EDITORIAL : THE DAILY STAR, BANGLADESH

           

 

HC's observation

When judiciary speaks in this language society needs to wake up

The concern that the High Court (HC) expressed about the country's political situation while hearing the bail petition for lawmaker and opposition chief whip Zainul Abdin Farroque, who was badly hurt, is welcome. Though very rarely do such observations come from the judiciary, when they do, the politicians, business community, professionals and academics; in fact, the whole society need to wake up.

Needless to say the general public are very frustrated with the ongoing stalemate between the ruling Awami League (AL)and the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP).

The recent 48-hour hartal followed by a 30-hour one imprisoned the people in their houses bringing people's patience to an end. They are in no mood to countenance it anymore. On the other hand, police excesses on the pro-hartal demonstrators exceeded all limits.

But it is also not for the first time that a government is being so intolerant towards the pro-hartal demonstrators, regardless of their socio-political status. When the BNP was in power, they also subjected the then opposition to the same kind of treatment.

The demonstrators, too, are no less intolerant and mindless in their activities during these shutdowns. So, the court justifiably drew the parallel between the attitudes of the two major political parties towards each other. We fully share the court's concern and join it in asking the two parties to put an end to their irrationalities for the sake of normality, sanity and peace.

We have categorically termed the doing away with caretaker government as a mistake. Can it be denied that the present political deadlock is traceable to this single action of the government? But then what did really hold the Opposition back from using the floor of the House to voice their protest rather than going for the disruptive action of calling nationwide shutdown?

Why not spare the public the state of perpetual misfortune you have been pushing them through? Once again, we, in tune with the HC, call upon the ruling party and the opposition to give sanity and peace a chance instead of the battle of attrition.

We mourn the children's death

Resolve to make highways safe

Educational institutions across the country have mourned deaths of 44 school boys in a truck plunge at Mirsarai in Chittagong last Monday. Teachers, students and staff of the institutions expressed their grief wearing black badges. Education Minister pledged financial grants to the families of the victims.

While we fully empathise with the symbolic gestures we would however stress the importance of taking lessons from this huge national tragedy.

In spite of our being resigned to such preventable road accidents, if this particular tragic incident does not wake us up to the vulnerability to highway accidents then nothing else will. Causes of these accidents have been identified many times over. Reckless driving by truck and bus drivers, most of them unskilled and without valid license, lack of road sense, dilapidated yet overloaded vehicles, all contribute to the frequent catastrophes. The use of mobile phones while driving is extremely hazardous in speeding traffic.

We have to accept the fact that accidents are just waiting to happen on our highways. There is practically no highway police to monitor the vehicles and carry out random checking at different points, which is the routine practice in other countries. Most of the drivers simply vanish after such accidents and they are hardly brought to book. Even if some of them were nabbed there were hardly any instance of trial and punishment to the offenders.

It is high time that the government came up with some serious measures to stop these accidents. It should be easily done by increasing the number of highway patrols, equipping them adequately to do their job, continuous supervision of the highway traffic,

replacing lenient laws of punishment by exemplary ones and strict enforcement of those. For all practical purposes, the responsibility rests with the government to ensure safe journey for the people.