Published in The Independent, Dhaka, 10th July, 2009
Recent news about the new central committee of the Jatiyabadi Chatra Dal (JCD), the student's wing of the BNP has attracted national attention because those named for the main positions are middle-aged individuals. Most of the students in the Universities today were not even born when the newly named President entered the university the first time. He is 44 and his close aides are also in their 40s or late 30s. This phenomenon of middle aged students heading a student's party is not particular to the BNP; the AL's student's party, the Bangladesh Chatra League (BCL), is also led by individuals more or less in the same age bracket.
One good initiative that was taken during the emergency was the one intended to end political parties having a student's wing. The initiative was supported by all except those directly involved in the nexus. In the period immediately after the present government took office, that conviction that the nexus is bad for the nation was strengthened as we witnessed the ugliest side of student's politics. In all public universities, students of the BCL ransacked and rampaged dormitories to wrest control from the JCD that had occupied these dormitories while the BNP was in power. A number of these universities had to be closed down due to the violence that resulted from the clashes between the BCL and the JCD. In disgust the Prime Minister resigned from her position as the chief patron of the Bangladesh Chatra League.
Students are the consciousness of the nation; they are the ones upon whom the nation must invest the most because in their hands lie the future of the country. In our history, the students have played a glorious role at different critical times. The Language Movement of 1952, all the movements against the dictatorship of Ayub Khan in our Pakistani days; the 1969 students movement that paved the way for our glorious war of liberation, are all movements in which the students played the major role. In fact, in many instances, the students paved the way that the politicians followed.
With the emergence of Bangladesh, one expected that the need for the students to worry about national politics would be over and they would be able to spend their time as studying so that they could empower themselves with knowledge in building the nation. During our Pakistani days, there was also the lure of international communism that was an added attraction that encouraged the students to participate in national politics as some of these parties were based on the communist or socialist ideology. Bangalee nationalism and international communism that provided the rationale for involvement of students in national politics are history. For a brief period during the Ershad era, it was necessary for the mainstream parties to be assisted by their student's wing for sake of democracy. Since the fall of Ershad, that reason is also a part of history.
The mainstream parties, nevertheless, continued to retain their student's wings although the reasons for their involvement in national politics faded. Student's politics thus began to reflect the same realities of national politics such as conflicts, corruption, extortion and violence. In a very interesting and analytical study entitled "The Freedom Industry and Students Politics in Bangladesh", Iftekhar Sayeed writes: "Student politics has been a deadly, internecine affair. Today, student groups are used by political parties as private armies: they are given guns, told to extort money, taxes and tolls - and bring down the government through violent hartals. They have become a highly criminalised group." In this treatise written in 2006, Sayeed gives spine chilling statistics. In 2001, 47 student politicians were murdered; 44 the following year; 61 the year after and 35 in 2005.
These murders have not been committed for sake of ideology or principle, nor for establishing democracy or any high sounding objectives. These were murders committed by criminals masquerading in our public universities as student leaders. Today, leaders of student's party use their political connections for personal gains; they extort money mafia style and destroy the environment of the educational institutions as they wish. In fact, these leaders indulge in activities that would shame even the hardened criminals. The events in Jahangirnagar University a few years ago where student leaders indulged in gang rape with full knowledge of the university authorities and the political party to which they belonged with neither coming forward for the victim would have shamed any nation.
The criminal activities of the student leaders are widely reported in the media but they fail to arouse the conscience of the political parties who give them more indulgence instead. The reason for the indulgence, as Sayeed has suggested, is to use student parties as private armies to fight political opponents. During the AL's last tenure, President Justice Shahabuddin publicly said that students were getting guns instead of education and urged the students to severe their connections with the political parties. His words fell on deaf ears and the nexus between the student's parties and political parties have grown stronger. The victims of such an undesirable nexus, unfortunately, are the majority of the students who suffer in the form of session jams that take away valuable years from their lives. The public universities of Bangladesh are the only educational institutions in the world where students are delayed by years in passing out because the students parties fight with one another and carry out the negative political agenda of political parties they represent that leads to frequent closure of these institutions.
The emergency we recently had may not have done that much good for the country. It has nevertheless highlighted to us some of the fundamental problems facing the nation. One of them being the revelation of how corrupt, criminalised and conflict ridden is the face of our politics. Student parties acting at the behest of such politics and political parties can only vitiate the educational environment. This is what student politics is doing to the public universities of Bangladesh.
