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PLEASURE IS All. MINE

Journey without destination

Shah Husain Imam
Two reactive comments by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Foreign Minister H. M. Mahmud Ali, respectively, may have provided clues to the working of the government's mind. The PM's remark came with a touch of self-effacing candour and the FM's smacked of diplomatic finesse (read parrying, if you like).
The PM whilst responding to a journalist's pointer to the sweeping win by BNP-loyalists in the Bar Council election said: "In the opposition we had our time of wins." This may be taken to imply that incumbency is not quite an election winner.
The foreign minister for his part was confronted with a query from Canadian High Commissioner in Dhaka Ms. Heather Cruden on whether the government has plans to start a dialogue with the BNP anytime soon. Unfazed, the minister replied: "Like other societies Bangladesh has its own ways of maintaining equilibrium at the societal, state and people's levels. We have our own development trajectory which may not necessarily be in accord with others'. When a country faces terrorism, there is no option but to contain it."
The prime minister is in a continuing incumbency cycle; her first term ended on an anti-incumbency note which was not helped any by the exclusionary January 5 election. The Election Commission (EC) came bruised from the conduct of national election and got used to scripting a face-saver tally for the ruling party in the upazila polls, an impression that stripped away at the reputation of the EC built since 1991.
If this is the foretaste of things to come
then the EC can rest assured that it will be under pressure from the executive to milk electoral victories to the ruling party. A demand for reconstitution of the EC is palpably building up. One would be surprised if this doesn't figure subsequently as part of rebuilding the elective process along credible lines.
Into second term, five-years of 'assured power' is like a honeycomb attracting beelines for favour hunts. Vested quarters are lolling in the new lease of life with a huge appetite for perpetuation of power and amassing wealth. Conflicts of interest are on the rise with government functionaries doubling as business partners. Although the government began by placing some erstwhile ministers under the anti-corruption scanner, the move may end up being palliative rather than curative.
Coming to the foreign minister's recital of government's resolve to contain terrorism, there have been some new developments. The ruling party's capacity to fend off terror-
ism is historically proven and this reputation has been acquired not through any disconnect with religious sentiments of the people. It has its own kind of rapport with the Islamist constituency that strictly secularist elements are wary of.
A value addition to AL's strength has come from unexpected quarters - Jamaat-e-Islami (JI). The BNP finds a competitor within its extended fold in JI which has trounced JP as a third factor. To plumb deeper, significant wins in the upazila polls may have freed it from its depressive phase. One would have thought they have emerged in a soberer state from the electoral experience. Hopefully, its feel of popularity and absorption in local government institution will make it think twice before acting irresponsibly. One would be surprised if Jamaat-Shibir combine continues with any of those violent campaigns we saw mounted by it during two months prior to January 5 elections.
On a broader plane, our present seems mortgaged to the past and the future is
obscured by the present The tragedy is that even after 43 years of independence we carry a heavy baggage of past, full of conflicting emotions. These are holding us back from striding into the future, confident and heads held high with passports flashed as a badge of honour restored to its original glory of 1971.
Even President Paul Kagame of historically troubled Rwanda could say: "Twenty years ago Rwanda had no future, only a past. Today, we have a reason to celebrate the normal moments of life, that are easy for others to take for granted.”
He was alluding to the genocide prior to 1994 that finished off a million, mostly Tutsis and some moderate Hutus. If tribes like Hutus and Tutsis can reconcile their differences for the sake of Rwanda why can't our two major established political parties shake hands under the blissful look of their compatriots?
Look at Singapore, since its separation from Malaysia in 1965, Lee Kuan Yew's personal grief knew no bounds. The city state had little or no natural resources, it imported water from Malaysia, and had limited defense capacity to survive.
Lee put the past firmly behind and focused on the future. He brought prosperity unheard of in the region. By the '80s under Lee's leadership with its mildly authoritarian style Singapore had a per capita income second only to Japan.
Likewise Taiwan, dismissed as a tiny island since its de facto political independence from the Chinese mainland as early as in 1945-49, has turned out to be an economic powerhouse. Despite Beijing's one-China policy its relationship with Taiwan is a fascinating two-way traffic.
Countries that put their past in place, and make use of their present unencumbered, can only look forward to a sustainable future.
The writer Is Associate Editor, The Dally Star. E-mail: husain.imam@thedailystar.net