Sun 10 Aug 2008
In a Forum article, Arif Syed, a Drishtipat veteran and a member of the Writers’ Collective, reflects on the lessons to be learnt from Dr Yunus’s foray into politics. He begins:
SINCE 1/11, and shortly prior to that, there had been attempts to launch a third political platform beyond the Awami League and BNP/Jamaat coalition in Bangladesh politics. Long before the end of the BNP government’s five-year tenure, there were murmurs about a “third force” taking over as people could predict the upcoming impasse.
So a hybrid government came (I’m calling this government ”hybrid” for lack of a better term) and started a kind of cleanup and reform. It seemed they were going for the cleaning up of corruption first. At some point it seemed that the exit strategy of the hybrid government would involve creating a political platform. There were several new political groupings that started during this time. One of the attempts to create a political platform was taken by Dr. Muhammad Yunus under the banner of Nagorik Shokti (NS) but, after a couple of months of hectic and seemingly unorganised activity, he decided not to pursue it after all, and the whole initiative fell apart.
Arif analyses the reasons behind Yunus’s failure:
However, what was missing from this campaign was an effort to reach the middle class. He probably ignored the fact that the identity-politics-obsessed middle class has been the real opinion leader of the country. For some reason, he or his campaign had no appeal for the middle class psyche or values like ethnic or religious or cultural identity. His strategists had completely missed accounting for that. Perhaps his team didn’t know how to reach this middle class and bring it into the fold. Capturing the middle class will be the key to any future attempts like this.
He finishes thus:
If an ideology provides overall guidance, an unambiguous stand on history and the country’s founding ideals is taken, a clear strategy is drawn and executed, and the right audience is courted, a new political force is not so unrealistic.
The whole article is available here. Looking forward to a good discussion.
August 13th, 2008 at 6:41 am
It is bit unnerving that, whenever there was any individual or political party about to be formed it was dubbed as kings party as if every other individual or group of people other thant AL and BNP has no sense of identity and they have to be planned by DGFI or army.
Dr. Yunus has left the scene not because, he failed to connect the middle class rather, he left with enough Ijjot which was left for him in his short ambition.
A venomous environment was created by AL and BNP pro shameless intellectuals,varsity teachers, arm chair politicians, talk analysts and they led a such campaign of character assassination against him and his family that no self respecting human could stand against that.I have seen mass emails of her daughter kissing, with the title can this girls father could be the leader of this country ?
Other than Yunus there is no other credible force to stand against BNP and Al.There was lot of optimism amongst many people I spoke when Yunus declared he will join politics. He had all the right quality but ge didn’t have the balls to stand against these evil machine.
A country will exactly the kind of leader that it deserve. And, we deserve Hasina, Khaleda and Joy or Tareq-not Yunus. And, we will get that.
August 13th, 2008 at 6:18 pm
oni, we are right, ” a country is exactly the kind of leader that it deserves. And that we deserve, Hasina, Khaldea, Joy or Tarique,not the Yunus. And we will get that.” Bangladesh is land of liars.
That’s why it is said in our religious books, “Allah dones’t change the fate of anyone until he strives to do that.” We get the government as we deserve. No Saturnean, Martian or Moonean individuals or aliens with good moral, honesty and patriotism will come to rule us.
Until the corrupt generation will get extint from our land it will continue to run in the same way. Here, in this peculiar place of the world everybody loves lying, loathing, bragging, back-biting and hating others. All are power crazy and revengeful. No love, No compassion, No foregiviness and NO mercy.
Except some insignificant numbers, all the elite and educated people are demoralized, dishonest and deciet. The more their status is the worst their character is.
I just pray for quick replacement of this corrupt generation with the fresh pro-people and honest hard working but less talking genearation.
Thanks.
August 14th, 2008 at 2:00 am
Looking back, was the moment Dr. Yunus backed out of joining politics the genesis of this government’s hollowness and minus two’s failure?
If Mohammed yunus, the uber-sushil gentleman with super connections to all the embassies could not crack our political code, what hope did anyone else have? Thus all the moaning and goraning about the “right” candidates not being elected in the local elections.
August 14th, 2008 at 5:13 am
Referring to comment 3. Tacit. This is not a place for finger pointing. But I have read your comments in this forum.
