Shanir Akhra: Arrogance and impatience made things messy

It is not very clearly understood, as to why the BNP-led alliance government, depends so much on the raw advice of the present bureaucracy (much of it incompetent and ignominiously policiticised). In sensitive matters a democratic government must show enough patience and capability to convince the people of the objectives of its actions and inactions. This, of course, needs careful handling because common people do neither understand nor bother much about state security, state property or public interest, because of poor level of education of the villagers.

During the last four and a half years of rule of the present government one can observe the following peculiarities:

a) Majority of the leaders behave like people's masters;

b) the PM is too much involved in too many areas due to lack of proper determination of priorities, lack of confidence and competence of ministers;

c ) Strange tendency of not accepting mistakes and omissions;

d) Loyalty or subservience to the party chief is regarded as greater qualification than knowledge, competence or experience for placement of members in critical positions;

e) Too much of hesitation in taking decisions in some critical areas (e.g energy sector, separation of judiciary, appointment of ombudsman, denationa-lisation of state television etc) due to lack of confidence;

f) Too much of respect for opinion of the junior partners in the alliance show lack of control over such partners;

g) Underestimation of importance of the job of some vital ministries like of commerce, foreign affairs, home affairs and education;

h) Too many ministers with huge secretariat doing too little work and (reportedly) lack of good understanding between secretary and minister in certain ministries;

i) Apparent lack of coordination among ministries (e.g. ministries of energy, water resources, industries etc).

j) Tendency for going slow in implementing even clear directives from the prime minister (e.g. arrest of Bangla Bhai).

k) Every tendency for down grading judiciary (may be even to weaken it) after observed.

l) Too strong tendency to put all blames on AL;

m) Too much use of JCD activists towards retaining power; and

n) Some ministers' strong allergy for journalists or media.

Very recently we have seen miserable performance of the BNP law makers in Kansat to tackle the outburst suffering ordinary people. As at Kansat again we saw the failure of BNP law maker in Demra (Shanir Akhra) to face the dissatisfaction (perhaps anger) of the common people. Thus one may apprehend from these incidents that before the present government hands over power to the caretaker government there may be further worse incidents of the kind because of sheer arrogance, ignorance or incompetence of certain law makers.

Needless to say that without a reasonable solution of the power crisis we cannot expect an acceptable solution of water crisis. Only verbal assurance for adequate water supply quickly cannot assuage the anger of the suffering people. WASA and PDB may jointly come up with a plan to tackle this serious problem.

The law makers concerned of BNP led alliance government may try to convince (without suppressing truth) the people that crisis of water or electricity is not peculiar to Shanir Akhra and the adjacent areas. The problem exists more or less throughout the country may be in different degrees. Permanent solution of such a gigantic problem needs a considerable time and the people must be convinced to have patience for creating disturbance will only cause delay in solving the intricate problem.

It is surprising to learn that a people's representative is afraid of the press (which helps people to know things). It is disturbing for any conscious citizen to know that a people's representative has engaged JCD activists to stop people from talking to the press. Certainly a strange democracy exists in Bangladesh where people's representatives behave like masters of the people!

In the otherwise sad incident of Shanir Akhra the role of our city mayor Sadek Hussain Khoka is commendable. He has proved that as an ex-freedom fighter (who fought for the people's liberation) he knows quite well as to how to handle the anger of the suffering people. However he has no permanent solution for the problems in question i.e water and electricity crises. The appointment of a 4-member probe committee by the government does not appear to be a step in the right direction because people are certainly aware of the crisis of power and water. What is needed is taking some immediate measures (even some stop gap arrangement) to bring the crisis at an acceptable level because with the start of monsoon within five/six weeks the demand for water may comedown.

If the government thinks that by thrashing the leaders of Sangram Parishad it may be able to silence the people it is wrong. In fact any repressive measure will aggravate the situation. It may be relevant to point out that both police and army have shown restraint because they could study the situation better than the politicians.

Only with people's cooperation and sincere effort a government (particularly a democratic one) can face any challenge. The BNP law maker concerned may be advised to remain calm because he has no option except showing forbearance and fortitude. It appears that "flood of development" has not only caused scarcity of water and electricity, it has also, perhaps, made some BNP law makers unpopular. If the government really desires to serve people then it has no option other than pushing down soaring prices of essential commodities and increase supply of essentials.

ABMS Zahur is a retired Joint Secretary.