The Independent
15th December, 2012
M.
Serajul Islam
Those
nine months of 1971 were for the people of Bangladesh, the worst of times and
the best of times in human sufferings and human spirit .The worst was that they
were trapped inside Bangladesh with a military armed to the teeth and on a
rampage. For them, every moment of those nine months was a tryst with death.
The Pakistani army’s only agenda was to keep the territorial integrity of
Pakistan where they considered the entire population of Bangladesh as the
enemy. They therefore were embarked on a course where they were prepared to
kill as many as they considered necessary. The Pakistan army’s agenda was ensuring
the country’s territorial integrity at any cost. That made the action of the
Pakistan military in 1971 against Bangladesh one of the worst unanswered
genocides of history.
The
Pakistan army’s action was backed by governments abroad, except India and the
former Soviet Union, because those were the times when sovereignty and
territorial integrity of a country were considered sacrosanct; where a people’s
right of self-determination existed only on paper. Any other oppressed people
would have surrendered to save themselves from the genocide of the Pakistan
army. But then those were also the best of the times. In 1971, the people of
Bangladesh showed the world that even genocide and indifference of governments
abroad to that genocide were not enough to deter them from uniting for freedom.
They united under the leadership of one of the great leaders of history, Sheikh
Mujibur Rahman in one of the most exceptional and glorious wars of liberation
fought in modern history.
Earlier,
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s leadership and charisma had encouraged the entire
population of then East Pakistan to vote the Awami League to power in Pakistan
where many were not AL supporters to wrest from Pakistan, their present and
future that was hijacked after Pakistan was created. The Muslims of Bengal
created the main pressure on the British rulers that forced them to divide
India and create Pakistan as the home of the Muslims in 1947. Yet when Pakistan
was created, the capital and all other institutions of power of the newly
independent country went to West Pakistan from where a neo-colonial pattern of
governance was established. The rulers of Pakistan did to East Pakistan what
the British had done to colonial India. West Pakistan treated East Pakistan as
a colony. Sheikh Mujibur Rahman
challenged this neo-colonial structure of Pakistan helped by another visionary
leader Maulana Abdul Hamid Khan Bhasani.
The
speech that Sheikh Mujibur Rahman gave in Suhrawardy Maidan on 7th
March, 1971 will very easily find a place in history of great speeches for its
power to motivate and unite a nation for freedom. People went that day in hundreds of thousands
to hear his speech, aware that their leader could opt for unilateral
declaration of independence (UDI) that could lead the Pakistani rulers to use
their Air Force to strafe on the meeting and kill those who had gone there. Yet
the people were not afraid. The fiery and inspirational speech united them to
overcome the fear of death to free their motherland from the illegal and
unconstitutional rule of the Pakistani military government.
The
Pakistanis went about their killing spree with single minded dedication for
exterminating the Bengali speaking people of East Pakistan. That made the
Bangladesh genocide the same type of genocide that was committed by the Nazis
on the Jews during the Second World War. Then a Major, Shaheed President Ziaur Rahman,
defected from the Pakistan army, and declared Bangladesh’s independence in the
name of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman after he was taken into custody by the Pakistanis
on the dark night of March 25, 1971. With his brave and fearless fellow
soldiers who also defected from the Pakistan army, he started the armed
struggle against the Pakistani military that received from the people
qualitatively better and greater support than what those leading the Chinese,
Russian and other successful revolutions had received from their respective peoples.
The whole nation came together as a
monolith and willing to give everything to help the FFs in their efforts to
liberate the country. The Bangladesh liberation war was thus able to establish
itself as one of the best examples of a successful people’s war in modern
history.
True
there were local collaborators, the Jamat, the Razakars and the Al Badars. But
their numbers were insignificant. They were cowards who committed their crimes
only because they were given indulgence by the Pakistani military. Their acts
did not deter the determination of the people even a bit from supporting and
fighting for their freedom. The spirit of unity for the cause of freedom was so
strong that there was no force that could break it. It is a matter of extreme regret that 41 years
after the people of Bangladesh had united like few nations in history ever united
that had earned them worldwide respect and set Bangladesh up for reaching any
height in social/economic/political development; the country is seeing such unbelievable
disunity today. Mindless and senseless conflict
is pushing the country further and further away from the reasons for
which the country had united in 1971; an unity that was achieved through the sacrifice of hundreds of thousands
of martyrs.
Bangladesh
is at a dangerous cross road. Every citizen needs to take a deep breath and
reflect for the sake of the country that politics is pushing to destruction. The
establishment of the International Crimes Tribunal to try the local
collaborators of crimes against humanity has been welcomed by all except those
who would be directly affected by the verdict of the trials. Jamat’s hartals and other civil disturbances
should be seen rationally as acts of desperate people. It is not surprising
that Jamat is carrying out these activities; it would be unrealistic to expect
Jamat to be silent. These acts of Jamat should not be blown out of proportion. Further,
these acts are in no way physical obstacles to the ICT; neither directly nor indirectly.
The ICT now has had nearly 4 years to do
its work where neither Jamat nor any other force has directly interfered with its work. Is the
government crying wolf because it cannot enforce the judgment on the Jamat
leaders that the people expect for reasons that it does not want to reveal? Is
the government looking for a scapegoat knowing the people would not forgive the
ruling party for failure on the trials? The details of the Skype conversation
of ICT Chairman Justice Nizamul Huq and his resignation suggest that the reasons
for the un-satisfactory status of the trials rest with the Government.
The
BNP’s current struggle is political; to force an unwilling government to hold
an election in which it can participate. The BNP is asking the same of the
ruling party that it had asked the BNP in 1996 when the latter was in
government, when politics was less conflict ridden than it is today. The BNP
did not turn around and call the AL anti-liberation force. Instead, it gave the
AL what it demanded and lost power! Why would the AL be calling the BNP anti
liberation force today for demanding the same? There is of course a point here;
that the BNP is allied with the Jamat which many would question. But then in
1996, the AL also allied with the Jamat against the BNP. In this month of
liberation, the ruling party should consider that its attitude of calling any
party that opposes it as anti-liberation force makes little sense for that
would make half the country and perhaps more, anti-Bangladeshi! Even a thought
in these lines is illogical and defeatist.
It
is time to push such thoughts aside and let the ICT deal with the anti-liberation
forces in a process that is transparent. Let those who exercise political power
today ensure that the country has a peaceful transition of government through a
free and fair election. The visiting Assistant Secretary General of the UN for
Political Affairs has called for political dialogue between the Prime Minister
and the Leader of the Opposition to ensure that. The US Assistant Secretary of
State Robert Blake on his recent visit to Dhaka has said very much the same. In
fact, as is widely believed in the country, the dark clouds before the nation
would dissipate if only the Government would make ways for the opposition to
participate in the next general elections.
The
ruling party owes to the nation in memory of its leader who united the people
in 1971 to ensure a level playing ground for the next general elections that
alone will bring the country back from slipping into the abyss. It must allow the
people the opportunity to elect the party of their choice. This would be in the spirit of Bangladesh’s
liberation war; anything else would be to the contrary and a disaster for the
country.
The
writer is a retired career Ambassador
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