The nexus between the political parties and their students' wings serves the ulterior purposes of just a few, while affecting badly the lives and careers of the general students. No matter how one looks at this nexus, there is just one conclusion to reach: that it is destroying the future of our students and this must end. In the period after the new government came to office and the BCL was re-occupying the dormitories mafia style, there was a picture covered by most newspapers that showed as an inset, a dead body of a student who had just then been killed and in the larger picture, a student flouting a machete that was meant to kill more. It was reminiscent of Burundi-Rwanda where during the genocide such machetes were used for killing millions. That picture should be the nadir for the nation's conscience and unite everybody for a common cause; to retrieve and regain the public universities by breaking the evil nexus for the sake of those who would be leading our nation in future.
The BNP has shown insensitivity in naming a JCD national committee where the leaders named should have been in the party's national committee and not in the JCD. It makes no sense and given the nature of student's politics in recent times, it raises questions about the party's credibility. The AL has no reason to feel better either about its own credibility as it also shown the same indifference for the Prime Minister's decision to distance herself from BCL notwithstanding; the latter has not changed its mafia like activities. The reasons that sustained student politics like the Language Movement, movement for Bangladesh, for international communism, are now part of history. There are no reasons for the students to be involved in national politics anymore. It is time that the "umbilical cord" between the two is severed for the sake of the students who are the future of Bangladesh.
Showing posts with label politics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label politics. Show all posts
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Sunday, October 22, 2006
Should Dr Yunus enter politics?
Published in The New Age, October 22, 2006
The mainstream political parties, by their destructive politics, have set the stage for a third force that the people have been expectantly talking about for quite sometime now. Who else can be better than Dr Yunus as that third force? asks M Serajul Islam
After nearly a week of celebrations following Dr Yunus and Grameen Bank’s Nobel Prize winning feat, that has resonated in the hearts of all Bangladeshis the same spirit that brought them together in 1971, an element of controversy has been introduced when the Nobel laureate told newsmen before leaving Dhaka on an overseas trip to South Korea and Japan on the 18th of October that he is thinking about forming a political party. The news has taken the people by surprise, bringing hopes in their hearts while the politicians have reacted sharply, some with very critical views while the civil society has stayed in between, advising Dr Yunus to remain above politics and use his stature to influence politics.
Dr Yunus won the Nobel Prize at a very critical moment for the country. An air of deep despondency grips the public mind, created by the deep impasse into which the two mainstream political parties have pushed the country. While the BNP and the AL had started negotiating a settlement before October 13th, the stand taken by the by the prime minister and Sheikh Hasina had not initially held out much hope that a settlement was near. The general feeling in the public mind was the country was fast moving towards a serious confrontation and civil disorder. After Dr Yunus won the Nobel Prize, there has been a spontaneous mood shift and the people now feel that the impact of the Prize would be positive upon politics and a confrontation would be avoided.
Initially, the speculation in public mind has been that Dr Yunus would be chief adviser of the next caretaker
Those who have followed Dr Yunus and his works closely and know him well were therefore not surprised by the Nobel laureate’s nonchalant response on October 18th at
The magic about Dr Yunus is that he speaks of the most profound problems in the simplest words that even an illiterate villager in
While the people have rejoiced spontaneously in a manner that reminded them of 16th December 1971, the Prize has equally spontaneously shown the political parties in a contrasting light as if the Prize has pushed them against the wall. The two mainstream parties have felt this the most. Therefore naturally the politicians who were feeling the heat with Dr Yunus outside politics have naturally felt apprehension on hearing his desire to entire their domain not to join them but to challenge them. The political leaders who have spoken on the issue have been courteous to the extent of suggesting that everybody has a right to form a political party while at the same time sparing no opportunity to remind him that politics is not as easy as wishing and becoming one; that the process is much more complicated; and one of them has suggested that there is a ‘depoliticisation trap’ that he must get out from to become a politician. Another politician has expressed almost contempt in a Bangla phrase that cannot be translated into English without losing the bite by saying ‘puran pagolay bhat pai na; natun pagol jutay chay’ to dismiss Dr Yunus’ desire. HM Ershad, who has the longest link with politics and knows its nature better than most of the contemporary politicians, said that Dr Yunus should not join politics which has become very dirty and he will himself become questionable if he joins politics. Clearly, among the politicians, Dr Yunus’ interest to form a political party has caused a sense of alarm. Dr Yunus has put the politicians on dock and he has articulated the feeling of disappointment and distrust that prevails in the public about the politicians because of the way they have been pushing the country towards a catastrophe.
