Is it any wonder that most Bangladeshis are beginning to be weary of elections or contemporary politics? In the past days, elections evoked excitement. There was a festive quality about them with everyone sharing the thrill and drama. But judging by the lack of interest and the ennui, it's clear that things have changed for the worst. The remark most commonly heard from average voters was: “They are the same set of people. It makes no difference who wins.”

The demand for a free, fair, credible and peaceful election under the aegis of a non-party government participated by all the parties was not heeded on the plea of constitutional obligation. The election-time government usurped the powers of the EC. Disappointingly, the EC, empowered to deal with the polls-related administration, became a subservient and loyal agency of the government. The election-time government wanted to defuse tension, violence, arson and killing through arrest of BNP stalwarts and activists, but it was an almost futile exercise because Jamaat-Shibir men, the main component creating unrest and violence, remained beyond the net. The law enforcers' failure to contain violence and arrest the terrorist elements on the spot infuriated public sentiment and emboldened the terrorists to carry on their nefarious activities unfettered.

Unhappily, the 10th Parliamentary election saw the lowest voter turn-out and was the bloodiest in our history. It was marked by violence, taking a toll of 21 lives in different parts of the country just before polls. It was such a splendidly peaceful (!) election that not even a single vote was cast in 45 centres and polling was suspended in 539 centres.

Unfortunately, the post-election scenario was more ominous. Despite the fact that the administration had knowledge about what might happen to the minority community because they went to the polling centres, they (minority community) became victims of repression and atrocities. Most ominously, a couple of hours after the polls, BNP-Jamaat men unleashed terror in a village in Abhoynagar of Jessore by torching, ransacking and looting houses. The spillover effect of post election violence has spread to many parts of the country inhabited by Hindu communities. Other than two people killed in Dinajpur and Noakhali, post-election fury and the clash between the titans at Dohar in the outskirt of Dhaka city have taken five lives.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has hinted that a dialogue for fixing the modalities for the 11th Parliamentary election can be initiated if BNP shuns violence, agrees to sever its ties with Jamaat and creates no obstacle to the ongoing war crimes trials. Government measures to take a hard line on BNP leaders leaving Jamaat at large might not yield the desired result. People feel that government must leave enough room for accommodation and create grounds for appeasement so that a dialogue can be fruitful. Paradoxically, that Sheikh Hasina has taken the reins of administration at such a critical time makes us hopeful as well as apprehensive. If she cannot balance the situation, the government may have to face a catastrophic situation that it would find difficult to contain.

Khaleda Zia's phone call to Jamaat leaders to get their activists back in agitation has only helped flare up the violence and killing spree. It is most unfortunate that the BNP chairperson, not having participated in the election, has fallen back to recklessness bordering on intolerance. Sadly, even though Khaleda Zia and her cohorts know that such instigation will lead to death and destruction, she has chosen the most destructive path in her bid to go to power.

The people have been shocked to learn that BNP Vice-Chairman Tarique Rahman wants to guide or incite the people of Bangladesh from London without ever realising the pain and sufferings they have been undergoing since Nov 26.

To our utter dismay, politics in the country continues to defy prognosis. The people, till before the election, were hoping that the dialogue going on with the stalwarts of the two mainstream political parties would be fruitful. Conventional wisdom held that politics had returned to its roots. It only took a few rounds of negotiation for that wisdom to be consigned to the dustbin because the rescue plan that newspaper editors and civil society members very skillfully prepared did not receive adequate response from either party, specifically from the top brass of two parties.

If politics is the art of compromise, as Khaleda Zia said in a press briefing, then why did she allow that chance to slip through? She needs to take measures to evolve a policy in the coming days for the country and the people instead of the destructive hate-filled nonsense we have been witnessing of late. Most importantly, Prime Minister Hasina needs to take control of the political moves so that the country can go back to constructive things like making the 11th Parliamentary election free, fair, smooth and credible. Khaleda Zia, if she is still maintaining ties with Jamaat, must rein-in the Jamaat and Shibir activists by telling the Jamaat leaders to refrain from violence and atrocities unleashed in the form of burning and looting of houses of Hindu communities. Sadly true, minority communities, 43 years after the liberation of the country, are as vulnerable as they were in 1971.

The writer is a columnist of The Daily Star.

By arrangement with The Daily Star/ANN