Dear Nur Hossain, please forgive us

Our national leader talks to us from her dais and she is as distant as a star in the sky for most of us. Our opposition leader confuses justice with tyranny by constantly vowing to avenge killings by more killings. I rest my case!

It takes a lot to make us complain now publicly. The quiet peasant revolution in Kansat is of course an exception. But again, our law enforcement agencies ruthlessly crushed it. Don't get me wrong. In private, when we meet for our adda, with a cup of tea in our hand, we may start discussing literature, love, life, and jobs; but we always come back to politics. We grieve over our current politics. There is a gulf of difference between us, the ordinary citizens and the wealthy elites. They can afford to totally ignore us and do whatever they want with our lives and our homeland.

Except for election time! Then they suddenly remember that their power is at stake. It is time for another game of chess.

Am I going insane? Or are the politicians really that incapable of making a moral choice? I don't care whether or not Ershad is being cajoled to join the BNP-led coalition for the next election. I don't care about BNP's fear about losing that election.

And I know for sure our politicians don't care about me or as a matter of fact for any ordinary citizen. They don't even care about our history, our nation's past. But how can I hold back this burning rage within me? Yes, we are a nation which pardoned the razakars and reinstated them back to power. Yes, we forgot 1971. And yes, 1990 happened a long time ago.

We already forgot how corruption spread to every segment of the society like a virus during his authoritarian rule. We are unable to recall how the Ershad regime ensured the political and ideological space for razakars. We suffer amnesia when we are asked how Bangladesh moved away from moderate politics.

And now a former dictator is the key element in deciding who is going to win the next democratic election!

Did Nur Hossain die in vain in 1987? Do we really remember Dr Milon who was gunned down in November, 1990? And what about the mother and child who were killed by stray bullets during the late 80s? What about that student demonstration when the police drove their trucks into terrified activists?

Before the 1996 election we saw Sheikh Hasina making a pact with Ershad and now we sit quietly to watch another drama unfolding.

Am I the only one who can hear Nur Hossain crying? Am I the only one who can see his slogan?

"Shoirachar Nipat Jak, Gonotontro Mukti Pak!"

'Down with Autocracy, Let Democracy be Unchained!'