Light upon light

[This was published in Dhaka Courier on 17 May 2013]

(a)

Few days ago I joined a social celebration in the capital. There was lot of guests, most of who were not known to me. Nearly everybody got engaged in various types of gossips, talks, conversations and debates ranging from personal to social to political ones. I kept myself unspoken all through. During the gossips one of our friends, almost out of environment, on the spur of the moment posed a question ‘Would you tell me with good grace, who is the most powerful Head of Government in the present-day world? A chap from the eastern spot instantly voiced ‘So simple asking it is that even a layman knows it very well. Yes, it is the President of the United States of America’. Our questioner friend got slightly annoyed starring at the replier in such a manner and mood as if the replier was living in a world of fools. He started looking around without any utterance. He might have looked for somebody who should come forward with the befitting answer. Meanwhile, a political leader who was sitting beside me told him twistingly ‘I think you are talking about the Prime Minister of Bangladesh since in our context a Prime Minister wears three caps together which encompass cap of the Head of Government, cap of the leader of the House and cap of the Chief of the party concerned. He/she is the sovereign all he/she surveys and there is none to dispute him/her within the fold of the party, parliament and government. Moreover, the powers and functions allotted to the office of the Prime Minister by the Constitution (Twelfth Amendment) Act of 1991 are so wide and profound that even the council of Ministers does meaningfully forget to practice the concept of ‘collective responsibility’ and thus becomes dependent on the Prime Minister both collectively and individually. Ironically enough, the office of the Head of State, here called President, is viewed by many a critic as an extension of the office of the Prime Minister!’ Emotionally at least all at the festival could not but sigh a sigh of relief having a sense of wonder and satisfaction that ‘Bangladesh is also blessed with the most powerful Head of Government in the contemporary world.’ Therefore, let us cheer and congratulate both Sheikh Hasina and Begum Khaleda Zia for having been crowned with such diamond fortunes in the golden Bangladesh at the same time setting aside the declining of Parliamentary democracy, which was achieved through the fall of so-called presidential dictatorship of HM Ershad. Should not HM Ershad be mortified for such political debacle?

(b)

Understanding and going into the deep of the overall atmosphere in Bangladesh one can appropriately recall a story in relation to the great scientist Albert Einstein. The story goes like this: A man, on the whole known to Einstein as fool, used to come to him from time to time; once he came and saw the scientist was making a cage. After passing a few minutes, he asked Einstein, “What is the use of the cage?” “It shall be used as an abode for birds”, replied the scientist with a habitual indifference. “Why are you making two doors, one is big and the other being small?” he curiously he posed further. “Because the big one should be used by the mother while the small one by the kids” the scientist responded quickly with a common sense that the fool might keep mum willingly. “Will the mother and the kids stay in the same room of the cage?” readily he asked. “Yes”, replied the scientist with a sagacity of great satisfaction. “Well, Sir, if they live in the same room what is wrong to use the big one only for the both?” he asked with a determination/assertion. Looking at the man Einstein helplessly just uttered,’ ‘that’s indeed an excellent idea’

Here the intrinsic truth is that even a scientist of great weight in the vein of Einstein did not feel ashamed of correcting his mistake detected by an ordinary man whom he so long treated merely as a dupe. But to our utter surprise, politics in today’s Bangladesh has reached at such a fanatical state where all sorts of logic and reasons are being considered as meaningless and execration. Truth, justice and fairness are being swayed by the domains of ills. Animal spirit is running fast and gaining everywhere. Honesty, transparency, dedication and so on are now being considered as stocks in the fool’s box. For all these, responsibilities and liabilities must pass off to the dirty politics as politics of outsmarting, politics of speaking ill of others, politics of obstinacy, politics of vote-rigging, politics of no-democracy within the party structure and politics of no far reaching welfare oriented program inside and outside the government, politics of boycotting of the sessions of parliament without explicable cause and effect have cumulatively overshadowed the fate of the nation pushing it further towards an unknown  ‘black hole’. Should not our politicians and statesmen feel tempted also to take lessons from Albert Einstein?