People\\\'s apathy to political movement

The CNG-driven auto-rickshaw driver sitting on the driving seat looked back and asked me: "Sir, these people write such news getting information in the day-dream?" He was reading a leading Bangla newspaper of the country switching the engine off amid horrifying traffic congestion. I took the newspaper from him and tried to find the news. He pointed out the news which said that the recent general strike (hartal) called by the Jamaat was not successful because it did not get the support of the general people. I asked him: "What's written wrong here"? The driver's innocent querry: "When did the general people support hartal and so-called democratic movement in the history of Bangladesh?"

I took some time to recap my memories on hartal and so-called mass movement. I was a young chap of 18 years in 1990 when the democratic movement against an autocratic regime became very strong.  I attended many political programmes where I did not find anyone on the street except the political activists like us. In 1990, hartal became a part of life and nobody but the political activists, especially student wings of the political parties, participated in those programmes. The general people did not participate in those programmes which allowed Ershad to stay in the power for long nine years. Moreover, that movement centred on Dhaka and the mass people of villages were not involved in those "game among the Kings for empire". They thought such changes can never bring good days for them hence they should not be any party to that. Nur Hossain, Jehad, Dr. Milon were among the few "non-visionary" people to sacrifice their lives to sing the song of democracy! They could never think that the villain of that day would be the 'hero' in the form of "Special envoy to the Prime Minister" in future.  

After the departure of Ershad, a political party elected through a democratic process formed the Government. The general people sighed a breath of relief and thought that political unrest will no longer be whipped up. All the discussions, arguments and fights will take place in parliament.

On the issue of Caretaker Government, during 1995-96, the joint movement of Awami League, Jatiya Party and Jamaat became really ruthless and crossed all past records. "Power-focused politics" again motivated politicians to become violent on the streets of Dhaka in 2006-07 to grab the "power". Again, on the issue of Caretaker Government, the horror movie was staged in the country in 2013 like 1996. The political activities were so violent that the entire country was fearing a civil war. Experts estimated that financial loss during 2013 was more than 1.0 per cent of GDP (gross domestic product). Marginal people living from hand to mouth were the main victims.

So, the stories of political movements in Bangladesh are full of violence, motivated by individual interest. If this is the reality, how can we expect the spontaneous participation of general people in the political activities including hartal?  This is the only reason why people are still silent though they could not cast their votes in the general election of January 05 of this year.

Our politicians failed to synchronise the interest of general people with politics. As a result, general people are not considering themselves as a stakeholder of Bangladesh politics which was echoed by the auto-rickshaw driver.

The writer, an FCA, is Fellow Member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Bangladesh (ICAB).  mohammad.z.hossain@gmail.com