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For the past two years Bangladesh has been a haven of political chaos. In the past, there were frequent meetings of political parties joined by huge numbers of unemployed people. Processions for lawful and unlawful demands were part of life. Party leaders used to shout at the top of their voices at public meetings, even though they were using a microphone. It was like a shouting match to see who could be loudest.
The politicians displayed a range of moods, manners and movements: confident and arrogant, persuasive and hyperactive, crazy and clever, hungry and thirsty, alert and calculating, rich and powerful, energetic and aggressive, tired and motionless, smiling and inspired or frustrated and confused. The hustle and bustle due to the widespread use of loudspeakers and microphones ensured perfect noise pollution all around.
A week without a nationwide "hartal," or strike, called by the political parties was unusual. During the continuous and consecutive strikes people had different thoughts about their respective realities and lifestyles. Students wondered when they would next have a chance to go to class, and their parents grew tired of worrying about the academic progress of their children. The hand-to-mouth people would go hungry for hours, try to borrow money from any available source to feed their families, including their children, and wait for the end of their cursed lives.
Seriously ill patients would count their breaths, fearing they would breathe their last before they could get transport to a hospital. Public and private servants remained busy, struggling to get to their workplaces on foot or by any means in order to save their jobs. Political activists kept themselves busy with meetings and bombastic speeches or by committing violence, with ruling and opposition groups attacking each other. Both groups were "dedicated" to the people without reducing the sufferings of the people.
The helpless and ill-fated common people longed for life without politics. Now, all politics -- both indoor and outdoor -- are banned since the proclamation of a state of emergency. As a result, many of the peoples' sufferings are eased, temporarily.
Dozens of former ministers and Parliament members, who held powerful positions over the last 15 years, have been arrested by the military-led law enforcement officers. The black hand of the Special Powers Act of 1974 -- beloved by the politicians and used to suppress their opponents when they were in power -- and the newly framed Emergency Ordinance and Rules of 2007, are being used to arrest and detain the politicians as well as the business magnates. The police and the special task force for interrogation have taken most of them in custody.
The most powerful persons, who used every occasion to exercise their strength, are now being sheltered in the prisons. Ironically, three former home ministers, who were responsible for the prisons, have proved destined to enjoy the fruits of their own labors. They are now experiencing the service in the jails, a far cry from their luxurious comfortable lifestyles.
The press, including the print and electronic media, always had limited freedom of expression. Now that freedom has been suspended, yet they are playing a very interesting role. Every day the media publish sensational news, quoting undisclosed sources on stories of corruption and malpractice by politicians, businessmen and bureaucrats. The government is allowing them to publish these stories, rather than criticizing the current regime.
For example, a former home minister confessed that he had taken a huge amount of money to free the son of a businessman, who faced a murder charge, and get him out of the country. He gave details as to how and who took a share of the money. Other officials have described inappropriate and shameless ways their leaders made money.
Businessmen have confessed how they used to "manage" the politicians to smooth the way for their money-making machinations. For instance, a number of businessmen described how they formed a syndicate to keep the price of basic commodities always beyond the reach of common people in order to make huge profits. The whole nation, which was suffocating under the high prices, was shocked to learn of the amazing practices that crippled their lives.
The people are overwhelmed with surprise for various reasons: they never dreamed that such powerful persons could be held and tried; they are shocked to know how the public was seduced at the hands of politicians and conglomerates; they are realizing how badly they were cheated, misguided and mishandled.
All these dramatic incidents are taking place under the complete control of the military. The government has been militarized during the state of emergency in the name of "reformation." Two out of 11 government advisers are retired major generals of the army, and one is the former chief of police and the Rapid Action Battalion. The reshuffled Anti-Corruption Commission's chairperson is a retired lieutenant general and the former chief of the army. A national coordinating committee, formed to monitor the sensational graft cases against political and business leaders, is headed and controlled by military officers. Besides, armed forces have been deployed all around the country to "assist" the civil administration and other law-enforcement agencies.
The publication of stories involving corruption and malpractice by former ministers and businessmen is reducing the distance between conflicting political groups, as they are all responding in the same manner to the present situation. People are completely confused as to whether or not there will be any sustainable reformation. Questions are being asked regarding the attitudes of the current government to democracy and the rule of law: Will there be rule of law or martial law? Is the country moving toward civil war as the corrupt politicians fight back? Is Bangladesh moving toward a Pervez Musharraf style of democracy? Can the nation make the right decisions to avoid such a confused destiny?
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(Rater Zonaki is the pseudonym of a human rights defender living in Sylhet in Bangladesh, who has been working on human rights issues in the country for more than a decade and who was a journalist in Bangladesh in the 1990s.)
