Losing the people's trust
The survey found that about 36.4 percent of the people have "low trust" in the country's political parties, while nearly 60 percent have shown their pessimistic views about improved politics, and 39.6 percent are pessimistic about the future of the country.
Only 5.5 percent of the people are highly optimistic about the future of the country, while 31.3 percent of the people expressed concern about the high insecurity in the political arena. On the other hand, more than 31 percent people showed their low trust in politicians and 33 percent showed their negative attitude towards women's participation in politics.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel. The PPRC has compiled the survey report, which revealed the diminishing trust of the people in political parties, after interviewing about 4,500 people in 64 villages in the 64 districts, 30 rural towns, and 10 district towns across the country, including Dhaka and Chittagong metropolises. The people, on behalf of whom the political parties claim to operate, hardly figure when it comes to decision making. This is a sham democracy which only serves the interest of the politicians, not of the common people.
Prime Minister Khaleda Zia has said that the tempo of development activities of her government has generated newer investment, and the growth of mills and factories, which is what has caused a shortfall of electricity needed for fuelling these expanding operations. She said this while presenting a brief resume of the development by her government at the National Conference 2006 of Diploma Engineers on March 27. The prime minister also made a similar statement in a public meeting held recently at Rajshahi. She made such an unpalatable statement when the country is passing through an unprecedented power shortage due to failure of her government in the power sector.
The majority of the people have become crippled with the persistent pressure of the price spiral of all the essential commodities. The most comical aspect of the crisis was that when the national media reported the immense sufferings of the people due to price spiral, the then commerce minister, Altaf Hossain Chowdhury, informed the nation that the prices of essential commodities in the market were stable. A national daily termed this remark of the commerce minister as "a cruel joke."
Whatever the acclaimed successes of the government may be, all the successes have been eclipsed by failures in three major areas -- improvement in power supply, the curbing of massive corruption, and the reining in of prices. It is a particular malady for the nation that the government, instead of facing the facts, has been repeatedly denying the truth.
The anguished people feel that this denial is adding insult to injury. The acute power shortage is not a consequence of the tempo of development, as claimed by the prime minister, but an outcome of the failure of the government to control the chaotic situation, and the corruption, in the power sector.
What makes the matter even more disgraceful is when the prime minister says the price hike is not affecting people, as the rise in purchasing power will help them to absorb the increase in the prices of essentials. The purchasing power of some people, who have accumulated huge wealth through all sorts of dubious means, has risen beyond our imagination. A section of people has become rich overnight by questionable means, but another section (majority of the people) is hard pressed to obtain two square meals a day in the present price situation.
The prime minister is now urging the people to send her party to power, again, in order to wipe out corruption. Bangladesh has become a global brand name for corruption because of the rampant corruption by the persons in the corridors of power. As the people have witnessed increasing corruption throughout the whole tenure of this government, there is little chance to cut ice with the people with hollow words.
The people of this country have seen the immense damage done to the national economy by the endless spate of hartals that have been observed since the return of parliamentary government in 1991. The political parties of the country have resorted to hartals to press the government for accepting their demands.
The major political parties did not agree to find a substitute for hartals over the last thirteen years, even when considering the huge damage caused by the hartals. The civil society, and the business leaders, have repeatedly requested the country's mainstream opposition leaders to put an end to the unabated politics of hartal, considering its harmful effects on the economy and on business. But the entire political class did not pay any heed to their request.
The BNP also imposed several hartals during their opposition period, demanding resignation of the AL government, accusing AL of indulging in corruption, alleging harassment of political rivals and failure in running the administration.
Being agitated by repeated country-wide hartals, the then prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, had promised that her party would never enforce hartals, even when it would be the opposition. Now, opposition leader, Sheikh Hasina claims that she is forced to impose hartal as the government does not accede to her demand for resignation. This is an attitude that needs to be changed.
The people attained the independence of Bangladesh after colossal bloodshed in the fierce liberation war of nine months. They never expected such a failed and ineffective national parliament in the country. BNP, while in opposition during the AL rule, also took to the recourse of boycotting parliament, often on trivial grounds. The AL has also resorted to the similar practice of boycotting parliament, turning it into a one-side show. Eventually, it is the nation which pays the price for this. The people are really tired of watching the same drama year after year.
The manifest truth is that most of the people in Bangladesh have already lost trust in politics due to prolonged absence of charismatic leadership. As a result, voters' verdicts are no more in accord with any particular party in the national election. Voters are now very divided.
The nexus between crime and politics has given a boost to criminality in all the tiers of society. Populism, as so often demonstrated by the political parties at their public rallies, is mostly nothing more than hired people. Votes are now bought, not won. As a result, stakes are high in politics. People are losing trust in the politicians due to this predicament in our sham democracy.
It has become quite customary for our politicians to promise to wipe out corruption, bring down price of essentials, improve the law and order situation, and make pledges for the well-being of the people. But they forget all the pledges once they are sworn into public office. They will remember, and repeat, the old pledges again only when they lose power.
It is a vicious cycle of hypocrisy that we are living through, and the good politicians are driven out of the political arena by the bad ones following the economic theory that bad money drives away good money. To bring it all to an end, we must devise the kind of political system where the well-being of the nation is at the core of the system.