The civil society has not lagged behind in their comments to try to make Dr Yunus’ call controversial. They have followed the same tone, though less critical, in the way they have reacted. While not taking the risk to reject the call outright, they have cautioned Dr Yunus about the pitfalls, suggesting to him that he would be able to serve the country better by staying outside and using his stature to influence politics. As a result of the mess made by the politicians, the civil society has recently thrown its hat into politics and has drawn a lot of public attention. One cannot escape the members of the civil society and their views as they can been seen harping these regularly on newspapers, TV talk shows without succeeding even a bit in putting sense into the political parties to give up their confrontational politics. For most members of the civil societies, Dr Yunus’ Nobel Prize has taken a lot of this focus away from them and therefore they feel uncomfortable with his desire to enter politics which should explain their reaction.
The sentiment among the people has been different altogether. In fact, the call has been welcomed by them with great hope and expectation. Dr Yunus’ Noble Prize has come to them like an answer to their prayer to Almighty to save them from the doom towards which the politicians have been leading them. To them, the ‘depoliticisation trap’ is inconsequential. They cannot worry less about the problems of forming a political party; the difficulties in the process and whatever else goes with that. They feel that Dr Yunus is their messiah, who can deliver them from the professional politicians who are holding their future as hostage.
In
If Dr Yunus forms the party can he succeed? It is a difficult one to answer as there is no clear precedent similar to what Dr Yunus intends to do to make a prediction. An analogy, though not a perfect one, is our history after 1969 when Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib’s charisma and the objective conditions existing then allowed the Awami League to catapult from a major party in then East Pakistan to being the only one winning 167 of 169 seats from then East Pakistan in the National Assembly of Pakistan in the 1970 elections. The mood in Bangabandhu’s favour was such that he could nominate a banana tree for a candidate and people would have voted that banana tree to parliament! In Bangladesh today, where the country has shown tremendous potentials in socio-economic development, where the only problem for the country is her politics standing in her way to becoming a successful economic power, an individual with charisma and stature like Dr Yunus can lift the country to reach those tremendous potentials, at least in the public perception. The fact that his party would be a new one, would have weak organisation can be viewed as serious problems but with the public behind him, like they were behind Sheikh Mujib before our liberation, there is an instance in our history to be optimistic about the successful outcome of Dr Yunus’ intention to form a political party. Let us also not forget that in the 1991 elections, the BNP had won with a very weak political party against the Awami League that was far better organised.
The problems in our politics is serious but one created entirely by our political parties, particularly the two mainstream ones. They come from their indulgence in corruption, closeness with criminal elements in society, pursuing their own selfish ends in the name of public interests, etc. The people today hold both the mainstream political parties responsible for the degeneration of our politics. With Dr Yunus heading a political party, all these negative manifestations that characterise every political party in the country today would just not be at the leadership level of this new party. Dr Yunus would of course choose individuals whose honesty and integrity would be above question and in a country of 145 million people that should not be impossible to find. If Dr Yunus could form a political party, get a few hundred honest people to contest the elections, he could set the applecart of the corrupt political parties on fire and ride his own political party to power. Let us not forget also the fact that although Dr Yunus is not a politician, he has a huge organisation at the grassroots level called the Grameen Bank, a co-sharer of the Nobel Prize that he could very gainfully use for political purpose. Let us also not forget that Dr Yunus is one individual who is above all controversy in Bangladesh today whose respect among the people is unquestioned, just like Sheikh Mujib’s was in 1971. If he forms a political party and seeks support of the people for his candidates on the issue of bringing to our politics the spirit of 1971 and there is a mechanism in place for free and fair elections, the people would just stand behind his party in their millions and even the prospect of Dr Yunus’ party winning by a margin Sheikh Mujib won in 1970 would be quite possible. People’s power should never be underestimated but encouraged and people’s power could and should take Dr Yunus to achieve the
Dr Yunus’ achievement in winning the Nobel Prize has come for a nation in distress as a ray of hope. Restricting this achievement to holding functions for him and garlanding him would be wasting his efforts and his world-winning potentials. Encouraging him to enter politics would be encouraging him to do much greater good for the country. Just imagine this scenario to reach your own conclusion and don’t be deterred with what politicians and interested members of the civil society say about the difficulties of politics for politics is difficult in our country because the politicians make it so. Imagine Dr Yunus forms his party, participates in the elections with individuals carefully selected, wins the election and forms a Government with not 60 ministers but 16 and runs an administration based on conscience, ethics and morality. That administration would not immediately get the corruption in the bureaucracy banished but in his own party, his ministers and his parliamentarians would be above corruption. That by itself would make it difficult for the administration to be as openly corrupt as it is today. This party would have no political scores to settle with the opposition. Hence, political oppression would vanish. As this party would not need mastaans for political motives, the nexus with criminals would also likewise be gone. The Noble laureate has no family ambitions for he is much above such pettiness. Hence there would be no Hawa Bhavan in his
