AL and BNP: Two sides of the same coin

If you are an AL enthusiast, maybe you can look back a few years and recall some good memories. If you are a BNP enthusiast, you can probably point to some good things now. But generally, it has proved a disaster for the nation to put either of these two parties in power at whatever point of time. One's as bad as the other. They are both full of corrupt minds who only care about being in power, and never once consider what is good for the people. Worst of all, they are equally driven to do whatever it takes to be in power, with all other considerations of secondary importance.

The AL and BNP are basically two sides of the same coin. Their policies differ little. Their aims are the same. Their methods of sucking Bangladesh dry are also similar. I can only think of one difference between them and that is their interpretation of Bangladesh's history. Otherwise, the profile of a typical AL/BNP lawmaker is in essence identical: He rises to power on the strength of how many cadres he has under him, he decides what mode of transportation he will import on his MP ticket, he bickers with the opposition in press conferences, he rants on irrelevant matters in the Parliament, and then tries to pass a project from which he can siphon the largest amount of money. In between, he looks into the welfare of his relatives and close friends.

Possibly the most despicable tragedy about Bangladesh right now is that merit and hard work have been rendered useless. To rise through the ranks, you have to cozy up to the people in power by showering them with gifts and praise. You may hate their guts, you may see through their corrupt souls, you may look through their lying eyes but your future depends on how elegantly you offer them the sweets you bought from Raush or Plaza Central. You have to choose between your principles and your future. You have to abandon one or the other. It is the age of the luiccha. And if things go on like this, this is the way it will always be.

What we have to realise now is that the way things are progressing, we may never get our country back. With no viable third option, power will always be alternating between these two parties who are the bane of our existence. The most frustrating thing is that they have rendered elections meaningless. We celebrate free and fair elections in our country from time to time. International observers congratulate us and we lap up the praise, patting each other's backs at how far we've come. Sometimes, we even tout ourselves as one of the few examples of a Muslim nation where democracy has succeeded.

The reticence to self-criticism is sickening. Show me a man who could stand up and tell these observers that one other adjective that would be appropriate to describe our elections is "meaningless" and I will show you a man worth respecting. The sad thing is, you and I both know he doesn't exist. Neither of the two giants are going to even look to improve the state of affairs, and the smaller parties are too overwhelmed to even hope. We have no choice.

X may have a relative or close friend in the AL ranks that he can canvass for a promotion so he'll vote for AL, while Y may have a similar acquaintance in the BNP, so he'll vote for the BNP. Apart from that, there is the grassroots base these two parties have built up over the years who will not even consider swaying regardless of whether a murderer or a dacoit is running on his party's ticket. And whoever comes into power, the state of the nation as a whole does not improve one bit. Just the lot of certain segments depending on who is in power.

The intellectual community is quite helpless. They see what is wrong, and they may hope for something different, but they are quite caught up in their own contradictions, I am sorry to say. Let me explain what I mean by their contradictions, because it is not something that may be readily visible on the surface. The leading intellectuals of our country (at least those who maintain a neutral stance) all agree that AL and BNP have ruined this nation, their rivalry and acts of one-upmanship with each other have driven this country into the doghouse. At the same time however, they hail elections and elected governments and champion the rights of every elected government to carry out the people's mandate. The "people's mandate" is possibly the most irrelevant phrase on a Bangladeshi politician's agenda, and we all know this.

What is the use of giving these politicians this right when it is now a foregone conclusion that this right to carry out the "people's mandate" will be abused by whoever is in power? How much of this are you willing to take before speaking out about how the whole system in Bangladesh has failed? How elections can change nothing in this country? Do you honestly believe that elections can change anything in this country as long as the AL and BNP exercise the influence they possess? Do you honestly see any hope of some honest men and women rising to the top under the present system? Do you honestly believe our current political system can ever breed a leader from within either the AL or BNP who would try to turn things around and get their party's act together as far as their responsibility towards the people is concerned? Do you honestly believe this country can move forward unless there is a massive uprising and political re-education of the people in which everyone, rich and poor, is made to see that the AL and BNP are only taking this country backwards?

If you answered these questions honestly, you answered "No" to all of them. And that is where your contradictions come through. You know things cannot change under the present electoral system because it is destined to bring the AL or BNP into power, under whom things will never change, yet you will not put forward the possibility of bypassing these meaningless elections and seeking another alternative, whatever that might be.

I would like one of the leading intellectuals of our country, whom I respect, Mr. Mahfuz Anam, to refute this accusation if he can. You are one of the leading advocates of elections, and I respect your belief in the process, but I must say it is quite naïve, since elections change nothing in Bangladesh, except the faces in power. What good is that when the same evil lurks behind all these faces, whether he is wearing a mujibcoat or otherwise? You have been scathing yet fair in your criticism of these people, but what good is mere criticism when you know it is like water off a duck's back for these people?

We need new ideas, new alternatives. I too believe in elections and the democratic process, yes, but not when the same evil is masquerading under different symbols on the ballot paper. In that case, elections become only a symbol of democracy, rather than the engine it should be. What we need is a revamp that ensures these two monoliths lose the vice-like grip they have established on our people, and for that, we have to first ensure that neither of them is in power.

Things are coming to a head, and it is time for us to wake up and seek new avenues to gain our country back and take it forward. Unfortunately many of us have worked ourselves into a comfort zone that we do not want to come out of. But I pray we have not lost the belief that our country's destiny lies in our hands. Why cannot we have a Bengali Dream?

Why do we have to be privy to the whims of a chosen few? Why cannot we have a government that caters to our needs, rather than its own? Why cannot we get our country back from these selfish individuals? The answer is we can, only if we want it enough, and if we believe we can. We only have to open our eyes and realise our own potential, the people's potential to change the course of a nation's destiny. It is not enough to wait for elections and vote for a new man who will be as corrupt as the previous one. We have to unite and take a stand that we have had enough of such people and the system that is manipulated by these people.

It is going to be one of the great tragedies of our history that those who have crippled this nation will always be able to say that we, the people, put them in power by voting for them. The pages of history will not record that we never had a better alternative on the ballot. They say democracy is government "of the people, for the people, by the people."

The successive AL and BNP governments may have not fulfilled the first two criteria, but unfortunately, they were by the people. And it is time we stopped giving them, or any of their off-shoots, any more scope to harm this nation further. It is time we start going about taking back the country that is ours.

Shayan Khan is a student at Coventry University, UK.