Hourglass politics, coin toss election

It was late British playwright Harold Pinter who said to a friend that people often speak in order to hide or avoid what they really feel or think. When people of this country spoke on December 29, 2008, they handed a landslide victory to the grand alliance. If we were paying attention, we should know. They left unsaid much more than what they have said.
If we compare 2001 to 2008, the election results invoke the image of an hourglass. The two alliances are like two glass bulbs, one placed above the other connected by a narrow tube called election. In 2001 the top bulb was filled with popular goodwill, which ran into the bottom bulb during the five years of the 4-party alliance. In 2008, the hourglass has been inverted for a fresh countdown.
What the people haven't said though is that they have placed the grand alliance on the same pedestal where the 4-party alliance stood seven years ago. It's basically a depletion-repletion game. People withdraw support from one political group and give it to another, if, they believe, it can do a better job. When they flipped the hourglass last time, it sized up one alliance. This time when they flipped it again, they threatened to wipe out another.
So, this election has reaffirmed that people strike back when they have lost patience. In 2001, it was corruption, crime, nepotism and godfathers, which got their goat and they didn't hesitate to pull the plug on Awami League, giving a landslide to its opposition. Seven years later they have knocked the living daylights out of BNP, more or less, for the same reasons. Parties of the future should beware that if they are careless, it might happen again and again.
German cultural critic Walter Benjamin argues that there is no document of civilisation, which is not at the same time a document of barbarism. Likewise, there is no document of victory, which is not at the same time a document of defeat. There are lessons to learn for both alliances. The 4-party alliance, particularly BNP, needs to analyse its defeat in the coming months if it wishes to regain victory.
For the grand alliance, particularly Awami League, it's time for immediate caution. They need to protect their victory if they wish to avoid defeat. First thing first, their leader has made sweeping promises to sweep the election. It's important that she remembers and acts on those promises within the first six months of her swearing-in.
We hope that the prices of essential commodities will start falling soon, and the heads of the war criminals will start rolling as well. But the least common denominator of last two elections is that people hate corruption. More than anything, the voters rejected corrupt politicians of one party in 2001 and the corrupt politicians of another in 2008. While many corrupt politicians still got elected, most of the big names in corruption have been ditched.
In the next five years we don't expect the new government to right all the wrongs, but the least we expect is that it will be sincere about carrying the fight against corruption. While it will be required to keep its other commitments, it must also finish the trial of corruption suspects on both sides of the political divide, of those who are still locked up in jail and of those who are out on bail. It must strengthen the Anti-corruption Commission, giving it freedom to do its job.
And it has to be done quickly, before the landslide turns into mudslide. It must be done before godfathers start crowding the scene, before new monsters of corruption start raising their heads, and before new sons of old fathers and old sons of new fathers start smearing the hard-earned victory.
People won't mind if the price of rice comes down to twenty-five instead of fifteen. They will understand if all of the war criminals aren't tried. They will forget if the plan for having the underground railway is never implemented. They will also forgive if some of the overbridges are never started and finished.
But if this election is any hint, people will not tolerate another corruption binge. They will not tolerate it if the ministers wallow in ill-gotten money, if their children grow unwieldy and the country shoots again to the top of the TI list. People will be ready to forgive other shortcomings, but not another rerun of hit-and-run with public money.
Should these happen, the hourglass is going to flip again. People will even more ruthlessly empty the glass bulb they have so adoringly filled last Monday. It will be sad that elections will turn into a coin toss exercise. Tails we lose: a corrupt government loses re-election. Heads we win: a corrupt opposition returns to power.

Mohammad Badrul Ahsan is a columnist for The Daily Star.
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