A roundtable discussion in Dhaka on Wednesday sparked incandescent outburst from TV talk-show stars against Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Opposition Leader Khaleda Zia.
Senior journalist ABM Musa questioned the capability of the President of the ruling Awami League and the Chairperson of the opposition BNP to lead the country.
Comparing them to HM Ershad, Dhaka University Professor Asif Nazrul said the duo were worse than the deposed autocrat.
Weekly periodical ‘Ajkal’, published from New York, organised the discussion titled ‘Can the country’s democracy be protected putting the responsibility on the two leaders?” at the National Press Club.
The military-controlled interim regime designed political blueprint of ‘Minus Two’ formula five years back to exile Hasina and Khaleda from politics. In the lead-up to the discussion at the National Press Club, outlawed militant outfits like Hizb-ut Tahrir and a new organisation have raised demands for sidelining the two leading ladies from politics.
Musa, who was elected to first Parliament in 1973 on Awami League ticket, said: “Dynasty, husband-ism and patriarchy are now dominating the country’s politics. Our country’s tradition of worshiping idols has now turned into worshiping of individuals.”
Musa recently came under fire from the Prime Minister for his remarks with Hasina alleging that Musa was upset because he did not get what he wanted – a TV licence.
“Neither Khaleda Zia nor Sheikh Hasina has the capability to lead the country’s 160 million people,” the allegedly 81-year old.
Asif Nazrul said: “It’s not that I’m glorifying Ershad. I would say that the two leaders (Hasina and Khaleda) are worse than the former military strongman who we frequently criticise.”
A law teacher at DU, Nazrul recently hit headlines for his TV talk-show remarks defending Jamaat-e-Islami leader Delwar Hossain Sayeedee awaiting a verdict for his alleged war crimes. Students protested and demonstrated on the campus.
In a talk-show on a private TV station on Mar 12, he had allegedly said, “If you ask the opposition [BNP] leader who would come to power next time, she’d answer, third force. If you ask the Prime Minister the same question, she too would say third force.”
A lawyer filed the petition alleging Nazrul’s statement was equivalent to instigating the non-democratic forces to take power.
In the Press Club discussion, Nazrul said there had been a significant ‘surge’ in arts, culture and literature during Ershad’s time. “However, there was a truck accident during Ershad’s rule.”
Ershad, the second military administrator, illegally captured state power on Mar 24, 1982. On Feb 14 the following year, students lodged a large-scale protest against the military occupation. Five students – Zafar, Dipali Saha, Jainal, Mozammel and Ayub – were killed in the police firing, leading to the formation of Chhatra Sangram Parishad (students’ action council), the first politically organised platform against the military junta.
The next year on the same day, during a student procession marking the event, the military rulers ran a truck on the peaceful procession instantly crushing Ibrahim Selim and Kazi Delwar Hossain to death.
The list of those killed in attacks by Ershad-blessed forces is also long which include Dr Shamsul Alam Milon and Awami League leader Moyezuddin.
Referring to ‘crossfire’ or extrajudicial killings and ‘forced disappearance’, Asif Nazrul said: “Who had introduced the threats like crossfire and disappearance, Ershad or Khaleda-Hasina?”
He said that after the end of Ershad’s regime, democracy was not strengthened even during the tenure of the two leaders.
“Look at the Constitution. Obviously the Fifth and Seventh Amendments are very much bad and those were the martial law provisions. We’ve no doubt about it. But what happened during the democratic regimes? It was the tenure of Bangabandhu government when the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution was brought and all the political parties were banned. The military dictators didn’t do such misdeed; they didn’t ban all the parties.”
He continued: “Are those institutions which were there in Bangladesh during the military regime are functioning better now? Is the judiciary working better? How many verdicts did the judiciary give against Ershad during his rule and what is the number now? The elections to DUCSU (Dhaka University Central Students Union) were held in his tenure, are those being held at present?”
He said it was during the tenure of a democratic government when a former judge of the High Court was made chief of the caretaker government and thus the country was pushed towards turbulence and bloody conflicts.
“Another government has changed the Constitution in such a manner so that no one can raise voice against the charter. Is this called democracy and strengthening the democracy?” said Nazrul who was recently summoned by the High Court on charges of contempt of court for making a “provocative statement” about the prospective government.
