The crumbling of a monolith

Only months ago it was inconceivable that a monolith like Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) would be crumbling the way it is now doing. With most of its leaders either incarcerated or on the run, the party -- like a rudderless ship -- has gone adrift. There is nothing to which it could be anchored, as the party was seldom endowed with even a rudiment of idealism.
The seed of its disintegration was indeed contained in the way it came into being. Always and everywhere a political party based on sheer opportunism and expediency is destined to meet a similar fate.
In the wake of the 1975 putsch, General Ziaur Rahman, the eventual founder of the BNP, was its sole beneficiary, and after the countermove that followed he emerged as the "man of the hour" at one of the nation's defining moments. The country's destiny then lay in his hands, which alone could steer its course. The nation, already off-course, awaited a course correction when Zia chose to seize political power to give fresh dimension to an already complex situation.
It was at this juncture that the general was direly in need of a political base for staying in power. He proceeded in a meandering way, hopping from option to option, to finally cobble together an outfit of a disparate lot of politicians and political hopefuls drawn from the extreme left and far right, including the collaborators of 1971, who all were willing to cooperate with politics' new mascot on the basis of some quid pro quo.
In the absence of any binding glue of political ideology, except some rhetoric of Zia himself, he lured all who paid him fealty with the handsome largesse of political rehabilitation, ministerial berth, plum appointment, business opportunity, big contracts, and so on. The heterogeneous elements from the political wilderness who collected under Zia's umbrella duly obliged him, and helped to prop up the new political formation that suited both sides. Presto! The BNP was born almost without pain.
Although the BNP was imposed from the top, it goes to the credit of Zia and his successors for taking the party to the doorstep of the public. Later in elections -- even if smeared with possible shenanigans -- the BNP came off with flying colours, and had the distinction of ruling the country for most of its existence. But the snag remained as the BNP was looked upon as an officially patronised party by independent observers.
Moreover, being a party that was incubated in the isolation and safety of the cantonment, it couldn't harden enough for effective political activism; neither could it acquire the required resilience to face adversity or counter hostile situations. It never had to struggle, either for coming into existence or for sailing through the choppy waters of power politics.
So, it is no wonder it couldn't stand in the teeth of the storm. The BNP's colour bearers will no doubt be pained at the unceremonious demise of the party. Ironically, the BNP was on the verge of collapse just when it was at its peak during the party's last tenure of rule.
Emboldened by the party's spectacular success in the 2001 election, in which it secured two-thirds majority, its top operatives turned arrogant and went about plundering, and resorting to the criminalisation of politics on a scale never witnessed before. Its cup of sin was full to its brim before it started falling apart like a house of cards. That robbed the BNP of its moral authority, dislodging the party from the moral high ground it had held so far. Now, as it is left to lurch, there are few tears.
The BNP is now a comatose patient, held together on the life support of a few still sympathising with it while counting its last few breaths. Can it be resuscitated, or a new life breathed into it, is the question being asked. But, given the process of its birth, without the involvement of the public for whom it is meant, the BNP has since outlived its utility. It will, however, be an interesting experience to contemplate the country's future politics without the BNP in the political scene.
Politics has its stages of development, and it is mandatory to traverse each one. None of them can be skipped over. One is bound to be caught if that short-circuiting occurs. The public contacts, representation, and opinion are indispensable ingredients of political parties. If that chemistry is missing, it flies in the face of the public to whom the prospect, if any, of the party concerned is fore-doomed.
Brig ( retd) Hafiz is former DG of BIISS.