There is no last word in politics. Politicians are rarely the ones to acknowledge this truth about their vocation and rarely, if at all, are they in the habit of being candid about it. But Mahathir Mohamad, the grand old man of Malaysian politics, is not your average politician. When asked about the criticism over several “U-turns” in his government’s policies lately, the 93-year-old Mahathir, whose political life itself equals the average life span of a Bangladeshi (72 years), hinted that reneging on pledges is not only normal but also to be expected, as politicians are not “perfect” people. They make mistakes but “turn around but only if necessary.” But in the end, politics is nothing if not an art of flip-flops and reversals.
And nowhere in the world is this phenomenon more prominently on display than in Bangladesh at this moment.
With Bangladesh’s national election barely two weeks away, the old adage about the relativity of political commitments has assumed particular significance because of the rise of what I call the “ex-factor” in politics: ex-loyalists, ex-MPs and ex-colleagues—once sworn defenders of a cause that they no longer believe in—all crawling out of the woodwork before the election, some with more credible reasons than others. The shifting allegiance of these exes—and people behaving like exes—represents the shifting ground beneath the enduring appeal of party politics in Bangladesh.
Consider some recent events that have generated considerable discussion in the political circles. In the first incident, on December 8, several groups of BNP activists vandalised the party chairperson’s office in Gulshan and kept the central party office in Naya Paltan under lock and key as part of protests over several nomination decisions. Call it a case of unrequited love but clearly, they felt ignored, even betrayed, by their party which refused to honour their wish by nominating their chosen candidates. But party politics can be quite ruthless that way as it demands that you put your faith in the party symbol, not the individual candidates. One of the candidates who sought nomination but was denied subsequently was an ex-minister. Another was an ex-MP. It’s ironic that another nomination aspirant had to suffer rejection because of a former lawmaker from the rival Awami League who had defected to BNP about two weeks ago.
The exes and other disillusioned party members and leaders continue to threaten the veneer of unity so vital to BNP’s plan to make a political comeback. There are legitimate concerns that poor performance in the election may trigger large-scale defection from…
