A.B.M.S. Zahur
THOUGH our finance minister is trying to assure us of normal economic growth of the country and give us hope for achieving the goals of the big and ambitious budget, we have a lot to worry about. People are suffering miserably due to price hike of commodities. Taking advantage of free economy, the business community is continuously pushing the prices.
Some analysts observe that certain business syndicates are pushing the pre-budget prices of some commodities on which there were no proposals for increasing prices in the budget. This is done due to unethical desire of the business community to make extra profit at the cost of common people.
The government appears to be less careful about the price hike because of our free market economy. Even though there may be suspicion in the statement of Center for Policy Dialogue (CPD) about the budget, we cannot throw it as nonsense because of the government's weakness in statistical data and level of efficiency of bureaucracy to attain the goals of the budget.
No doubt that people are suffering. Surprisingly, parties in the opposition are competing with the government to increase the misery of the people through resorting to devices like hartal to protest their grievances against the present government. In the June 5th hartal we did not see picketing, meetings or rallies. People may consider such activity of opposition as sheer obstinacy or competition. The hartal appeared to have failed in bringing any positive result.
The government seems to be apathetic towards the people's suffering. Such indifference may be interpreted as collusion between the government, business communities and the opposition. If there is even an iota of truth in such interpretation it may so happen that people themselves rise to stop this game.
Hartal has played a significant role in Bangladesh politics. It brought positive results in 1952, 1962, 1966, 1969 and 1970 during the Pakistani period. Ultimately it brought independence in 1971. After independence it threw out the military regime of H.M. Ershad in 1990. After 1990 there were discussions and debates on its utility. The latest 36-hour hartal called by BNP is a clear indication that it wants a mid-term election. However, apparently it is concentrating more on the continuation of the caretaker government.
We are regarded as a forgetful nation. AL went for agitation to establish a caretaker government in 1996. Now it wants its abolition. We are surprised at this. The system was introduced in 1990 as a stop-gap arrangement between abdication of military dictator Ershad and a return to democratic government.
It was necessary due to the existing mistrust among political parties. Needless to say that this mistrust still exists.
It is not that party/parties who can run a government for five years is not capable of conducting an election. The main reason appears to be the desire of the party/parties in position to prolong or make their stay permanent. It may be relevant to point out that even a bad democracy is better than any other system of government because no other system is capable of offering people's freedom.
A bad democracy leads towards good democracy and lack of democracy pushes towards dictatorship. Thus it is advisable that politicians should abjure the present attitude to cling to power.
In the 2008 national election, the AL-led alliance came to power with a thumping majority. Discussions among political analysts reveal the following reasons for the government's present behaviour:
Stopping opposition from agitating for mid-term election;
Creating public pressure on BNP to join parliament;
Trying to involve the opposition to agree to share the present economic malady; and
Relying on the past records that simple agitation or hartal is not enough to dislodge a democratically elected government.
On the other hand, Begum Zia understands that this the right moment for shaking her party vigorously to bring reform in the party structure.
The declare programme of government and the opposition will result in confrontation and the undemocratic powers are happy about it. Perhaps foreign embassies would start diplomatic activities which may ultimately increase the dominance of multinational companies which would be detrimental to our national interest.
In the present circumstance the only remedy seems to be a united approach by the ruling AL and the opposition to solve the crises. Begum Zia has already indicated her willingness to have talks.
The Supreme Court verdict is that there is no problem for retaining the CTG system. The verdict has even indicated that "if the political parties agree, higher judiciary can be de-linked." We appreciate the opposition's positive response for dialogue. Simultaneously, we may appeal to her utilising the parliamentary forum and to avoid hartal as much as possible.
The writer is a former Joint Secretary.
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