Monday, September 18, 2006
Controversial politics, not so controversial issues
Published in The New Age, September 18, 2006
The issues over which the country’s politics have become uncertain and volatile are serious but not intractable and at least one related to justice Hasan has been made controversial on premises that conflict with both reason and the Constitution. The NDI Report while encouraging all parties (in this instance the AL) to go for elections, identifies the real problems in Bangladesh’s politics as partisanship and lack of communication between the parties who ‘appear estranged from real word challenges and needs of 140 million people of Bangladesh.’ The NDI Report sees serious problems to holding the next elections but feels there is ample time between now and election date to resolve them, writes M Serajul Islam
The issues over which the country’s politics have become uncertain and volatile are serious but not intractable and at least one related to justice Hasan has been made controversial on premises that conflict with both reason and the Constitution. The NDI Report while encouraging all parties (in this instance the AL) to go for elections, identifies the real problems in Bangladesh’s politics as partisanship and lack of communication between the parties who ‘appear estranged from real word challenges and needs of 140 million people of Bangladesh.’ The NDI Report sees serious problems to holding the next elections but feels there is ample time between now and election date to resolve them, writes M Serajul Islam
The country is fast turning into a battle ground, thanks to our mains
tre
am political parties. With just a little over a month left for the BNP-led government to complete its tenure when the major political parties should be eagerly preparing for an election under a non-party caretaker government (NCG), foreboding dark clouds loom large in our political horizon. The 14 parties led by the Awami League have threatened that unless two critical political issues are resolved before the BNP-led government hands over office to the NCG, they would not go for elections and will not allow elections to be held either. The AL is threatening that they will not allow even Ramadan to stand in their way. The BNP is stubbornly refusing to accede to the AL demands. Recent hartals, attempted barricades of the PMO and related agitations have given us a preview of what the AL has in mind. What are the issues then that is encouraging the AL to push the country to the brink of disaster?
The first is related to the Election Commission that they believe has become a BNP camp. They want the Chief Election Commissioner and his colleagues to resign. They also have reservation about the voters’ list which has suddenly become inflated with 2 crores additional voters. The second issue is related to the head of the next NCG. The AL has objection to his appointment because they claim that his past membership of the BNP in the late 1970s and early 1980s from which he resigned to be a judge contradicts the crucial element of neutrality as laid down in the Constitution. The AL’s objection to Justice KM Hasan is also based upon his opting out from hearing the trial of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and BNP government’s decision to extend the retirement age of the judges from 65 to 67 that placed him in position to be the next head of the NCG. They claim both compromise his neutrality.
The NDI team that recently came to Bangladesh to talk with the two parties gave the country an objective view on the issues. On justice Hasan, NDI has observed that although concerns expressed about him are legitimate objections, ‘past service to a political party should not be an automatic disqualification to public service’. The NDI has dispelled AL’s concerns by stating that the head of NCG works with 10 other advisers and ‘under intense international and domestic scrutiny’ and hence his ability to be biased is very limited. The NDI has recommended that the CG ‘should be formed according to he rules provided in the Constitution.’ On the EC, the NDI Report advised the CEC to address the ‘perceptions of bias and incompetence that are undermining public confidence in the electoral process’. The most important part of the NDI report is its clear message that ‘election should not be held hostage to the intransigent position of either the government or any political party’.
The NDI Report however has not looked into the constitutional provisions on NCG in depth. The provisions of the NCG are covered under Part 1V, Chapter 11A, Articles 58B to 58E of the Constitution. The issue of neutrality is discussed in Article 58C sub Para 7 (b) in the context of qualifications of advisers. The head of the NCG is required to fulfil the same qualifications as advisers. Article 58C sub Para 7 starts with a preamble that reads: ‘The President shall appoint Advisers from among persons who are:’ and goes on to inscribe in Para 7 (b) ‘not members of any political party or of any organisation associated with or affiliated to any political party’. The qualification in the Constitution on neutrality is written unequivocally in the present tense without need for a second interpretation. A person can be disqualified to be a head of the NCG on the issue of neutrality only if he is at the time of assuming the office, a member of any political party or any organisation affiliated to any political party. Justice Hasan was a member of the BNP that he resigned in the early 1980s and has since risen from a judge to a chief justice during which period he has been a respected member of the judiciary. The Constitution therefore places justice Hasan in the clear to head the NCG on the issue of neutrality. It also leaves the BNP with no power to negotiate with the AL on justice Hasan.
