Act of God, absentee mothers!
Act of God, absentee mothers!
Focus on the battle and not the war. One step at a time and then move on to the next stage -- is the golden rule to follow for the highly confusing and self-complicated political situation our leaders have pushed the country in. If we are to come out on the other side with a breakthrough that is the way to go.
Remember, Nelson Mandela's tale of coping with a rigorous gardening task he was assigned in Robben Island. Faced with a huge acreage to work on and a rigid timeline, a lesser man would have buckled under. Not Mandela! He struck up a plan to split the whole area into manageable parcels and worked at them one after another gaining in confidence as he went on. He completed the job before time.
It is not a nursery rhyme example one might lightheartedly set aside. It's worldly wise and problem solving, you could count on Nelson Mandela's words on that if he were alive. But his legacy of positive creativity instead of wicked improvisations we excel in is there to take leaf from.
Exactly, we have to begin at the latest which is this: Khaleda Zia's grief over her son's untimely death was the most pronounced as no mother can countenance the demise of her child before her eyes. It was an act of God one has to reconcile with and she has done it with fortitude. As expected, Khaleda Zia has expressed her profound gratitude to all those who stood by her to share her grief and lessen her woes.
An act of God was followed by a note of providential coincidence in the public eye when Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina took the initiative of personally condoling to Khaleda Zia at her party office where she was billeted. But the sign said (the padlock at the gate) “this door is not to be used as an entrance or an exit,” a Gerald Hazzard quote conjuring up a stereotypical reality of Bangladesh politics. That was a mindless affront to PM as she was not given the common courtesy of being even received. And with it, a valuable opportunity was squandered to melt the ice between the two leaders. One can only hope the PM would attend the Qul as a mother just as she had dashed to be by Khaleda Zia's side to share the agony of a mother. Populist maybe, but the underlying human emotion is unmistakable. The lesson to take here though, is politics is too important a matter to be left to staffers!
Anyway, the whole point is, the people expect Khaleda Zia to now reflect an extension of her mourning over her son's death to share the grief of many families who have lost their near and dear ones, including those groaning in third degree burns and much more. Many households have lost their only earning members and have no money to bear treatment expenses of survivors. Has she uttered a sympathetic word for them? All she did was allege the ruling party's hand in the violence.
What is more horrific is that after the mourning spell, the BNP is fixated on ratcheting up oborodh in a lethal mix with hartal in an apparently do-or-die struggle.
BNP would argue that the cases lodged against Khaleda Zia as being accused of issuing directives (hukumer aashami) and taking of acting general secretary on remand have provoked them into a rigid position. But did they not say on the heels of mourning the death of Arafat that they will turn the grief into strength?
Yet, why continue with the oborodh which has already cost the economy Tk. 54,000 crore and makes it count a loss of Tk. 277 crore per day. Add to these material casualties, the famished daily wage earners and a body blow to education. Uncertainty hangs over some 14 lakh SSC examinees' fate while O and A level students have lost one full year. Be motherly to them as well.
The prime minister for her part has given a carte blanche to police to 'do whatever needed to stop violence and she would take responsibility for their actions.' This rhymes in with the backdrop of comments by BGB DG, IGP, social welfare minister and JSD lawmaker Mayeen Uddin Badal on use of force to quell disturbances. The town-criers' drums are beating full time, so beware.
Sadly, "Duty is what one expects from others, it is not what one does oneself," to quote Oscar Wilde. Both the current and former prime ministers should see themselves in the role of mothers of their people. Whoever makes a tactical retreat first will not be a loser, rather a gainer leading the charge of trouble-shooting.
Nature has been kind to us for a number of years, manifestly sparing us the usual visitation of its annual fury. Such an extraordinary stroke of luck is being replaced by a man-made political disaster now. What a tragic prospect to look at. So act here and now to roll it back to normality, the spice of life.
The writer is Associate Editor, The Daily Star.
E-mail: husain.imam@thedailystar.net