Exposing civil disobedience

Again I am forced to comment on the dastardly politics of my homeland and the blatant disrespect for authority that the politicians are tacitly encouraging as a legitimate means of protest.

A police officer, no less, has been subject to an attack by opposition activists where the perpetrators have forcibly removed his trousers, leaving him parading on the streets of Dhaka, surrounded by his colleagues, in in his unmentionables.

I do not wish to discuss whether or not this was a good thing or if he (as a representative of the police) had it coming – bottom line is that the core intention was to humiliate. These hyenas were set loose to have some fun by deriding the 'administration.'

What is lost is that the police really are only following orders to beat down the protesters on the streets; these same officers had been sent against the current powers-that-be when the present opposition was in power.

What is also lost is that when you teach people that it is okay to defy authority figures (and there should be no argument that this policeman was an authority figure) that defiance will eventually not be conditional; when people have learnt that they can get away with defying an authority figure they will extend that privilege to areas that go beyond political protest during strikes and into areas of everyday civil society life.

When you lose respect for authority, you lose respect for order. While it is true that government is in charge of ensuring order, it is also true that government is not a political party. Civil disobedience left unpunished will only encourage its continuation. If ever the present opposition finds itself back in power, it then will be responsible for similar forms of civil disobedience.

Had the politicians in the opposition party any maturity and sense of decorum they would be the loudest to distance themselves from the action and the first to criticise their own people for going to such extreme measures; legitimate protest cannot be advanced through forms of humiliation but only through structured action (lest one day the very opposition leaders who are slapping each other on the back for 'giving it' to the administration find themselves exposed to a very similar predicament).

Meanwhile, the police will wait anxiously for the moment when they can mete their revenge with the blessing of the government. This may lead to further hartals, but will conclusively provide more opportunities to the law enforcers on duty.

And the cycle continues when the present government is out of power and the opposition (then in power) will order the police to mete out the same treatment.