And, you are the embodiment of the kind of crooked intellectuals and arm chair politicians we are talking about, who would wear the cloak of neutral but tacitly(pun intended) make sure nobody other than AL or BNP can raise their political voice because of your almost dashkhot like allegiance to one of these two evil ladies.
Its sad for this nation is that, you and people like you have joined the chorus now to say, what hope other have?
You people raised hue and cry, when the two netries were behind bar. Now you are crying, hai hai shobai ke to chere dicho. This government is a failure.
I tell you mate, there is no hope until people like you stop dominating the media landscape and act is the moral guide of the nation. People like Dr Yunus stands no chance against people like you.
The people we are talking about are not aliens. They are amongst us. And, you are one of them. Congrats. You have made sure, this CG is a failure and dynastic rule is sustained and we would remain a hopeless billion for foreseeable future amongst the bickering of the two leaders. Very Well Done.
August 14th, 2008 at 3:31 pm
Re #4, thank you. The people at Crooked Intellectual and Arm Chair Politicians Central Headquarters are very proud of me as well.
August 15th, 2008 at 7:59 am
I also thank you on behalf of the 12 year old girl, who died because his father could not afford 2000 taka for an operation, the malnourished naked kids that walk in the streets and the slums, the hopeless man who ties himself in the wheel of an aircraft in hope of going to mideast to earn some petrodollar.
These stories underpins the major achievements that you are accomplishing everyday through strengthening the dynasties that you have given dashkhot to.
You really should be proud along with your crooked intellectual and armchair politicians.
For you, I am prouder than you are working really hard to ensure the .8 billion useless people living under poverty line to live a miserable life.Life without hope, education, nutrition, health and a future. They really deserved it. Weren’t they ?
August 15th, 2008 at 10:08 am
Oni,
before you take the moral high ground and misinterprete what we said, take a look at our pieces from last year and see what we actually said.
Particularly:
http://www.drishtipat.org/blog/2007/04/16/war-on-corruption/ this is what shameran said.
FAQ from the critics
http://www.thedailystar.net/2007/05/21/d705211502138.htm
Don’t claim you are a bigger patriot and saviour of the poor just because you and somebody else disagree on how our problems should be resolved.
August 15th, 2008 at 10:09 am
and also this one
http://www.thedailystar.net/2007/03/13/d703131501115.htm written two months after 1/11. This was the exact prediction of what we are seeing today.
August 15th, 2008 at 3:04 pm
Asif, I had also witnessed that alcohol incident with disbelief. I have not much to disagree with your posts or the links in daily star as a matter of fact nothing to disagree with you.
But, the political propaganda machinery that had been instrumental in last few month to establish the credibility of the two evil ladies and ensured that no third platform could rise successfully, I have no hesitation to throw my disgust at them.It is distasteful seeing them taking moral high ground in guise of neutral facade.
I don’t agree every thing with the CTG, but, I generally believe even with all their limitation, they tried. If not for these dashkhot giving sycophants they probably would have succeeded and we could have seen corruption in tolerable level.
Now that chance is lost.
August 15th, 2008 at 5:19 pm
Re #9, what exactly are the efforts of the government that were foiled?
This current government is the most tyrannical one I have seen in my lifetime in Bangladesh. It has passed ordinance after ordinance, locked up people indefinitely, tortured and crippled people, and generally made a mess of our country. It can not now escape the consequences of its actions by blaming some other group of people.
You, or any one else, has the full right to believe that the two leaders are not the best leadership available to Bangladesh at the moment. However, the ultimate judge of this fact are the people of Bangladesh. It is by popular verdict that the fate of Khaleda Zia and Sheikh Hasina will be decided, however much frustrating it may be to the supporters of our military government.
August 16th, 2008 at 6:14 am
It is not versus military govt vs AL/BNP.
Because, this military government will be gone after december.
It is between AL/BNP+their beneficiaries vs the people.
A third party could rise to counter these Al/BNP, but, the propaganda machinery succesffully ensured no third voice could rise.
So, people will be forever remain where they had been.
Thats why I said to you Tacit, congratulations on a very job done. It does not matter, whether you say thousand words against the military government,because, that government wont matter in january. It is the people that are actually up against by making sure no third party could rise, by making sure there is no alternative do Al and BNP.
You have successfully served the dashkhot that you had given.
Very well done.
