Seeing the sun setting
Sunday, 27 December 2009
Maswood Alam Khan
THIS week is the last week in 2009. Last year in this week I had tried to visualise what was likely to happen in the next year. I painted on a canvas in my mind a picture of our life in Bangladesh on the strength of my foresight based on the benefit of my hindsight. With some trepidation I predicted a better Bangladesh under a brand new government.
December 18 election in 2008 gave a huge gain to one political leader and a huge loss to another. It was a sunrise for Sheikh Hasina Wazed, the president of Awami League and a sunset for Khaleda Zia, the chairperson of BNP, two personalities in our political landscape who have been shaping the fate of Bangladesh for the last few decades.
As the curtain rose at the dawn of 2009 Hasina assured the nation a better life and sought cooperation from Khaleda.
Hasina is sincerely trying to better the life of Bangladeshis and Khaleda has not yet started her political movement on the streets. Khaleda is watching how Hasina fulfills her commitments she had pledged during her election campaigns and Hasina is endeavouring not to repeat the mistakes her government had committed in their last term.
A year has already passed without "hartal", a quintessential political tool in Bangladesh both Awami League and BNP had traditionally used to make their presence felt, no matter there was an issue to protest against or not. Khaleda deserves kudos for her offering the nation a break from the nuisance of hartal. It is doubtful though whether Hasina would have offered a similar break had she been in the opposition.
Winning a landslide victory, with 262 out of 299 seats in the parliament, in the December 2008 election Sheikh Hasina declared that her government's foremost task would be to bring down the prices of essentials within people's reach.
Prices of essentials, especially of fuels and food items, came down in the beginning of 2009. It was a relief that was not for any revolutionary measure taken by the new government but a windfall that was a corollary of the global trend of downward spiral of commodity prices. Prices of essentials have of late gone up beyond people's reach, again more as an unavoidable corollary of the global tendency than as an inevitable outcome of the government's mismanagement.
In January 2009, Sheikh Hasina also vowed to ensure rule of law and good governance in the country. Now in December, 2009 if we evaluate the quality of governance and the class of rule of law in the passing year we find a bleak picture of rapid deterioration in every sphere.
Corruption in every chair of the government offices has been more rampant than in the previous years. Students have kept only their names enrolled in colleges and universities to carry with them only their political identity; instead of studying they are indulged in toll collections. In different enterprises, members of trade unions in the name of guarding welfare of employees have been collecting subscriptions under duress from both the employees and the clients. In order to please their political cohorts, sycophantic office bosses are depriving their subordinates of their genuine dues in respect of promotions and postings. Innocent public servants are being dumped in the sidelines on mere suspicion that they could belong to an opposition party, either BNP or Jamat-e-Islami.
Lobbying and sharing commissions are nowadays deemed the safest and the best business for a middleman to thrive on. Fleecing banks in the name of waiver of interest is now the quick fix to recover personal losses. Capital is being siphoned off out of a running industry to make the enterprise look sick to the bank that had financed the company. Extracting money from the government exchequer in the name of 'stimulus package' is a new fashion the exporters have invented to fatten their personal funds.
Money power emboldened by political patronisation is bleaching black images into white and white into pink and in some cases, when money cannot be extorted as expected, black images once laundered into pink are being dyed back to black.
Dr Jafar Iqbal, a popular science fictionist, wrote in a Bangla newspaper: Two Vice Chancellors, one of Comilla University and the other of Pabna University, had to quit their jobs as they could no more withstand the unjust pressures for doing the undoable. They had mentioned in their resignation letters 'undue pressures from local Awami League leaders' as the main reason for their tendering resignation.
In the heaps of failures seen in 2009 there are also some telltale signs that augur well for successes in 2010 and beyond. The government, under personal supervision of the prime minister herself, is sincerely exploring ways and means to solve crises in the sectors of energy and communication. The government's attempt at digitizing different public services is also quite palpable.
Compact fluorescent light bulbs are being swapped for incandescent light bulbs for free. Solar panels have been installed in the prime minister's office. Train services between Kamalapur and Narayanganj and between Kamalapur and Airport are being streamlined to help commuters avoid traffic jams on roads.
Traffic discipline is being tightly enforced; drivers who were once die-hard lawbreakers are now stunned as they find Taka 1000 fine being slapped on any motorist found straddling lanes unlawfully or parking his vehicle in an unauthorised place.
