The opposition is frequently organising general strikes, processions, meetings, rallies, human chains, Dhaka siege, sit-in demonstrations in front of the secretariat, the PMO, the parliament building, the election commission office, etc in their effort to protest the umpteen wrong doings, follies and failures of this government and to press home their demands for reforms aimed at making the election commission and the non-party caretaker government system in place truly independent, powerful, and free from political influence.

The government instead of engaging itself in dialogue with the opposition over their legitimate demands prefers to use force and all sorts of subterfuge to foil the opposition political programs.

The police, ever ready at the ruling party's beck and call, together with the ruling party armed cadres, invariably swoops down upon the unarmed agitating political leaders and workers with no holds barred and brutalises them using rifles and sticks. We often see prominent political leaders, both male and female, being roughed up by the police and left bleeding.

This sort of gory scene is doubtless sickening to watch and is all grist to the mill for public indignation against the government. We have seen such scenes during the autocratic regime of Gen Ershad, the fallen dictator. And we have been seeing these distressing scenes during the last sixteen years of our experiment with parliamentary democracy. This is sad indeed. The brutality and the fascist style of governance of the Ershad era at times seems to pale into insignificance when compared to the brutality and terror let loose on the opposition by our democratically elected governments.

The two venerable ladies in our politics, Khaleda Zia and Sheikh Hasina Wajed, have failed to measure up to the expectations of the people. People expected democracy and democratic behaviour from them. People did not expect democracy and democratic conduct from Gen Ershad who usurped power by holding the nation hostage at gun-point. To be fair, Khaleda Zia has scored more negative points than Sheikh Hasina, the former having been in power twice and the latter having just one stint. This by no means should be misunderstood to mean that one is better than the other.

One might ask in hindsight what was the merit of staging the much touted Dhaka Siege by the 14 party opposition led by Awami League (AL) on June 11, 2006. One might as well ask, in all humility, what was the necessity of the High Court order issued late in the afternoon on a holiday banning the Dhaka siege only hours before it was due to kick off. One might also ask Prime Minister Khaleda Zia what she has gained in terms of political mileage by ordering the police of the republic and her party thugs to mercilessly beat up the opposition leaders peacefully leading the siege program and the media men performing their professional duties.

The June 11 Dhaka siege program was nothing new for us. We saw it being staged by the opposition in 1990 against the authoritarian regime of Gen Ershad. We have seen such siege program staged by the opposition during the rule of the last two democratically elected governments.

Many of us may not see eye to eye with the June 11 Dhaka Siege program of the opposition. But viewed in the wider context of the situation obtaining in the country now, it does seem to have some relevance. Prices of essentials are spiraling. Corruption is rampant and all too pervasive especially among the political elites. Politicisation of the police and the bureaucracy has rendered the civil administration totally ineffective.

The worst sufferers and victims of the circumstances are the teeming millions of the people who want to live in peace and want to see the rule of law and not the aberrations fashioning their life. Economy is in shambles as evident from rising inflation and heavy borrowings by the government from banks. Law and order is at its nadir. People have never felt so frustrated and so insecure for their life and property and honour before as they do now.

Political persecution has probably reached its climax. The case of Baishakhi TV director and industrialist, Bulu, being allegedly framed in a host of cases and tortured in police custody just because he filed a criminal case against a BNP political heavyweight and minister is a glaring example of how vindictive the government can be against anyone daring to protest the wrong doings of any ruling party stalwarts known to be "tainted" or otherwise.

Then look at the RMG sector. There is total chaos and lack of even a modicum of man management and service discipline in the DEPZ as is evident from the sacking of the executive chairman of the BEPZA. Factories have been burnt and vandalised by workers while the law enforcers and officials apparently remained silent spectators. This is what happens when corruption, inefficiency and toadyism are looked for as the criteria for appointment, posting and promotion in the administration. There is hardly a sector where the government can claim to have fared better.

Understandably, the opposition, which has been slandered and denied its due political space by the government from day one of its coming to power, would seize the opportunity to cash in on the utter mess the government has created by its follies and failures and by its corruption and incompetence. The Dhaka siege program is a novel innovation of our politicians to focus on the failures of the government and to turn the opposition political movement into a mass movement by involving cross sections of the people in large numbers.

The High Court order banning the Dhaka siege has been termed "unprecedented" by many eminent lawyers of the country considering the haste with which it has been issued and the circumstances surrounding it. The fact that the writ petition was moved by a ruling party lawyer and the High Court bench moved fast at a galloping speed to pronounce its judgment in favour of the petitioner late in the afternoon on a holiday hours before the siege program was to start is apt to raise question in the minds of many people as to whether it was done in good faith.

The opposition went ahead with the siege program despite the court order as they did not receive a copy of the court order which to my mind has impaired the image of the judiciary. The High Court bench could have spared itself the embarrassment suffered by being more judicious in such cases.

The government action triggering mass arrests of people in the run up to Dhaka siege, followed by massive deployment of the police force in riot gear in tandem with the ruling party armed cadres on June 11 and physically assaulting the unarmed opposition leaders and supporters, was not only undemocratic but also barbaric to say the least. It is a shame to see on the TV screens and on the front pages of the national dailies the pictures of General KM Shafiullah, a hero of our Liberation War, the first army chief of Bangladesh and a former Member of Parliament bleeding profusely from nose and head injuries and being led to safety by his party workers.

It reminds us of what Gen Ershad did to foil such programs in 1990. Gen Ershad also used the police and his party armed cadres and committed excesses on unarmed people, but to no avail. The more the opposition was brutalised, the more steeled was the determination of the opposition and the people to get rid of the dictator and his regime.

Prime Minister Khaleda Zia would do well to have a good look in the mirror and try to remember those days when her party men were being brutalised on the streets and she herself had to be on the run to save her life. Ultimately, democracy won and the people, brutalised and left bleeding on the streets, became victorious. Gen Ershad now is in the dust-bin of history.

Meanwhile, the opposition leader has no other option except to lick her wounds and wait for her turn to wreak vengeance on Khaleda Zia and her party as and when she would step into the shoes of the Prime Minister and try to replicate the dictatorial rule of Gen Ershad as successfully as her immediate predecessor. This is the sum total of the politics of this country during the last sixteen years of our experiment with parliamentary democracy.

Essentially, it boils down to political brinkmanship between the two main political parties of the country, AL and BNP. Both the parties speak vociferously of establishing democracy in the country but neither practice democracy. Both speak loudly of people's welfare and well-being, but in practice they are busy building personal fortunes and amassing vast wealth for their leaders and their henchmen.

Both AL and BNP would like to remain in power perpetually. Hence the doggedness of purpose of the party in office to cling to power by any means, fair or foul. And also the natural proclivity, arising out of deep-seated autocratic mind-set on the part of the party leadership when in power, to try to wear down the party in opposition through constant harassment and persecution of its leaders and workers, with the ultimate objective of emerging as the sole dominant political force in the country.

This hunger for power of the two main political parties, totally attuned to autocratic inclination, is the main reason for the myriad problems plaguing the nation. But the quest for democracy goes on because the teeming millions of our people hunger for democracy. They long for their political rights and economic emancipation to be guaranteed. They want to live in peace and live free from the clutches of both the clerics who kill innocent people in order to establish the so-called "rule of the Quran" in the country and the pseudo-secular and tainted politicians who have amassed vast wealth and developed muscles by misusing their office and authority and by criminal acts.

The writer was a freedom fighter and former military secretary to the President of Bangladesh.