Electing the blind leading the blind
Sunday, 14 December 2008
Maswood Alam Khan
POLITICAL parties can now hold meetings from December 12 for seven days under emergency and the state of emergency is going to be lifted, as promised, just twelve days before the scheduled Election Day. So, a hushed or a boisterous electioneering for not more than 16 days until December 27 is allowed for political parties to make processions, rallies and door-to-door campaigns. Campaigners must remain quiet on December 28, the day before the election to be held hopefully on Monday, December 29, 2008.
Most of us must be guessing where our nation is heading. Many have been speculating who could come out victorious. Veteran analysts are constructing mathematical models to forecast which political party for sure is going to form the government in January 2009. Supporters of major parties are very sure of themselves that their party alone is going to win with a comfortable majority to form the next government Non-partisan observers are a little skeptical, though, about the outcome. Many are betting their life or their last Taka to say that there would be something unprecedented if the outcome of the election is different from what some mysteriously silent quarters are now expecting to happen.
If an opinion poll, let's say, to choose the best crops or fruits could be arranged at a remote constituency of Bangladesh where inhabitants are mostly poor and illiterate, the absolute majority of them would undoubtedly have chosen the right and the best kind as they, like their ancestors, are innately familiar with their corns and grains and have long been eating foods and fruits for their survival and sustenance.
In the same constituency if another poll to choose the best physician could be arranged, a good majority of the inhabitants would perhaps choose a quack, a 'peer shahib' or a spiritual person as their best, in spite of scientifically qualified physicians being all available to treat them. The reason: The inhabitants, like their ancestors, have long been taking medical counseling from those soothsaying quacks or spiritual guides.
Yet, if a third poll to choose the best Bangladeshi cricketer were arranged, the same inhabitants may surprisingly choose the right player. Reason: cricket fever has already touched most of them without adversely affecting their old beliefs and values.
Humans, no matter they are illiterate or educated, no matter they are Bangladeshi or American, have a penchant for following in the footsteps of their ancestors whenever they have to choose their social leaders and guardians.
In the upcoming election due to be held on December 29 the inhabitants of the same remote village, one can safely predict, would cast their votes as they used to, in all the past elections. The majorities of them will undoubtedly and blindly vote for party symbols, not for party leaders.
We should change our political mentality, but we can't. We should vote for those who offer the ideal solutions to our problems, but we can't. We must not cast our ballots blindly for party symbols, but we can't. Our inability to do what we should do is again due to our sheer inability. We, the voters and the campaigners, are both blind.
Some forecasts are, however, very easy to make. One can vouch for sure that any candidate, however educated, honest, and smart, of any political party, however big, small, weak or strong, would have to embrace a damn defeat in the upcoming election if s/he makes a taunting remark---directly or indirectly---against a religion the majority of the inhabitants have long been following for generations. At the same time a secular candidate has also ample opportunity to win the election if s/he can radiate an innocuous aura---like the innocuous cricket fever---that will not affect adversely the inhabitants' long-held faiths, beliefs, or customs.
Majority of our people may be illiterate but they are quite capable of choosing what is the most suitable for their society based on the footsteps their ancestors had left behind. They are tremendously influenced by their opinion leaders like the Imams of their mosques or the priests of their temples and churches. But when they face a dilemmatic choice to cast their votes to elect their representatives as lawmakers, they are confused and are unfortunately left with fewer options.
They are pathetically ignorant about the responsibility their elected lawmakers have to shoulder as parliamentarians. They, knowingly or unknowingly, cling to their beliefs that first influenced them to cast their first votes for a person or for a leader or for a mark that represents a party symbol: a plough, a boat, a bunch of paddy sheaf, etc.
If we look back over our shoulder, we find two major political parties, Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and Awami League (AL), always in tough contests in almost all the past elections. In most past cases, BNP gained grounds not necessarily for their intrinsic quality but for the people's frustration with Awami League when they were in power. This time Awami League has a better chance for gaining grounds not necessarily for their intrinsic quality but for the people's frustration with BNP when they were in power in the latest government.
Like the children riding the ends of a seesaw plank, BNP is destined to go up and the Awami League to come down in one term and reverse their positions in the next. But, this seesawing game in Bangladesh politics has, of late, frustrated intellectuals, observers and voters alike. People are bored and are eager to see a change, a change in the quality of candidates if not a change in the names of political parties any of which will hold sway over the next government in power.
But what we are learning from newspaper reports about the backgrounds of nominated candidates do not augur well at all. Almost one third of the election aspirants, according to the National Board of Revenue, don't have their Taxpayers' Identification Numbers meaning they have no tax files with any taxation authority.
