Commentary
Imagine PM had said the opposite
Not criticism, but ignorance of facts is the real enemy
Mahfuz Anam
Recently ruling party MPs, for the first time, came out in droves on
the Sangsad floor criticising the unforgivable failure of the
communications minister resulting in major highways suddenly becoming
unusable, and that also just before the Eid holidays. Commerce,
finance, and power ministries also came under heavy criticism. Later
the prime minister, in her question-answer session, reprimanded the
criticising MPs saying why they were concentrating on a few minor
failures when the record of the government is replete with success.
Imagine the prime minister saying exactly the opposite. Instead of
criticising them, suppose she had actually praised them, saying she
appreciated their forthrightness, and was thankful for bringing out
some unpalatable facts, adding that she would personally look into the
functions of those ministers.
What would she have gained by such a stance? First, she would have
encouraged a true spirit of debate and openness in our parliamentary
practice. Second, she would have shown the voters that their
representatives can and do raise issues of public concern even if it
goes against the governing party. Third, the ministers concerned would
have been alerted as to how critical their parliament colleagues were
about their failures. Fourth, she would have taken into account the
real feelings of the people in the constituencies of the MPs who
spoke. Fifth, the MPs concerned would have had the satisfaction of
seeing that their views were listened to with some importance by the
leader of the House, and would feel that their thoughts mattered.
Sixth, it would prove that the ruling party had both the maturity and
the self-confidence to hear some critical views. The biggest benefit
of open debate, one that cannot be quantified, is giving the public
the feeling that the parliament cares and discusses the issues that
are of concern to them.
But regrettably all of these are in the realm of imagination. The
reality is that not only the PM reprimanded the MPs for speaking their
minds, she even likened their actions to the criticisms prior to the
dastardly murder of Bangabandhu. In one stroke she silenced whatever
possibility there was of free debate, and ascribed a serious stigma to
the act of "criticising the government" by referring to what had
happened prior to the tragedy of August 1975. It is now certain that
no Awami League MP will dare to raise any matter of public concern on
the floor of the parliament, however urgent and however critical.
To put it bluntly, the prime minister, as stated by herself, wants
only to hear praise from her MPs and nothing else. If truth be damned
in the process, so be it. Because anybody interested in the facts
could not have castigated her outspoken MPs as the way she did the
other day, and that also on the floor of the parliament.
The prime minister also said by being critical and talking about the
failures of the government, her party MPs were "supplying weapons to
the enemies". The fact is that truth is never a weapon in the hands of
the enemy. It is, on the contrary, one's own weapon of strength. No
government anywhere in the world has ever fallen because of the truth.
They have fallen because they hid themselves from it.
By stopping the MPs from speaking out, Sheikh Hasina has cut herself
off from a source of invaluable information which every leader
desiring public support desperately needs. In fact wise leaders in
history have been known to encourage dissenting voices, and even to
encourage them to keep special liaisons, sometimes privately, so that
the leaders know the unpalatable truth. Those leaders who shut
themselves from negative facts later regretted it. When they realised
their follies, it was often a little too late.
One of the tragedies of our return to democracy in the post Ershad era
has been that our elected governments, soon after coming to power,
fell into the clutches of sycophants and coterie interest, and very
soon got isolated from the very people that had elected them. They
started believing their own rhetoric of success and deluded themselves
that the "facts" as they saw were the same as what the people saw. In
all the instances the leadership prevented their grassroots from
telling the high ups the truth about what was going on in people's
minds. There is a big message in the fact that in every election since
1991 the incumbent always lost. Our ruling parties never asked why,
and so they ended up making the same mistakes over and over again.
Our leaders never accept that they can make any mistake. There has not
been a single instance where there was a serious post-mortem as to why
the ruling party of the day had lost the election. The immediate and
standard disclaimer was "we lost because"… of manipulation by the
caretaker government, rigging, and partisanship of the Election
Commission, and never, never because "we made some mistakes". Since it
was everybody else's fault that "we lost", there was never a need or
desire or initiative to find out the truth as to what had gone wrong
"within", so that it could be fixed.
Even today as BNP is trying to reorganise itself, recalibrate its
strategy, and reform its agenda -- there is absolutely no sign of any
introspection as to whether "Hawa Bhaban" was a blunder or that
handling of the investigation of August 21 grenade massacre amounted
to criminal negligence, or allowing Bangla Bhai and the extremists to
flourish was a serious mistake. "We lost because of conspiracy by the
caretaker government", clear and simple, and hence there is "no need
for any self-analysis".
Today, the Awami League government, instead of looking at the causes
of public disillusionment in some areas, is blaming "conspirators",
"anti-liberation" forces, and everybody's favourite villain, the
media. (On media's villainy there is a consensus between our
governments and oppositions, depending of course on who is in power).
As we write, we are never sure how our words will be taken by those
concerned. Just as the MPs were shut up, we may be dismissed as
"conspirators" or as "habitual critics, who really cannot tolerate our
success". But imagine that the prime minister does the very opposite,
and actually takes us earnestly and gives our views a modicum of
respect and seriousness. Well, with that happy "imagination" we wish
her and all our readers, Eid Mubarak.
http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=200797
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