Jalil and The Mystery of the Invisible
Trump
Card
When
Abdul Jalil, the Awami League (AL) secretary general, prophesied
the fall of government by April 30, it attracted much public
attention, and in every way, had given birth to a widespread
rumour. Jalil had more at his disposal; and in the run up to
the deadline, the beleaguered leader, with his Nostradamus-esque
zeal, introduced a new element to this already soured saga.
"We have the trump card, and it will be used in due time,"
he said.
But
April 30 passed off peacefully, without the fall of the government
and with trump cards being played on the boards.
But
by creating such a hoopla out of practically nothing, how much
damage has he done to his party and, more importantly, to our
political culture?
Ahmede
Hussain
Bangladeshi
politics is no stranger to loose talk. The AL leaders are not
immune to it either. The most illustrious one dates back to
the year 1986. In a public meeting in Chittagong, the AL supremo
Sheikh Hasina termed those who were planning to take part in
the general elections called by Ershad's regime as <>Jatya
Beyman (National Traitors). Days after that, for reasons best
known to her, Sheikh Hasina declared her candidature for the
elections. The AL and few other left parties' participation
gave legitimacy to Ershad's autocratic rule.
Abdul Jalil's prediction came at a moment, when,
Awami League, as an opposition party, was in tatters. Persecution
by the police and government-backed goons, coupled with a leadership
crisis in the half a century old organisation, had left the
general workers disillusioned and disenchanted.
The April 30 deadline was primarily targeted
at these grassroots level Awami-men who felt betrayed and battered
by the party's failure to organise any anti-government movement.
But, as the deadline fell flat and with the AL MP's planning
to join the parliament again, these general supporters are being
left in the cold again.
However bombastic he might have sounded then,
Jalil had his own game plan. Rumours were abuzz about a significant
number of BNP MPs' plan to resign from the parliament to join
Dr Badruddoza Chowdhury's Alternative Stream. But that rumour
did not become reality; Jalil banked on that and this incident
itself questions Jalil's prudence and foresight as a politician.
Bangladeshi
politics is no stranger to loose talk. The AL leaders are not
immune to it either. The most illustrious one dates back to
the year 1986. In a public meeting in Chittagong, the AL supremo
Sheikh Hasina termed those who were planning to take part in
the general elections called by Ershad's regime as Jatya
Beyman (National Traitors). Days after that, for reasons
best known to her, Sheikh Hasina declared her candidature for
the elections. The AL and few other left parties' participation
gave legitimacy to Ershad's autocratic rule.
Abdul Jalil's prediction came at a moment, when,
Awami League, as an opposition party, was in tatters. Persecution
by the police and government-backed goons, coupled with a leadership
crisis in the half a century old organisation, had left the
general workers disillusioned and disenchanted.
The April 30 deadline was primarily targeted
at these grassroots level Awami-men who felt betrayed and battered
by the party's failure to organise any anti-government movement.
But, as the deadline fell flat and with the AL MP's planning
to join the parliament again, these general supporters are being
left in the cold again.
However bombastic he might have sounded then,
Jalil had his own game plan. Rumours were abuzz about a significant
number of BNP MPs' plan to resign from the parliament to join
Dr Badruddoza Chowdhury's Alternative Stream. But that rumour
did not become reality; Jalil banked on that and this incident
itself questions Jalil's prudence and foresight as a politician.
The government, in its turn, reacted to the
AL general secretary's comments with extreme paranoia and sheer
arrogance. Instead of handling the issue politically, the Four-party
Alliance resorted to an unprecedented double standard. While
warding off the threat in public, in practice, the government
indiscriminately detained general people in the name of national
security.
Even the prime minister could not spare herself
from the mass hysteria that had grasped the ruling party for
months. When all the national dailies ran stories of human rights
abuses by the goons belonging to the BNP, Khaleda Zia defended
her party's anti-people stand by calling it "a necessary
step to maintain law and order". "Mass arrest is needed
to foil conspiracy," she told her party MPs while mindless
arrests kept going on.
"The government has taken necessary steps
to ensure security of people's lives and property as it is responsible
for that," she said on April 25. While all the major dailies
were littered with news of police arrests of innocent citizens,
the PM defended her anti-people posture by saying, "The
government has taken the measure on the basis of some specific
information and documents that indicate a conspiracy is on against
it."
Khaleda Zia, however, has never shared such
"specific information and documents" with the independent
press, which has made people suspicious about their existence.
A virtual curfew was imposed on the streets
around Hawa Bhaban when the main opposition tried to gherao
it by terming it the centre of unbridled corruption in the country.
It is quite turbid to the general people as to why the government
reacted to the opposition deadline with such brutality.
People have lost faith in the politicians long
ago. Jalil's failed prediction will add to a long-standing popular
belief that every politician around is a liar and power monger,
unless proven otherwise.