Army and politics
Hazra Awal, Cambridge, UK
It is very refreshing to learn the army chief clarifying the role of the army in the present context. On the whole, the impression would seem to be that of a sincere man with a clear vision of how he would like to see the future of Bangladesh. However, while I agree with his comment "army is not the proper institution for governing the country" he did not say who is.Currently among the leaders, with all due respect, we have a 'Daughter', a 'Wife', a 'Cleric' and a ' General-turned-politician' who once had the title in the west as 'the richest president of the poorest country'. So currently people do not seem to have much of a choice really as each of the four mentioned had not been able to see beyond their respective interests in their 'Father', 'Husband', 'Power' and 'Money'. Going by their activities of the last 20 years, it would also seem that Bangladesh, the dear country, had always taken second place to them after their pursuance of respective interests. But alarmingly if they wish they have immense power of agitating the entire population, There is a phrase in English that 'You cannot teach old dogs new tricks'. Assuming that has some truth in it, one could question how realistic is the dream of the army chief, without removing these individuals from the political scene of Bangladesh. Surely, there are more than one potential leader, whose time may have come, in each of these individual political organisations. Where are they? Why don't they stand up and be counted? Or are we to face the same old repetition of the same old episode of the same old theatre for another five or ten years or even more?
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