A Bangladesh Politics Rundown

Hastily drawn tact in a fluid situation was charming onlookers of Bangladesh politics for the last few days. It was sharply overshadowed by a seeming drama, but essentially an imperative that exposed limit of the Bangladesh political elites and showed innovative political initiative by a section of the business elites.

Swift swings

H M Ershad, a former president, was overwhelming citizens and political observers. His were always, one can say, “dynamic” moves, never static, as he was always canceling his last announcements, which can be expressed in the following way: “Cancel My Last Announcement”. A counter observation may be: uncertain tact in uncertain situation, not dynamic. Another observation may be: ever bargaining with all in an ever changing political stage as the stage is revolving, which is a reflection of uncertainty in many areas of politics, telling “something” in economy.

The former president led political party, Jatiya Party, joined the Bangladesh poll-time government and joining the coming national election; then he announced decision to leave it and asked his ministers to tender resignation. Press reports said: a number of the ministers obliged while the rest were waiting. Then, he announced boycotting of the coming national election, and said that was his last stand, he would change no more. Then, he expressed his preference to commit suicide than to turn a betrayer to the nation by joining the coming general election. Then, he said: the press reports on suicide did not reflect his exact announcement as he expressed no such preference of committing suicide. The press did not respond.

In between the announcements and cancellations of the announcements and vows, the party was going through changes within its factions, with its splintered part, and with ally turned deliverer of curse turned possible ally.

The swift changes, the announcements and the moves and counter moves, the run, the parley, the hackles can appear bemusing and amusing to someone, but the issues were not lighter than serious.

A country’s governance, a ruling machine’s future, stability of a country with a population of about 160 million, nurturing of an important source of labor and a few types of important products to the metropolis of the world system were involved with the incidents and its future course. There were other issues of geostrategic importance.

Even, as a market, Bangladesh is not negligibly small. Involvement of or observations expressed or suggestions made by other countries including India, China, Canada, Australia, the UK and USA, and by organizations including the EU and UN, discussions in the European Parliament and in Washington DC, the UN secretary general’s letters to the two main leaders of the country and sending of his emissary to Dhaka, and Dhaka visit by important diplomats from New Delhi and Washington signify the country’s importance.

But it was perplexing if one tried to compare the importance expressed by other countries/interests and the political leaders’ announcements that were swiftly swinging balance of political array and sending equations to uncertainty. The fact is: It was a show of a section of ruling elites representing, to put it vaguely, important interests.

How, then, it plans to secure its interests? The question is important not only to the section, but to all other sections as one will affect others, and the governance.

It’s not only a governance of 160 million, but also a governance of the source of labor, cheaper product, and issues of other importance as geopolitical rivalry is knocking at the door and there is scope of playing other cards by section or sections of the ruling elites. Egypt is showing it. A few other African countries are also playing the cards. At least one Middle Eastern country has recently made a similar move.

Railway tracks

The Dhaka press was carrying reports of derailment of railway engines, etc. throughout the week. On some days, more than one such incident was occurring in different parts of the country. The incidents were disorganizing railway communication daily. There was no official announcement by concerned authority on the incidents: whether accident or a planned act. Any of the two carries serious legal implication.

A comparison between these incidents of derailment and the August Movement during the subcontinent’s colonial era will help grasp the magnitude of the current railway-incidents. Had the risings in Midnapur [Medinipur] and other places, at the near-end of the British colonial rule, such experience? Was it during the 1969-Mass Upsurge in erstwhile East Pakistan (Bangladesh)? The 1969-Upsurge was wider and deeper.

Are these acts of subversion? Or, are these parts of political struggle? Has the political struggle gone to the level of hitting railway tracks? Answer to each of the questions has serious implication. The implication is for status quo, a property relation. Are the acts intended against status quo? The answer may provide a picture of a “strange” political equation as, to capital, trade is important, and trade needs railway.

Ignition

Acts of ignition were many during the period. The victims are common people, mainly poor, members of the working class. A press report said a mother was finding no way to take home dead body of her son from hospital as she had no money. Her son was a petrol bomb victim and died in the hospital. Another report said a weeping widow at a hospital was asking people around about the future of her child daughters as she lost her husband, a working person turned victim of petrol bomb.

Shall not these incidents react in broader society? Any of possible answers, nay or yes, have meaning in society and politics, and the incidents, the tact by any of the quarters, will be interpreted in broader society, the masses of people. One can recollect M K Gandhi’s step after an act of mob action on a police outpost. His was a matured act.

People in different parts of the country have already started raising voices against these acts of ignition. How shall the acts be accepted in mass psyche? Should not a politician take this aspect into consideration? Or, is it a “game” of someone played by another one?

An initiative

Entrepreneurs, especially the garments manufacturers, have made demand to end the on-going political impasse. In a rally in Dhaka, they issued an ultimatum and have stated the intention of mobilizing workers to protest the current situation.

It, the mobilization, the plan to mobilize workers, was a political act that the entrepreneurs usually don’t prefer to initiate. It was not a show. It was their imperative. Their interest demands this.

Then, don’t the mainstream political parties care for the manufacturers’ interest? If they care, do their political acts stand hostile to the manufacturers’ interest? Garments manufacturing is a leading sector in the economy. Then, what’s the relationship between the manufacturers and the political parties? Isn’t it a strange reality?

Also strange is, owners, as they announced, were planning to organize workers to defend the sector. Only weeks ago, the workers, in their way, were engaged in economic struggle. That was raising demands to the owners. It’s also a “strange” relationship: workers will be led to political act against a political situation created by the mainstream political parties, which are supposed to uphold interest of the owners, and the workers will be led, as announced, by owners! One should not smile or laugh at the mainstream politics. Politics of the dominating elites is “difficult” to perceive! It’s a Bangladesh political reality.

Soul of the poor

The period has once again exposed souls of ordinary citizens.

In a Bangladesh village, a group of ordinary persons collectively provided food to passengers of a train that was derailed. The passengers were stranded for hours. A farmer, Abdur Rashid Gazi, and his wife, Rashida Begum, of Shahtali village, Chandpur took the initiative, and other villagers came forward.

A reality

Don’t these present a part of Bangladesh socio-political reality? The acts, the utterances, the political characters, the representation, the level of political maturity, the concerns, the perception leading to the form of political struggle – ignite and derail, the deals, the contingent ally, the relations, show a part of the reality. Here, opportunism sometimes takes satiric face and satirical characters play key role. Here, shameless face appears stubborn and hurting people is interpreted as duty. Here, the weaker part of society – working people and women – is victim of ruthless political approach. How shall the reality be coined? How shall the opposing pulls or pushes within the reality be resolved? Is there a possibility within a decadent reality? 

This piece first appeared in New Age, Dhaka in its December 10, 2013 issue