Need for shunning irresponsible remarks

Our leaders need to maintain a level of decency while addressing public meetings and other forums and making comments on personal matters of others. Presently, it is far from desirable. The deliberations do not bespeak of a leader of any caliber, whether political or otherwise. They are full of invectives, aimed at character assassination, intimidation and baseless and reflect a poor taste. When the leading lights of the government indulge themselves in such a practice, matters get worse. Often, even dead people are not being spared. We have already seen how ugly and senseless, the name-change games can be. We are simply alarmed by this ever growing culture of invectives, blame-games and mudslinging. Other things being as they are, this merely reaffirms the poor image of our politics and political leaders both at home and abroad. It is interesting to note that leaders of countries of the region and elsewhere in the world do not indulge in making such derogatory remarks against their political opponents. The worst of all the underlying tone of all such deliberations are aimed at vilification and character assassination. We must simply be more restrained in our mannerism, if we are to call ourselves members of a civilised society. We must refrain from making any accusation of criminal nature or otherwise, without backing it up with concrete evidences or proven in a court of law. In recent times, some of the remarks made by such key functionaries of the government have shocked many of us beyond measure. The other day in a public meeting the leader of the opposition as was, thus, dubbed "mad". Yet on another occasion it was said that the World Bank (WB) assistance for construction of the Padma Bridge was withheld due to corruption by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP). To top it, all it was stated by the key functionary of the government at that public meeting that "a Bangladeshi Nobel Laureate had been lobbying with the World Bank not to finance the construction of the Padma Bridge." The irony of it all is that this observationremark connecting the Nobel Laureate has later been refuted by the Finance Minister. The Nobel Laureate also refuted the accusation in no uncertain terms. There is yet another related issue that many of us find to be insinuating and unsubstantiated when the highest responsible person of the government comes up with a statement that whatever the opposition is doing is aimed at stopping of the upcoming trials of war criminals of the 1971. Frankly, the very issue of war-crime trials will lose its steam if such irresponsible remarks continue to come from various corners of the ruling establishment. Many of us also fail to understand as to why this all out crusade against one particular party, otherwise known as 'Islamic-minded one. True as it may be that many of us may not agree or perhaps even find its politics as hateful but that does not justify a blanket condemnation of a political party that has not been banned by the state machinery. Community profiling as a political tool is not only counter-productive but can at times also prove to be disastrous. The best way of doing politics in a democracy is to follow the path of consultation and negotiation between opposing parties. Preconceived notions, egos and arrogance can cause the downfall of best of governments anywhere in the world. We often come across the term " Zero tolerance" While the key functionaries of the government frequently tell us of zero tolerance against corruption, hyperactive ones among them use the slogan in relation to crimes and criminals. It is our belief that realities on the ground clearly reflect matters the other way round. The way things stand today, the ruling establishment is far from having zero tolerance for corruption and is actually nurturing corruption in more ways than one. On a different plain, the political leaders of establishment should also refrain themselves from making irresponsible remarks raising hopes and aspirations of the people at large. One could cite several such instances where its responsible members make tall promises to the public only to be dashed in no time. The ruling establishment, thus, continually announces time-targets on completion of developmental projects for the welfare of the people in which people have little or no faith at all. This is nothing but befooling the people. The trouble with our politicians and political leaders of today is manifested in a tendency among them to underestimate the intellect of the people in general. As much as it is desirable that we must have a positive vision, it must at the same time be also commensurate with the realities on the ground. We do sincerely hope that this debilitating aspect of our political culture will come to an end sooner than later. The writer can be reached at e-mail: caa342@yahoo.com