Editor's Pick

If you are bad I can be worse

10 March 2010, 18:00 PM
EDITORIAL
Shahedul Anam Khan

I can outdo you. Photo: Dorling Kindersley

IT seems that there is a race in the Parliament among the members to outdo their opponents on the other side of the aisle in unparliamentary pronouncements and uncivil behaviour. There was very little to be proud of in the proceedings of the Parliament of the last few weeks, when all that the honourable members indulged in was hurling of unprintable expletives and unutterable diatribes at the opponents. The speaker's intervention might have come sooner, and his proposal that the MPs could very well replicate WWF contest on the lawns of the Jatiyo Sangsad if they so wished, even suggesting the type of dress they could wear, clearly betrayed his frustration at the way things had gone. When the BNP chose to rejoin the Sangsad, one looked forward to a functional parliament. But hopes were dashed by the way the business of the house has been run. And the members' behaviour has belied the honorific prefixed to their names. It was disappointing that the time of the House and the money of the people have not been used for any productive purpose. One finds it hard to believe that there was nothing of public interest that the MPs could think of to discuss in the Parliament. Why was there no frank and serious discussion on law and order, or on the killings in Dhaka and Rajshai universities, or the situation in the CHT? It is regrettable that the Parliament members, and they belonged to both sides of the floor, were taken up with the dead rather than the living. Admittedly, it is safer to ill-treat the memory of the dead, they cannot respond. But if they were alive I am certain they would have been more gracious, courteous and polite in replying to even the vilest criticisms. Their political heirs have disappointed us by their demeanour. I was brought up with two very worthy values inculcated in my mind. I was told that there are two things in the world that are exclusively for gentlemen, the rest could be participated by all, and rogues and ruffians were not excluded. One was cricket and the other was politics. Later on in life I came to also believe that there is yet a third -- golf. These are the three areas that are exclusive preserve of women and men with impeccable character, of which integrity is the main component. Sadly, all three have been defiled by money, muscle and might in our country. It is more shocking when politics falls victim to bad practice. There were provocations in the comments of senior leaders of the two major parties that implied many things behind the abuses that were wrapped in a patina of insult that aggravated matters. The unruly display in the Parliament that one had the misfortune to witness recently causes us great distress. It certainly influences negatively the minds of aspiring politicians, particularly those with intelligence, wit and honesty and imbued with the desire to serve the people. The two issues that started the furore were, expressing doubts about whether Zia's body is actually interred in the grave, and changing the names of places, institutions and establishments bearing the general's name. I feel that the former was in very bad taste and should never have been allowed to be spoken on the floor of the House. As for the name change, there is continuity in the practice -- as has been the continuity in naming of things in the country. Unfortunately, naming or renaming has often had a political angle and not a national perspective. However, the recent change is devious because it exploits people's religious sentiments. As for immortalising leaders, a joke I was told by an Iraqi while I was serving there with the Blue Helmets in 1991 may be worth repeating. It was said that at that time the population of Iraq was 17 million but there were only 16 million Iraqis -- the rest one million was Saddam's photographs, statues and murals. And there was a unique way of giving direction -- go right half a kilometer and you will come to a Saddam statue on horseback, turn right and go another kilo and you will find a painting of Saddam in his Arab attire, keep going till you come to a mural of a smiling Saddam holding a baby. Are we any different? And look at the way many of the MPs are using his or her time allotted by the speaker. Of the eight minutes half is spent in extolling the virtues of one's past and present leaders and the other half in abusing the opposition leaders, past and present. And nothing is left to speak on the topic they were given the floor for. One hopes that the people's representatives would use the time in the House more conscientiously. While it is only natural that party members will be grateful to their party leaders and express their gratitude and be sincere to them it will be well to remember that over-abundance of sincerity can be absolutely fatal -- both for one's self and for the country.
Brig. Gen. Shahedul Anam Khan, ndc, psc (retd) is Editor, Defence & Strategic Affairs, The Daily Star.

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