Politics of mudslinging

One may smile and smile ... !Photo: Focus Bangla

THIS AL-led grand alliance government, elected with a massive mandate only about a year ago, and the BNP-led opposition in the parliament now look to be on a collision course dispelling all speculations and predictions to the contrary. The government and the opposition members are engaged in trading slander so fiercely in the parliament that another spell of boycott by the opposition looks imminent. BNP came out on the streets in Dhaka on February 18 protesting the renaming of the Zia International Airport. A grand rally at Paltan Maidan and a month-long campaign against the renaming of the airport is scheduled to be held next month.
These are ominous signs for the country. Many people had thought and still think that wisdom would dawn on Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Begum Khaleda Zia, who must have learnt lessons from what happened to them and their front-ranking party leaders following 1/11, and that they would work together sincerely to establish genuine democracy and rule of law in the country this time around.
After all, viewed in hindsight, it was the deep-seated animosity between the then BNP-Jamaat alliance government and the opposition, each trying to finish off the other, and particularly the clear intent on the part of the government to cling to power by any means fair or foul and to put in place a system of governance totally undemocratic in character, spawning corruption and crime including Islamist terrorism on a scale never seen before, which brought the country to the verge of a civil war and, ultimately, 1/11. Believe it or not, peace-loving people across the country, including the majority of the political parties, had heaved a sigh of relief and welcomed the new dispensation -- no matter what the detractors of 1/11 may be saying now.
It appears that neither Sheikh Hasina nor Begum Zia has learnt any lesson from the 1/11 experience. Had they done so, Begum Zia would not have said that the December election in 2008 had been state-managed to bring AL into power, the BNP-led opposition in the parliament would not have boycotted the parliament session for almost a year on the flimsy ground of front row seat allocation fracas, and Sheikh Hasina would have played a far more positive and constructive role than she has in the parliament and outside it. One might as well say that for these two powerful ladies in politics, democracy and rule of law have never been a priority issue. In fact, both have been mealy mouthed as and when they spoke of democracy and rule of law.
Government-opposition relation, to be precise, the AL-BNP relation, has always been bedeviled by mutual accusations and counter accusations of mistrust, noncooperation, vilification of political leaders , corruption, nepotism, ruining of the economy, undoing of what the other did before, etc.
Ever since we began experimenting with the parliamentary system of democracy since early nineties, when one party has been in power, the other party has invariably been in the opposition, with the ruling party trying its utmost to perpetuate its power by whittling down the opposition, and the opposition desperately trying to bring the government down by mass agitation on the streets in order to capture power. In this tussle for power between the two parties, democracy and rule of law and political stability has been the main casualty.
True to the political culture of these two parties, from the very day the present AL government was sworn in, leaders of its youth and student fronts have systematically gone about their business of loot and plunder by collecting tolls from markets and bus terminals, occupying halls of public universities and colleges with a view to controlling admissions in halls and faculties, and manipulating contracts of development works in ministries and other government offices by driving out legitimate contractors and snatching away tender boxes. They have been simply unstoppable.
There have also been reports of these political criminals raping girls and making videos of their sinful acts. Police simply watched as rule of law was being mauled. The prime minister only warned these criminals and promised to take stern action. But sadly, nobody has been apprehended and punished. There has also been a spree of naming and renaming of public buildings, factories, bridges, airports etc. The opposition, far from cooperating with the government, hardly missed an opportunity to question the legitimacy of this elected government, and to threaten the government with mass anti-government agitation on the streets. This is nothing new for us. We have been seeing this sort of politics for the last two decades. The question is: Can we not break with this ugly past and make a new beginning?
With regard to the politics of mudslinging and naming and renaming of public buildings, let me say in fairness to the AL that it was the BNP which initiated this culture of hatred and vilification of political leaders. It was Ziaur Rahman who banned the use of the name of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman on radio and television, and denied the iconic leader his rightful place in the history of this country. It was Ziaur Rahman who demonetised all currency notes with the picture of Bangabandhu embossed on them.
Let there be no doubt in the minds of anybody that without genuine democracy and rule of law we cannot pull this country out of poverty and think of graduating into a low middle income country status over the next three or four decades, no matter how many billions of dollars of aid we receive. Corruption and crime the two hydra-headed monsters will eat away all the development funds as they have done in the past. Posterity will not forgive the leaders of these two major political parties if they do not shun politics of mudslinging and hatred, and work hand in gloves to establish democracy and democratic culture in our politics.

Brig. Gen. Shamsuddin Ahmed (retd) is a former Military Secretary to the President.