Mass beatings : Portending worse things likely to come

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Historians have written many things about the causes of the French Revolution that seemed to start from 1789 and turned into a cataclysmic event affecting not only the destiny of France but also Europe as a whole and beyond. The revolution was both the starting point of many good things and symbolized the majesty and ultimate sovereignty of the people against tyranny or tyrannical leaders. But it also had its very dark sides of very cruel and inhuman acts committed by the revolutionaries in the name of lofty principles.
Thus, notwithstanding the romantic sides to social revolutions, the same are best avoided for preserving social and all other forms of stability. Two countries side by side provide examples of excesses committed on the plea of revolution and the attainment of revolutionary ideals peacefully through reforms and growing enlightenment of the ruling elites. Thus, while France was soaked in blood and destructions by its revolution for a long time, the British next-door achieved all the goals of the French revolution such as curbing the power of absolute monarchy, achieving fundamental civil and political rights of people, social justice, etc. through a process of gradual reforms consented to by interacting social forces.
The choice of whether to promote bloody revolution or its constructive opposite remains open to human society. Some may think that a French revolution type of phenomenon in the modern times is unlikely to happen in the present day context of Bangladesh. But there are others who fear it as a distinct possibility. They point to growing signs of social unrest reflected in rioting by angry workers, mass beating to deaths of suspected criminals, pouncing down by mobs of very angry people on law enforcers and other acts as wake up calls for those who are in charge of governing the country. They say that these are isolated acts but have a common thread : the growing feeling of bitterness of Bangladeshis-- like in France during 1979 -- about their rulers and the government for what is perceived as the latter's casual interest or lack of enough sensitivity to their needs.
Last week, the media highlighted the beating to death of five persons from mass beatings in Dhaka on suspicion that they were plotting a robbery. Two more could die in the hospitals from not recovering from their injuries. Two days ago, a mugger was similarly beaten to death in the Gulshan area. These incidents of beating are signs of the growing disillusionment of the rank and file of the people with the police and other law enforcers. A clear and growing instinct of taking law into their own hands by the people is noted. Not only resorting to mass beating, excited and indignant people are also noted increasingly these days for surrounding police stations or attacking policemen from a perception that the police only shelter and protect criminals.
People in great number have turned very cynical. They have lost their confidence on the law enforcement bodies and allegedly the judiciary, too, in many cases. Thus, the tendency on their part to increasingly take law into their own hands .
Under no circumstances, people in a civilized polity reserve any right to inflict such punishment as death by beating with their own hands other humans on grounds of crimes real or only suspected. Affected people can at most hand over such real or suspected criminals to law enforcement bodies for their due trial and punishment. Anything to the contrary is repugnant of a civilized existence and can only encourage anarchy and worse lawlessness from people doing whatever they fancy as doing justice on their own.
But the ones responsible for the governance of the country must also get down to realizing at the fastest why people tend to react in such a murderous mood these days. The law enforces are hardly perceived by the people to be responding to their request for help against criminality. For example, eight robberies were committed in the Kadamtali area where the mass beating occurred in the last two months and police could hardly do anything to catch the robbers or prevent further robberies. Thus, people have been guarding the area on their own at night time.
This case of police's negligence is not peculiar but typical of police's conduct all over the country. And what the upper and lower judiciaries allegedly have been doing in many cases -- nowadays-- are considered as adding to people's conviction that the legal system is hardly in favour of law abiding citizens.
The ones who are now in charge of the country should ponder the consequences of these growing signs of lawlessness resulting from fast rising people's disillusionment with lawful authorities. Things may just spin out of control any time and plunge the country into extensive anarchy from one or few incidents in a series triggering it and ultimately the same gathering a momentum and engulfing the whole country. Bangladesh surely will not move forward from a revolutionary explosion of people's anger. The same will only drag the country and the economy backward .
Thus, the imperative to be wide awake about these issues on the part of those who matter. Recent contemplated Tughlaki policy measures such as evicting wholesale hawkers from road sides in Dhaka and to similarly make the main roads of the capital city rickshaw free pushing millions of non affluent people out of their self employment, will only add more hatred and violence to the revolutionary cauldron. So, government needs to be conscious of the deficiencies in its policies and check them. Reformative and self corrective activities need to be immediately started on a large scale to rehabilitate people's confidence in relation to law enforcement bodies and the legal system.