Love's labour's lost

IT goes to the AL's credit that it has been able to establish itself as a pro-people, secular and progressive political outfit. The public was never found wanting in passionately backing the AL throughout its chequered history. It had the unique privilege of drawing popular support which, in fact, sustained the party through the vicissitudes of time.
In the protracted movement against a scripted election contrived by the last BNP-Jamaat government, the people gave unswerving support to the AL. When, during the last interim government, corruption charges were leveled against political heavyweights, including the AL chief, the people refused to accept their bonafides and rallied round the party to save it from disintegration manipulated by the authority.
Notwithstanding the AL's chutzpah from time to time, it was always the people who came to the AL's rescue when it was in trouble. Thus, it can be seen that the public went into a sort of wedlock with the AL hoping that this party, given its composition and background, would be the one to care for the country's underdogs. For all the love invested and trust reposed in the party, what the people wanted in return was to see the AL as loving, caring and commiserating for the deprived and neglected in the society.
These modest hopes came crashing down once AL won a landslide in last election -- something produced by the people who, out of total alienation, turned their backs to the BNP-Jamaat tormentors of the AL. Not quite surprisingly, the AL gave a damn to public sentiment by insisting on becoming like its predecessor -- vengeful, venomous and vindictive. As a result, it seems to have put in jeopardy the equation the people painstakingly built up with the AL over the years. The matter has come full circle now, with the AL fraternity ruling the roost practically in all sectors of the polity.
In the meantime, the AL has cosily settled down with its loyal insiders and busied itself in dispensing favours. It has since jettisoned its pro-people image and socialist outlook. The AL ministers seem to be more expert than BNP's in hobnobbing with IMF/World Bank money lenders and rubbing shoulders with the westerners. Promised priorities, like producing an earning member for each family, have been put on the backburner, while considerations for the country's vast multitude shyly take a back seat amid competition for posh residences (even if they are to be built anew) and tax free cars. The poor? Well, they can wait.
The latest in the series of AL's gaffes is its cancellation of the lease allotment of Khaleda Zia's cantonment house. True, the BNP leader has been on the wrong side of morality by holding on to the controversially leased house, but the AL chief cannot wash her hands of similar immorality.
More than that, the timing of the cancellation was in bad taste. In the reason given, a subtle hint of compassion for the kith and kin of the slain BDR officers can be discerned. So the urgency accorded to the issue is dubious, even if the authority has a valid case. This is more so in a country suffering from pervasive fear and suspected sabotage, a country that seems to be cracking up with anarchy from within and pressure from without, and where there are so many other things to set right.
Obviously, amid inter-party bickering inside and outside the Parliament new tensions are brewing up, making the situation move volatile than before, as indicated by BNP men threatening movements aiming at the fall of the government. This means the return of politics to square one. Alas! After the election last year, we had thought of reaching the summit of our political transformation. There was euphoric complacency that we had re-made the political terrain. But no, we have only been punished like Sysiphus in Hades. Sysiphus had to push a huge boulder uphill, only to have it tumble down again. How long do we have to undergo that ordeal?

Brig ( retd) Hafiz is former DG of BIISS.