A 15-Jun 2015 story: BNP with 70 pc mass support must play its role

BNP flag with people

Mostafa Kamal Majumder

A senior journalist-turned writer has said to this newsman the other day that the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party commands the support of at least 70 percent of voters but has not succeeded to mobilise them to influence public policy or steer the votes held during the last few years to compelling results.

He was on a day-long trip to a sub-urban district and said the party is being painted with characteristics it has never professed or is unlikely to profess in the near future but is blamed for all things that a category of people in the corridors of power can invent through the application of their fertile brain. Their fertile thoughts have helped depict the party that is crowned with the glory of being founded by Ziaur Rahman, the most popular freedom fighter of our time, as an anti-liberation force, its funder a 'Razakar', its current chairperson as the promotor or 'militancy' and 'extremism' and finally the party 'as an obstacle to development'.

The arguments that are made to support these claims are also fertile indeed, or else why a party said to be commanding the support of 70 percent of the populace can be cornered  to a non-functional entity with almost all its leaders fleeing dozens of cases each, the most prominent ones kept within the four walls of red houses, the unfortunate ones giving life to 'crosfires' and those who have dared to win city or upazila elections got sacked and/or are languishing in jails even in decade-old murder cases. The party has to make correct evaluations of how a party with such a popular bases can be categorised as a party of killers. Why they have not so far offset such characterisations with political moves.

Viewed from this perspective the present pause taken by the BNP to reorganise itself is a welcome move to steer clear of the false characterisations that it has been subjected to through multifarious manipulation of things, some of those within their knowledge but most others even beyond their conscious imaginations.   

To make the position clear, not even one percent of the people of Bangladesh do accept the motivated depiction of this organisation of patriots whose party music promises 'I start with and end with Bangladesh'. This again is not to call other parties unpatriotic. But there are people who want to believe that this strong pro-Bangladesh stand is against greater connectivity and interactions with big neighbour, India. I have heard many people dislike BNP as the party does not organise grand cultural programmes for cultural personalities whom they want to highlight most. But they do not take note of the fact that the cultural front of the party has for some reason or the other has not managed to collect sufficient strength to function effectively to champion its causes.

Some people love to profess doom for the BNP because it is an off-shoot of the post-1975 developments. But they probably miss some links to their analyses. Worse even is their folly that they cannot overnight recreate another contender in the predominantly biparty-system in Bangladesh. They do not realise that any thought of destruction of a popular political party is fraught with unforeseen consequences. The people do not want to hear one-sided voices in a multi-polar, digitally intertwined global village. Such unpopular thoughts are bound to invite disgrace. But who cares to think of the long-term?

A senior BNP leader told this writer that because of the one-sided propaganda against the BNP that has been stripped of most its media outlets and the pro-government media aided by journalists unions divided on political lines are doing what our present Prime Minister once used to call 'media coup' in the early nineties. The episode had its start from the announcement of the Mirpur bye election unofficial results through radio, television and newspapers before their formal announcement from the Election Commission. Now the thing has turned even worse. Election Commissioners enter into verbal duels with the chief of the BNP. Heads of official security forces of the state openly challenge her politics. What are the ramifications such dangerous developments? BNP leaders allege, not only are they deprived of justice from courts that are under the strong grip of the government, their wards are denied private as well as government jobs, allegedly because the recruitment processes have been politicised.

Many private businesses that used to be run by BNP leaders or their wards - like the wireless telephone operators - remains closed for the last seven years or so although the burgeoning sector has been offering quality services. The closure of the operators put their subscribers - tens of thousands of them - in peril as they have not got back the money they invested to buy wireless telephone sets and take their connections.  

There is little avenue of jobs for wards of BNP people in new private banks and companies set up during the last seven years. 'You do BNP why you have come to us for a job,' is the familiar reply they get from most new breed of employers. In government and semi-government offices where some meritorious candidates manage to cross the hurdle of written tests are screened out at the viva-voce by putting searching questions to ascertain if they are from opposition political orientations before being shown the exit, the allegations say.

Having a share of business offered in the form of government contracts for construction and supply works is a forbidden domain for the BNP youths. Where from space for the opposition business people would come as members of the pro-government student and youth bodies fight each other for those bids even with fire arms?

If one accepts this account of the state of things workers and supporters of the BNP and its allies have for all practical purposes been turned into second class citizens. The post-2001 electoral disturbances had even prompted Bangladesh’s development partners to call a special meeting in Washington DC to assess the situation. Has the BNP and its allies succeeded to attract attention sufficient enough to the political vendetta that it has faced?

BNP Chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia now faces the twin challenge of taking her workers and supporters off the targets of the political and other forces that are active not only for their annihilation but also elimination of the party as a political force. She and her party/alliance colleagues have also to ensure that their political supporters and sympathisers are not screened out of jobs- government or private. Political fight to regain power can be organised and sustained only after the security and safety of life and property, equal right and opportunity to have education, jobs and to pursue business are restored.

BNP should pursue its own refreshed agenda, without being provoked, but invariably responding to polemics to keep the people informed of their stands on newer political campaign attacks to face political foes politically. Not a single campaign attack should go unaddressed to overcome the design to keep opposition in check on the media. Side by side it should pursue its political goals as solid rocks on which there should be no intra-party grumbling. So, the responsibility on the shoulders of Khaleda is great indeed.