[Reader-list] BANGLADESH: Generals, it's time you were gone

[Shambhu Rahmat]

To see the images and related URLs, go to the blog:
http://www.drishtipat.org/blog/2008/08/14/its-time-you-were-gone/

Else, read it below.

BANGLADESH
Generals, It's time you were gone
Posted by khujeci_tomai under Democracy(edit this)

"It's time — it's time you were gone"
- Anton Chekhov [Agafya]

Dhaka Gridlock
Sitting in traffic today and calculating how long it would take my 10
minute ride to mutate into 1 hour, I thought about traffic as a
metaphor for the country. Then I cracked open the newspaper and found
I was not the only one. H Khondker calls it Spaces of Despair,
although his recommendations (headlights on rickshaws, teach rickshaw
pullers the rules) smell like naive bhodrolok/army politics (danda
mere thanda, and yes joto dosh the subaltern) that landed us in this
Army/CareTakerGovernment mess. Putting hard facts to the exploding
traffic crisis, Kailash Sarkar informs us that a 10 km ride (Bangla
Motor-Bangla College) is now a 3.5 hour 'odyssey'. People are using
apocalyptic language: "Commuters say the entire city traffic system
has collapsed". 1 lakh vehicles out of 6 lakh were withdrawn by CTG
after 1/11, but all those vehicles have returned. 175 community
policemen were deployed by CTG, all of whom have no reporting to
police and are totally ineffective. DCC has licensed 87,000 rickshaw,
but there are 5 lakh rickshaws now in Dhaka with another 1 lakh
expected before Eid.

As I ditched my transport and walked (something I do almost every
morning now so as to get to work on time) I kept thinking of traffic
as a metaphor. I thought of those vehicles that the CTG boldly
banished, which are all now back. Actually, everything is back!
Everyone is back! And in all this I see again something I have been
feeling for months now.

No one is running the country.

Weekly Shaptahik put it best after the latest round of bails to top
tier politicians:

"Special Special Bail and 2 Years of System Loss".
System Loss

It sounds like a cruel joke. The CTG has collapsed and all that
remains is one giant human-spirit/life-electricity siphoning system
loss?

Some hoped against experience that something good would come out of
1/11. Actually many did. Even AL/BNP grassroots workers were heard
saying, the rot at the top will be removed, and we will rise in the
ranks. But ekhon? Jaha bahanno, taha teppano. In August 2008, what are
the CTG achievements?

Jailing the bigwigs?
Reforming the parties?
Checking the Islamists?
Creating a third force? Yunus? Ferdaus Quraishi? General Ibrahim?
Anti Corruption Commission?
Truth & Reconciliation Commission?
Independent Election Commission?
Rangs Building?
Rule of law?
RAB of law?
Due Process?

Walking through Dhanmondi Rd 32, I saw huge gates at front, with giant
pictures of Sheikh Mujib. Giant shamianas outside Mujib's house.
Energized AL leaders are going to Tungipara today. CTG's announcement
of Aug 15th as national mourning day again is probably insurance for a
possible AL landslide (unless Barisal style DGFI cooking happens
again).

15th August will be interesting. I predict AL will flex their muscle.
Army will get the shudders. 15th August, 1975 is the first
confrontation between the Bangladesh Army and Civilian Democracy.
August 2008 is the umpteenth such confrontation.

It all shows no sign of ending. Upazila election hobe. Na hobe na.
Emergency rule election. EU says it won't certify that. Khaleda "aj
raat" e ber hobe. No no, more negotiations. Koko says from Bangkok bed
"I don't understand politics." Tarek er spine er 50th exam er jonno
arekta medical board. Ey oy omuk tomuk eta sheta koto ki jhalmuri.
Shesh hoiyyao hoi na shesh bhai. Chere de ma, kede bachi ebar.

Oh and Ramadan is coming, so politics on hold. Again!

Doesn't this all start sounding way too much like December 2006?

All the CTG maneuvering now is to ensure they get National Security
Council. That is the only remaining pound of flesh to extract.

Ar news pora o jai na, shonao jai na. As Faruk Wasif said, "I bathed
in ambrosia/but it turned to poison"

The country is a patient, sliced open on the operating table. But the
medicine is killing the patient. And the longer it stays open, the
more infections spread. The gangrene has reached all the way to the
head.

There was a time when I cursed our dysfunctional democracy nonstop.
Kintu trump card shob play kora hoye geche. It seems this
dysfunctional democracy is all we have, and we have to fix it through
democracy. There are no short cuts left.

It's time you were gone.