Haamlas, maamlas, and kaamlas (and a bit about aamlas)

Published : 17 July 2011, 04:26 PM
Updated : 17 July 2011, 04:26 PM

What played out on the TV screen during the recent hartal saddened me a lot. The languages exchanged between a sitting MP and the law enforcing officers were not becoming for either of them. This was not an Abhani-Mohammedan match. This was politics being played out right in front of our eyes, something that affects our lives and of course, that of the country, and we feel increasingly alienated from it all.

Gandhi or Martin Luther King would have been shaking their head from side to side. What we saw wasn't democracy. It was hooliganism of the upper echelons of power who could have acted and behaved better. The official and non-official rhetoric of fatalism that followed left me even more dumfounded.

Let me start with a rejoinder. I am not a part of any party or sympathise with either. I am not sure I am capable of joining the fracas known as our politics. I don't have the stamina to run amok on the streets nor do I have the tenacity to be willingly bludgeoned by batons to get into the good books of our leaders and then maybe awarded with a ministry later on. I want no part of it.

I am one of those people destined to be a regular 'proja', not just because I don't have the tenacity, but also because I don't have the financial or oratorical high decibel vocabulary to maintain 'cadres' as well. I refuse to be a 'kaamla' for a party. I refuse to be a crony and recite the party line about being the defender of democracy while it is not practiced within.

My attempt to watch the parliament channel has been a trying one, more on rhetoric, bad mouthing, and hubris than actual issue related debates. Watching them I can't help being pessimistic. Yes, I can't agree more. 1971 is THE year of our history. Now, can we look forward please! Tell me how we are going to manage in the world arena with a growing and listless population looking for opportunities beyond basic survival.

After this latest 'Haamla', there has been a series of 'Maamlas', with some of them being refused to be registered, which by itself can be violation of some laws I am sure. Depending on who is in power in the next government, they will be either pursued with vigour, or thrown out the window. Ershad's recent change of luck proves that you have to persevere along with your longevity to see your name washed with Surf Excel and come out squeaky clean.

The 'Kaamla' culture will persevere, some will rise through the ranks of street fighters and become bona fide leaders, in spite of being adept in shooting pistols and swaying machetes and lathis, and not on theories of political science.

Back on the 16th of December '71, my father bought me a flag, in those days emblazoned with the map of the country. It was a rather big flag for a six-year-old. He put it around me like a cloak, and somewhat teary eyed, told me this would protect me forever. It has, in a way. I am no longer bombarded with the assumed superiority of the western wing. Dhaka has replaced Islamabad and the ruling circle tend to live in the same city as I. The UK has no written constitution and the US' is already 200 years old. Ours, I have lost track, with each change in regime, as if we have declared independence anew, we have chucked out old 'Maamlas', constitutions, signed treaties and international contracts, and even keeping things like frigates idle because they were not ordered 'properly'.

One thing that seems to be constant is our sovereignty. Otherwise, we have swung back and forth from a secular socialist state to an Islamic capitalist to something else. As it seems, our 'netaas', 'kaamlas' and 'aamlas' have learned to survive from regime to regime, with no continuity or long term planning. We manage one crisis after another. We survive and thrive in spite of our governments and not because of them.

We are fed-up.

There is no point talking about corruption here. It is here, it will be there, get used to it. 'Aamlas' are just as bad as the 'Kaamlas'. But who can blame them when the whole system is politicised to the core? Why blame the system when you say your first choice in the administration is revenue, customs and taxation. Wink wink, we know why don't we?

A few decades back, at some point, I had mentioned to my dad that maybe I should take the civil service exam. A highly esteemed banker, he first gave me a blank look then he squinted his bushy eyebrows very tightly and told me squarely, 'Do what you think you have to, but the day after the exam, you leave my house'. I was dumfounded no doubt. He had taken the pains to educate me with whatever best options were available at the time and then forsook his provident fund to send me abroad. I had come back jaded and full of optimism. His own father was in the police in the days of the Raj and he proudly claimed the four Bengali CSP officers who made it all to the secretarial corridors of Islamabad to be either his cousins or his friends.

He explained, later. He became a de-facto 'aamla' when the bank he helped found became a nationalised entity, subjected to rules, or rather, vagaries of the ministries. From an independent bank, he was the banks were made to take, the insults hurled with impunity at him by CBA leaders, and lack of professionalism that the banks descended into.

Decades later, we are surrounded by high-rises, luxury cars on the streets, and diamond boutiques in the malls. The macroeconomic numbers and the statistics related to the millennium development goals are impressive. We also see an inflation rate that is eating into our buying power, our productivity compromised with power cuts and congestions, and we foresee another two years of 'Haamlas' and 'Maamlas' that will grind my quality of living to even lesser depths.

We are upset.

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MK Aaref is an architect. He studied architecture and urban planning at the University of Houston. Later, he specialised in privatisation during his MBA from Aston University, UK. He currently resides and practices in Dhaka.