name of treatment.
While we have no idea what the particular ailment that H.M. Ershad is suffering from, we have no doubt that the ruling party is in the grip of an incurable viral mitis' and we are unable to find a too that the life cycle of the virus is es in only three to four weeks. This
means that we could be free of it sometime after January 5. But the doctors also caution that such a viral attack may have a debilitating effect on our democracy and cause 'democratitis.'
Banter apart, we feel that all the pretenses by the so called election-time government of Sheikh Hasina, and all its shenanigans, are because of AL's desperate bid to win the next elections at any cost keeping the BNPoutofit.
And to this end all pretensions of democracy, freedom of expression etc, have been cast aside. The government's threshold of tolerance has been brought so low that it is unwilling to entertain a whimper let alone a loud expression of dissent. It is reminiscent of the days of the military dictators, the only difference being that the former used force to suppress nonconformist views. In recent times it is being suppressed in a veiled manner, either by causing dissenters to fall sick or persuading them to take leave outside the country.
Take the case of BNP and the forthcoming polls. While certainly the situation obtaining today is in no little degree the making of the BNP too, but as the party in power the AL has displayed little sincerity to make the BNP participate in the election. Political space for the opposition was constantly shrinking and in fact AL’s inflexible stand on the 15“' Amendment has ensured BNP's election boycott, something that many say was the AL strategy in the first place. The telephone talk, and the sham of a dialogue at Taranco's prodding, was to pull the wool over our eyes. The
public has seen through the trickery, and are waiting to see how much more of a laughingstock the government can make of itself.
The Ershad episode is as shoddy as politics can ever get. It is an irony that we are writing in defence of a person who was single-handedly responsible for the demise of democracy' in Bangladesh, who conjured up all the tricks to divide the polity and conduct sham elections in one of which he managed to 'persuade' the present prime minister and her party to participate. It validated the election but only fora while. But Sheikh Hasina went back on her promise to the nation not to participate in Ershad's charade of an election.
What we are witnessing now in respect of Ershad is a reenactment of 1986, of actions of an autocrat to lend credibility to a stage-managed election and to produce a loyal opposition in the parliament. One cannot conceive of a worse scenario than when an elected government resorts to ploys of an autocrat to perpetuate power. But the last act is even more reprehensible. Just because he demurred on election Ershad has been incarcerated in the hospital just a day before the last date of withdrawal of nomination, to prevent him from withdrawing his candidature and from communicating with the EC or his party men. And even the party spokesman, reportedly, was asked to shut up. Democracy indeed!
The forthcoming election has become a farce with more than 50% of candidates being elected unopposed. The prospect of a loyal opposition in Ershad has vanished.
The more and more dubious scheme the so-called multiparty government employs the more of the hideous face of its politics it reveals. If this is being done for the sake of democracy and for upholding the constitution then it is time to say that we do not want the kind of politics which demeans the constitution and subverts democracy. There is nothing of'demos' in the 'kratos.' It is everything to do with partisan interest and continuing in power. This has set the most dangerous precedent. It has also revealed the scant respect of AL for public opinion and its disrespect for the rights of the people.
We have sick politicians but Ershad is not the only one who needs treatment.
The writer is Editor, Op-Ed and Defence & Strategic Affairs, The Daily Star.