Can Ershad's brother be his brother's keeper?

Hussain Muhammad Ershad never retired from politics because he never got tired of it. He never got tired of it because the alternative would have been more tiring given the bunch of lawsuits hanging over his head. The former strongman has been riding a tiger ever since he was ousted from office. And, dismounting hasn't been an option for him.

All autocrats eventually suffer the fate of a bicycle; they drop when they stop or stop when they drop. Ershad lost control over the pedals of power in 1990, yet all these years he kept turning up like a bad penny. We know he is eagerly waiting for a second chance to rule this country! 

Victor Hugo warns in Les Miserables that tyranny follows the tyrant. He writes that Babylon violated diminishes Alexander; Rome enslaved diminishes Caesar; and massacred Jerusalem diminishes Titus. Hugo then says that the light of history is pitiless, which often casts a shadow just where one saw radiance.

Ershad has utterly failed to make that distinction. He has failed to do so for two compelling reasons. One is what he had done to come to power. Another is what he is ready to do to grab power again. An intermediate between a woebegone dictator and a wishful liberator, he is a legend in his own mind in a pathetic way.

And that patheticism is evident in the tensions tearing his party. For the last couple of years, it has been running on the working principle of a mom-and-pop store, mom taking charge when pop is remiss. Honestly, ever since that fateful December night in 2013, when Ershad had slunk away to CMH for mysteriously falling sick, life hasn't been the same for him. Since then, he has watched over his party like a lonesome scarecrow watches over the paddy field. In those two years, his best performance was in the role of an ideal spouse, who didn't mind who wore the pants in the house.

Now that too seems to be a pretension forced upon him. His incoherent speeches, his flip-flops, and his eclectic criticism of the government were showing all that time that the man had stone in his shoe. He decided to anoint his brother as his successor not for fun. It's a sign of his desperation to take back the store.

It also shows that the bygone autocrat is two steps removed from the helm of his party. His wife happens to have a significant following that may not grant his every wish. And the final arbitration of his party disputes appears to lie with the head of another party. Already ridiculed for talking like the opposition and walking like the government, his party may not even have the freedom to take its own decisions. 

Interestingly, Ershad has been redrawing the maps of political common sense. And he has been doing it without realising how it's magnifying his own contradictions. From a despised dictator he transformed himself into a pointless politician before being reduced to a lacklustre leader, who presently looks like a paranoid patriarch. It's a pity how a man, who once dictated mainstream politics in this country, has marginalised himself! 

But why has he chosen this time to put down his foot after swallowing so much so long shoved down his throat? Why is it so important to find a successor at this point in time and why is it suddenly so urgent to become a thoroughbred opposition?  It could be for one of the following reasons, or a combination of them. 

It's possible that Ershad is genuinely worried about the future of his party and wants to leave it in chosen hands. Another reason could be that he is reworking his coordinates for a new journey. It's also possible he wants to break away from the government to grab some opportunity down the road.

The question is how far can he go? If the polls are any indication, his party doesn't enjoy a roaring popularity that could make it a formidable force anytime soon. His party isn't exactly an airbag waiting for an impact to inflate rapidly. Ironically, its dependence on the government isn't hurting its image. Instead, its image has made it dependent on the government. 

There are two purposes why politics is important for a party. It should serve the country for a cause and serve a cause for the country. For Ershad, both purposes coincide in this absurd mindset. He wants power again to justify why he had come to power 25 years ago! 

The best news is that the thought of leaving has crossed Ershad's mind, and he has told us who should replace him. If his brother is his choice, what can we say? Although one wishes the exit were a bit less undemocratic than the entry.

The writer is the editor of the weekly First News and an opinion writer for The Daily Star. 

Email: badrul151@yahoo.com