The other objections against justice Hasan are also untenable. In fact, the issue that he was ‘embarrassed’ to hear the Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s murder trial should go in favour of justice Hasan because he showed the integrity to withdraw from the trial as he was related to one of the accused. Despite the extreme brutality of that case and the need to try and punish those responsible, the trial under the AL government was held in extremely charged circumstances where facts were not carefully considered. We should not forget that the case was tried over 20 years after the murders during which many facts were either lost or not properly represented. Let me provide a couple of examples here. The presiding magistrate was so carried away by sentiments that while passing sentence of death upon the accused, he wrote into his judgment that they should be shot before a firing squad, a mode of punishment given only in a military court. Recently I have read Christopher Hitchen’s Trial of Henry Kissinger where the assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman has been covered explicitly. The revelations in the book make no secret of the role of an external power and on behalf of that power, that country’s intelligence organisation, in encouraging the assassinations. None of these facts came out during the trial that have left it incomplete. I am not sure what else was in justice Hasan’s mind when he ‘embarrassed’ himself but then an honest and truthful judge could have been motivated to put the entire judgment aside on grounds that the trial was not sufficiently transparent. The final objection against justice Hasan that the retirement age of judges was extended from 65 to 67 to ensure that he would be the next head of the NCG is a fact for which the AL can accuse the BNP and make political capital during the elections. The BNP did not consult justice Hasan in taking that decision. To accuse him that this act of the BNP would compromise his neutrality and make him pro-BNP is unfair. As a diplomat during the AL rule, I have read many speeches of the prime minister and the foreign minister where they took great credit for the concept of NCG that they claimed was Bangladesh’s original contribution to democracy. There was then not even a murmur that the system needed any reform.
The Constitution clears justice Hasan but does not explain the BNP’s extension of the retirement age. But then that is politics. The Awami League would have done the same if they knew that by not extending the retirement age, the head of the NCG would be someone they perceived to be pro-BNP. I do not want to name that judge here but the more important reason for the BNP to extend the retirement age was to keep him from being the next head of NCG. During a trip to Saudi Arabia towards the end of her government, Sheikh Hasina, feeling confident about her party’s chances, hinted an early election to an audience there. The hint was put in cold storage immediately afterwards when it was found that an early election would place a person the AL was not conformable with as the head of the NCG. The AL completed its term and elections were held under justice Latifur Rahman. It is a different story why the AL later turned so critical about justice Rahman.
The AL’s objection on EC is somewhat different. The Constitution gives the EC extensive powers on the one hand and takes away a lot of it by the other. The president appoints the CEC and the commissioners on advice of the prime minister. The EC staff is also provided by the president’s orders but again on recommendations of the prime minister. In practice therefore the Constitution places the EC under the PMO. Both BNP and the AL have used the connection to their fullest advantage. It is true that the BNP has staffed the present commission with persons who are closer to them, if not politically, at least individually. The AL also used the PMO/EC connection blatantly when they appointed Safiur Rahman to the commission after the latter had served the AL government faithfully with extensions as the home secretary. Though Safiur Rahman did not join the Janatar Mancha in 1996, as a sitting secretary he gave a statement in the press openly expressing his commitment with the Mancha. Despite what is being said against the present commissioners, none of the present lot in the EC had the sort of link Safiur Rahman had with the AL. As with the NCG, the AL’s criticism about the commission is being ventilated only because the commissioners there are now being seen by them as pro-BNP. It must also not be overlooked that former CEC Syed Ahmed was considered by the BNP as pro-AL. The BNP’s objection to his appointment was dismissed summarily. That the AL later termed him as pro-BNP is relevant to the AL way of thinking. When things go their way, everything is fine; when things go wrong, the persons and institutions they have supported need immediate reform and/or change.
The present EC has nevertheless become controversial because of the BNP’s handling to which the CEC has also contributed his fair share. The NDI Report has flagged this very explicitly. The inflation in the voters’ list and the way it has been compiled have also added to the controversy about the EC in the public mind. In fact, there are very few people in the country today who feel that the present set-up of the EC would be congenial to the holding of a free and fair election where the role of the EC would be more important than the head of the NCG.
The PM’s call on September 15th for talks between the two major parties at the level of secretary general is a positive sign but the AL’s first response has been negative. Other recent developments such as BNP-led government’s decision to name a new commissioner, who has been a significant beneficiary of this government, and AL’s new programme for agitations suggest intensification rather than resolution of the issues. The AL propagandists have been feeding people disinformation by telling them that the next head of NCG could easily be chosen from an eminent citizen. However that would be easy only if the Constitution is by-passed for if for some reason justice Hasan opts out (under the Constitution that is the only way to meet the AL demand), the position would then have to be offered to the next chief justice in line and in the unlikely event that he would also opt out for any reason, the next CJ would be offered the position and it will take many more judges to opt out before the position could be offered to an eminent citizen. The million dollar question would then be whether the BNP and the AL would agree on an individual for the post. The chances of that are just too remote.
