Jalil and The Mystery of the Invisible

Trump Card

When Abdul Jalil, the Awami League (AL) secretary general, prophesied the fall of government by April 30, it attracted much public attention, and in every way, had given birth to a widespread rumour. Jalil had more at his disposal; and in the run up to the deadline, the beleaguered leader, with his Nostradamus-esque zeal, introduced a new element to this already soured saga. "We have the trump card, and it will be used in due time," he said.

But April 30 passed off peacefully, without the fall of the government and with trump cards being played on the boards.

But by creating such a hoopla out of practically nothing, how much damage has he done to his party and, more importantly, to our political culture?

Ahmede Hussain

Bangladeshi politics is no stranger to loose talk. The AL leaders are not immune to it either. The most illustrious one dates back to the year 1986. In a public meeting in Chittagong, the AL supremo Sheikh Hasina termed those who were planning to take part in the general elections called by Ershad's regime as <>Jatya Beyman (National Traitors). Days after that, for reasons best known to her, Sheikh Hasina declared her candidature for the elections. The AL and few other left parties' participation gave legitimacy to Ershad's autocratic rule.

Abdul Jalil's prediction came at a moment, when, Awami League, as an opposition party, was in tatters. Persecution by the police and government-backed goons, coupled with a leadership crisis in the half a century old organisation, had left the general workers disillusioned and disenchanted.

The April 30 deadline was primarily targeted at these grassroots level Awami-men who felt betrayed and battered by the party's failure to organise any anti-government movement. But, as the deadline fell flat and with the AL MP's planning to join the parliament again, these general supporters are being left in the cold again.

However bombastic he might have sounded then, Jalil had his own game plan. Rumours were abuzz about a significant number of BNP MPs' plan to resign from the parliament to join Dr Badruddoza Chowdhury's Alternative Stream. But that rumour did not become reality; Jalil banked on that and this incident itself questions Jalil's prudence and foresight as a politician.

Bangladeshi politics is no stranger to loose talk. The AL leaders are not immune to it either. The most illustrious one dates back to the year 1986. In a public meeting in Chittagong, the AL supremo Sheikh Hasina termed those who were planning to take part in the general elections called by Ershad's regime as Jatya Beyman (National Traitors). Days after that, for reasons best known to her, Sheikh Hasina declared her candidature for the elections. The AL and few other left parties' participation gave legitimacy to Ershad's autocratic rule.

Abdul Jalil's prediction came at a moment, when, Awami League, as an opposition party, was in tatters. Persecution by the police and government-backed goons, coupled with a leadership crisis in the half a century old organisation, had left the general workers disillusioned and disenchanted.

The April 30 deadline was primarily targeted at these grassroots level Awami-men who felt betrayed and battered by the party's failure to organise any anti-government movement. But, as the deadline fell flat and with the AL MP's planning to join the parliament again, these general supporters are being left in the cold again.

However bombastic he might have sounded then, Jalil had his own game plan. Rumours were abuzz about a significant number of BNP MPs' plan to resign from the parliament to join Dr Badruddoza Chowdhury's Alternative Stream. But that rumour did not become reality; Jalil banked on that and this incident itself questions Jalil's prudence and foresight as a politician.

The government, in its turn, reacted to the AL general secretary's comments with extreme paranoia and sheer arrogance. Instead of handling the issue politically, the Four-party Alliance resorted to an unprecedented double standard. While warding off the threat in public, in practice, the government indiscriminately detained general people in the name of national security.

Even the prime minister could not spare herself from the mass hysteria that had grasped the ruling party for months. When all the national dailies ran stories of human rights abuses by the goons belonging to the BNP, Khaleda Zia defended her party's anti-people stand by calling it "a necessary step to maintain law and order". "Mass arrest is needed to foil conspiracy," she told her party MPs while mindless arrests kept going on.

"The government has taken necessary steps to ensure security of people's lives and property as it is responsible for that," she said on April 25. While all the major dailies were littered with news of police arrests of innocent citizens, the PM defended her anti-people posture by saying, "The government has taken the measure on the basis of some specific information and documents that indicate a conspiracy is on against it."

Khaleda Zia, however, has never shared such "specific information and documents" with the independent press, which has made people suspicious about their existence.

A virtual curfew was imposed on the streets around Hawa Bhaban when the main opposition tried to gherao it by terming it the centre of unbridled corruption in the country. It is quite turbid to the general people as to why the government reacted to the opposition deadline with such brutality.

People have lost faith in the politicians long ago. Jalil's failed prediction will add to a long-standing popular belief that every politician around is a liar and power monger, unless proven otherwise.