An 84-hour shutdown enforced by the main opposition party BNP in Bangladesh from Nov 10 and political infighting and violence mounting up in all parts of the country have taken a toll of about 21 innocent lives on the streets other than jeopardising trade and business activities, transportation and normalcy in citizens’ lives.

With both the ruling party and the opposition engaged in confrontational politics that shows no signs of abating, the rule of reason and consensus seems to be an illusion.

According to the public, arrests of top leaders of the main opposition party BNP would in no way heal the wounds but would rather escalate the crisis. Presumably, the force of events, mostly disastrous, taking shape at a break-neck speed has led the government to make up policy by the hour, day and week. Anxiously speaking: the crises are perilous. In such a context, people are prompted to say what chaos and sufferings during and aftermath of the Liberation War could not destroy, the path to democracy did.

TV pictures of the incidence of violence and sporadic bomb attacks on innocent people not only on the streets of Dhaka city but in all parts of country during the hartal (strike) days, most spectacularly, pickets vandalising cars, uprooting railway lines, throwing cocktails at passenger buses, burning passengers alive inside buses and cars makes a poignant show. Shops with shutters down, vehicular traffic off the roads, police beating the picketers and rival party cadres engaged in clashes on the streets throughout hartal hours in no way boost the image of the country already ravaged by many other crises like climate-induced disasters, endemic corruption and slow pace of development activities. Bangladeshis living outside the country are wondering how and when peace and stability will be restored in the country.

The country has begun to look dangerously volatile, with donor agencies making no fresh grants, investment climate shrinking, services falling apart, unscrupulous and fake business groups swindling bank money in collusion with bank officials, crimes and drugs creating their elaborate and permanent reality and lastly, most vicious of all, academic institutions have become totally non-functional. In a word, a sinking feeling has gripped the whole nation.

In short: Bangladesh is suffering from a leadership crisis.

But leadership in such a paramount crisis is a superhuman quality that must be called into play. It is unquestionably true that almost all crises are consequences of the blunders committed earlier. Outraged by the bitter memory of Magura by-election, people and most political parties have been raising their voices for a caretaker government in the forthcoming parliamentary election that must be free, fair and neutral.

Historical records are galore where great leaders imbued with statesmanship and pragmatism played very crucial roles to set the records straight and saved their country from ignominy. Looking back to America in the past century, we can see that Abraham Lincoln, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Truman, past presidents of America, owe their reputation to crisis leadership. Churchill, the war-time prime minister of Britain, would not have become that great unless he acted as events of the World War II demanded of him. By the same analogy many leaders have been destroyed by crises, despite other accomplishments. L.B. Johnson was devoured by the Vietnam War, Carter by the Iranian hostage crisis, Nixon by Watergate scandal, Hitler for unleashing the Holocaust and Stalin and Khrushchev for perpetrating an oppressive socialist regime.

In the current scenario what are our leaders doing while standing in the midst of a political impasse?

With the prime minister making it plain at the Khatib conference in Dhaka recently that her heart bleeds at the death and suffering of the innocent people and she does not crave for the job of the prime minister at the cost of the lives of these people, there is a flickering ray of hope on the horizon that a consensus could be arrived at through a meaningful dialogue. People are inclined to believe that she means it and every action from the ruling and opposition party stalwarts from now on must be backed by rational considerations, welfare of the masses and a look to the future. Precisely known to all, every crisis is automatically and too often exploited by other interest seekers and pseudo-politicians for their own gains and purposes. So there is reason to be cautious. There comes the necessity of grasping the future implications of present events, and forestalling any likely catastrophe. But the overriding fear is that ‘”Rare is the politician who means what he/she says and says what he/she means”.

Most disappointingly, recent events and utterances by the party leaders have symbolised a situation that hardly shows any respect for democracy. The fact that our political leaders must not fail to take note that after so much developmental fiasco that went on for the last decade, this time voters might be judging the leaders and parties now in the election game from the track records they left behind. People are thinking that the moral values and ethical standards of the party leaders have been greatly corroded by a trail of scams and self-enrichment. This election might be an opportunity for the electorate to rid the society in particular and the country at large of the opportunists in public life.

Musing over the worsening scenario developing with each passing day in the country, one is prompted to think that the power of reason, sensibility and taking a realistic appraisal of the situation palls before the power of events. People’s expectation runs high urging the country’s leaders to face historic responsibilities and remake their relationship that holds the country unified in the face of disastrous extremist movements, religion-based politics and anti-liberation forces that loom ominously. And that needs leaders imbued with pragmatism, statesmanship and vision.

The writer is a columnist of The Daily Star.

By arrangement with The Daily Star/ANN