The issues over which the country’s politics have become uncertain and volatile are thus serious but not intractable and at least one related to justice Hasan has been made controversial on premises that conflict with both reason and the Constitution. The NDI Report while encouraging all parties (in this instance the AL) to go for elections, identifies the real problems in Bangladesh’s politics as partisanship and lack of communication between the parties who ‘appear estranged from real word challenges and needs of 140 million people of Bangladesh.’ The NDI Report sees serious problems to holding the next elections but feels there is ample time between now and election date to resolve them.
There is thus no reason to despair yet. AL’s ability to put a gridlock on the government would be limited by lack of public support. BNP’s opposition to AL demands on the EC that have public support by propping the latter would be gone once the NCG takes over. The demands would also have better consideration then. The international community has a continued interest in Bangladesh as seen by the NDI and EU delegations’ visits and most recently by the offer of the Americans to negotiate. They would no doubt all urge both the mainstream parties to be reasonable. Justice Hasan has shown no indication of opting out and there is no reason why he should. Attempts to force him out would also not have public support. The international community would also not recommend justice Hasan to stand down. If the AL wishes to push out justice Hasan by force, they will lose both public support and sympathy of important friends of Bangladesh who are disillusioned with the BNP’s poor governance over a host of issues, particularly those related to the Islamic militancy. Therefore if the AL is serious about coming back to power, they have to accept justice Hasan, push through for reforms in the EC under the CG and, of course, participate in the elections. Otherwise, they would be playing into the hands of the BNP which as it leaves government, stands on very unsure ground so far their chances of returning to office are concerned.
Thursday, September 14, 2006
Hung Parliament
Published in The New Age September 14, 2006
Could a hung parliament resolve politics of confrontation?
As the next election nears, the politicians are getting more confrontational although the public have had enough of that. It is therefore likely that the people could use the next elections to make the politicians heed to their disappointment and frustrations. They could use their voting power to impose sense upon the insensitive politicians of the BNP and the AL by giving neither enough seats to form the government, writes M Serajul Islam
As the Muslims of pre-1947 Bengal, we were the force behind the partition of India that created Pakistan. As East Pakistanis, we fought one of the most glorious wars of liberation of the last century and created Bangladesh. In the 1980s, we struggled successfully against military dictatorship and established democracy in the country. We had three peaceful changes of government through elections since then where twice, in 1996 and 2001, the incumbent governments were voted out. Yet, after struggling for close to a century for establishing democracy and people's rights, our politicians are still in same confrontational mood as if we have not moved one step in the right direction in achieving people's rights. Is this rational?
Like any developing country, Bangladesh's politics is not perfect. The government speaks of the people and their rights but often acts in reverse. Hence, there is a good reason for the politicians in opposition to demand, at times demonstrate and in extreme cases, fight in the streets for some of these rights. Such imperfection in politics overshadows the smooth functioning of government in most developing societies. Bangladesh is no exception. However, the comparison between Bangladesh and other developing countries ends there, and we differ with other developing countries in a number of unique ways. First, there is no nation on earth that has such a prolonged history of agitation against authority as if Bangladesh and agitation against authority have become synonymous. Second, we are the only nation on earth where the opposition has agitated against both the dictatorial and the democratic government with equal enthusiasm and energy. Finally, our politics is also unique because those in opposition have done exactly what they have accused the government of doing when they themselves were in power.
We will soon have another general election to be held under a neutral caretaker government. On three previous occasions, elections were held and power was transferred peacefully and on each occasion, the parliament has completed full term. This time, the elections will be held when Bangladesh has had a period of sound economic growth that has led Goldman and Sachs to identify Bangladesh as one of the 11 developing nations to watch in the next few years. Yet, among the politicians, the conflict has reached a new dimension where many abroad are saying Bangladesh is close to being a failed state. In the country, many people are apprehensive whether the elections will be held on schedule because of the intensification of the politics of confrontation.
