THE PEOPLE SPEAK
Private property, namely cars, is often collateral damage during clashes between rioters and the police. Photos: Star File
It has escaped no one's attention that the recent hartals called by Jamaat-e-Islami and Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) have been particularly violent and destructive to everyday life and the country's stability. An alarming number of people, including policemen, have died and countless others, including journalists, have been injured from being a part of the clashes or being caught in the crosshairs. Students, in school and university, have not been able to attend classes or take exams without risk of being hurt or suspected of being part of the violence. Businesses have been forced to remain closed for days at a time, and this has resulted in not only personal financial losses but a dent in the economy's trajectory. Hartals cost the country an estimated $200 million every day, according to International Chamber of Commerce Bangladesh. The Daily Star reported last weekend that this translates into $3 billion lost since December, a sum that would finance the construction of the Padma Bridge.
The political turmoil that erupted last month when one of Jamaat's leaders, Delwar Hossain Sayedee, was given the death penalty for war crimes committed in the 1971 Liberation War has featured in the international news. Commentators fear this will only add to the existing reasons foreign investors might have to be concerned about bringing their business to currently unstable Bangladesh. For local people at both ends of the social spectrum, however, their fears are personal and immediate.
“I'm obviously worried, everyone is. No one wants this situation.” says Subrata Chowdhury, an assistant professor at a private university. “During hartals my family try to remain home because it's not safe in Dhaka city. Going out is difficult. Classes are postponed at my university but we still have to come because we are employees.”
Recent consecutive hartals have resulted in loss of life,
grievous injury, and substantial losses to the public. Photos: Star File
Atia Rahman Shuchi works part-time in three different places in Dhaka. Without her car to take her when there is a hartal, she uses a bus or bicycle. “It's quite scary. I have to get to my work no matter what may be on the roads,” says the 29-year-old who works at a university and for an international organisation. “One day there was an incident when I took a bus from Dhanmondi to Gulshan. Suddenly a picketer came up with a cocktail in his hand and we all had to jump from the bus through the windows.” She also recalls picketers throwing things at her while on her bicycle in Gulshan 2, an area considered to be one of the safest neighbourhoods even during hartals. The young mother adds, “CNGs and rickshaws aren't as available and if they are, they ask for too much money, sometimes double or triple the amount.”
Jannatul Ferdous Nahin, who studies computer science at a private university, agrees that inflated transport costs are not affordable considering the number of hartals recently experienced, “My office is in Uttara and I don't feel safe during hartal. There aren't many buses so I have to take a CNG but my cost of travel becomes very high so I take the train.”
You might think that CNG drivers and rickshaw pullers do good business during a shutdown because of their higher prices but they insist they do not profit from the occasion because there are less people on the streets to get business from. “I don't support hartals,” says 40-year-old CNG driver Selim. “My income source is reduced by hartals. My family starves because we don't get any money.”
Jamaat-Shibir men set fire to new school text books stored in Bashkhali Upazila Parishad, Chittagong. Photo: Anurup Kanti Das
A rickshaw puller for 20 years, Aminul Islam believes hartals limit his ability to move around, which in turn affects his crucial daily earnings. “Hartal is damaging for me and it's hard to carry on with the day. I can't earn anything in hartal and can't move around,” says the rickshaw puller as he waits for a customer in Shiddeswari on one of the rare non-hartal days of the past two weeks. “People don't usually want to take a rickshaw and even if they do, they don't want to give a lot of money. They say the roads are clear so for a route that would earn me Tk20, they give me Tk10.” He adds, “Hartal is the worst thing that can happen and it hurts the country.”
Beyond the streets on which fights between political supporters and law enforcement take place, some citizens do not venture further than their street but still pay a price affected by hartals. “Food prices go up and we couldn't find any milk during the last few days of hartal. Whatever we want to buy, it's expensive or we can't find it,” says Reshma Akter, a housewife.
In a report by The Daily Star a farmer from Nasingdi, Mohammad Shahbuddin, said wholesalers who buy from him were few during hartals. He said, “We got low prices for vegetables such as beans and gourds.”
However final customers like private car driver Mohammad Hanif complain of unaffordable price hikes of essentials. “If a party declares hartal today, and you go to the market tomorrow, the thing you saw for 20 taka will have become 25 taka and the following day you'd have to buy it for 30 taka.” He believes, “It's only happening because of the hartals and who's suffering from this: the general public.”
Jamaat-Shibir men ripped apart a bailey bridge at Napora Bazar in Bashkhali, Chittagong on Saturday after the tribunal sentenced Delwar Hossain Sayedee. Photo: Anurup Kanti Das
Vegetable seller Mustafa Kamal in Dhaka defends fruit and vegetable sellers as he says the supply falls during hartals and they too have to buy before selling at higher prices. “I buy my vegetables from Karwan Bazar and when it's a hartal they bring fewer vegetables and charge more and there is also very few people around to buy from me.” The 48-year-old from Gopalganj says, “I can't sell many vegetables and they'll go bad. Damaging my business means I'm damaging my family.”
