Editorial
A largely effective hartal and the message within
THE countrywide dawn-to-dusk hartal (general strike) — called by the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party on May 19 to register protest against power, water and gas shortage, oppression on opposition leaders and activists, closure of media houses, harassment of journalists, the government's attempts to control the media, violence over tender manipulation, land grab by the ruling party men, harassment of girls in educational institutions, politicisation of the administration and signing of deals with foreign countries 'compromising national interest' — was observed on Sunday, apparently without too much coercion tactics employed by the BNP leaders and activists. In fact, the police, the Rapid Action Battalion and other law enforcement agencies — and, of course, the marauding activists of the ruling Awami League and its associate organisations — far outnumbered the pickets at most places. They also created commotion in most cases, swooping on pro-hartal activists largely without any provocation.
The general strike, by and large peaceful and apparently effective as it was, shed light on two issues of crucial importance. First, the general acceptance of the BNP call for general strike tends to indicate that a sizeable section, if not the majority, of the populace does associate with the opposition party's displeasure with certain actions and inactions of the ruling quarters. Second, the actions of the law enforcers and the activists of the ruling party and its associate organisations, especially the Bangladesh Chhatra League, betrayed once again the intolerance of the ruling quarters to any expression of public dissent and displeasure. The police actions against the pickets, especially inside the residence of some frontline BNP leaders, suggest that the ruling quarters were not willing to allow the opposition the space to exercise what they themselves acknowledge to be its democratic right to observe general strike. The law enforcers not only raided the houses of these leaders but also harassed everyone that came their way; women and children were not spared, either.
The masterstroke, so to speak, came later on the day when the AL general secretary claimed that the ruling party would not shoulder the responsibility for the BCL attacks on pickets because 'Chhatra League is neither a front organisation nor an associate body of the Awami League as per the RPO [Representation of the People].' He insisted that the ruling party had 'no links with them but fraternal relations.' The 'fraternal relations' did seem to afford the BCL activists the scope to swoop on the pickets in the presence of, if not with assistance from, the law enforcers. If it were not hypocrisy, one wonders what is. Besides, if the ruling party does not take responsibility for the many misdeeds of the Chhatra League, who will?
The opposition, too, dealt in double standards. Its claim that the people wholeheartedly supported the call for general strike certainly does not go with the violence, vandalism and arson, believed to have been carried out by some of its activists on the eve of the general strike. Not only such actions were duplicitous but these also endangered the lives of quite a few. It is simply not done.
Be that as it may, the general strike, largely effective as it was, contained a strong message for the incumbents, all the more so in view of the dismal showing of the ruling party in the elections to the Chittagong City Corporation, the Supreme Court Bar Association, the Dhaka Bar Association and the Dhaka University Teachers' Association. The message is simple: the people may be getting wary and weary of the ruling party's discernible deviations from its electoral pledges for change. Hence, the ruling quarters would do well to do a course correction and invest their time and energy in bringing about qualitative improvement in the nation's life – social, political and economic – just as they promised before the general elections and not remain obsessed with whetting their tyrannical tendencies.
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