Yet another Ershadian ploy?

When would it be appropriate for President Abdul Hamid to return to Bangladesh? This indeed is a million dollar question to answer. Apparently he flew to Singapore for medical checkup. Prior to his departure people from different walks of life—en masse—sought his appointment; begging him to intervene in the deadly political stalemate that the country was experiencing. Given the extremely limited power vested in him by the constitution, the President felt embarrassed and an easy way out for him perhaps was to take an innocent health-checkup trip to Singapore. Not unlikely that he genuinely felt a bodily pressure. A new threat has developed in the mean time.

Ex-dictator and an 'accidental' ally of the Prime Minister in the current All Party Government, HM Ershad collected a bunch of resignation letters from his loyal party stooges, those sworn as Ministers only days ago. He now has plans to approach the President as soon as his aircraft touches the Hazrat Shahjalal landing ground. This per se would not have caused any heart throbbing anxiety. The real danger lies in the fact that the former General would, with high probability, be carrying a revolver in his back pocket, loaded with no less than four bullets. How would the gently-mannered President of the Republic be able to handle this situation—a twin threat? One, the resignation letters; these should have been handed over to the PM and not to him. Second, the lethal weapon, be it licensed or not.

All things considered, best for Mr Hamid (and the country) would be to return home first on the 14th of this month; 13th being the last day of withdrawing the candidature for the poll. On that day he calmly can explain to the General that it would be of little merit to submit the resignations. This obviously assumes that some 250 poll contenders of the Ershad's party had not withdrawn their nomination paper in anticipation of the Ministers' resignation.

This would be my 'clever' suggestion. In my innocence I refuse to believe that this soap opera (resignation, revolver and so on) is nothing but part of a heavenly plan—yet another Ershadian ploy.

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The disgraced dictator (Potito Shoyrachar) Hussain Muhammad Ershad is the embodiment of the bankrupt politics in this country; a politics embedded deeply in corruption, opportunism and collective 'self-fortification'. Ershad is one of the few dictators in history who has survived past despotic rule. And that thanks to the ingenious 'politicking' of the popular political parties in this country. They have embraced him when necessary, kicked him when needed and again gently took him back in their cozy laps. The simple means of 'bribe and blackmail' did the trick. The situation of this former General has finally come to become such a tragic farce that today he is threatening to pull the trigger of his own revolver, pointing it to his head. My sympathy for him is no more than zero; but I wonder how should we be even an ounce more 'approving' to the politicians who regularly beg our votes to engage in their self-lifting strategic games?

'Is This the Bangladesh that We Wanted' I humbly ask myself paraphrasing Hymayun Azad's rhetorical book title.

(This write-up was prepared as soon as the President Abdul Hamid had left the country for treatment. Due to shortage of space in the Opinion page, as we decided to put on a number of articles on Nelson Mandela, it is published now. By this time the President has already returned; but the message of the piece perhaps still is valid.)

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Iftekhar Hossain is a writer and a casual political observer