Lack of civilized means in dispute settlement
Only grows anarchy and resentment.
Since the resumption of educational activities after COVID break, we have been witnessing tragic incidents at roads, campus and outside campus,costing innocent lives.
The violent clashes between two factions of ruling party student wing at Chattogram Medical College University left many students seriously injured,including one victim, son of a school teacher,who underwent a head surgery1. In addition, many faced suspension of various duration. And the Medical College was shut down wielding the “unfavorable atmosphere” as reason.
Many students also gave in to pressures and uncertainties left by COVID-19.Some ,coping with COVID problems, found it hard to tackle personal problems. Many met unnatural death. Lack of proper guiding and supervision led to this unwanted situation. Many of them received subsidized education and country did not manage to avail their contribution due to the untimely demise. Just categorizing the incidents as “another mental health” problem exposed our inability to decode the gravity of the problem. State does need to do more when it sees so many loss of aspiring souls.
What is worrying is that sloppy governance created such an atmosphere even adolescents with little knowledge of outside world tried to leave the country. Worried about the future life in Bangladesh, three school-going sisters took a bus ride to Cox's Bazaar. They wanted to go to Japan,no idea where the country is situated.
The unprecedented student protest in the wake of Bus fare hike shook up the government. Citing oil price hike in the International market,private bus owners raised bus fare,causing anger among COVID-battered lower income group. Students took the opportunity to make some concessions. Situation turned worse when a college student was threatened to be raped as she refused pay extra fare and when another college student was run over by a dumping truck of Dhaka South City Corporation2. Later,three more students died in Chandpur and a former journalist was died in another accident caused by a Dhaka North City Corporation vehicle. By this time,school students blocked key roads and started checking papers of circulating vehicles. It reminded one of the student movement in 2018 across Bangladesh following harrowing death of two school students in an accident inside cantonment. They demanded reforms in traffic laws,which were partially met.
Student vigilance on streets for valid papers and fitness certificate literally rocked Bangladesh back then. Similar wave of protest is being observed right now.
Once we had a well managed bus services in Dhaka,under World Bank financed Dhaka Urban Transport Project. Since the government assumed power,it had scrapped the projects and misfit buses started to ply over the roads.
Back in 2019, I had witnessed an accident,which I narrowly escaped. I wrote about it in another piece3:
My bus was boarding passengers while an empty bus intentionally hit the rear side of the bus. That was where I sat. In the blink of an eye, it smashed the back of the bus. It took few seconds to befuddled passengers to understand what was going on. I got off and took few snaps of the assailant bus on my mobile phone. Two days later I went to the police station where seized bus was parked outside.
I filed a general diary and tried to know the identity of the owner. To my surprise, I came to learn that there were many owners of that bus company. Maybe 400 or 500. Even a single bus is owned by several people, as disclosed by the claimed owner of the bus. The transport businesses is all about to mainstream or whiten the undocumented money. The accident took place the very next day of the brutal murder of a BUET student. Two-month after I had lodged the diary, the bus was no longer before the police station. Maybe they released the bus.
Government’s reluctance to implement digital Bangladesh projects in transport sector further strengthened the conviction that the transport system is being used by some quarter to whiten undocumented money.
The ongoing student movement took a virulent turn when a student died in Badda after being hit by a bus. Angry mob instantly torched 9 buses. Sensing trouble private bus owners agreed to provide discount on fare for Dhaka students.
Later another private university student met a tragic end when his Uttara-bound bike was hit by a cargo truck in Khilkhet.
As culture of agitation is strong in Bangladesh, dead body bears strong significance and adds another degree to that agitational politics. Perhaps that is what we are witnessing in the streets and campuses.
Recently, a Professor was succumbed to stroke after he had been intimidated by ruling party student wing at Khulna University of Engineering & Technology over recruitment of a dining manager at a dormitory. Teachers protested the matter and demanded exemplary punishment of the intimidators. Later KUET was closed and 9 were expelled4.
Similar agitation was observed in other subsidized educational institutions,hampering the academic environment. As academic activities resumed after long COVID break, ongoing anarchy only delays recuperation of academic loss. Over the years we have not developed civilized ways to resolve disputes, this leads Bangladeshis to resort anarchy to settle disputes.
It is a pity students have to descend on streets to make their voice reached the right place. While opposition force is subdued, there is no sign in abatement of agitation politics. Rather, anarchy reigns everywhere. Sometimes bus owners called strike,sometimes workers or students. In UP elections, we witnessed factional clashes within the ruling party claimed more lives. Anarchy breeds anarchy. Civilized ways of dispute settlement and more participation of democratic parties could free us from this evil.
Notes And References:
1 ”CMC Expels 31 Students Over BCL Clashes”,Staff Correspondent, November 23,2021, Link here
2 “Notre Dame Student Death: City Corporation Proxy Driver Remanded”,Dhaka Tribune,November 25,2021,Link here
3 “Unruly Roads,Unsafe Lives”,Rezaul Hoque,February ,2020,https://hoquestake.blogspot.com, Link here
4 “KUET Suspends 9 After Professor's Death”,Dhaka Tribune,December 04,2021, Link here
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