M. Shahidul Islam
Leaders are bedrocks of history. What they think, talk and do make up the gist of politics too. President Woodrow Wilson craved for a peaceful world and crafted the League of Nations which today is known as the United Nations. Adolf Hitler believed in suppression and conquest. They are known by what they did.
No wonder Bangladesh media at home and abroad is having a virtual feast with the staples of the October 28 “tele-talk-sniffer-battle” between the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition. At this critical juncture of the nation, people are craving to know much more about the inherent traits of their leaders to prepare for the war ahead.
Notwithstanding that many analysts termed the talks as mere farce due to the 37- minute-long conversations harping mainly on who did what in the past, a closer scrutiny reveals, however, that the conversation entailed anecdotes of history and exposed the very asymmetric mindsets of the two leaders to show for the first time where they come from and why they loath each other so much.
The PM went into an offensive at the very outset, accusing the Opposition Leader of not receiving the PM’s call on the so called Red Phone which is supposed to keep the two leaders in touch to run a functional democracy. As Mrs. Zia shot back by saying that her Red Phone has been out of order for over a year, the PM insisted that to be untrue.
From then on, Mrs. Zia went into a virtual blitzkrieg and unleashed whatever anger she had had in store for years and decades about the conduct and the actions of the PM with respect to her political nemesis. Mrs. Zia said, “No, you have to first listen to me. You said you called me but I didn’t get any call. What you are saying is not completely true. I did not get any call. My red phone has been dead for a long time, for over a year. You run the government, you don’t know about it? You run the government and you don’t even know whether the opposition leader’s phone is working or not. You have to check things like this.”
Barrages of allegations, counter-allegations, shenanigans, ramblings and exchange of anger continued unabated for minutes after that, in a manner as if the quarrel was taking place in a local tea stall between two estranged villagers. At one point, an angry Mrs. Zia asked the PM, “Tell me, why mikes were not given at our rally? Why didn’t I get mikes?” Then, the following exchanges consumed several more minutes:
PM: Mikes were given at the rally!
KZ: Only a few. There were very few mikes at the rally. We can put mikes on as large an area as we want. There were a lot of people and they came to listen to the speeches. But you cut the flow of transport, imposed Section 144. Is there a state of emergency in the country that you would act like this? What is this?
SH: I do not want to talk to you about this right now.
KZ: If you do not want to talk, then there is no point in talking at all.
SH: What you said is not true at all.
KZ: These are all true. There are records to prove these.
Rapprochement fading
The hope for a rapprochement fast fading away, the PM changed the course and accused Mrs. Zia of something which she usually does and did since coming to power in 2009. The PM said, “You’re working to save the war criminals.”
Angrier, Mrs. Zia repulsed harder: “If you would’ve conducted a fair trial of the war criminals, then we would’ve supported it. But you didn’t form that tribunal. It was a rather one-sided affair. There are a number of war criminals in your own party. You did not take any step in this regard. Why didn’t you catch any of them? If you are not impartial, then you are not worthy of being the prime minister. You have become the prime minister of your party, not the country. You have not been able to maintain impartiality. Or else, you wouldn’t have treated me like this. The way you treated me, my son, my party – do I need to say anything more? You don’t even know how to respect the opposition leader. What sort of democracy do you promote?”
At one point, the conversation veered toward the reminiscences of the army-backed caretaker regime of 2007-2008 after the PM reminded Mrs. Zia of the Fakhruddin-Moinuddin regime, insinuating perhaps about the danger that lurks around if the purported talk fails.
Mrs. Zia shot back with facts again: “Fakhruddin-Moinuddin was not my choice. They were your choice. You said that it was the result of your movement. You went to the ceremony, I did not.” Mrs. Zia went on: “You went to the oath taking ceremony and said that it was the result of your movement. Why do you forget these things? You want to forget these things, but the people don’t.”
Most importantly, Mrs. Zia’s outlook about the validity of the Moinuddin-Fakhruddin regime got crystallized in what she said next. “What matters is that when Moinuddin took over, why did you join the ceremony? It was not according to the constitution. Why did you then go to the oath taking? You did not think for one second that both our parties were out of power. At that time, you did not think about any dialogue between the two parties. Didn’t the thought cross your mind that it is better not to go to the Fakhruddin-Moinuddin ceremony since it was unconstitutional? You didn’t think that. You went to the oath taking ceremony with a smiling face.”
‘Look ahead’
Following some other inconsequential hot exchanges, Mrs. Zia seemed to have regained her compose and told the PM: “Look, I want to say that, forgetting the past try to move forward into the future. Or else, we won’t be able to progress. If you really are sincere, then figure out ways to move forward.”
That took the PM by surprise and she went haywire. “As there was an attempt to kill me during the August 21 grenade attack…” the PM said, provoking Mrs. Zia to interject ad say the following:
KZ: The August 21 grenade attack was carried out by you. No one wanted to kill you. The longer you are here, the better for us. The more you use obscene language like this, the better for us. No harm will come to us.SH: When you cut your birthday cake on August 15… KZ: August 15 is my birthday. I will cut cakes on that day.
SH: When you cut the cake to encourage the killers…
KZ: That’s not the point. I’ll cut cakes on August 15 because it is my birthday. Is it that no one can be born on August 15 in Bangladesh? No one can celebrate birthday on August 15? Leave this subject aside.
SH: We just…
KZ: You talk bad about Ziaur Rahman. He gave you people new life. Leave this matter aside. You people were the BAKSAL. The reason that you are Awami League today is because of Ziaur Rahman. Or else, you could not have been Awami League today.”
This penultimate assault of the Opposition Leader compelled the PM to change her course once again, albeit toward the issues which she thinks the public is very sensitive about. Evoking the chilled memories of August 15, 1975 when her father and many other family members were gunned down in a military coup, the PM said, “You saw Russel (PM’s brother) walk around in our house.”
Before the PM could proceed further, Mrs. Zia snapped again abruptly: “In my speech that day, I said that we should forget these. Let’s give up the culture and start anew. If you are willing to do that, then let’s sit and have a talk. I have no objection in having dialogue. But the date has to be after my hartal ends.”
That pushed the PM back to the substance and she reiterated: “So you will not withdraw the hartal?” This time, seemingly fed up and exhausted, Mrs. Zia responded emphatically, for the last time, “No, I cannot withdraw the hartal.”
An extrapolation from, and analysis of, the salient parts of their heated exchanges does enable suave readers to judge who won the debate and why it was made public by the government at a time when the nation must look forward to holding a fair election, not backward to reflect on what brought us to this abyss of darkness.
Source: Weekly Holiday
