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Editorial

Hartals and mass arrests disrupt normal life

Let the parties narrow this widening gap
30 November 2010, 18:00 PM
EDITORIAL
One more hartal has come and gone, with the usual disruption of life and damage to property which such political moves entail. Stray incidents of violence have occurred at different places of the country, with vehicles and the like coming under attack. Now that the hartal is over, it is our sincere expectation that it will not be repeated and that the political opposition will find alternative means of expressing its point of view on the issues. We have consistently made our position clear, which is that we have never had any reason to think that hartals or general strikes accelerate in any way our march to stable democracy or a vibrant economy. We believe that the end of autocratic rule in 1990 and the elections of early 1991 should have been an opportunity for our political classes to guide the nation toward a new, substantive democratic opening through eschewing hartals and promoting a spirit of energetic political engagement and cooperation in parliament as well as outside it. Unfortunately, at a time when we as a nation stand ready to take the necessary steps to catch up with the rest of the world in terms of political and economic advancement, we remain bogged down by issues that increasingly look more personal to politicians than fundamental to the national interest. While we reiterate our stand against hartals, because they come in the way of political stability and an environment which holds up prospects of good foreign investment in Bangladesh, we also must record our grave concern at the mass arrests the government has been carrying out over the past few days. In the days when the BNP held political power, the nation was outraged by the sight of law enforcers arresting citizens at random prior to a hartal or agitational programme of the opposition (which the Awami League was at the time) and carting them off to prison without any consideration of their rights or the consequences. We had thought the practice had come to an end. It seems it has not. And much as government functionaries tell us that the authorities will not prevent an opposition hartal, the very fact that they undertake indiscriminate arrests of citizens as a way of thwarting the opposition in itself acts as a spur to continued political confrontation. That apart, by placing people under arrest on the mere assumption that they will contribute to disorder and indeed are supporters or activists of the opposition, the authorities are only undermining the very concept of rule of law they say they mean to uphold. The government, more specifically the ruling party, must note that such ill-advised moves can only enhance the level of popular ire at the way it is conducting things. Nothing can be more demeaning for citizens and more disreputable for a government than an utter disregard or a display of contempt for the people. We trust mass arrests will no more be a mechanism of handling crises in the future. There is little doubt that the country is at a critical crossroads today with the ever-widening polarization between the major political parties. Unless the leading lights of both the ruling party and the opposition realise what is at stake today, it will be the nation which will come off as the worst sufferer. We, therefore, once more appeal to the government and the opposition to reflect on the situation and take the steps necessary to make democracy meaningful for the people. We pray that the politicians do nothing that will take the country to a point of no return. Let sanity prevail in all quarters.

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