Firm up crisis management mechanismThe tragedy of February 25, 2009 left the government in complete disarray. A crisis of great magnitude was left to be handled by political soldiers. Crises management norms were shunned and a true live show of brinkmanship was put on live display for all to see. Governance was put to test in and around the Headquarters of BDR. Unfortunately, February 25 has truly exposed the weaknesses in the crises management abilities of the newly elected Government of Bangladesh. It was a mistake of the government to think of only a political solution to a problem with military implications and the whole country ended up paying a heavy price for it. Whether it is the end of the crisis or is it just the beginning of something more sinister is for anybody to guess. Militancy and terrorism has taken root in Bangladesh and everyone has a general idea how deep it is and who are its patron, both within and without Bangladesh. Politicians in Bangladesh have played the blame game well in the past and no unified attempt was made to devise a unified national policy to face the menace in the past. We think the present government has a decent mandate to draw up a national policy in this regard with the inclusion of its opponents both inside and outside the parliament. The BDR mutiny has hit the government out of the blue. As per the crises managers of the government, initially they had underestimated the barbarity and severity of the mutiny and we feel that the government should be given the benefit of doubt in this regard. The crisis is ongoing and the government cannot sit by and get busy justifying its various acts both during and after the crises. It is important to gather the forces of democracy and sanity with wider participation from our development partners if necessary to combat this crisis both in short and long term. One thing is stark and clear, nobody just wanted to kill so many of our Army Officers with such efficiency on a single day befooling all those who tried to solve the mutiny peacefully. The enemy, who wanted to wipe out the Army Officers, must be having some heinous plot with long term implications. It cannot under any circumstances be considered a mutiny of the soldiers for petty matters. Everything failed that day. Intelligence failed, and the saddest thing is common sense failed also. Bangladesh will be toothless without a credible deterrent in the body of the Armed Forces of the country and the government must do everything possible to help the Armed Forces overcome its grief in the first place and then use them for tackling this serious conspiracy against the government and the people of Bangladesh. BDR mutiny has rung alarm bells in different capitals of the world and all eyes are set on the Government of Bangladesh to see what action it takes. The government must not take it lightly and stop bickering about the righteousness of its actions and respond to the long term exigencies and implications of the mutiny. Time is not ripe to see the crisis managers justifying their initial response to the crisis to gain political mileage. The people of the country and all concerned have already given the benefit of doubt to the government and are anxiously waiting for concerted and decisive action from the government to stop the aftermath and secondary attacks, if any, of the mutineers and their collaborators. The government must not take the concerns of the world community lightly as they are seriously concerned and want the government to dig deeper into the conspiracy and go after the real planners and perpetrators of the heinous act. Western development partners of Bangladesh want to see Bangladesh emerge stronger and "in control" from these crises as it matters for the success of their longterm development and aid commitments to Bangladesh. Bangladesh stands to lose its credibility if it continues not to acknowledge the immediate strategic importance of unearthing the truth behind the mutiny. In the times and aftermath of any crisis any elected government must have ample faith in itself and demonstrate it to the people and the world because crisis is known to have created opportunities and provided strength to democratically elected governments in different parts of the world. Our newly elected government must come out of its partisan cocoon and shed the inefficient appointees if it really wants to deliver on its promises. |
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