Boundary conditions

It is a basic operating condition of democratic practices. The give-and-take principle needs internal space for manoeuvring. Insecurity shrinks this space, and causes friction in the art of accommodation. Live and let live cannot be practised in an environment of insecurity. The latter is due to weak foundation. Or, if the foundation is adequate enough, impatience or hurry impedes cultivation of this social lubrication.

Lubrication means oiling. The latter concept is being misused by public workers; ignoring the other side of the coin. The other half of the moon cannot be seen that is cosmic design, with hidden mystical connotation. But the local political culture is based on this moon principle only one side is publicised.

Our politics lack the variations of seasons. Thus the atmosphere becomes turgid, denying variety in life. How is our politics ventilated? How the spring-cleaning is done? Such questions are not seen in the mass or specialised media, although Dhaka is notorious as a haven for seminars and anniversaries.

While on the one hand the going is 'good' for the manipulators, on the other hand the electorate (millions) suffer. Since when politics ceased to earn good testimonials? The three decades of independence have generated a perverted conception of freedom, which is artificially confined amongst a vested group who control beyond the boundary conditions.

Bandwidth infringements are now standard practice, because it is secretly practised by the politicians at the top level. The deprived have-nots raise hue and cry, for missing their share of the grey goods and services. In the grey market, means are available to redress these grievances and silence the mouths. This generates a thriving black market, where the real value of money is distorted. Materialism denies privileges to the economically handicapped, as noticed in the third world.

Politics, to be good and expansive, needs specifications, it is there on paper, but in the newly emerging nations, the tolerance factor of the specifications is very broad, for control and discipline. This is due to several types of gaps in the levels, operating at different levels of society. One is the economic gap (the chasm between the rich and the poor); the other the literacy gap; and the third is the rural distance (pushed into a corner from the centre stage).

Leadership is an avocation of minorities (less than one-thousand of one percent of the population), but their philosophies and activities affect 100 per cent of society. The sensitivity of responsibility is missing in the formative years of politics. Sowing wild seeds is much easier. This is the pattern in individual life, but it is fatal in public service. There are some tricks and tools for remedial measures. Sacrifice, and have faith in plain living and high thinking (in this highly materialistic times). There are other subtle ways, but let the leaders point these out.