FW: Must we go back to square one?

Published On: 2007-08-28
Editorial, The Daily Star

Sense & Insensibility
Must we go back to square one?
Shahnoor Wahid


No, we cannot afford to go back to square one. For that matter, we cannot even go back to square five or square three! In fact, we cannot backtrack under any circumstances, because the stakes are too high.

It's a high-stake game and the opponents are sly and ruthless, and apparently they have some powerful cards up their sleeve. So, we have no option left but to outwit the opponents and win the game. We have to go forward on the perilous journey, like Odysseus, to reach the shore of Ithaca and end the mission.

It is common knowledge now that there are forces out there trying their best to push us back to square one, back to pre- 1/11, so that they may reinstate their rule of misrule throughout the country, once again. They want disorder to reign supreme because they thrive in a disorderly society. They suffocate in a society that is trying to bring order back in life.

Now, who are these people who do not want order, transparency, discipline, and stability in society?

They are the black marketers, gold smugglers, diesel smugglers, electricity thieves, rice hoarders, land grabbers, toll collectors, lake grabbers, forest grabbers, and relief thieves who have been crowding the corridors of state power for decades. And this time they have gotten together to play their own kind of game, waiting for an opportunity to strike back at everything that stands for goodness with all their might.

So, last week, they thought they had one such opportunity knocking on the door early in the morning. They watched in dismay the peaceful settlement of the altercation between students and army personnel at the Dhaka University playground.

They saw the opportunity vanishing in thin air. They were not ready to let it go to waste. It was an opportunity they had been waiting for. So, they got together in the dark depth of the night to connive and conspire to destabilise the government.

They quickly got into action, cooked up an "upsurge," and the nation witnessed wanton breaking of car windshields and windowpanes of office buildings. It was vandalism of the worst kind. They wanted to make it look like a student protest, but people saw only a few astray students and hundreds of hoodlums going berserk on the streets. As a result, people withdrew their support and sympathy and openly condemned the actions.



Student politics and student leaders
The recent student protest on various campuses brought forth the role of some of the student leaders who allegedly have worked from behind to fan the fire on behalf of the political parties for their individual and narrow political gain. The very mention of the term "student leaders" continues to intrigue us.

Who are these people? What actually do they do on the campuses across the country? Do they help the general students in improving their education standard? Do they bargain with the authorities to take examinations in time, take classes regularly, and assess performance of students impartially? Do they take steps to improve the infrastructure, laboratory facilities, hostel facilities, research facilities, and teaching/learning standard of the institution?

They do nothing of the above. We have information that they are the licensed gangs of toll collectors who send their cadres to collect weekly tolls from shop owners and contractors. They come with two trousers and two shirts from their villages and eat free breakfast, lunch, and dinner in student halls. Within three years on the campus, they drive tinted Pajeros and live in their own flats in Gulshan or Banani. Aladdin's lamp? No, blessing of madam or apa.

The present lot of student leaders is quick to cash in on the reputation of the past leaders, who had shown great valour in our fight against the Pakistani rulers. But this has to be added here that many of those past "heroes," at a later time, forgot all about their ideology. It's sad, people do not consider them heroes anymore.

Square one …
We had started with the warning of dark forces working together to push the country back to square one. The government has to be fully awake about the conspirators and take immediate actions against them. The reform agenda has to be fulfilled. Political arena must be cleansed of thugs and murderers. Democracy does not mean reinstating demons. The sacred precinct of our parliament must not be defiled once again by Lultoos, Faltoos and Biltoos.


Shahnoor Wahid is Senior Assistant Editor of The Daily Star.