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CROSS TALK

Ershad keeps going, and going and going

Mohammad Badrul Ahsan
A chameleon can change its colour in as little as 20 seconds, but those who have followed Hussein Muhammad Ershad lately know he does it faster. He was in many minds over the tenth parliamentary election. First he wanted to boycott it because, he said, people would spit on him if he didn't. Afterwards he about-faced and decided to go for the election as if people had suddenly gone dry in their mouths. He
changed his mind again and threatened to kill himself if anybody forced that election on him. He also warned that he was sleeping with two loaded revolvers stashed under his pillow. Then one fateful night Ershad meekly boarded a car sent to fetch him, and disappeared behind the Iron Curtain of a military hospital, leaving a bad taste in everybody's mouth.
That wasn't the end
of him. After the election he emerged from his hibernation, his rambling mind evermore active but disoriented. Many of us will remember the Energizer battery commercial that was popular back in the 1990s. A pink toy bunny with sunglasses and blue slippers goes on beating a drum, the idea being the battery never dies on it. Like that bunny, Ershad keeps going, and going and going.
In his interview with a vernacular daily last Friday, the former military strongman spilled more beans. He said he would have been branded as a collaborator had he participated in the election, as if he didn't! He confided his party's future looked gloomy and that it embarrasses him to sit in the parliament next to his wife, who occupies the opposition leader's seat.
Ershad then talked about threat on his life and his disappointments over wife and party. He confessed he wasn't too happy about the cabinet positions given to some of his party colleagues. He moaned and groaned about how they disregarded his wishes, hurting the party image by accepting those positions. But he failed to explain why he himself was clinging to the position offered him as prime minister's special emissary. People wonder why he wrote to thank the prime minister for an appointment if he so grudgingly accepted it!
In the midst of these petty talks, he also said something profound. Late in life he has realised he was successful as the chief of army and politics has been a wrong choice for him. We don’t know how his advisors advised him, but his critics have always tried to instill that good sense in him. They have repeatedly urged him not to overstay the welcome and retire before people got tired of him.
The old adage says that a man shouldn't be judged until he's dead. Human life is written with the invisible ink, which becomes visible only if the paper is heated. Ershad is only beginning to see his mistakes now that the heat is turning up on him. He will eventually see that people aren’t convinced of his role in the last election no matter what he thinks.
It's an irony that Ershad's life should come to this when the only thing in his control is his wishful thinking. By his own confession, his wife has disobeyed him, his colleagues have ignored him and his party went to the polls and joined the government against his will. He himself is constrained to serve a position hesitantly. Yet the Energizer Bunny refuses to quit. He has threatened to expel those party leaders who didn't heed his instructions. He expressed hope to personally dish out
party nominations forthe next election.
Last Sunday he contradicted himself again, and said the opposite of what he had said in the interview two days ago. He told an audience in Kurigram that the election on January 5 was duly held and he saw no chance of a midterm election. Earlier he had argued in his interview that the same election had failed to meet popular expectations and a proper election should be held within a year or two.
These are the signs of a deranged mind going back and forth like a shuttle in a loom. But what he has been weaving in this shooting motion is a terrible tapestry of selfdenigration. Ershad has diminished himself in his miserable attempt of self-aggrandisement.
Now that his alleged involvement in the murder of Major General Manzur is being openly discussed, and his grip on the party is faltering since his wife stole his thunder, Ershad looks awfully shriveled. Shorn of authority, charisma and credibility, destiny is already avenging itself upon this man. It has been reading him his Miranda loud. He has the right to remain silent and anything he says will be used against him in the court of history. Each day brings him closer to being no more than a comic relief for this nation.
The writer is Editor, First News and an opinion writer for The Daily Star.
Email: badrull51@yahoo.com