Editorial Desk :
Criticising the use of placards and billboards and hanging of pictures of political leaders across the country, president Abdul Hamid on Saturday underscored the need for shunning the culture, as per a report of a local daily.
The President said that he felt good seeing his pictures like most other people and he felt good seeing them inside the EC building but he felt uneasy seeing his pictures on the streets. The president said this while inaugurating the newly constructed building of the Election Commission at Agargaon in the city.
He mentioned the fact that although he was arrested by the Pakistani authorities thrice and spent over a year in jail he saw no posters of himself in the streets but nowadays if a person spent a day in jail his posters were likely to be found hanging publicly.
Noting that many leaders and activists use their big pictures in posters but small ones of their party leader in the corners, he said, adding that their main target is election, politics and to introduce themselves with people.
Drawing the attention of speaker Dr Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury who was present at the programme, the president said she could discuss the issue in the parliament. The President further added that the entire nation should come out of this culture of mass public picture hanging – which is emblematic only of the political process in our subcontinent.
And of course he is right. Our elections, like those in a normal democratic process, is supposed to be about electing public representatives who are elected to enforce the will of the people. But instead they have become a charade, a play in self sycophancy and self aggrandizement – both of which have nothing in common with the holy purpose of elections in the first place.
It is more than sycophancy. Huge posters being demonstrated all over the cities and villages asking the people to know who enjoy the protection of which leader. All such pictures and billboards show the pictures of party chiefs at the top and their local leaders below. These pictures look like family pictures with heads of families and other helpless dependent members. The other leaders are nobody to be seen independently not only as an election candidate but the billboard pictures are permanent fixtures to tell the people that the persons in pictures are to be reckoned with, because they have the protection of their respective party chief.
This is not politics, this is organised show of power.
Criticising the use of placards and billboards and hanging of pictures of political leaders across the country, president Abdul Hamid on Saturday underscored the need for shunning the culture, as per a report of a local daily.
The President said that he felt good seeing his pictures like most other people and he felt good seeing them inside the EC building but he felt uneasy seeing his pictures on the streets. The president said this while inaugurating the newly constructed building of the Election Commission at Agargaon in the city.
He mentioned the fact that although he was arrested by the Pakistani authorities thrice and spent over a year in jail he saw no posters of himself in the streets but nowadays if a person spent a day in jail his posters were likely to be found hanging publicly.
Noting that many leaders and activists use their big pictures in posters but small ones of their party leader in the corners, he said, adding that their main target is election, politics and to introduce themselves with people.
Drawing the attention of speaker Dr Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury who was present at the programme, the president said she could discuss the issue in the parliament. The President further added that the entire nation should come out of this culture of mass public picture hanging – which is emblematic only of the political process in our subcontinent.
And of course he is right. Our elections, like those in a normal democratic process, is supposed to be about electing public representatives who are elected to enforce the will of the people. But instead they have become a charade, a play in self sycophancy and self aggrandizement – both of which have nothing in common with the holy purpose of elections in the first place.
It is more than sycophancy. Huge posters being demonstrated all over the cities and villages asking the people to know who enjoy the protection of which leader. All such pictures and billboards show the pictures of party chiefs at the top and their local leaders below. These pictures look like family pictures with heads of families and other helpless dependent members. The other leaders are nobody to be seen independently not only as an election candidate but the billboard pictures are permanent fixtures to tell the people that the persons in pictures are to be reckoned with, because they have the protection of their respective party chief.
This is not politics, this is organised show of power.
