Businesses\\\' move to help end turmoil

The move by the country's apex trade promotion organisation to break the current impasse in the form of blockades and occasional hartals is otherwise well intended to save the economy from the severe effects of the current turmoil. As part of its move, the representative business bodies throughout the country will hold a 15-minute sit-in on February 08, with national flags held aloft. Then the leaders of the apex body -- the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FBCCI) -- and its major affiliated organisations will meet the president, the prime minister, the leader of the opposition in the parliament and Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) chief to impress upon them for an end to violence that has been persisting for almost a month in its current spell. Such programmes reflect growing uneasiness among, and huge losses of, the members of the business community under the present circumstances. More worryingly, there is yet no sign of the turmoil coming to an end very soon.

The reasons for which the businesses have become so restive over the prevailing state of things are quite understandable. Like countless others, they are at the receiving-end of the after-effects of such unwholesome developments. They have to bear the major brunt of the same and their economic toll in particular is too calamitous for a country like Bangladesh. Having noted this, it must as well be admitted here that there is no easy solution to the problems that continue to dog the country's polity, given its ground realities. And the polity itself is sharply divided over the interpretations of the causes of the current troubles. The causes and the effects cannot be confused or inter-mingled. The root problem lies here, more so when opinions and views about the causes of the current troubles among the 'feuding' political parties are so strikingly discordant. All sections of people have no disagreement over the extent of effects but they have sharp differences of opinion over the causes of the same (effects). Effects can hardly be redressed without addressing their causes.  The efforts by the FBCCI to break the current impasse face the main challenge on this count: will the two major 'warring' sides agree to hold discussions between themselves to understand each other's views on both the causes and effects of the current troubles and also to agree on a rational course to save the country from its present sordid situation?

The ordinary citizens are all keen to see peace and stability returning to the country so that they do not fall victims to, what can be termed, senseless actions. That is also a prime requisite for continuation of interrupted business, trade and commerce. A good number of businessmen are otherwise politically influential, too, in Bangladesh, having their representation in parliament over last two decades or so on a fairly large scale and exercising clout, overtly or covertly, on political parties across the divide. They, being close to the hierarchy of such political parties, are thus in an advantageous position to give the message to the major players in the country's polity about the severe economic fall-outs from the current situation. But as things stand now, it is difficult to see whether they will do that or, even if they do, that will at all be heeded to, by either side.

Under such circumstances, it is important for the businesses at this stage to play their role in a professional way without wearing political shoes of any brand. Perhaps, this will be too much to expect of them, given the stark realities of the current polity. Yet then, the businesses as a professional group do need to join other professional groups, without any consideration of political biases, to press home the demand for an end to the current state of affairs. What is now badly needed is a realistic appraisal of the impasse for a solution. Rhetorics will serve no worthy purpose, because the ongoing turmoil this time appears to be uglier than what it was before.