Education has also been heavily impacted by the frequent number of hartals in the past month. Schools have either been closed or low in attendance.
“I have two daughters studying in school and because of the hartals their school and exams are hampered. When their semester just started they were supposed to be in their classes and because of hartals they weren't. I don't know if they can make up for everything they've missed,” says Hanif who has lived in the capital for over 20 years. He adds, “It's going to put a lot of pressure on the kids.”
Akter's son is studying for his Junior School Certificate (JSC) but has not been able to attend school on multiple days. She says, “They are not getting any further with their studies because of the constant hartals.”
Children are affected not only in terms of their education but safety too. Akter, who does not feel safe herself, worries for her children when they have to travel, “Last Thursday I took my kid to school and when it was time to bring him back, no rickshaw was willing to go because of some protest or vandalism going on nearby.” She also recalls, “My child had to suffer from teargas on his way back from school a few times. I don't know which party is in which corner and what they're going to do.”
Hartals cost the economy $200 million a day, which small
businesses feel more acutely. Photo: Prabir Das
University student Nahin says, “I have four siblings who all study and my father bears the cost of the youngest ones and if he keeps his business closed, he won't be able to maintain them.” Her day off work is later in the week but Nahin is at her university to collect results in case a hartal is called in the following days. “We can't use our weekdays properly. I have to prepare papers for my scholarship that can't wait.”
Atia Rahman Shuchi agrees and says travel is difficult for students. “It's especially difficult for the girls who live in places like Puran Dhaka, Kiranigonj or Tongi to get to Bashundhara – they have to start very early.” She explains that students are also penalised for failing to attend classes regardless of whether the transport situation is out of their hands, “There have been instances where students have missed tests and failed their classes.”
Everyone the Star spoke to also strongly believes calling a hartal is not in the country's interests. Nahin says, “People who are involved have to come up with a solution because hartals are damaging our country and causing us personal harm. It's not improving our country and you can never expect success out of hartal.”
“Hartal has never been a solution,” believes Akter. “It's normal to have two parties who disagree on certain things but they can sit down in one place and have a discussion. In order to run a country, there has to be politics and people doing politics, but the terror we're seeing in politics is being watched by our kids who are learning it.” She says firmly, “Whatever is happening in our country right now is nowhere near to politics. They concentrate on who to kill, who to beat up, and what to vandalise.” She adds finally, “Is that politics? Violence, nothing else.”
Hanif says that hartals, as they are performed now, are neither safe nor effective. “Since the political leaders are citizens of the country, they have the right to call a hartal but the main damage we face is when they break cars – and because of these recent hartals, people are also dying. Some are being shot at, some are being beaten up.” Chowdhury agrees that this form of political protest is to be expected. “Hartals may be given, but not so frequently or violently.”
Hanif shares how more than 20 years ago he participated in hartals and insists back then, vandalism was not involved. “The leaders would say we march and protest and not break any cars. Either turn them around or ask them to park their cars somewhere. It used to be a rule but right now they're not following any. Sometimes cars get burned and people inside get beaten up and seeing these things, people are horrified. People used to follow or support hartals because they were based on certain big issues, everybody used to surrender. Back then, things used to be less violent. Rickshaws and vans used to be on the street, now you will see them on the streets but with extreme risk, only because they have to feed their families.”
Hanif concludes, “By giving hartals, politicians are successfully stopping people from going about their day, stopping schools, businesses. It doesn't actually fall as any kind of success but politicians use it as a weapon. And I don't think it's a good weapon. If they could choose something else to do instead of calling hartals that would be better.”
Rahman suggests, “What's happening in Shahbag I think is much better than hartals as a way to express protest.” She agrees that hartals are boycotts of normal life that political parties expect people to follow but currently people have no choice, “They are being forced to strike.”
Chowdhury believes the buck lies with the politicians, “I think if the political leaders think of the country, this situation will improve. They think of themselves and their politics and not of the people.” He adds, “We have to select leaders who will work for the country, like Mahathir Mohamad for Malaysia, he has developed a lot and shifted Malaysia's situation to become, I would say, a developed country.”
While the need for dialogue between the government and the opposition parties was voiced by every citizen, the expectation that it would happen is practically nonexistent. “I'm really worried about our country right now,” shares Rahman, a professional. “Last week I saw a report on TV showing two newspapers, one from 1971 and one from 2013. They were both carrying similar headlines and pictures so what the hell is happening here? This shouldn't be happening. Whatever may be, the politicians should sit and talk. But they're just worried about their own power and own benefits, I don't see any intentions of talking.”
Rahman says she would have cast a 'No Vote' in the upcoming election if it hadn't been banned in the current government's tenure, “That was a really good way to protest and say 'we do not feel there is any real representative among the options. Who is coming up is not who we want to lead us.'” Ultimately this is the crux of the problem currently facing normal citizens of Bangladesh; their hopes and expectations of politicians are not being heard, leaving them to feel like collateral damage in the current situation of political uncertainty. The threat of civil war and question of the army policing streets worries everyone and if the political parties calling for hartals would just ask them what they want, rickshaw pullers to business women would all say 'Enough'.
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