Curbing political violence
ORDINARILY, violence means unjust or callous use of force or power. Till 1857 (the year of the Sepoy Mutiny), Bangalees were regarded as timid. By leading the Sepoy Mutiny, they proved that they were in no way inferior to any other Indian in courage and fortitude. Bangladeshis showed their indomitable courage under the leadership of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
Bangalees are basically peaceful and dislike violence. Because of political and economic restlessness they started changing since the 1960s, and at the fag end of the 1960s they saw political violence throughout the country.
This caused huge damage to public property and victimisation of a large number of non-political people, irrespective of religion. In fact, the steady growth of violence almost turned the country into a "failed state" before 1/11.
For the last 20 months, we have heard much about elimination of muscle power from politics. Both the CTG and the EC are striving hard to find some effective way to control political violence in the future.
However, to be reasonably successful in this venture, effective understanding and cooperation among the government, politicians and the common people are needed. The politicians should be fully convinced about the need to bring a reasonable level of honesty and integrity in their thinking and behaviour.
In a parliamentary democracy, political activists are needed to disseminate the ideas of political parties to the common people. These activists survive on the payment from the concerned party.
Such payment has to be collected from the people (not always people supporting the party). When these activists are not paid adequately and regularly, they have to resort to violent practices like extortion or robbery.
Due to easy availability of service from these activists some politicians mainly concentrate on using force in obtaining votes, and pay less attention to the welfare of the people. This results in damage to the image of the party, creates the wrong impression about democracy, and reduces respect for the government, which ultimately has an adverse effect on governmental efforts for accelerated development.
Political activists, because of strong support from their patrons, go for extortion in the name of the concerned leader or party. This changes their lifestyle and they go for ease, comfort and violence. In fact, they are the principal promoters of the trade in illegal firearms in the country. Needless to say, the ready availability of firearms results in deterioration of law and order.
Patronage of political activists by political leaders makes the job of law enforcing agencies extremely difficult, and compels them to accept all the blame for politically motivated crimes. In some cases, the police are forced to accept bribes to save themselves from the wrath of the party in power.
The CTG, instead of trying to solve the increasing trend of political violence, regularly advises the police to be more vigilant without giving proper attention to the implementation of suggested measures in the Police Reform Commission Report.
We do not expect that the return of democracy under an elected government will ensure a decrease in political violence. In fact, as the date for national election is drawing near, all the top Bangladeshi terrorists inside or outside the country are busy organising themselves to be used by the political leaders in the election.
It is learnt that immediately after the establishment of the CTG a large number of these terrorists took shelter in neighbouring countries, including India. It is not clear why the government doesn't conclude an extradition treaty with those countries to obtain necessary assistance for capturing the terrorists from the concerned countries. Needless to say, such a move by government will be welcomed by the people.
Hardly two months are left for the parliamentary election. Unless there is some sort of understanding between the government and the political parties, there is a strong possibility of an increase in political violence to an unacceptable level. This may affect the voting of minority communities and women voters. It may happen even in relaxed emergency.
To hold the parliamentary election credibly and peacefully, all-out efforts are necessary to maintain a peaceful atmosphere. We have to control the heinous activities of the terrorists as much as possible immediately before and after the election.
Comments