If you mean business!

Thus everything is at stake with the administrative rein of the country going to the right or wrong hands. When the country is run badly by the politicians we obtain a Bangladesh of the present day mould. As citizens every one of us receives his due share of woes and miseries and bounties as well.

It is in this context that our collective conscience has cried out through the voices of our civil society. `Why don't we do it ourselves when the politicians have failed to deliver?' When the sons get the family business into turmoil the father intervenes and takes over. Surely, the BNP led 4-party coalition govt has wasted the huge mandate it got in the last general election for no good reason. It has not led the country anywhere. Never were politics and politicians such a big burden resting on the nation.

The civil society has cried out. The outcry though audible and heartening did not generate a clear message. It lacks direction and purpose. Prof. Yunus' formula forwarded from an individual viewpoint is at best a desperate approach. It does not recognise the gravity of the problem.

Incompetent or corrupt people must not find way to the parliament. There is no alternative to this position. A casual or impromptu approach will not help. Whatever is needed to achieve that must be done. To achieve that, civil society must assume more responsibility before things go beyond repair.

In a brilliant piece the other day (24.04.06) Zafar Sobhan articulated what possibly plays on in every other citizen's mind. If Fazle Hasan Abed of BRAC had been the CEO of the country, Prof. Yunus its planner and someone of equal stature to fill up the post of finance minister then we would have a dream team of our natural leaders to lead us from the front. One that every country in the world would be proud of having.

If the civil society wants to deliver, then it must mean real business. It is naive to believe that the politicians can be persuaded to do the dirty job and compelled to perform well. It must also be understood that the problems of our country are increasingly assuming a technical nature. Be it, heavy siltation of the major rivers or alarming environmental degradation or massive soil fertility loss. Successive political governments have done very little to address them.

Even arsenic problem now plaguing 90% of the population could not be aptly handled by the present government though handy remedial measures were around. When these problems need to be analysed, researched and liquidated at the earliest, political governments have slept on them. Solution of these problems seems to be no more their cup of tea.

In the present circumstances, I am afraid, there is no alternative to forming a new political party by the civil society and its participation in the general elections if it means business. As a prelude to that, a large platform of civil society needs to be formed with formal memberships.

I believe 'the vision paper' now being prepared by the 24-member core civil society is just doing that. If a member cannot make himself available for the new role, he can depute someone on his behalf who will have equal acceptability. However, there can be no half steps in such serious matters.

True, these endeavours on the part of the civil society will not be received well by our politicians. True, our political parties are known to be ruthless when it comes to meeting their adversaries. But if you mean real business you should be battle ready. Also, if you believe that, it is the life and death question of 147 million souls, and then it is definitely worth taking all the trouble in the world. Real men just won't miss this point.