Three years of the Grand Alliance: upon sober reflection

Rashid Askari

Published in theDhaka Courier, Thursday, January 19th, 2012

The “Grand Alliance” government led by Sheikh Hasina has recently completed the third year of its five-year reign. The power- party is breaking into chants of a roaring success while the opposition is spitting venom at the government.
The media is giving rise to saturation coverage, rounds of facetious chat-shows, and long political discourses in favour of or against the hot issue. This is not unusual in a democratic society like ours. We may have limits to our attainments, but we do not have restraints on our speech. We like to lavish most of our love and hatred on things happening around us.

I would, however, try not to be one of those doom merchants who have declared the three years of the present government a total failure, nor would I be one of the over-enthusiastic admirers who consider it totally immaculate. As a matter of fact, I find it difficult to say a simple yes or no about the halfway rule of a country straight from the shoulder. Most of the sweeping statements regarding this are guilty of lopsided views and rabid speculations. The situation is not as black or as white as is painted.

It can, however, be generally acknowledged that the country’s overall development in the last three years has not lived up to people’s expectations. The electoral pledges of the government have met with little success. But compared to the previous phases and given the adverse effects of the depression-ridden global economy, the march of progress made by the Hasina government has not been as bad as all that. It must have been the best of a bad bunch from the standpoint of its comparison with prolonged years of misrule and maladministration by the previous governments.

I would not like to adduce any economic indexes to mathematically prove the government’s success rate. Our learned economists are there for it. What I would rather like to do is to draw attention to some points with a view to not siding with the power or the opposition but to making people awake to some potential dangers that can be looming ahead if a secular democratic government is not in power.

Despite all its shortcomings, the biggest success of the Hasina government or the people who voted them to power is the bold move to bring the war criminals to trial. Those who have lost their beloved ones in the Liberation War would realise the real magnitude of this trial. Although the slow progress of the trial is of little concern them, they are happy to see the perpetrators of crime against humanity standing trial after four decades of the Liberation War (1971). If this attempt fairly succeeds, and the top brass are punished in the next two years of this government’s tenure, the pro-liberation folks would heave a big sigh of relief.

The second thing the Hasina government can be credited with is that it is fighting an uphill battle against militancy which is now one of the most serious problems besetting the world, especially the Muslim world. People are dropping like flies in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq and other places in the hands of the unruly militant forces. Unbridled sectarian violence has turned these countries into death valleys. Bangladesh was going to be infected by the militancy virus. On 17 August 2005, the violent activists of JMB exploded 500 hundred bombs at 300 locations in 63 out of the 64 districts to herald their existence in this secular soil of ours. And quite unfortunately for us, they were being indulged by the then custodians of the state. If this deadly social poison had not been fought back, they would have by now risen to a point of no return. Sheikh Hasina’s government is taking a tough line on them. This can surely be considered as a notable success. In addition, there are signs of success in the fields of education, agriculture, power-generation, etc.

Women’s empowerment is another success of the Hasina Government. They have taken some active measures to empower women. This is for the first time in post-independence Bangladesh that the highest number of women have been made to hold high offices. The Nobel laureate Amartya Sen had the satisfaction of seeing Bangladeshi women  become more empowered than those of many provinces in India. The government adopted a national policy on women’s empowerment, and tried to bring about a radical change in their social and legal status by implementing it. But it is not being fully implemented because of some bigoted male chauvinists and their blinkered attitudes.

The restoration of the Constitution of 1972 is an attempt where the government has half-succeeded. We had one of the best constitutions in the world imbued with the main ideals of our Liberation War (Nationalism, Socialism, Democracy and Secularism) which were defiled by the political vandals time and again with a view to legitimising their assumption of power through the backdoor. We expected the AL government to restore it with the main spirit intact. But they have frustrated us by compromising on some pseudo-religious sentiments for their electoral gains, although they have made some good corrections to it.

The attempts where the government has not succeeded are also many.

Whatever reasons you show for the perennial price hike, the concerned ministry’s failure cannot be condoned. The country’s share market has been plaguing the people for about a couple of years. All attempts including that of the premier herself are failing to tackle the capital market. The failure in the much-awaited Padma Bridge construction and in the much-sought after Teesta Water Pact have discredited the government. The home, foreign, finance, commerce and expatriate welfare ministries are not producing expected results. The incidents of killing, extra-judicial killing, and enforced disappearances are worrying people sick. But still there are chances to mend. There are a couple of years more. If the hitherto halfway decent government can sustain the progress they have made, and correct the mistakes they have committed, they can win in the end though it could be a tight finish. But all’s well that ends well.

Dr. Rashid Askari writes fiction and columns, and teaches English literature at Kushtia Islamic university, Bangladesh. Email: rashidaskari65@yahoo.com