Projection politics

OVER the last few decades, Bangladesh has developed some unique forms of political culture, which have not only retarded social and economic developments as expected but also have driven the whole nations towards backwardness. "Projection" is one of the conspicuous political traits practiced in Bangladesh.
In social science, "projection" is used to denote a source of prejudice and discrimination in a multi-racial society. Many people have personal traits that they consider undesirable. They wish to rid themselves of those traits, but they cannot always do it directly either because they find the effort too difficult or because they are unable to admit to themselves that they possess those traits.
They may relieve their tension by attributing the unwanted traits to others, often members of another group. This makes it possible for them to reject and condemn the traits without rejecting and condemning themselves. Since the emotional pressures underlying projection can be very intense, it is difficult to counter them with rational arguments.
An example of projection often cited by many social scientists is the white attitude toward black sexuality in the United States. Historically, many whites saw blacks as extremely promiscuous and uninhibited in their sexual relations, and there was much concern about protecting white women from sexual attacks by black men. Actually, white men enjoyed virtually unlimited sexual access to black women, particularly slaves.
White society, however, regarded overt sexuality as unacceptable, and it is likely that white men felt some guilt about their sexual desires and adventures. To alleviate their guilt, they projected their own lust and sexuality onto black mena much easier course than admitting the discrepancy between their own values and their behaviour.
We often find a similar pattern in Bangladesh politics. The mainstream political parties spend much of their time and energy projecting their political opponents with various negative connotations and labels, but unfortunately they themselves are the best examples of those labels. When the leaders of a political alliance, for example, label their political opponents with various negative images such as corrupted, looters, gangs, violent cadres, vote-thieves etc., all these labels apply to the projectors too. They cannot, in reality, escape from those negative images.
The purpose of projection politics is clear: first, they want to erase their guilt by projecting others in a similar fashion. Secondly, they want to divert people's attention from their own faults to their political opponents'. Finally, when the leaders do not have much to say about their achievements and future vision of progress, they indulge in projection politics.
Though some political leadersthe most corrupted bunch of individualsattack their opponents with the same traits that they already have and thereby feel relief from their guilt, they cannot hide themselves from conscious people. They only make themselves laughable and ridiculous.
The practice of projection gradually becomes an uncontested norm, and political opponents gradually turn into political enemies. The normalisation of this deviant practice turns the nation towards hatred, division, concoction of lies, silly-mentality, and deterioration of self-esteem. The political leaders can, therefore, be easily used as trump-cards by the imperialist foreign powers.
Surprisingly, some political traits are so normalised and embedded in the mainstream political parties and its supporters that problematising those traits is sometimes regarded as abnormal. Bangladesh politics is unfortunately witnessing a resurgence of various dirty practice,s including projection politics, before the general election.

Dr. M. Saidul Islam is a Visiting Assistant Professor (Sociology) at the College of William and Mary (University), Virginia, USA. He can be reached at: [email protected]