Construction work on the elevated expressway from Jatrabari all the way to New Market with a number of exits on its way is starting in January 2010. Padma Bridge with state-of-the-art facilities for both railways and highways will be commissioned soon.
Now in the last week of 2009, as I am trying to paint a picture on a canvas in my mind what life would be like in 2010 I find sparkling silver linings bordering the dark patches of clouds floating on the sky over Bangladesh because I am a born optimist. I hate to see the sun setting if there is no possibility for the same sun for rising the next morning.
Awami League has a great chance to come again to power in the next term if their government in the next four years can bring in success in three vital sectors: energy, communication and digitisation. Sheikh Hasina has to move ahead fearlessly to punish the corrupt and the inept; she cannot afford to miss the opportunity to enter history. If, God forbid, she misses the bus the sun will set in the domain of her party and will rise in the field of Khaleda Zia in 2014 or even earlier.
When the end of a year is in sight and when it is the closing hour for saying good-bye to a year, it pains us to part with a period, so familiar a four-digit numerical identity, spanning 365 days and nights. This is the heartbreaking moment when we feel an inner urge to reflect on the sights and the sounds of the year waiting for the final curtain.
At this transitional moment a recurring theme that keeps bubbling up for all of us is what in our lifetime we have gained and lost---and regained and then lost again.
And we sum up at the end of the day what we have saved in our balance sheet of gain and loss.
One year however is too small a period in history to judge which side the balance of one's gain and loss is ultimately tilting to. Cumulative savings, after adjustment of cumulative gains and losses made in a number of years, are usually recorded in the book of history many years after the departure or the death of a stakeholder.
Everyday in the evening, I enjoy taking tea sitting on my balcony. I can't see the sun setting in the west because my balcony faces the east. But I can feel every pulse of the sun in its downward scaling from the light reflected upon the panorama of buildings and trees I face in the east.
From the glow of light growing fainter in the eastern horizon I can say the exact moment when the sun is no more visible in the western horizon. I have discovered in my own self, to my sheer excitement, an intuitive power!
Based on my new-found intuitive power I am now trying to predict why and when the sun is going to set in one political field and rise in another, now that I am fully retired and have plenty of time to mull over a variety of issues, both political and apolitical.
The contributor is a freelance writer. He can be reached at e-mail:
maswood@hotmail.com
THIS week is the last week in 2009. Last year in this week I had tried to visualise what was likely to happen in the next year. I painted on a canvas in my mind a picture of our life in Bangladesh on the strength of my foresight based on the benefit of my hindsight. With some trepidation I predicted a better Bangladesh under a brand new government.
December 18 election in 2008 gave a huge gain to one political leader and a huge loss to another. It was a sunrise for Sheikh Hasina Wazed, the president of Awami League and a sunset for Khaleda Zia, the chairperson of BNP, two personalities in our political landscape who have been shaping the fate of Bangladesh for the last few decades.
As the curtain rose at the dawn of 2009 Hasina assured the nation a better life and sought cooperation from Khaleda.
Hasina is sincerely trying to better the life of Bangladeshis and Khaleda has not yet started her political movement on the streets. Khaleda is watching how Hasina fulfills her commitments she had pledged during her election campaigns and Hasina is endeavouring not to repeat the mistakes her government had committed in their last term.
A year has already passed without "hartal", a quintessential political tool in Bangladesh both Awami League and BNP had traditionally used to make their presence felt, no matter there was an issue to protest against or not. Khaleda deserves kudos for her offering the nation a break from the nuisance of hartal. It is doubtful though whether Hasina would have offered a similar break had she been in the opposition.
Winning a landslide victory, with 262 out of 299 seats in the parliament, in the December 2008 election Sheikh Hasina declared that her government's foremost task would be to bring down the prices of essentials within people's reach.
Prices of essentials, especially of fuels and food items, came down in the beginning of 2009. It was a relief that was not for any revolutionary measure taken by the new government but a windfall that was a corollary of the global trend of downward spiral of commodity prices. Prices of essentials have of late gone up beyond people's reach, again more as an unavoidable corollary of the global tendency than as an inevitable outcome of the government's mismanagement.
In January 2009, Sheikh Hasina also vowed to ensure rule of law and good governance in the country. Now in December, 2009 if we evaluate the quality of governance and the class of rule of law in the passing year we find a bleak picture of rapid deterioration in every sphere.
