Mohammad Ali Sattar
This scribe was rather perturbed after he heard the speech Begum Zia delivered to the media last week. This was her second such media briefings in the last three months.
Like it or not, Begum Zia , though out of power of any sorts, is still hogging headlines and has kept herself alive. Her resilience has been a tested trait in her and she likes to pursue ‘uncompromising’ campaigns against her adversaries. Now she appears to be fighting a lone battle.
Her conditions and the recent events, both personal and political, have been tragic and unfortunate. Her personal loss apart, the loss of touch with her party men and the gradual decimating of the lower echelons of the BNP supporters has been a real threat and very difficult situation for her.
Her nearest of kin is also unavailable. All she now depends on is the distant messages from her son in UK and occasional appearance of the senior leaders at her solitary home. But she has managed to cause the upheaval that she wanted to.
She is also under constant threat of cases being instituted one after the other against her. A warrant of arrest has been issued by a court. She waits to be taken into custody any time, as mentioned number of times by the Prime Minister. If our PM is saying things about her we ought to take it seriously and I want to believe it religiously.
Amidst all these fear factors, there she appears to say few words to the nation via the media. Her delivery to the press or rather to the nation was rather far from the expected contents and tone. We expected strong and positive statements and a roadmap for the opposition, the government and the nation too.
One may take it in a positive stride noting that she had shown a little polity in her approach, that there was no serious challenge to the government and that she did not threat stricter measures etc., But all the same, she declared her intention to continue with the ongoing movement and called for a dialogue.
What Begum Zia should have said is that she wants participatory polls for the next time, that she wants to hold dialogue for reforming of the election systems, a robust election commission and end to harassment of party workers. But it tends to fall on deaf ears.
The writer is a journalist and columnist
Source: Weekly Holiday
Begum Zia’s appearances in the media or otherwise reminds Bangladeshis that regardless of extremes of brutalities that this government has since employed to muzzle all dissenting voices in the country there is someone out there that stands for their rights – a voice of dissent, a cry for justice and a crusader of democracy.
As a matter of fact every time her picture appears in the newspaper it inspires people and dares people to hope just the way her husband’s lone voice inspired an entire besieged and abandoned nation under attack fifty years ago.
So I believe that far from waning, Khaleda Zia is winning, people are winning.
Whereas, with every act of violence, of enforced disappearances of opposition politicians, of ‘encountered’ killings of opposition activists etc. it is the legitimacy of government that is waning, not that of Khaleda Zia’s!
I believe, ADK’s view spoke for the vast majority of the common people of Bangladesh, who are silent majority, not the vocal minority Awami Leaguers.