Historically, our prolonged tryst with confrontational politics has one good explanation. Bangladesh is perhaps the only country that had to de-colonise twice in the span of 25 years. In the struggle for independence from British, the province of Bengal was at the forefront of both constitutional and confrontational politics. It used to be said then that what 'Bengal thinks today, the rest of India thinks tomorrow'. Legends like Titu Mir and Netaji Subash Chandra Bose, revolutionaries like Surja Sen and Pritilata Waddar were from Bengal. When the politics of British India took a religious turn, the Bengali Muslims led by legendary leaders like AK Fazlul Huq and Hussein Shaheed Suhrawardy showed the Muslims of the rest of India the way to achieve Pakistan. However, when they found that they had been betrayed and had instead stepped from one colonial domination to another by creating Pakistan, their free spirit did not take long to stand against Pakistan's oppressive rule, often against military dictators in which they were led brilliantly by Sheikh Mujib and a host of other leaders including Maulana Bhasani. The most glorious manifestation of that liberal spirit was shown when we won our liberation war after 9 months of struggle in 1971.
The achievements of the politicians and the people that culminated with the emergence of Bangladesh should have ended our confrontational politics to reap the harvests of our long struggle for a better quality of life and freedom from all forms of oppression. Unfortunately, that did not happen for soon after liberation, Bangladesh went back to the same confrontational politics, like our colonial days were yet to be over. The AL's move towards one-party rule through BAKSAL was then a genuine reason for the opposition for confrontation. Earlier, in 1973, the Awami League had rigged the elections so extensively that one Western Ambassador had privately commented that Bangladeshis should kneel down in prayer for their future.
For a brief period when Justice Sayem was the president and chief martial law administrator, there was no agitation or movement against the government. Once power passed to general Zia and he turned into a politician, the movement started again against the government. After Zia was assassinated in 1981, there was a brief rule by president Sattar who was removed in a bloodless military coup by general Ershad that brought the country under a long period of military dictatorship. In the ten years of his military dictatorship, the political leadership led by Khaleda Zia, heading the BNP, and Sheikh Hasina, heading the Awami League, agitated against military rule in which the people whole-heartedly supported the politicians. The spirit among the people, though qualitatively different from their spirit during the war of liberation, was against a government that had usurped people's power that was anathema to the spirit that motivated them to fight for independence.
The downfall of Ershad should have removed from our politics for good the confrontation between the government and the opposition political parties except what is normal for any country trying to establish democracy. Unfortunately this did not happen and people's hopes that were raised in 1971 to be dashed by AL attempts to move Bangladesh towards one-party dictatorship under BAKSAL were again dashed because this time the Awami League did not take its defeat in the 1991 elections gracefully and instead accused the BNP of coming to power by fraudulent means. For the entire tenure of BNP's first term, the Awami League made governance difficult for the BNP and life intolerable for the public. The public, who had supported strategies like hartal and other uses of conformational politics under Ershad, saw no reason for these strategies under a democratic government no matter how seriously the latter failed in governance. The AL walked out of parliament and took politics to the streets as if the BNP government was qualitatively no better than Ershad's military dictatorship. When the BNP was voted to the opposition, they accepted the same style of politics against an elected government and continued the politics of confrontation, using hartals and boycott of parliament the same way as the AL. As a consequence, the senseless politics of confrontation became the accepted norm. The worst manifestation of this negative politics can be seen in the hatred that Sheikh Hasina and Khaleda Zia have for each other where Hasina cannot even pronounce the name of Khaleda Zia without showing contempt that is absurd and unhealthy for our politics or for that matter any civilised politics anywhere.
When governments of the past usurped power, the people whole heartedly supported the agitation of the political parties against these governments. When opposition political parties continued with this against elected governments, the people silently suffered but did not support these agitations or movements although the parties carried out their confrontation in their name with their hired goons. In the current context, the public feels that AL's demands for reforms of the electoral process that they could have themselves resolved when in power, can still be settled and should be through negotiations under the caretaker government. Today, almost everybody agrees that hartal is not a democratic strategy against an elected government. Almost everybody likewise feels that hartal achieves nothing for the people, increases their miseries, and makes governance difficult. Opinion is unanimous among the people that even if the right to call hartal can be accepted, attempts to enforce hartals by force and punish those who oppose it is fascism that should be banned for good from Bangladesh's politics. The sufferings from hartal were brought home last July when as a result of AL's call for 72 hours' hartal many students lost a year as they could not sit for their A and O level exams. In my years on tour of duty as an Ambassador, use of hartal was one issue in our politics that I could never defend without rendering myself silly. I had little problem explaining concerns about Islamic militancy, or allegations of communalism, etc. It was always the permanent state of confrontation, often on issues too silly to explain rationally, that made me defensive and embarrassed me before my hosts.
