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The strategy of intimidation may no longer be working
Traffic is always a little light on Saturday mornings with schools, universities and most offices being closed. Yesterday morning, however, the streets were emptier than usual. Strategic roads were cordoned off and the presence of police at numerous points was eerily similar to the days of political confrontation of the past.
People have been apprehensive of what would happen on December 10 ever since BNP announced it would hold its rally in Dhaka on that day, and indicated that it would be the biggest one so far. But the ruling party’s aggressive suppression of opposition party members in all the other rallies and pre-rallies (including the killing of an activist by police firing on December 7) and BNP’s apparent determination to carry on no matter what repercussions they face – all this has led to the fear that Dhaka’s rally would spawn unprecedented violence. While no major incident of violence was reported when the rally was going on, the positioning of AL men in various points in the city ready to confront their opponents was a cause of worry.
Meanwhile, with two of its stalwarts BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir and standing committee member Mirza Abbas being sent to jail and hundreds of others already incarcerated, the BNP had enough fodder to create a real ruckus. In fact, seven BNP members of parliament announced their resignations from a parliament where they were “barred from speaking time and time again” according to BNP MP Rumeen Farhana, though this may not have been a wise strategy in the long run.
So far, whatever the ruling party has been doing is going in favour of the BNP. Indiscriminate arrests of hundreds of BNP members and supporters on the flimsiest or obviously false grounds, sending them to jail, attacking rallies, excessive police action on rally participants, engineering transport strikes wherever BNP rallies were due and checking mobile phones of people coming out on the streets before the Dhaka rally – these acts of unnecessary aggression have proved to be counterproductive to AL’s goal to prove BNP to be a weak and unpopular political force. Instead, it has revealed its own weakness of taking too many extreme steps to crush its opponents.
AL’s strategy towards the opposition may well have landed it into quicksand, one that it is finding increasingly difficult to come out of. The more repressive means it adopts to neutralise the BNP, the more sympathy the BNP gains. In a scene where people are feeling helpless because of the punishing cost of living and the growing mistrust in law enforcing agencies as well as the legal system, blaming the government is inevitable.
Not that the ruling party has not helped to create such resentment. With stories of corruption in all the crucial sectors doing the rounds – in banking, energy, education, health, law enforcement, pretty much everywhere one looks – people may find the BNP’s rhetoric about such issues, a little comforting. It may even make them forget the undemocratic regime of the military government of its founder Ziaur Rahman, the corruption during the Khaleda Zia-headed BNP governments, the institutionalised corruption of Hawa Bhaban orchestrated by Tareq Zia, the communal attacks after BNP’s 2001 win and worst of all, the horrific incidents of arson on the streets in 2014 with the assistance of Jamaat that took so many lives.
Bangladeshis have a short memory and the volume and consistency of catastrophe they face every day make them focus on present miseries rather than the ingloriousness of the past. Ordinary Bangladeshis are more concerned about what is happening to them now, especially why they must suffer such financial hardships and such paralysing fear from the protectors of law and order, when thousands of crores of taka are being looted by groups affiliated with the ruling party elite and the crimes of the politically connected go on unabated with total impunity.
The AL is therefore in an uncomfortable position of its own making. The year ahead looks uncertain, ominous and difficult for the ordinary citizen, as the economy is expected to continue to take hard hits and the politics of violence is expected to escalate around the national elections.
It is high time the AL abandoned the losing strategy of force, intimidation and politicisation of public institutions. While it focuses on bolstering the economy, it must stop the financial haemorrhaging carried on by political cronies. Local industries must have uninterrupted power. Efficient businesses must be supported. Loan defaulters have to be made accountable and be compelled to pay up. Food security has to be ensured. The police, election commission and legal system must be allowed to function independently, without influence or coercion.
By forgoing the strategy of violently suppressing its opponents and concentrating on supporting people in every way possible during the financial crisis, the AL can show itself to be a mature political party that is confident enough to compete and maybe even win, fair and square.
AL’s strategy towards the opposition may well have landed it into quicksand, one that it is finding increasingly difficult to come out of. The more repressive means it adopts to neutralise the BNP, the more sympathy the BNP gains.