Poor Shakib, who now has to go through the grind because he was so utterly rude and broke all the ICC rules and all that. What is worse is that he did it while on TV. Everyone saw it, everyone hated it and our appalled cricket establishment is now taking a pound of his flesh by bans and fines. That’s great and he must be disciplined as per the ICC rules. That’s not the problem. The problem is why shakib and not others who do it off the field in the social space every day.
It’s the fact that the entire Bangladeshi world is now involved in the debate and at least for a few days it’s not just politicians who are hogging the headlines. Having said that, what the hell does it means that public rudeness and physical violence is an accepted part of socio-political behavior but we are no longer under the same state of mind when we leave the stadium?
We would be shocked if it was suggested that we are hypocrites but how else can we explain the public violence we display as a show of our political power. Politics is not about ideas and actions but expressions of clout in Bangladesh. The term “showdown” which locals use to mean ‘public display” itself indicates that we believe in a show of clout as the ultimate decider of clout. It’s the perfect example of herd display and probably goes back to much earlier eras when the larger herd size of animals, greater was the wealth. Our social behavior hasn’t graduated much beyond that has it?
The number of daily instances of such expressions of physical violence is so high that it’s no longer news. Party cadres are expected to beat each other up and attack transports and vehicles. Without attack on each other, no one to put it symbolically exists. Violence defines us. Any reading of our political history will testify to that.
One of the more difficult periods for the ruling party is the lack of Opposition. Any ruling party would face this in Bangladesh and this is no exception, when attacking each other is basically what politics is all about.
So we have seen the rise of internal party conflicts and Companyganj conflicts are a basic reminder of what politics looks like. The fight is between a local leader whose opponents are committing regular acts of violence on him and his supporters. In return, he and his supporters are doing the same when they get a chance. And no fine, no ban, no nothing except that there is no TV coverage.
Violence is fine but what is more significant is that no one does anything to stop him or them and it’s seen as part of normal political culture. Unlike Shakib, no one is punished, banned or whatever. Lives are lost but politics goes on as usual. One reason of course is that this lot has no international exposure, no ICC rules to govern them and no TV to cover. So as long as foreigners don’t know what we are doing, we can do what we want.
And that’s what hypocrisy is. Had Shakib been a local politician, there would be no problem. Poor guy had to choose cricket which lives under an international umbrella and TV coverage. Maybe it isn’t hypocrisy, maybe just irresponsible TV coverage.
