But hardly had the dust settled on the NCC polls, we faced aghast the Narsingdi carnage that left the reportedly popular city municipality chairman and a rising star of the ruling party dead. The killing was perpetrated by a bunch of gun?totting goons, who did their (assigned?) job well and vanished in the thin air in a perfect similarity with such a scene in a Western crime movie. So could we not say that at least in committing crime of such a nature and magnitude we have Westernised ourselves very well; and herein we seem to have a logic to gloat over that we have matched the Western standards, if not in many other desirable sectors of the Western world. Well, an explanation for such a difference in how we tend to copy the West may be had in the Bangla essay penned about a century back by Sanjib Chattapadhaya wherein he stated that it is disease, not health which is contagious.
The NCC polls were both an epilogue and prologue. It was an epilogue to the days of politics of politicians with questionable image and delivery capability, but who thrive in politics because of their control over three elements?? money, muscle and manipulation (3ms). It was a prologue to clean politics as the elected lady has so far had reportedly a clean image backed by her demonstrated delivery capability, which is writ large in what she has already done over the years as the elected chief executive of the Narayanganj municipality. There is little doubt that left to themselves the people made the right choice without fear and favour. Both the incumbent government and the Election Commission deserve kudos that they could ensure an environment in which the people were able to exercise their voting right properly.
Besides the people?s verdict for a clean politics there is something more to this verdict; it is the gender factor. Two macho?type political heavy weights have been passed over in the voters? assessment, and a lady (supposedly belonging to the weaker segment of human species) was picked up as the chosen one. There is certainly something like political and historical lessons in such an electoral verdict for those who would like to learn from the same. Unfortunately, however, as Hegel said century and a half back ?the lesson of history is that nobody learns from history?.
There are quite a few lessons to be learnt by our mainstream political parties. First, from now on they would do well for themselves as well as for the country by nominating candidates sans the 3 ms, and like the one who had the last smile in the NCC polls. Second, while nominating local level candidates the party high command would do well by taking into cognizance the local level dynamics. Specially, the people?s mindset has to be read and understood properly. The people of Narayanganj have got across a clear and stern message that they can act out of their own imperative and assessment by even defying what their political high command would impel them to do. Third, there is a lesson for the incumbent government; and this pertains to the controversy about army deployment. True, the government decision turned out to be right, but the way this decision was taken appeared to be wrong. As per the Article 126 of the Constitution the government had the duty to oblige the Election Commission, but it did not; and the negative government response came through quite arbitrarily at the last moment. The Election Commission could have been taken into confidence by the government in the decision making process and there could have been an announcement by the Election Commission on the basis of such a joint decision. It appears that a political faux pas happened on the part of the government because of a bad or wrong advice. Consequently the Election Commission was left in the lurch; and the constitution ended up being ignored with impunity. The jittery Election Commission could have opted for any snap?decision spelling a havoc on the scenario. Fortunately, however, the erudite trio at the Election Commission kept their experience driven cool and saw to it that election was successful by bailed out. They did their job well, and the law?enforcers also. Above all, it was the people power that determined everything on which the polls are complimented. This was indeed a message of good cheer for the country to take pride in.
But as the Narsingdi happening burst upon us we faced an anti?climax of the euphoria gained in the NCC polls. We were instantly reminded that the elements of darkness who had taken a beating at Narayanganj regrouped to unleash their wanton deeds at Narsingdi. It is clear that the message that they got across was that they would be there as long as they are promoted and protected by their political godfathers. Our media are awash with clues as to who were the culprits and who were the conspirators. I have no comment on such clues, which I think are to be dealt with by the law enforcers and the court (if they do it property); I concentrate elsewhere??? overall nature of our politics. The Narsingdi scenario is a clear demonstration of the rotten inside of our criminalised politics. As I write these words I am reminded of a write?up of mine which appeared in 1992 in two dailies (English and Bangla) under the title ?Operation clear Politics? which had a huge positive response from readers; and I was happy to note that people wanted clean politics. The NCC polls were a demonstration in favour of clean politics; but Narsingdi gave us a counter message. What future awaits us? Could we have a future based on clean politics? I think it is high time we had a strong civil society movement to launch the Operation Clean Politics.
The writer is Editor, daily sun.
Source: daily-sun.com
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