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Chintito

Carried Away by Lessons in Class

Chintito

We have a lot to learn from the greats in history. But then that is why they from the olden times are greats and some of us are greats in the making.

Only a few days ago the long-standing Mayor of Chittagong City Corporation Mohiuddin Shaheb, quite naturally after losing to his protégé, filed a case claiming that the winning candidate Manzur Shaheb was fined some 13 lakh Taka in a default case. Okay! That is about the class we have in most constituencies. But Choto Bhaijan failed the nation right at the beginning of his tenure by straight away not denying the very serious allegation, which if proven right, may cost him his chair, and instead he resorted to beating about the bush; that perhaps in going to the court Mohiuddin Shaheb has some ulterior motive.

It goes without saying that his political rival in the just-concluded elections is more likely to be after his tail than trying to kiss his hand. Even he as the new Mayor announced after taking over office, and rightfully so, that he would look into all corruptions that have taken place in the past, and for the most part that is his opponent in the polls. So no love lost there either.

What Manzur Shaheb should have said to allay fears about his authenticity, about which we have no reason to be sceptic, is that 'There is absolutely no truth in the accusation that I have been fined any amount ever for any wrong doing whatsoever.'

We must speak with a straight tongue, not forked as per usage by Red Indians. We must deny an allegation if it is not true, and we must admit it and bow out of holding public office. That is the practice in advanced democracies.

In the United States, when a person of public responsibility is charged with foshti-noshti, he gracefully admits his guilt, apologises to his family, and leaves office. In Bangladesh, someone similarly charged would give a broadcast statement that the allegation has been framed to demean him politically, whatever that means. Sadly, much of the media would give that load of crap sufficient wide coverage to give him a stand that would obscure the main events. And so the truth is never known, or even if known by the learned public, he would escape punitive measures because he would not go voluntarily. Mysteriously, the prosecution would not have 'enough' papers to prove that he made millions by sin when the world can see that he owns empires of this and that made from his fulltime job of working as a government officer, or a politician of fixed income.

When someone is accused of a wrongdoing, that person, instead of denying will create a smoke screen by announcing that the accuser does not like him, or that he has an agenda, a sinister motive. Of course he has. But he has not asked you to commit the wrong. But you have. And yet you deny. You buy time. The judicial process is so long that we have deserved the introduction of druto adalat. You get away with murder.

We were talking about class in political mudslinging, if that is possible. These glorious insults are doing their round on the Net, and so I began to wonder why we cannot bring such Art in our politics. The only piece of artwork entailed in our politicking is done on the walls that do not belong to the painters, who do much of the work in the darkness of the night. Anyway, here are a few samplers of panache in human relationship that did not go well:

"He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire”, said Winston Churchill

"I have never killed a man, but I have read many obituaries with great pleasure", uttered Clarence Darrow.

Oscar Wilde is quoted as saying, "He has no enemies, but is intensely disliked by his friends".

"He has never been known to use a word that might send a reader to the dictionary", mentioned William Faulkner about Ernest Hemingway.

"I didn't attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying I approved of it", declared Mark Twain.

Groucho Marx was sarcastic: "I've had a perfectly wonderful evening. But this wasn't it."

This one from Oscar Wilde is wild: "Some cause happiness wherever they go; others, whenever they go."

"I feel so miserable without you; it's almost like having you here", Stephen Bishop is quoted as saying.

"I am enclosing two tickets to the first night of my new play; bring a friend.... if you have one,” said George Bernard Shaw to Winston Churchill. "Cannot possibly attend first night, will attend second ... if there is one" was Winston Churchill's response.

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