Corruption in every chair of the government offices has been more rampant than in the previous years. Students have kept only their names enrolled in colleges and universities to carry with them only their political identity; instead of studying they are indulged in toll collections. In different enterprises, members of trade unions in the name of guarding welfare of employees have been collecting subscriptions under duress from both the employees and the clients. In order to please their political cohorts, sycophantic office bosses are depriving their subordinates of their genuine dues in respect of promotions and postings. Innocent public servants are being dumped in the sidelines on mere suspicion that they could belong to an opposition party, either BNP or Jamat-e-Islami.
Lobbying and sharing commissions are nowadays deemed the safest and the best business for a middleman to thrive on. Fleecing banks in the name of waiver of interest is now the quick fix to recover personal losses. Capital is being siphoned off out of a running industry to make the enterprise look sick to the bank that had financed the company. Extracting money from the government exchequer in the name of 'stimulus package' is a new fashion the exporters have invented to fatten their personal funds.
Money power emboldened by political patronisation is bleaching black images into white and white into pink and in some cases, when money cannot be extorted as expected, black images once laundered into pink are being dyed back to black.
Dr Jafar Iqbal, a popular science fictionist, wrote in a Bangla newspaper: Two Vice Chancellors, one of Comilla University and the other of Pabna University, had to quit their jobs as they could no more withstand the unjust pressures for doing the undoable. They had mentioned in their resignation letters 'undue pressures from local Awami League leaders' as the main reason for their tendering resignation.
In the heaps of failures seen in 2009 there are also some telltale signs that augur well for successes in 2010 and beyond. The government, under personal supervision of the prime minister herself, is sincerely exploring ways and means to solve crises in the sectors of energy and communication. The government's attempt at digitizing different public services is also quite palpable.
Compact fluorescent light bulbs are being swapped for incandescent light bulbs for free. Solar panels have been installed in the prime minister's office. Train services between Kamalapur and Narayanganj and between Kamalapur and Airport are being streamlined to help commuters avoid traffic jams on roads.
Traffic discipline is being tightly enforced; drivers who were once die-hard lawbreakers are now stunned as they find Taka 1000 fine being slapped on any motorist found straddling lanes unlawfully or parking his vehicle in an unauthorised place.
Construction work on the elevated expressway from Jatrabari all the way to New Market with a number of exits on its way is starting in January 2010. Padma Bridge with state-of-the-art facilities for both railways and highways will be commissioned soon.
Now in the last week of 2009, as I am trying to paint a picture on a canvas in my mind what life would be like in 2010 I find sparkling silver linings bordering the dark patches of clouds floating on the sky over Bangladesh because I am a born optimist. I hate to see the sun setting if there is no possibility for the same sun for rising the next morning.
Awami League has a great chance to come again to power in the next term if their government in the next four years can bring in success in three vital sectors: energy, communication and digitisation. Sheikh Hasina has to move ahead fearlessly to punish the corrupt and the inept; she cannot afford to miss the opportunity to enter history. If, God forbid, she misses the bus the sun will set in the domain of her party and will rise in the field of Khaleda Zia in 2014 or even earlier.
When the end of a year is in sight and when it is the closing hour for saying good-bye to a year, it pains us to part with a period, so familiar a four-digit numerical identity, spanning 365 days and nights. This is the heartbreaking moment when we feel an inner urge to reflect on the sights and the sounds of the year waiting for the final curtain.
At this transitional moment a recurring theme that keeps bubbling up for all of us is what in our lifetime we have gained and lost---and regained and then lost again.
And we sum up at the end of the day what we have saved in our balance sheet of gain and loss.
One year however is too small a period in history to judge which side the balance of one's gain and loss is ultimately tilting to. Cumulative savings, after adjustment of cumulative gains and losses made in a number of years, are usually recorded in the book of history many years after the departure or the death of a stakeholder.
Everyday in the evening, I enjoy taking tea sitting on my balcony. I can't see the sun setting in the west because my balcony faces the east. But I can feel every pulse of the sun in its downward scaling from the light reflected upon the panorama of buildings and trees I face in the east.
From the glow of light growing fainter in the eastern horizon I can say the exact moment when the sun is no more visible in the western horizon. I have discovered in my own self, to my sheer excitement, an intuitive power!
Based on my new-found intuitive power I am now trying to predict why and when the sun is going to set in one political field and rise in another, now that I am fully retired and have plenty of time to mull over a variety of issues, both political and apolitical.
The contributor is a freelance writer. He can be reached at e-mail:
maswood@hotmail.com