The New Nation - Internet Edition

A R Khan

Is there someone sensible among pro-Awami League intellectuals to give correct advice to their party chief? Someone may find some excuse that Awami League Chief's public statements are not well-measured as she is overwhelmed by the huge attendance at different public meetings. May be she is over satisfied by some polls surveys made by her party supporters projecting as high as a 202-seat victory in the general elections on December 29.

To express one's views freely is a democratic right. But it should not be devoid of democratic niceties. It is not wise to exaggerate or cross the limit for any temporary gain.

It is expected that a former prime minister of country should not directly accuse another former prime minister of "staging drama" or "taking bribe from foreign company" especially after they have shared the same prison together under the same allegation of corruption brought by the military-backed caretaker government that Hasina claimed to be the outcome of her party's movement.

The nation is watching cautiously the pre-poll situation, trying to figure out the threat perceptions involving the two top ladies and hoping for a peaceful power transfer to an elected government. People expect that at this hour of election, politicians need to show patience and tolerance. No one now expects a personal attack from the chief of political party like Awami League against another political leader.

Speaking against four - party candidate Shafiul Alam Prodhan in Dinajpur, Sheikh Hasina referred to the seven-murder incident at Dhaka University's Haji Muhammad Mohsin Hall in 1974. May be she forgot to mention that it was the outcome of internal conflict in "Mujibbadi Chhatra League" and Pradhan was then the central general secretary of that powerful student wing of the Awami League. Someone should also remind her that HM Ershad, at present her 'elder brother' in the grand alliance, killed her political workers Dr Milon, Selim, Delwar and many others during his autocratic regime in the eighties.

She should have listened to Dr Milon's wife who was shocked to see the killer of her husband in the fold of an alliance led by Awami League, the party for which Milon laid down his life.

Meanwhile, addressing an election meeting in north Bengal, HM Ershad angrily said that Awami League had betrayed him by retaining its candidates in eleven out of 49 seats shared with Jatiya Party. Time will say who is betraying whom.

Analysing the election campaigns, a Dhaka daily pointed out last week that Khaleda was bitterly criticising the military-backed caretaker government but Hasina was remaining silent on the caretakers and focussing her criticism on the 'misrule of four-party government' for which, she said, it paid heavily.

Such criticism from the Awami League chief, however, may remind the people of the reemergence of "God fathers" at different localities, "rape-100 rapes" at Jahangirnagar University, political instruction like "kill ten against one" coming from the highest level, the great share market scam and inclusion of a huge number of fake voters in the electoral roll during Awami League rule between 1996 and 2001.

It is worth mentioning that BNP's initiative to update the 2001 voters list was opposed by Awami League which even provoked the killing people with 'lathi-baitha' on the street and dancing on the bodies of the dead. In dealing with fundamentalist forces, Awami League always played contradictory cards. Would it be unfair if someone refers to Sheikh Hasina's seeking blessings from Gholam Azam or posing for a photograph with Maulana Motiur Rahman Nizami before the 1996 elections? Both Awami League and Jamaat had formed alliance against the BNP government in 1995. Only two years ago, Awami League had entered into an agreement with Saikhul Hadis Allama Azizul Huq to establish 'fatwa by qualified ulema' under the Shariah law in the country. Coming to media campaign, one should not be surprised that before every election some of those projected very bright results in favour of the Awami League as many of them are doing now. Majority of the intellectuals and former bureaucrats with their shallow knowledge about the public mindset proved wrong in their projections. They proved far away from the reality. Exaggerated media campaign has the risk of resulting in a narcotic dysfunction, media gurus warned many years ago.

By now, the promoters of minus-two political reforms have reconciled themselves with the fact that politics emerges not from textbook suggestions or personal wishes of the powerful but from the collective will of the people. The people are showing their faces in the crowds in the chilly nights, foggy mornings and under the bright sun wherever their leaders appear in the present hasty campaign.

Let us not forget that voters, the poor villagers and the illiterate folk never miss an opportunity to choose the right thing for the nation at the hour of crisis.

(The writer is a senior journalist working with the weekly Holiday)