Two-time DUCSU Vice-President elect Mahmudur Rahman Manna lamented the fact that no election has been held to the student unions in the autonomous universities under the democratic regimes in the last 22 years.
The former Awami League Organising Secretary said: “The elections to DUCSU were held two times during autocratic ruler Ershad’s nine-year regime while no election was held during the tenure of two democratic parties in the last 22 years.”
He continued: “Hussein Muhammad Ershad could let the election be held since he had no son. But the two other leaders have sons. (They thought) two more student leaders like Tofail Ahmed will emerge if the election is held. So, what’s the need to hold the polls?”
Manna and Tofail were among the Awami League stalwarts who had made their personal reform proposals public, after the emergency enforced by the army-backed caretaker government in 2007, instead of placing them in the party forum, which led Hasina to remove them from the highest policymaking body Presidium in the last council and sideline them to the least functional AL Advisory Council with no say in party affairs.
The reform proposals are widely believed to be a part of the attempt to remove Hasina from politics.
Pro-reform leaders of the BNP led by its then Secretary General Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan were also preparing to hold the party council keeping party Khaleda away, which failed later.
Prothom Alo columnist Syed Abul Moksud criticised ‘media-based politics’ and said that there was no pro-people politics in the country.
He, however, put the blame for the failure on the senior leaders of the Awami League and BNP instead of their heads. “If they go close to the people understanding the people’s emotions and feelings and the state’s needs, the influence of the two leaders will significantly decline.”
The national daily in which Abul Moksud regularly writes columns had supported the army-backed caretaker government in 2007. The Awami League leaders have hinted that the daily again trying to make the way for such illegal government to come to power.
Monjurul Ahsan Bulbul, a leader of the Awami League-backed journalists’ union, said, “A third political force, inspired with patriotism and believing in spirits of the Liberation War, is needed for the country (at this moment).”
The lone lawmaker in the discussion, Awami League’s Golam Maula Roni admitted that there was lack of self-criticism among the political parties.
“I’ve seen how my party people talk badly behind others’ back with gloomy face. Such criticisms give one the impression that they’re not involved with the party.”
But when they go to the senior party leader, “his eyes and face glisten with gratitude and he goes out of the way to flatter” them, which make me think whether “I really heard them say those stuff or dreamt those”.
‘Ajkal’ Chief Editor and Publisher Zakaria Masud Jiko presided over the roundtable.
He claimed ‘Ajkal’ is the most circulated Bengali-language newspaper published from New York and told bdnews24.com that its circulation was 12,000.
Source: bdnews24
It is good that these type of open discussions are taking place. Our congratulations to all involved. The sooner we speak openly and honestly about the failure of these two ladies the better. We want them to just go. We need them to go. So that AL and BNP can breathe and evolve. And all the crooks and imbeciles who hide behind the saris of these two ladies can be exposed for what they are – characterless cowards.
I fully agree with you and it is time that people become more vocal and completely reject these two ladies who have taken turns to vitiate both the political as well as the moral character of our society to its bottomless pit.
One word of caution though -our rejection of Hasina and Khaleda should by no means be seen as a license for Ershad, the sleeze, to return.
The harm these two ladies have done to the country by their authoritarian and autocratic (mis)rule during their tenure would have taken a despot(?) like Ershad more than half a century to do. At the fag end of life, I, and I’m sure many like myself, am shocked to observe what’s going on in the name of ‘democracy’ in this country. A recent-most discussion in the parliament has revealed that more than sixteen thousand people have been killed, raped, kidnapped, maimed and/or physically disabled. So it’s beyond question that albeit a ‘dictator’ Ershad was by far the better than the two ladies who have made our life a hell by their capricious, despotic, short-sighted, dishonest and unpatriotic activities. We who suffered during Ershad’s regime for nothing now think that we have been thrown from the frying pan to the fire. What a misfortune for us! Had we had able, efficient, honest, visionary and patriotic leaders – who would be truly ‘statesmen’ – this country – our dearest ‘SONAR BANGLA’ – with all her beauty and riches would have been in the line of a first world country.