A terror-struck nation: Time for national unity runs out

Can perception and reality be in collusion? It often depends on who you ask. What is most discernible after a month of the two major terror attacks roiling Bangladesh is that no one seems to have changed minds, excepting the people, following the horrific attacks in Gulshan and Sholakia.

For too long, those of us warned of such a calamity gripping the nation were ridiculed, branded as alarmist, and derided as being agenda-driven. While we feel vindicated, the politicians are more divided after weeks of bickering to augment some consensus for national unity. Meanwhile, businessmen, students and ordinary citizens are either grumping under worries, or find themselves marooned in a monsoon-driven deluge that is worst since 1988. Who cares for them, anyway.

As the sweeping deluge rushes toward Dhaka’s suburbs after devastating much of the north of the country—overshadowing the images of flood-swept corpses of ladies and children in Sirajgong, Barisal and elsewhere—discourses on the dangling fear of more terror attacks still dominate headlines. This is happening despite the rising flood waters still puncturing and poking makeshift, wobbly embankments here and there on its way to the ocean.

The nation is afloat; metaphorically and practically. Over three million people are rendered homeless by the flood while thousands of students and youths face restrictions on renting rooms in Dhaka and other major cities where landlords tell them on the face of their inability not to rent rooms to bachelors. A feared culture and a serious economic debacle is inching closer to haunt the nation further.

Look just at the faces of the terror, as is being depicted by the law enforcers, which emit more dreads and symbolizes the group’s powerfulness, ubiquity and inclusiveness. If the law enforces are telling the truth, suspected terrorists include former military officers, highly educated students with foreign degrees and countless domestic students, many of whom sons of top ranking former bureaucrats, business elites and what not.

No wonder, the emerging perception of the nation is as scary to the world outside as it is within the people. Those who seek in desperation, often unsuccessfully, to know the causes of such a major degenerative  transformation rocking the Bangladesh society, have started feeling more frustrated by the police actions that kill  arrested suspects instantly, never  offering an opportunity to the suspects to tell their stories; which could help identify the motives and the masterminds of their armed, jihadi enterprises.

Rather, such arbitrary killings seem to have hastened the arrival of more dangers. For instance, before the July 1st incident at Gulshan’s Holey Artisan restaurant, law enforcers killed 21 of such nabbed suspects in three weeks.

Since July 1st, dozens more have been killed further. Are the nation’s gallows so full in capacity that these veritable accused couldn’t have lived there until the system of justice was geared to account for and chronicle why and how they chose the way that is so un-Bangladeshi in nature?

Our observations reveal, among the businessmen, thousands prepare to dismantle and leave thriving businesses in Gulshan, Banani, Dhanmondi and elsewhere, making hundreds of thousands instantly unemployed and billions of dollars worth of investors’ bank loan remaining unpaid.  One RMG exporter said, “We’re waiting in vain to complete the pre-shipment export merchandise inspections by the buyers from abroad, who do not come.”

Hence, if the perception and the reality seems in collusion to some, they’re the benefactors and sycophants of the regime in power. The murders of the Japanese and the Italians were well calculated. Japan is Bangladesh’s largest bilateral donor. In 2015 alone, Tokyo disbursed $366 millions as foreign aid and had signed lately an ODA agreement worth $1.65 billion. Besides, over 240 Japanese companies have investment in Bangladesh’s EPZs, amounting nearly $300 millions. The seven Japanese killed on July 1st were engaged in metro-rail development project while exports to Japan fetched $615 million in 2015, of which RMG export alone accounted for $ 448 million.

Italy is another major destination of export within the EU, whose nine citizens fell victim to the July 1st attack. Export to Italy in 2015 fetched $1.07 billion. Japan and Italy are also major sources of remittance earning.

According to the Moody’s, one of the most renowned investor service agencies operating globally, “Terrorist attacks may erode investor confidence that could cast an adverse impact on Bangladesh’s ability to attract Direct Foreign Investment (FDI)…….. It was the most damaging of a series of attacks targeting foreigners and minorities over the past year, and highlighted political risks that are factored into our government bond rating, through our assessment that Bangladesh’s vulnerability to political event risks is moderate. However, the frequency of violent attacks is rising, signaling rising political risks that could further distract the authorities from their economic and institutional goals.” The report further stated, “exports comprise 16.3% of Bangladesh’s GDP, sustaining foreign investment in the textile sector, which accounts for 80% of the total export basket, which is crucial for growth.”

Nearly 60 per cent of Bangladesh’s total populations are of age between 15 and 35, who, excepting some rent seekers of the ruling coalition, feel totally disfranchised in the society due to a variety of reasons, which, since the 1990s, kept exacerbating further.

Since 1991, public universities have had no student council elections. Especially since 2009, all the residential halls of public universities have been occupied by force by ruling party cadres while politics has never been officially allowed in any of the private universities. This has left over three million adults in various colleges and universities devoid of positive thoughts and grooming while the main opposition political parties were tactfully shoved out of the political process and parliamentary representations by a combination of guile, force, judicial and constitutional pretexts and, outright killing and abduction of their members by state apparatuses.

The correlation between the flawed January 2014 election and the total radicalization of many educated youths, professionals and academicians is as stark as the glow of a summer sun. Meanwhile, an explosive international climate further facilitated such radicalization by injecting fear in their mind that the western regimes were in a mission to destabilize all Muslim-predominant countries under any pretext.

As well, random killing of Bangladeshis by Indian border forces along the mutual borders added fuel to a raging fire that the AL-led regime had succumbed to Delhi’s pressure and conceded on issues that were held so long as inviolable and sacrosanct for the existence of this small nation as a sovereign entity.

Today, Bangladeshi money transfer entities in London, New York, Toronto, Paris and elsewhere say remittance-sending, home bound, had dropped more than 60 per cent while more and more expatriates are seeking ways how to bring money from back home. One money transfer outlet in Toronto said, “Expatriates are scared of what will happen to their assets and savings in Bangladesh.”

All these prove that, we have achieved a lot in a short time and much of that achievement faces dissipation even sooner than we think, if there’s no change in our attitude of not looking eye ball to eye ball in domestic politics.

For too long, the ruling elites had propagated politics of exclusion by branding all other political forces as anti-liberation and terroristic. Now the bitter fruit of that arrogance harvest is ripe enough to be delivered.

This nation doesn’t belong to any individual or a party, and, given that the current state of affairs is a direct product of such authoritarian mindset, all the relevant stake holders should be brought together to the proposed National Security Council (NSC) we’d proposed in the last issue. Only such a measure will emit a strong message to the domestic and international extremists and their mentors that, we are together as a nation and, violent religious extremism is something we do not want in our harmonious, homogenous homeland.

Source: weekly  holiday