The politicians are indulging in the politics of confrontation because of their zero-sum mentality manifested in total lack of accommodation for each other's views, where they do not even have a single national agenda upon which to accommodate or cooperate. Their impatience to push the elected government out of office after losing an election is indeed strange and unreasonable. Moreover, they never succeed in shortening the tenure of an elected government by such means even by a day but succeed incredibly well in harming individual as well as national interests. In their parochial mentality and very narrow self interests, they do not take heed of the wisdom of the people of Bangladesh who have never failed to demonstrate when allowed to use their voting power in voting out an inefficient and corrupt Government. In 1991, after Ershad fell, political analysts gave the BNP no chance against the AL because of the latter's organisation that extended up to the grassroots level. The people, keeping in mind their sufferings under the first AL rule and Khaleda Zia's uncompromising stand against Ershad while Sheikh Hasina had at least once compromised with the dictator by participating in the 1986 elections, voted the BNP to power. When the BNP failed in governance, they voted the AL to office, influenced additionally by Sheikh Hasina's publicly sought apology for people's sufferings during their first term in office. When the AL failed to deliver and backtracked on election promises and was found soft on terror, the people voted Khaleda Zia back to office. Thus the people of Bangladesh have never failed to correctly choose between the parties keeping the country's interests in view. Therefore, all the confrontation that opposition parties have indulged against the government, which has rendered the country's economy near death-blows and its image almost brain-damage, have been un-necessary because the agitations have never achieved the desired results while the people never failed to vote inefficient governments out of office through elections.
Anybody looking back into the last 15 years of Bangladesh's politics would see, with a little bit of objectivity, that the charges that the AL and BNP have brought against each other as an opposition party are identical almost to the details. As opposition, each accused the other of misrule, corruption, favouritism, politicisation of the administration, political oppression, etc. In government, both have acted strangely but certainly in the same way, in a state of denial to opposition's accusations, provocative rather than accommodative to their demands and actively helped sharpen government-opposition confrontation. To heighten the agitation and confrontation, they have brought issues of history, patriotism, and role of individuals in our independence movement by placing respected and revered leaders of our country into contrasting and conflicting roles to further damage the politics of the country. While the people have interest in all these issues, they do not believe that any of the issues upon which the two parties have built the disastrous politics of confrontation is serious enough to fight in the streets or use suicidal strategies like hartal that end up causing the people and the country unimaginable hardships and damages. Everybody now knows the financial losses to the country from a day's hartal which is enormous and both the BNP and AL have imposed thousands of days of such madness upon the country. Everybody also knows hartals have not had any effect, nor should it have, upon democratically elected governments in pushing them out of office. Both have a lot of explanation therefore to do for the damages their selfish and insensitive politics have done to Bangladesh.
As the next election nears, the politicians are getting more confrontational although the public have had enough of that. It is therefore likely that the people could use the next elections to make the politicians heed to their disappointment and frustrations. They could use their voting power to impose sense upon the insensitive politicians of the BNP and the AL by giving neither enough seats to form the government. They could very likely hang the next Parliament. Bangladesh has come a long way, seeing through two colonial rules, political assassinations and military dictatorships to allow the self-centred politicians lead the country towards a failed state when we have been identified based on our sound achievements in the economic and social sectors of growth as a country with a future. Notwithstanding the politicians' seeming ability to play with our future, thanks to the system of caretaker government, there comes a time every five years when neither of the major parties looks that strong before the voters. It is surprising how Khaleda Zia and Sheikh Hasina can overlook this for both have seen this power of the people, Khaleda in 1996 and Hasina in 2001. In serving notice upon each separately in the past, the voters now know they have failed in what they wanted, namely from one elected, a honest and sincere administration based on their election promises and from the other, a responsible opposition working within the parliament to make the government accountable. Unfortunately, upon getting elected, the one that assumed power became almost dictatorial, and the other voted to opposition became anarchist. It is time for the voters to deal with both, for the fight is still between the BNP and the AL. The voters, without any favourite this time between the two because of their politics of confrontation, may make both sweat by giving neither a majority so that whichever forms the next government will have to do so with a coalition partner (outside their pre- election alliances), lead a weak government and hence will not have the luxury of governing by whims. The one in opposition will always have the sniff of power without having to wait the long five years after losing an election knowing that the weak government could fall from inside the parliament rather than agitating in the streets to make it fall. The only uncertain element in this scenario is the absence of a third force but the way the politics is evolving, the third force could come from the Bikolpo Dhara, Ershad and/or break-away factions of the BNP which seems almost ready to break off in the seams as a result of the conflict between the younger, impatient elements in the party and the older generation of leaders.
The writer is a former ambassador of Bangladesh to Japan
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