STRIKES IN BANGLADESH = WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION

Photo: Amran Hossain

The thought of going back to Dhaka has always brought with it a sense of excitement and anticipation. Seeing my mother, visiting relatives, spending time with old friends and just being back home is something I have looked forward to in the past. However, this year has been different. To start with, trying to fix dates has been harder than you would have thought. Every time I suggest a date, I am told that it might not be wise as there are general strikes (hartals) taking place. After a few weeks of procrastination, I thought I would bite the proverbial bullet and choose some dates and stick with them. Of course the minute I received confirmation of my flights I also received news that the most recent spate of hartals are to last eighty four hours and I might be arriving slap bang in the middle. So my enthusiasm for travelling back home has been quite substantially tempered by a combination of concern and frustration.
Living in the UK, we are no strangers to strikes. In fact just in October, University staff across the country staged a one day strike to protest low academic wages. However, the disruption was minimal and there was no violence of any kind. We have had postal strikes, fire fighters going on strike to dispute pension age changes, underground staff refusing to work due to low pay but apart from some inconvenience to the general public and disruption in certain services, it has not adversely affected the vast majority of the nation. It certainly has not been the case where people have found themselves forcibly been made to support these causes or fear for their safety if they happen to disagree.
Bangladesh on the other hand has given the concept of strikes a whole new meaning. Here the nation is held hostage to the demands of our political parties. Looking back on the last twenty odd years or so it really makes no difference who is in power and who happens to be in opposition. They seem almost interchangeable as hartals have become a permanent feature of our political climate.
What is astonishing is the hypocrisy that surrounds these hartals. Both parties are guilty of staging numerous strikes during their stint as the opposition party and those in power go through the motions of trying to suggest that matters need to be resolved through dialogue. Currently we appear to have reached a stalemate as the BNP (Bangladesh Nationalist Party) wants the ruling Awami League to install a neutral caretaker government during the upcoming elections and the current premiere does not and wants a coalition formed by all parties. Engaging in meaningful dialogue is something we seem to be incapable of. The only way to get a point across is bringing the nation to a standstill by staging a hartal.

I sometimes wonder at our politicians and their total disregard for how our economy is being negatively affected every time there is a strike. The losses for this year alone due to the shutdown of offices, courts, shops, supermarkets, transport, local and international business and investment runs into the billions. In a country where poverty is still widespread, this kind of economic loss is catastrophic. Are they so wrapped up in their own political agendas to be oblivious to the social and economic consequences of these hartals?
I recall an incident years ago when we were living in Bangladesh where my daughter who was probably not even four at the time stomped around the garden with two of our friend's children, toys in hand chanting 'hartal, hartal'.
At the time it seemed amusing but with hindsight it was a glimpse of how even our children are being affected by these actions and not may I add in a positive way. These days children think of hartals as days off school or time to go on holiday with parents (those who can afford it) as people don't want to be stuck at home for days. There is an added pressure on students as they are never sure whether their exams are going to take place or be postponed or even cancelled. Instead of growing up believing that school is not optional they are led to think that missing school is acceptable thanks to our political parties.
It just seems to me that in the last couple of decades, hartals in Bangladesh have evolved into a much more sinister phenomenon. Not only are they used as a political tool to immobilise the country and force the ruling party to concede to certain demands, they are now associated with vandalism, brutality, violence and general lawlessness.
Every day reports come in about buses and cars being demolished and burnt, homemade bombs and cocktails creating havoc and the general public living in fear not just of their safety but of their lives. Many people do not have the luxury of staying at home as they lead a hand to mouth existence and each day without work is a day without food. Some people try to carry on and find ways to continue working with the knowledge that it may not be safe to do so.
A friend of mine recently told me that her CNG had been attacked immediately after she had alighted. She was lucky enough to be unhurt. However, not everyone is as fortunate and it was horrific seeing the images and reading of the fourteen year old boy Monir whose father's van was set alight while he was still inside. His burns were so severe that he succumbed to his injuries and died soon afterwards. He is unfortunately not the only person to lose their life during the recent hartals. There have been at least nine more people burned by picketers and numerous injured. Since when does staging a 'strike' justify taking the life of another human being or terrorising an entire population?
If Bangladesh was not my home I would as a visitor think twice about travelling to a country where the political climate is so unstable and volatile. I can only hope that someday we can actually solve and resolve problems through peaceful dialogue and not take to the streets for yet more hartals.