‘Tis the season to...throw a Molotov cocktail

Hartals are now in full swing in Dhaka and throughout the country. And not one or two a week. They now come packaged in the 60 hours variety. Before, people could still go back to "normal" after dusk. Not now, the hartal goes for day and night. With the national elections (un)planned for the beginning of next year, I’m sure this is just the beginning of hartalidays season.If there is one thing I learned during my stay here, is that Bangladeshi politics are quite complicated and confusing. You could spend years trying to fully understand how things work, or don’t work here. I am not sure if anyone really understands it.

How could a political system take Gandhi's concept of "passive resistance" and turn it into a terrorizing tool used against its own citizens it is beyond me. I get the concept of the opposition not being able to get its voice heard in Parliament and having to take to the streets to pressure the ruling government into recognizing their demands.

But to force the country to a screeching halt, to torch buses, cars, and tires, to restrict movement of people, to terrorize innocent citizens, what good does that do? There are fights between people who probably have no idea why they are beating each other up or killing each other. People often find themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time and get caught in the middle of violent demonstrations. Teachers and students are seriously impacted as exams have to be postponed or canceled. Mind you, this is in a country where the education system is struggling, to say the least.

I just wish that the political parties would realize that this is counterproductive and such an archaic political tool, that is reversing the progress this country struggled so hard to make with the help of international donors, aid workers and ordinary hard-working Bangladeshis.

To quote one of favorite characters: "That's all I have to say about that".