A citizen's musings

There is a third name, lower down the scale: that of late General Osmany, now practically blacked out, for reasons not quite clear to the contemporary citizens. This General also was not allowed to be present during the surrender ceremony in December 1971, for reasons which are not mysterious.

Today, more than 30 years later, both politics and leadership are stagnant and stalled, due to monopolistic hold of these two parties, which seem to claim propriety rights in certain areas of public struggle. The new generation (after usually 25 years) faces the uncertainly of weak anchoring due to fissiparous dissipation in the senior national leadership.

It is deadly virus, which may divide the society for yet another generation. Now religion, violence and terrorism have entered politics, within the overall umbrella of corruption. It is a powerful combination, nipping in the bud any cleansing campaign. Where is the way out, with so many permutations and combinations? The major operation may bring many to grief. The price has to be paid, for negative virtues.

Since 1991, these two major parties have been running the country through general elections. There are fissures in the election process, leading to the artificial creation of the so called neutral, non-political caretaker interim government, to conduct the general elections (only), in this unfortunate nation, where no one trusts the others (you are with us or against us, as we hear in the West). The society, the personalities, and the philosophies are divided and splintered. At the same time, the notes fondly remind us that they were rendering exclusive service to the new emerging nation.

In fact, the nation today is carrying the blind-folded donkey's load, with no highway or destination clear enough to the citizens, for channelling voluntary support.

One party is a firm believer in hartal (strike), whereas its overuse has sapped its vitality. Why agitative politics should still be necessary in the political areas is not quite clear to the majority of the citizens, who wish that politics were kept in the background, like the air we breathe, to enable millions to follow one's own pursuits in life peacefully in a routine way. The political epidemic is not being allowed to die out.

The political regime cannot deliver, and opposition in the parliament believes in indulging in adda and unnecessary agitational activities outside the JS for five years, regardless of the name of the party. This is vile culture not condemned enough by the electorate, when both sides of the coin cannot deliver.

In the LDCs, imported democracy is a bogey, as demonstrated in the majority of the emerging nations. Freedom is shackled to the whims of the local leadership. The masses are patiently waiting for a new breed of leadership. A square wheel has no mobility.