WHATEVER may be his infamy, flippancy and punching above his weight in the eye of his critics, H. M. Ershad hardly seems ready for his swan song. On the contrary, he is finally shedding the trappings of a maverick and transforming himself into a true pragmatist.

He explained his move to designate his brother G. M. Quader as Jatiya Party (JP) co-chairman and Ruhul Amin Howlader as secretary general to replace Ziauddin Bablu in following terms: “I am 89 and Rowshan [his wife] is reaching 79,” implying thereby that he was setting a line of succession, not without a trace of dynasty at that!

That seems to be the real issue at hand for a party that he had fathered and which still revolves around him as the moving force whatever his opponents within may delude themselves into thinking. Nonetheless, his action has stirred up the hornet’s nest, practically to an unforeseen web of disturbance. His assertion that as the party chairman he has the right to create a post (that of co-chairman) and choose the party secretary general has been contested by Rowshan Ershad and her confidantes, Ziauddin Bablu and Anisul Islam Mahmud. In fact, Rowshan Ershad, the official opposition leader in parliament, the three ministers and the MPs from JP seemed pitted against party chairman Ershad, his brother Quader and Howlader.

The Rowshan-led front took issue with Ershad for having announced the changes without consulting the presidium and the party council.

As before, the spat was set at rest, promising a decision through consultations. But Ershad seemingly holds his ground making a point of separating Jatiya Party parliamentary party from the JP as an organisation.

One would have thought that a warpath would be avoided by both sides true to the wise words of Sophocles, the famous Greek writer: “An enemy should be hated only so far as one may be hated who one day may be a friend.”

Ershad is trying to introduce a new element to the political equations between the ruling Awami League and the JP. He says that he needs to talk to the prime minister to persuade her to see JP’s potential for emerging as an opposition to the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP). With a hint of undisguised irony, he added that he might seek the prime minister’s approval for relinquishing his position as special emissary to the PM, so that he is freed up to build the JP as an opposition party.

JP undoubtedly retains a political clout with the Awami League in a context where the Jamaat-i-Islami may be effectively put out of political action altogether. The BNP alliance would be diminished in the event this happened, another factor to be considered in the changing political dynamics.

Ershad, however, is a living illustration of this George Bernard Shaw quote: “There are two tragedies in life. One is not to get your heart’s desire. The other is to get it.”

The near-nonagenarian Ershad never apparently got his heart’s desire but eventually landed on the next best, i.e. the position of special emissary to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. Even that is smacking of uncertainty if he really means what he says now about recasting the JP role into a ‘true’ opposition. Anyway, you find him on a transformational mode vigorously asking the three Jatiya Party ministers in the Hasina-led government to quit. But they look askance at such a prospect, never really seemingly interested in attending party meetings when called to. Ershad has to reckon with that taste of power.

Even though the JP chief never tires of bargaining on the basis of the party’s political capital in terms of fixed constituencies in pockets of the country, he has been susceptible to leveraging by the party in power at different times. He faced a load of court cases — 21 in total — mostly having been accused of corruption. He has been acquitted in most cases, either by a court verdict or by a ruling of an appellate court or by discharge.

Only three cases against him hang fire: the first one on an Uttara plot allotment is under trial, in the second, the radar purchase case argument is going on, and the last one, the Manzoor murder case awaits further investigation. Such is the remnants of legacy apparently stacked against him.

—The Daily Star / Bangladesh

Published in Dawn, January 27th, 2016