Among those are quite a number of stalwarts representing some major political parties. If such an allegation were raised against any aspiring parliamentarian in a country of minimum civility, the candidate would perhaps have committed suicide out of disgrace. What a shame! Persons desiring to be lawmakers of our country are perpetual lawbreakers themselves.
It seems our political leaders are doggedly determined not to keep their promises of staying away from the corrupt and the inept. The storm that lashed the political landscape of Bangladesh during the last two years now in retrospect seems to have been too weak to sweep the crumbs and wastes into the political wastebaskets.
Tragically, fabrics of our morale and the mooring rope tying our character are both nakedly frayed.
Bangladesh Election Commission in collaboration with our armed forces have done a commendable job by completing in record time a gigantic project of issuing national voter-cum-identity cards with biometric security checks for all Bangladeshis aged 18 and above. But the commission's assurance of holding a free, fair, non-violent, transparent and credible election on 29 January does not seem to be quite reassuring to many observers as we read in newspaper reports and editorials. The history of elections held in the past has infused into people's minds a kind of phobia about election credibility because many past elections were partly, if not wholly, rigged.
The government had to withdraw completely the emergency and the Election Commission had to remove all the hurdles much earlier so that the candidates could start their full electioneering at least one month ahead of election. The atmosphere for spontaneous campaign is still absent with only about two weeks left before the polling.
The most important functionaries who can truly ensure a free and fair election are the Returning Officers, Presiding Officers, Polling Officers, Assistant Polling Officers, Police Officers and, most significantly, the military personnel who are supposed to be ever vigilant while conducting or coordinating the elections.
Their unbiased dispensation of justice and duties would be the only hallmark that would certify the quality of election. The burden of choosing the right officials as returning officers and deploying the right security forces in right places lies squarely on the shoulder of the election commission. So, the commission must deploy their intelligence to find out who is who among the probable officers who would ultimately be given the charge of watching, conducting, and coordinating the elections in the fields. Thousands of armed police and military personnel, we hope, are quite capable of maintaining law and order and ensure safety and security of polling centers.
Some unscrupulous politicians adopt a variety of nasty tricks and tactics to capture votes and scare away voters who belong to their opposition. Intimidation is a tool they use against those who they are sure would not cast votes in favour. In some instances in the past even security personnel had joined in their intimidation campaigns by arresting and parading the opposition candidates' supporters and compelling them to pull down their posters and to close down their campaign offices.
Takeover and seizure of polling centers and stuffing false ballots into ballot boxes by political goons are other ways of rigging elections.
Only neutral observers and responsible media people can and must stand in their way of rigging and intimidation. There should be maximum latitude of freedom offered to media people and international observers to report incidents and express their observations right from the fields on the day of election. Special permission for using wireless or satellite phones, if not cell phones, may also be accorded to the observers and media people to facilitate live coverage of the election.
Even if a free and fair election is held may we expect to surmount our leadership crisis? Perhaps not! Because we all, this way or that way, are completely blind about earning and retaining money and power. Our leaders are blind and we are their blind followers in exploiting whatever that comes by to satiate our greed. We don't have any self-judgment. We blindly follow the blind crowd not knowing we are chasing an oasis or a mirage.
As a race we are hyperemotional and as such extremely forgetful. If we could use our brains instead of our hearts, our Bangladesh would have been a much better place to live in. Of course, our leaders live in splendor from the wealth and power gained from their followers. These blind followers are the wealth of our present-day leaders. They exploit us, they gain from us and when we have nothing to give them they throw us out like waste paper.
As business as usual, a parliamentary election would be held on the 29th. Leaders and their supporters of a party would be partying over the whole night after the election to celebrate their victory. The prime leader would be forming his/her cabinet and take his/her sacred oath as the new prime minister to run a new government. If fortune smiles at us we may take a U-turn to achieve what our freedom fighters had dreamed exactly 37 years back.
But it would be unwise to be so dreamy. Our country was blessed with a number of leaders who could lead us to our dreamland. Millions of people sacrificed their 'todays' in our liberation war with a view to paving ways for our better 'tomorrows'. But, instead of honouring their glory, we killed those valiant freedom fighting leaders because as a race we are perhaps the most deceitful one in the world as was declared by Thomas Babington Macaulay, a nineteenth-century British poet and historian: "What the horns are to the buffalo, what the paw is to the tiger, what the sting is to the bee, what beauty, according to the old Greek song, is to woman, deceit is to the Bengalee".
