Strategically Speaking
How to lose the election
Courtesy Daily Star 14/04/11
Political parties in
Interestingly, in spite of the differences between the two major political parties with practically no consensus on any issue, national or international, there is perhaps an understanding on one matter, an accord of view if you like, which is to get the other party to power in the subsequent election. In fact both the major parties share a common recipe in this regard. And this is evident in the actions and comments of the government of the day.
We have been seeing this happening since 1991, and no one needs to waste much time in trying to find out why no political party has ever "won" two consecutive elections since 1991, a benchmark year of our political history. The present government is no exception, which seems to be fulfilling the requirements of the "unwritten accord" and paving the way for its opponents to prevail in the next election.
The first ingredient in the recipe for losing the next election is to throw the election pledges out of the window, and try to look as if you never uttered those words. Therefore, when the government is confronted with price rise, and it was one of the major electoral issues, the only getaway for it is in depicting what the price of things would have been had the "other party" been in power.
When party appendages try to command the public works by controlling all the bids for construction projects, and when the student wing of the party exercises controls by brazen force on the halls of residence in the public universities, the best that the party can do is for the party chief to de-link herself as their patron.
Look at the short shrift given to the institution of local government where instead of strengthening it, as promised in the election manifesto, everything is being done to tie it to the apron strings of the MPs. The UZ parishad chairmen and vice-chairmen have had little to do since they were elected to their posts more than a year ago. So much for the commitment to strengthen local government!
The best recipe resides in poor governance, of which law and order is perhaps the most important, having to do with the physical aspect of human security. The situation in this regard is always flaunted a being the best ever in the country, yet rise in instances of political killings, murder and abuse of women and the weaker section of the society suffer the ratchet effect, as we are experiencing presently.
The unsuccessful attempt to justify extrajudicial deaths makes the commitment of the government to provide good governance look inane. What is even worse is the fallacious argument that the matter of cross-fire deaths has been ingrained in the psyche of some law enforcing agencies as to have become a culture which will need time to discard; the effort to shift the blame on the predecessor is very palpable in these argument.
No agency in a civilised society can arrogate to itself the role of judge, jury and executioner. And thus one is deeply pained when other countries confer all kinds of uncomplimentary appellation to the special forces of the country, who otherwise have done a tremendous job in other areas like successfully countering terrorism in the country.
There seems to be a predisposition for circumventing the process of the law by the party in power. Therefore, while it had shocked us to see a murder convict become the beneficiary of the presidential pardon during the 4-Party alliance rule, having remained a fugitive for a long time, we were not surprised to see similar acts of benevolence by the present government in the case of several death row prisoners belonging to its cadre; it even went one step ahead than its predecessor by granting pardon while the case was still under review of the apex court. And of course there is the matter of withdrawing "false cases" which has brought the probity of the government in question.
The Yunus case has pitted the government against itself, it being at a loss to justify the action against Dr. Yunus as being anything but motivated by principles and rule of law. Without going into the legality of the actions of the parties concerned, what is shocking is the well orchestrated vilification campaign against the Nobel laureate, its appalling manifestation we witnessed both in the parliament and outside that belie the argument of the government that the matter has to do with rule of law.
And the most recent example of providing the opponent with grounds to excoriate the government and notch up political mileage is the comments of the finance minister on the share market scam probe report. One cannot engender public confidence by exposing through actions and words that the government has something to hide.
The government is only in the mid-term of its tenure and there is always scope to make a mid-course correction.
The writer is Editor, Defence & Strategic Affairs, The Daily Star.
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