Politics of confrontation

Dawn-to-dusk, 60 hours, 36 hours, 3 days -- hartal without consideration, hartal without end. This campaign disturbs, disrupts and destroys lives and livelihoods. It gives free reign to political thugs and terrorists on the one hand, and to a brutal police force on the other. Between the Awami League and the BNP, the ordinary people of Bangladesh are caught in a cycle of endless misery.

These events reveal the paucity of intellect and ability at the top of the Awami League leadership. At a time of crisis, as Bangladesh looks for leadership from the opposition as well as from the government, their only response is hartal. They have learned nothing in 34 years. Nor have they learned, despite numerous foreign trips at the taxpayers' expense, how politics is conducted in other countries for the benefit of the nation. Where is the media campaign, the campaign of non-violent protest, the attempt to engage the country in debate, the dialogue with government to arrange for a proper investigation, the reasoned arguments in the public forum, the constructive proposals to improve security, the evidence to identify the killers? Rather we have violent protests, widespread destruction of property, mindless damage to the economy through unremitting hartal.

There was hope once, for a better future. Whilst in power, Sheikh Hasina held out the promise of an end to hartal as a political weapon. Having executed a bitter campaign of hartal during the preceding BNP government, she sought to blunt a similar BNP response against her own government. Bangladesh now knows the value of her promise. Can she ever be trusted again ?

The truth is that hartal does not hurt the government. It hurts the people, and it hurts the country. It saps our strength, dismays our friends and pleases our enemies. It is akin to burning our shared house down if they can't have their own way.

This campaign is a bankrupt tactic of a bankrupt opposition. It must be stopped before it bankrupts the nation.