The writer is a banker. He may be reached at maswood@hotmail.com
POLITICAL parties can now hold meetings from December 12 for seven days under emergency and the state of emergency is going to be lifted, as promised, just twelve days before the scheduled Election Day. So, a hushed or a boisterous electioneering for not more than 16 days until December 27 is allowed for political parties to make processions, rallies and door-to-door campaigns. Campaigners must remain quiet on December 28, the day before the election to be held hopefully on Monday, December 29, 2008.
Most of us must be guessing where our nation is heading. Many have been speculating who could come out victorious. Veteran analysts are constructing mathematical models to forecast which political party for sure is going to form the government in January 2009. Supporters of major parties are very sure of themselves that their party alone is going to win with a comfortable majority to form the next government Non-partisan observers are a little skeptical, though, about the outcome. Many are betting their life or their last Taka to say that there would be something unprecedented if the outcome of the election is different from what some mysteriously silent quarters are now expecting to happen.
If an opinion poll, let's say, to choose the best crops or fruits could be arranged at a remote constituency of Bangladesh where inhabitants are mostly poor and illiterate, the absolute majority of them would undoubtedly have chosen the right and the best kind as they, like their ancestors, are innately familiar with their corns and grains and have long been eating foods and fruits for their survival and sustenance.
In the same constituency if another poll to choose the best physician could be arranged, a good majority of the inhabitants would perhaps choose a quack, a 'peer shahib' or a spiritual person as their best, in spite of scientifically qualified physicians being all available to treat them. The reason: The inhabitants, like their ancestors, have long been taking medical counseling from those soothsaying quacks or spiritual guides.
Yet, if a third poll to choose the best Bangladeshi cricketer were arranged, the same inhabitants may surprisingly choose the right player. Reason: cricket fever has already touched most of them without adversely affecting their old beliefs and values.
Humans, no matter they are illiterate or educated, no matter they are Bangladeshi or American, have a penchant for following in the footsteps of their ancestors whenever they have to choose their social leaders and guardians.
In the upcoming election due to be held on December 29 the inhabitants of the same remote village, one can safely predict, would cast their votes as they used to, in all the past elections. The majorities of them will undoubtedly and blindly vote for party symbols, not for party leaders.
We should change our political mentality, but we can't. We should vote for those who offer the ideal solutions to our problems, but we can't. We must not cast our ballots blindly for party symbols, but we can't. Our inability to do what we should do is again due to our sheer inability. We, the voters and the campaigners, are both blind.
Some forecasts are, however, very easy to make. One can vouch for sure that any candidate, however educated, honest, and smart, of any political party, however big, small, weak or strong, would have to embrace a damn defeat in the upcoming election if s/he makes a taunting remark---directly or indirectly---against a religion the majority of the inhabitants have long been following for generations. At the same time a secular candidate has also ample opportunity to win the election if s/he can radiate an innocuous aura---like the innocuous cricket fever---that will not affect adversely the inhabitants' long-held faiths, beliefs, or customs.
Majority of our people may be illiterate but they are quite capable of choosing what is the most suitable for their society based on the footsteps their ancestors had left behind. They are tremendously influenced by their opinion leaders like the Imams of their mosques or the priests of their temples and churches. But when they face a dilemmatic choice to cast their votes to elect their representatives as lawmakers, they are confused and are unfortunately left with fewer options.
They are pathetically ignorant about the responsibility their elected lawmakers have to shoulder as parliamentarians. They, knowingly or unknowingly, cling to their beliefs that first influenced them to cast their first votes for a person or for a leader or for a mark that represents a party symbol: a plough, a boat, a bunch of paddy sheaf, etc.
If we look back over our shoulder, we find two major political parties, Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and Awami League (AL), always in tough contests in almost all the past elections. In most past cases, BNP gained grounds not necessarily for their intrinsic quality but for the people's frustration with Awami League when they were in power. This time Awami League has a better chance for gaining grounds not necessarily for their intrinsic quality but for the people's frustration with BNP when they were in power in the latest government.
Like the children riding the ends of a seesaw plank, BNP is destined to go up and the Awami League to come down in one term and reverse their positions in the next. But, this seesawing game in Bangladesh politics has, of late, frustrated intellectuals, observers and voters alike. People are bored and are eager to see a change, a change in the quality of candidates if not a change in the names of political parties any of which will hold sway over the next government in power.
But what we are learning from newspaper reports about the backgrounds of nominated candidates do not augur well at all. Almost one third of the election aspirants, according to the National Board of Revenue, don't have their Taxpayers' Identification Numbers meaning they have no tax files with any taxation authority.
