Perspectives
More of the same
Seldom do problems have a quick fix, neither can an authority worth the name let them snowball into a crisis. If it does, it is a failure. When such failures are added up at the end of the day, it might appear that the present caretaker set-up could turn out to be not much more than its predecessors.
Yet, only the sky was the limit in its scope of functioning. Its anti-graft drive, rounding-up of criminals, plethora of reforms, and freeing of the judiciary from executive control are indeed momentous steps. When put together, they all succinctly point to a passionate desire to establish justice and fair-play in the society.
But the government, it seems, might possibly be leaving without dispensing justice, either in the Bangabandhu murder case or the jail killing case, apart from not bringing the war criminals and collaborators of 1971 to trial. If that happens, wouldn't it be something of a burlesque to talk about creating a society based on justice and fair play?
We continue to live in a brutalised and surreal polity, where the ground rules for conducting everyday life are the same as before. Nothing has changed much, either in politics or in the socio-political scene. Even after the catharsis, there is still the primacy of turncoats and people prepared to adapt to the way desired by the establishment.
There is a continuing search for honest and capable people, and there is talk of good governance, transparency and integrity in our socio-political discourses. But this is largely hyperbole -- for the consumption of the cretins. The term corruption has been stretched too far, but in some ways it has not been far enough.
Look at the ex-finance minister, the catalyst for all the BNP's stratagems for plunder, with a share in it for his kith and kin. He can also be a sought after man under the doctrine of necessity! As a result, there is really no qualitative change to be seen in our political scene, notwithstanding our chief adviser's oft-repeated exhortations on the virtue of honesty in his nicely scripted speeches.
There are enough people to mislead the august body of advisers -- a conclave of the best of the country's lot -- and overwhelm it with non-issues so that it is deflected from the essentials. Indeed, our turbulent history, the War of Liberation, Bangabandhu's murder, authoritarian rule, and past political disarray have thrown up so many issues of great national magnitude that a careful sifting of issues will be pre-requisite to make a fresh start. Only a long-term democratic political process will be able to filter out the non-essentials and non-desirables. Hinged to it is our political future.
In the economic sector, the picture is even bleaker. The market for essentials has not relented, in spite of the government's multi-pronged approach and alacrity. Even here, the root of the problem is the distorted state of politics. Being unable to bring the prices down to a reasonable level, and with the public baffled and their patience petering out, the government also gives the appearance of being exhausted, as if it has no more role to play in this regard. The situation has been made precarious with the galloping inflation, with our money having little purchasing power.
As with any other government, this government has also failed to garner much success for the country's collective well-being, except finding out lacunae in the performance record of the past governments and taking the suspected defaulters to task. Although there is pleasure in this, and someone had to do it, it did not contribute much towards fixing the country's moribund state of affairs.
While there are routine talks of poverty alleviation in various forums, there is conspicuous lack of enthusiasm for removing socio-economic disparity, which is also a kind of corruption. What comes of this apathy is a clear tilt towards the status-quo -- maintaining an exclusive privileged class in the country.
We have little compunction in watching our streets flooded with flashy cars alongside the hapless destitute. We are used to being swarmed by an increasing number of beggars, but seldom feel contrite about their miseries. Neither we nor any of the governments, including the present one, ever felt that we had a duty towards these creatures. And the tradition of the callous indifference seems to go on ad infinitum.
Brig ( retd) Hafiz is former DG of BIISS.
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