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The mayor of Rajshahi need not be so overly defensive of himself or his party or even the government he is part of. When he threatens to take legal action against the very people in the Palli Bidyut Unnayan Sangram Parishad who have been making demands that can in no way be dismissed as pointless, he makes it fairly clear that the message coming out of Kansat for the past month or more is not being heard by the authorities. The death of four persons as a result of a fresh incident of violence in the area now puts new pressure on the government to prove that it is yet capable of doing its job. But when people like Mizanur Rahman Minu begin to blame others, notably Bikalpadhara Bangladesh, for what has just happened, it becomes evident once again that those who hold power today have yet to read the writing on the wall. As a matter of fact, they do realise that the wall is there, with all that writing on it. But they refuse to see it and still think, in an inexplicable way, that the problems they themselves create are actually the result of the politics of other men and organisations. And that is not all. There appear to be quite a good number of discordant voices being heard in the corridors of power these days, a sign of the drift that has now gathered greater speed than before. Even as Minu tried spotting a scapegoat for the Kansat tragedy in Bikalpadhara, the local lawmaker, again a BNP man, thought the Awami League was behind everything.
   Everything thus falls into a pattern, A few nights ago, in a television discussion, Communications Minister Najmul Huda clearly avoided responding to the very sensible questions that were being put to him by former law minister Abdul Matin Khasru and instead launched into doing things that were patently less than ministerial. He openly accused the Awami League of being behind the 21 August 2004 blasts at Gulistan that took the lives of more than twenty people, including its senior leader Ivy Rahman. Likewise, he was not at all embarrassed to inform the audience and the former law minister that the Awami League had been behind the 17 August 2005 explosions that his own government now says was carried out by men like Abdur Rahman. What has therefore been happening is the creation of a situation where a whole country has been taken for a ride, with ruling coalition parliamentarians as well as ministers truly expecting the nation to accept their words, which actually make a mockery of the exalted positions they hold, as universal truth. It is in such light that Mayor Minu’s outburst against the men who have been putting up some extremely genuine demands of late ought to be studied. If today the local people at Kansat have given out a call for an indefinite strike to protest against the doings of the local chapter of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (whose workers and leaders had no business setting their own programme there when they were very much aware of the plan earlier outlined by the leaders of the PBUSP), the reasons why they have resorted to such action must be thoroughly understood. Now that four individuals have lost their lives in the fresh outburst of violence, it becomes necessary for the government to go into some soul-searching of its own. There are reports about the local police in Shibganj trying to persuade the BNP to withdraw its own programme, to little avail. If that is the kind of arrogance politicians, simply because they happen to be in power, demonstrate, it is not hard to see why the country is in such a deep pit today.
   The imperative today is plain: the government must accept its own share of responsibility for everything that has been going wrong in Kansat. If, however, it is seen to act in a way similar to how the mayor of Rajshahi has been trying to paint the situation, it can only invite further trouble for itself.

Of angels and ministers

Minister Najmul Huda has been speaking of angels in relation to stamping out corruption at the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority. Exactly what angels will do in such a situation (and do not forget that angels are a pretty intangible affair) is difficult to see. Is the minister trying to tell us that he has thrown in the towel, that nothing of what he has done or can do will produce little in terms of results? If that is the case, the next question that we can legitimately send his and his prime minister’s way relates to whether he should be there holding the position of communications minister at all if his authority has become so circumscribed.
   Now, as to the matter of angels, there comes the fairly valid thought of whether in a land so infested with the devils of political, administrative and economic corruption, it will be possible to recruit the services of angels in our attempts to take life back to some semblance of normality. What if those angels are tired? Or what if they refuse to have anything to do with us? Besides, let us not forget that our clerics, those who practise Islam, keep reminding us that the Almighty intended for us to be His best creation. That being so, it should have been our job, or more specifically that of our government leaders, to do all those things we associate with a good, productive and satisfying life. Wherefore should we now, being the elitist side of creation, seek the power of angels in the matter of solving the many problems we face as a nation?
   One last point. If in Bangladesh we are really in need of angels to do our work for us, why have a government at all? In a country where individuals happen to take the credit for the minuscule good that rarely happens, and where responsibility for failure is generally laid at God’s door (He giveth and He taketh away, or our failures are His way of testing our iman, or faith), it is natural than men and women ill-equipped to carry out their responsibilities will invoke the Almighty’s name. That is a sign for us to know that we can expect nothing good to happen to us, or around us, on the watch of those who today hold political office.