Among those are quite a number of stalwarts representing some major political parties. If such an allegation were raised against any aspiring parliamentarian in a country of minimum civility, the candidate would perhaps have committed suicide out of disgrace. What a shame! Persons desiring to be lawmakers of our country are perpetual lawbreakers themselves.
It seems our political leaders are doggedly determined not to keep their promises of staying away from the corrupt and the inept. The storm that lashed the political landscape of Bangladesh during the last two years now in retrospect seems to have been too weak to sweep the crumbs and wastes into the political wastebaskets.
Tragically, fabrics of our morale and the mooring rope tying our character are both nakedly frayed.
Bangladesh Election Commission in collaboration with our armed forces have done a commendable job by completing in record time a gigantic project of issuing national voter-cum-identity cards with biometric security checks for all Bangladeshis aged 18 and above. But the commission's assurance of holding a free, fair, non-violent, transparent and credible election on 29 January does not seem to be quite reassuring to many observers as we read in newspaper reports and editorials. The history of elections held in the past has infused into people's minds a kind of phobia about election credibility because many past elections were partly, if not wholly, rigged.
The government had to withdraw completely the emergency and the Election Commission had to remove all the hurdles much earlier so that the candidates could start their full electioneering at least one month ahead of election. The atmosphere for spontaneous campaign is still absent with only about two weeks left before the polling.
The most important functionaries who can truly ensure a free and fair election are the Returning Officers, Presiding Officers, Polling Officers, Assistant Polling Officers, Police Officers and, most significantly, the military personnel who are supposed to be ever vigilant while conducting or coordinating the elections.
Their unbiased dispensation of justice and duties would be the only hallmark that would certify the quality of election. The burden of choosing the right officials as returning officers and deploying the right security forces in right places lies squarely on the shoulder of the election commission. So, the commission must deploy their intelligence to find out who is who among the probable officers who would ultimately be given the charge of watching, conducting, and coordinating the elections in the fields. Thousands of armed police and military personnel, we hope, are quite capable of maintaining law and order and ensure safety and security of polling centers.
Some unscrupulous politicians adopt a variety of nasty tricks and tactics to capture votes and scare away voters who belong to their opposition. Intimidation is a tool they use against those who they are sure would not cast votes in favour. In some instances in the past even security personnel had joined in their intimidation campaigns by arresting and parading the opposition candidates' supporters and compelling them to pull down their posters and to close down their campaign offices.
Takeover and seizure of polling centers and stuffing false ballots into ballot boxes by political goons are other ways of rigging elections.
Only neutral observers and responsible media people can and must stand in their way of rigging and intimidation. There should be maximum latitude of freedom offered to media people and international observers to report incidents and express their observations right from the fields on the day of election. Special permission for using wireless or satellite phones, if not cell phones, may also be accorded to the observers and media people to facilitate live coverage of the election.
Even if a free and fair election is held may we expect to surmount our leadership crisis? Perhaps not! Because we all, this way or that way, are completely blind about earning and retaining money and power. Our leaders are blind and we are their blind followers in exploiting whatever that comes by to satiate our greed. We don't have any self-judgment. We blindly follow the blind crowd not knowing we are chasing an oasis or a mirage.
As a race we are hyperemotional and as such extremely forgetful. If we could use our brains instead of our hearts, our Bangladesh would have been a much better place to live in. Of course, our leaders live in splendor from the wealth and power gained from their followers. These blind followers are the wealth of our present-day leaders. They exploit us, they gain from us and when we have nothing to give them they throw us out like waste paper.
As business as usual, a parliamentary election would be held on the 29th. Leaders and their supporters of a party would be partying over the whole night after the election to celebrate their victory. The prime leader would be forming his/her cabinet and take his/her sacred oath as the new prime minister to run a new government. If fortune smiles at us we may take a U-turn to achieve what our freedom fighters had dreamed exactly 37 years back.
But it would be unwise to be so dreamy. Our country was blessed with a number of leaders who could lead us to our dreamland. Millions of people sacrificed their 'todays' in our liberation war with a view to paving ways for our better 'tomorrows'. But, instead of honouring their glory, we killed those valiant freedom fighting leaders because as a race we are perhaps the most deceitful one in the world as was declared by Thomas Babington Macaulay, a nineteenth-century British poet and historian: "What the horns are to the buffalo, what the paw is to the tiger, what the sting is to the bee, what beauty, according to the old Greek song, is to woman, deceit is to the Bengalee".
The writer is a banker. He may be reached at maswood@hotmail.com