Fruits of Labour not Always Fruitful

Chintito

BNP (many people will perhaps not recognise it if referred to in full as Bangladesh Nationalists Party) is demanding the release of Khaleda Zia, Tareque Rahman, Arafat Rahman and surprise! surprise! Sheikh Hasina.

Awami League (AL is not as familiar) is no surprise demanding the unconditional release of Sheikh Hasina.

Jamaat was quiet for sometime but, now only after the arrest of its patriarch, is obviously demanding vociferously the release of Matiur Rahman Nizami and Khaleda Zia.

Here we will take a break and consider it appropriate to define 'parasite':
(a) organism living on another: a plant or animal that lives on or in another, usually larger, host organism in a way that harms or is of no advantage to the host

(b) scrounger: somebody who lives off the generosity of others and does nothing in return

The origin of the word is traced back to the mid-16th century, and it is believed that it originated via Latin from Greek from the word parasitos meaning “one who eats from another's table,” from sitos “grain, food.”

No wonder then that while BNP (DHL) is lackadaisically trying to de-leech Jamaat, the latter is reviving its old tamasha of jumping on popular bandwagons to scale the political ladder. The Saifur-betrayed BNP (H) will have probably already pronounced talak talak talak on the anti-liberation forces, but the Delwar-Hannan Ltd faction may have to use, if necessary, pesticides to bring back the history of this country to its true perspective.

When the political dust does settle down, after our hearts rain down the requisite water, madam may find splinters of BNP intact but perhaps the irony will be that none will have either KZ or even Z in their parenthesis.

BNP and Begum Zia have thanked the government for the 11 June release of Sheikh Hasina for her vital treatment abroad.

BNP or (the naughty boys say) Delwar had in fact invited Awami League to join a concerted movement to free their leaders. The latter have refused.

These are welcome signs and fruits of reforms.

Sat beside Mujahid, Delwar changed his stance soon after Hasina was waving from the balcony of Sudha Sadan.

These are disturbing signals.

It is to be noted that BNP is not seriously demanding the release of the Hudas, the Pintoos… There is some degree of speculation that Honey (mou) Milk (dud) type guys may once again turn their coat and side with any of the three parroting doctors. Awami League is also blowing hot and cold for the unshackling of the Mohiuddins, the Kamrans…

Are these also signs of reforms? Or are they strategic silence?

There are still a whole load of confusions.

In the backdrop of Hasina's eight-week respite Khaleda has been boisterous in saying that she will not go abroad because 'there are many good doctors in the country'. This may be told here that in the past she has indeed been abroad for treatment, more than once. On the other side of the deflating coin, she has demanded that her two seriously ailing sons be sent abroad immediately for treatment. One would imagine that in extolling the local doctors it was a politician and a three-time PM speaking, while the latter statement was the profound cry of a mother. Medical Boards, known albeit that some have in the past suffered from political maladies, are actively examining all three cases.

Hasina's sudden release is also the outcome of the opinion vented for long by medical experts, some accused of being partisanship. Her being attended by the Bangladesh Ambassador on arrival in the USA is not to be taken as only a welcome package.

Many may have forgotten but the sick AL GS is also out of jail under the government's 'humanitarian' consideration. The extension of his sojourn abroad made news in the first two instalments of most dailies, but now that is also out of the newsman's sniff.

It is not expected that the cases of the apex leaders of the two largest parties will meet similar fate, for even the government as well as those who watch on us with binoculars from abroad have realised that the two parties have to partake in the ongoing reform talks and the forthcoming national elections if the latter are to have any credibility, acceptability and sustaining effect on our politics and governance.

We are now in a two-prong debate.

Those who do not want either BNP or Awami League or their allies to spring back to power or are considering the existing situation as the opportune springboard to catapult to power question 'do you want to go back to before 1/11?' Are not the vendors back? Have not the encroachments renewed? Have not the paid killers returned to business? It's all a conspiracy, I repeat as history does, it's all a conspiracy.

And those who believe that the future lies in widespread politics conclude with growing confidence that 'there is no good for the people and the country under a long-standing unelected government'.

Le halua! Where will the public, the source of all power, go?

Under the given situation it is not easy to decide what tree will bear what fruition in the near and distant future. But in view of the February 2007 elections being compelled to be postponed and the soothing of the wounds over the past almost a year and a half, one can with contentment observe that the trees are already sprouting with possibilities. The matter of worry is that some of the fruits are being ripened by injecting harmful chemicals.

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