August 16th, 2008 at 6:24 am
Oni, you agree with most of the points Asif made. So you agree that the entire ‘anti corruption agenda’ was at best simplistic and misguided. Your argument with Tacit then essentially comes down to this - one of you think the two netris were failures who ought to be discarded, and the other thinks that if this was so, they wouldn’t have retained public support.
Now let’s see how you go about making your point: Tacit is ‘the kind of crooked intellectuals and arm chair politicians we are talking about, who would wear the cloak of neutral but tacitly(pun intended) make sure nobody other than AL or BNP can raise their political voice because of your almost dashkhot like allegiance to one of these two evil ladies’. No analysis or argument, a lot of emotion, and fingerpointing.
You have your politics, this differs from Tacit’s. You lash out in an emotional way. Fine. Neither of you are running for office. Not really much is at stake here. Still there are words like ‘dashkhot’ and ‘evil’.
Now let’s think about the subject of this post - Dr Yunus’s foray into politics. Let’s agree for arguments sake that the two netris are failures, AL-BNP are full of corrupt thieves, and Yunus was the saviour. Even if these simplistic stories were true, how do you think the AL-BNP party hacks would have reacted to Yunus? You call Tacit ‘crooked intellectual’ when nothing really is at stake. Why did Yunus, or anyone else, expect that AL-BNP types wouldn’t have thrown much more at him?
And that kind of muckraking is the stuff of politics everywhere. Wasn’t Mrs Clinton called a monster by members of her own party? Aren’t both Obama and McCain subject of intense scrutiny? Why did Yunus deserve a free pass? In fact, compared with the partisan food fight we hear about the two ladies from party hacks, Yunus got off quite lightly.
August 16th, 2008 at 9:49 am
# 12 Jyoti
# 3 oni
The professor was dangerously naive in his foray into politics. Power and naivety can be an extremely dangerous combination. I am glad senses prevailed and he decided to quit.
When he announced his decision to come into politics, I supported the idea. But that was based on the expectation that he will roll up his sleeves and get on with the business, a trait of his that I admired most in the past. Instead he choose to stay on his pedestal, spinning out vague notions of change, lofty ideals and seeking the support of urban bhodroloks to deliver the task for him (who, of course, had no intention of doing any such thing or getting into the ‘dirty’ business of politics).
So, here we are; we don’t want to get our hands dirty, but we want to be delivered from the two netris. When that doesn’t happen, we wring our hands and cry foul, and go back to our comfort zone of round table discussions. Has the professor been any different than any one of us, in this matter at least.
For me a huge disappointment, but if did not work out as he expected it to, it is only he who is squarely to be blamed.
August 19th, 2008 at 4:20 am
Before we glorify DMY’s ‘ijjot’, we must remember that both ladies have faced repeated onslaughts of character assasinations– long drives, dalliance with falu etc etc. There’s always been kana-ghusha about their children too and in most instances for due reason. That’s part and parcel of being a public figure in Bangladesh or any other country in Bangladesh.
I agree with FM #13, DMY failed because he was hesitant to roll up his sushil sleeves and get his hands dirty. Whatever his party had to offer (no idea what it was because other than some wishy washy wishlist a manifesto never manifested), did not bode with not just the middle-class, but the class that is far more important– the class he had championed for almost two decades– the rural working class.
What I would like to see in a third platform, which no ‘third option’ has delivered so far, is someone who actually proposes concrete ideas to solve our various crises, make commitments that don’t need external help to reach fruitition and someone minus the colonized mindset of thooking salam to every anwar, moriarty, beauty that graces our political arena with their hyperbole. I’ve stopped dreaming of a party with ideology. Today, when I think of political ideology the only two that come to mind are Sorbohara and JI.
August 19th, 2008 at 12:30 pm
Farhad bhai, you’re spot on. It always seemed ridiculous to me that Dr Yunus thought he could create a political party from his press conferences in airconditioned-lounge and through SMS and Daily Star op eds. If it was that easy then what are we waiting for?
Forget about grassroot politicians like Mujib. According to Tariq Ali, even a feudal landlord like Zulfi Bhutto left his palace, travelled the length of Pakistan, and slept in railstations to build his party. Contrast that with what Yunus did (or didn’t do). Dare I say even our ambitious generals have been more enthusiastic about the masses?