It is a distinction of sorts, to be the cover story of the popular American weekly ‘Time’ magazine. A subject qualifies to be selected for this on the basis of topicality and importance. It can be a success story, a catastrophe or a combination of both. Bangladesh made it to the cover of ‘Time’ for things both good and bad. Even then, the right balance has not been struck, it seems. While some issues have been highlighted, others, equally important, are missing or have been underplayed.
   The issue that seems to have acted as the catalyst for the story is the recent campaign against the religious militants who had threatened to destabilise the state, through bomb and grenade attacks and unleashing suicide bombers. Foreign media had expressed concern about the rise of religious militancy in Bangladesh on several occasions in the past. Complacent with the certificate of being ‘a moderate Muslim country’, the Government pooh poohed the idea and dismissed it as either a figment of imagination or as a gross exaggeration. There was some justification in this denial. The majority of Bangladeshis are moderate Muslims, there is no doubt about that. But a fanatic minority, indoctrinated with militancy and equipped with and trained to use arms, can wreak havoc in the life of the majority. This truth came home to roost in a shocking way on 17 August this year. The simultaneous bombing, orchestrated and coordinated with clock-work precision, tore at the complacency of the government once for all. The enormity and gravity of the crisis were understood immediately. Criticisms and pressure from abroad also helped to create the sense of urgency. The government was suddenly faced with a crisis of credibility and also a challenge to its authority. The stigma of a ‘failed state’, denounced and kept at bay so long, stared in the face with a vengeance, it seemed.
   The government dithered for a while, forced by the compulsions of alliance politics, but finally took the plunge for the sake of survival. An all out campaign was launched, using all law enforcing and intelligence agencies to find out the dens of militants, siege arms and ammunition and nab their leaders. Spectacular successes were achieved in no time. The myth of invisibility and invincibility of the militants was shattered as one after another hide-outs were discovered with explosives, training manuals and propaganda materials. The number of militants arrested rose by the day. A fairly clear picture emerged about the network of the militant groups and their connections, both within and outside the country. But the two ‘big fish’ heading the militant organisations were still at large. When they were arrested last month, in quick succession, it made international news. Congratulations poured from well wishers and critics alike. Only the main opposition sniggered, alleging that it was all stage-managed. In the view of ‘Time’ magazine, the crack-down qualified Bangladesh to be the subject of a cover story. A much maligned country had at last something to show by way of outstanding achievement. The busting of the ‘Jangi’ network was nothing less than that, particularly at a time when the war against terror was not showing spectacular results any where else in the world. The ‘Time’ report said: Until the August bombings, however, Zia’s government had denied the presence of Islamic extremists in Bangladesh. Zia insists the government’s inaction was due to a lack of information. Zia made combating the insurgency the defining mission for Home Minister. This anti terrorism campaign has led to nearly 1000 arrests during the past eight months.’ Quoting a western diplomat after the crack-down the report says: ‘The nightmarish scenario that could have unhinged the country seems pretty remote.’ Time magazine obviously shares the optimism of the diplomat quoted above and it may not be wrong. But there is no scope for complacency over the recent successes in anti-militancy campaign. The network has been identified but not completely destroyed. Many important leaders have been arrested but many more are still at large. The danger is not yet over and the sense of urgency and seriousness demonstrated during the past few months cannot be lulled into a relaxed mode. The Time cover story fails to alert the government on this score. The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) has been more realistic and frank about the threat. In the recently published Report, ‘Bangladesh Politics: The campaign Against Terror’, the EIU has pointed out that the arrests made may be a setback for militancy but not the end of it. Suggesting that the roots of militancy being deeper and more widespread, the Report observed that it will take more determined efforts to render them ineffective. This assessment is much more balanced than the knee-jerk reaction of Time magazine. The weekly was justified to congratulate the government for the recent successes but at the same time should have warned of trouble ahead, unless the network is completely smashed. Moreover, the root causes of why militant organisations succeed in recruiting members from madrassa have to be highlighted, which the magazine completely ignored.
   Eulogising the government on its achievement in the anti-militancy campaign has also provided the occasion to Time to appreciate progress made by the country in several sectors. The striking turn around over the past decade in social development has been documented in Human Development Report of the UNDP. High scores made by Bangladesh in key barometers like infant mortality, child vaccination, employment of women, family planning, female literacy have been mentioned in the Report and referred to by Time in its cover story. Even the progress in the economic sector has been seen as a rising trend. ‘The economy is looking up , too. GDP has grown by at least 5% for there year running and the Asian Development Bank predicts that growth will hit 6.5% in 2006. Foreign Direct Investment rose from $ 138 million to $ 454 million in the first six months of last year compared to the some period of the previous year.’ The report is one-sided as it overlooks the plight of the poor who have become poorer because of steep rise in prices of essential consumer goods. The fertilizer and power crisis that have been continuing for months have been ignored. Economic growth that has been achieved cannot be sustained if these bottlenecks continue. The Asian Development Bank in its latest report has observed that political instability and conflict will adversely affect economic growth, meaning a lower rate of growth than predicted earlier.
   The most serious omission in the cover story therefore, has been the current political crisis which threatens to destabilise the country before the next general election. The demand for reforms in election procedure made by the opposition parties and the response of the government are crucial for the future of Bangladesh. The implications of the outcome of the dialogue between the government and opposition are no less serious than the activities of religious militants. Both impinge on the stability of the state. The Time report merely observes: ‘Democracy is strangled by a poisonous political war between Zia’s right-of-center Bangladesh National Party and the left leaning Awami League. Rejecting any notion of bi-partisanship, both parties seem to keep the nation perpetually on the verge of chaos alternating between state repression or crippling national strikes aimed at toppling the government, depending on who is in power.’ This is a correct assessment but fails to get to the bottom of the problem which is the issue of free, fair and impartial election. With the militant threat subdued, election politics has now come back to the centre stage. The future of social economic and democratic development now depends on the successful outcome of the dialogue between the two sides. The Time magazine’s cover story has not only remained silent on this but seems to have minimised its gravity. It tamely concludes: ‘Bangladesh may never truly leave behind this legacy of bloodshed, corruption and distrust. But in what was once one of the sorriest places on earth, there is now hope.’ When politics determines every aspect of life, this defeatist mentality about the political conflict is not only disappointing but unpractical. Hope of progress will always be there, because hope springs eternal in human breast, but without development in governance, hope has little chance of being materialised, at least in the life of the majority. And good governance depends on stable democratic political culture. Bangladesh will have to not only adjust with the legacy of the past, as has been suggested in the cover story, but also leave it behind. It is a legacy that has become a burden and a hurdle. A fresh start has to be made in the art of governing the country. Given the will and sincerity, this is possible and politics is the art of the possible. We can forget it to our peril.