Exploring hopes somewhere around

Frustration, anger and protest – nothing of that sort has been demonstrated publicly despite the denial of truth on 30 December 2018.

Still, the mood of the masses couldn’t be overlooked even though the election was not any personal agenda for most of the 100 million Bangladesh ‘electorates’.

Suppressed and humiliated, as observed, they had no non-virtual space on their own territory for expressing dissent. They didn’t join either any joyous procession – no word of felicitation from them, unlike the sycophants’ and collaborators’ arrogant argumentation in an attempt to justify the manipulated outcome.

No matter how complacent the incumbents are about being ‘all-powerful’, they know who they are in the eyes of the voters who were stopped from going to the polling stations. History will prove how big a loser today’s winner is when public hopes in the electoral system are killed off.

The people are silent as they were silenced in a variety of ways, by a series of actions. Their exasperation has been expressed by their post-polls withdrawal and enforced abstention from the electoral process, plagued not only by allegations of ballot stuffing.

Festivity or the election fever that was common in Bangladesh earlier, could not be discovered anywhere. Rather the capital city’s deserted streets, the scene of panicked villages and whispering by men and women here and there – following mass arrest of and attacks on the contestants and their supporters – had been the hallmark of the 11th parliamentary polls.

What’s the people’s consolation from the election experience? They have at least not endorsed the earlier mis-governance as well as what the opposition called ‘hijacking of the mandate’. They have no regrets for any misdeeds when they have not extended any kind of support whatsoever, to those who have themselves taken responsibility to govern them.

It is this people for whom the situation has created the scope for fair assessment and reigniting new dreams of Bangladesh. This is actually the moment of introspection for a long, well planned journey of the nation that is still in the making.

Why an institutional robbery has taken place and how it has been possible need to be answered before trying to generate any future hopes. Some hopes are also leaked out of the system which does not accommodate the people’s aspirations, thus giving a call for change.

Not being any party to the contract that lacks moral legitimacy, the commoners won’t bother about who holds which portfolio in the distribution of halua ruti (official benefits).

Of course, they have reasons to pity those who have been certified as educated persons who are hired as public officials and paid with money of the taxpayers who are then subjugated by not the colonial masters any more but by creatures of their neighbourhood.

This, in a somewhat extremist view like that of George W Bush, may be termed a unique situation defined in a black and white manner – you are either for truth or against it. The clique of the powerful ones has made its identity crystal clear when the majority are too muted to say anything about them.

Fortunately for the upcoming generations, there is no choice in between, to take decision from the grey areas between the evils and the righteous, as carefully maintained in political rhetoric for decades. Such stunt is no longer sellable, the extent of the election that was staged, confirmed.

In fact, in any country the generation that focus only on their themselves showing ego are nothing but a selfish group who leaves hardly anything except chaos, be it seen or hidden in contemporary social fabrics.

If the seniors, who let everything happen, now want to rectify their mistakes, should they not at least motivate their juniors to speak the truth?

Our children, who deserve just opportunities and a sound state but are not offered so far, cannot be denied the right to build their own future on their motherland. It’s not that they will have their turn automatically; the youngsters need preparations to take over.

Yes, today’s vacuum is full of optimism, if they can dream of, critically reading the situation. The youth may have to revise the textbook’s aim in life, and attain higher qualifications to grasp the opportunities.

In the near future, the country will need a lot of physicians who will serve the poor with dedication, businessmen who will pay tax properly and help the helpless and judges who will deliver justice without fear and favour.

Today’s teenagers may aim to become police officers who will honestly represent nobody else than the state and provide security to the people, not harass them. One may get ready to make a good chief election commissioner or election commission secretary who will not collaborate with the scheme to rob the people’s votes.

They may take up the challenge of qualifying for being true public servants, ministers with latitude in upholding democratic spirit, genuinely elected members of parliament, and self-less national leaders.

A select group of them may try to emerge as intellectuals and role models who will never speak and act against the people of Bangladesh, let alone joining the propaganda scheme to legitimise misdeeds of the establishment.

* Khawaza Main Uddin is a journalist. He can be contacted at [email protected]