LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL

by F R Chowdhury

Freedom of speech, human rights, equality and justice are the cornerstones of modern civilised democratic society. These reflect the speech of Abraham Lincoln when he said, “government of the people, by the people and for the people”. It is with this motive and inspiration that we fought the war to liberate Bangladesh. Forty-three years after the liberation when we look back, we feel we failed to achieve our goals. Political unrest has become a part of our life. We are having it every now and then – especially when the elections are due. The present state of violence, burning and killing cannot go on like that. There has to be an end; and it has to end once for all.

In order to solve the problem, we have to look at the root of the problem. The root has something to do with our culture and character. Whoever becomes the head of the government, s/he thinks that is the life-time job. He or she cannot think of living as an ordinary citizen again. Losing the election and leaving the office does not mean the end of the world. One can still contribute a lot through the knowledge gained during the period in the government. For that one has to accept the reality of life and be mentally prepared for it. We also have to look at major political parties who have no democracy within the party. The two major political parties have their leadership within their families. In Bangladesh we are yet to develop the culture to congratulate each other. We think, “I am the only one who can run this country. How can I be defeated? It must not have been a fair election”. In Britain it is very common for the leader of the defeated party to resign. They would normally say, “I failed to lead the party to victory. It is time for the party to find a new leader”.

All the countries in the world cannot have similar constitution. They cannot have similar system and procedures. They have to embrace the reality based on their culture and character. We have to have elections conducted by neutral care-taker government to avoid interference and manipulation by the government in power. This is perhaps the only way that we can have free and fair election. As discussed earlier every government in power have a tendency to consider their own government as indispensable. They all want to remain in power for all time to come. Another reason, perhaps the major reason is that once out of power, their misdeeds will come to light. They may have to face corruption charges. This is their main fear.

Now let us see how the present turmoil started and why it started. Sheikh Hasina and her party Bangladesh Awami League (BAL) came to power in 2009 with more than 2/3 majority in the parliament. In parliamentary system of democracy it should be considered a golden opportunity for the government to accomplish all their programmes without any hindrance. Hasina could do lot of good things. Unfortunately she had other priorities. First she had to take revenge of her father’s killing. She managed to get most of them hanged. Secondly she had to get Khaleda Zia evicted from the house given to her by previous government after the death of her husband. Soon after she became the prime minister there was a mutiny in the Bangladesh Riffles, the border security force in as many as 54 army officers were killed. There is enough evidence that government did not take any action even though they had prior information. It is accepted by one and all that timely action could have saved many lives. The action of the government during the mutiny gave rise to many questions. Perhaps one day an independent inquiry will reveal the real truth. The tragedy certainly provided the sadistic pleasure to the prime minister because her father was killed by a group of army officers. Then she arranged for the release of a large number of criminals by withdrawing cases pending against them. Her justification was that those cases were politically motivated. Needless to say that all those released were BAL activists. We never heard of a single BNP (Bangladesh Nationalist Party) activist or supporter being released on the same ground.

Sheikh Hasina hastily arranged to sign a peace treaty with certain groups in hill districts. She was certain that she would receive the Nobel Peace prize. At least her cronies convinced her so. She was sitting in front of TV with lot of hopes. She could not believe what she saw on the TV screen. Yes, a Bangladeshi received the Nobel Prize but it was Professor Yunus of Grameen Bank. Then out of no reason she started the hate campaign against Dr. Yunus. She said that Professor Yunus sucked the blood of the poor to make Grameen Bank. She engaged all the audit and intelligence agencies at home and abroad to investigate the matter to discredit Dr. Yunus. She was very disappointed as they failed to find any irregularity. She was also very up-set when Fazle Hassan Abed, the founder chairman of BRAC, one of the largest NGOs of the world was knighted by the Queen. The prime minister perhaps believed that all name, fame and glory belonged to her and her father. That is why almost every building, road, bridge or other installations are named after her family members.

Since coming to power, she has systematically damaged the integrity of judicial and administrative system beyond repairs. The nation was shocked to see the high court judges go to prime minister with flowers and garlands in hands to wish happy birthday. A general on LPR (leave preparatory to retirement) was brought back to service and made the army chief. Dozens of outstanding civil servants were retired early from the service. Others were pushed aside as “officer on special duty” (OSD) to receive their pay without any job. People were promoted not on the basis of seniority or competence but on party loyalty. Recruitment in civil service, specifically in the police was reserved for only party cadres. Extra judicial killings in the name of cross-fire and exchange of fire became routine matter. The government maintained its silence over disappearance of Ilyas Ali (a BNP leader) and his driver. Journalists Sagar and Runi were murdered in their own house and the government failed to find any motive or clue. However, the nation will never forget how the elite force was involved in murdering seven persons in Narayanganj. One day (only after the fall of the present government) an independent judicial inquiry will reveal the truth behind all those criminal activities. It is not difficult to understand that all those involved do not want a change of government. They have no choice but to support the government in all its illegal activities.

Corruption has broken all previous records. It is for this reason that the World Bank withdrew from the Padma Bridge Project. Yet, our Anti-corruption Commission could not find any corruption. The name of the much talked about ex-minister exists today in the rich list of Bangladeshis. We all know how a car (loaded with currency notes) was caught on way to minister’s residence. The minister who is commonly known as “black cat” lost his job but no other action was taken against him. Billions of dollars worth of military hardware has been purchased on loan through secret deals. I call it secret deal because people know very little about this deal. The commission has already been pocketed but loans would be returned by future governments.

In the earlier part of the article I mentioned about the present government coming into power in 2009 with more than 2/3^rd majority. This would enable them to amend constitution. Yes, they made one amendment which in their consideration was the most important amendment – they removed the provision of general election under non-political, independent care-taker government. This was done to make sure that future elections would be held under them and that they would win all such elections. By the way the concept of election under a care-taker government was originally introduced in the constitution on the insistence of the present prime minister for which she had carried out a violent movement. Yet, she is the one who removed it revealing her double standard. This was the starting point of all troubles. Through this process BAL planned the gradual elimination of all political parties to establish one-party rule, more precisely the family dynasty of “sheikh family”.

All political parties protested against the move. The protest grew louder as the election drew nearer. BNP and several other political parties boycotted the election. However, BNP relaxed its movement when the government declared the election time and again as a must for continuity of the constitutional process. The election was a mockery. More than 50% of the seats (153 of the 300) were already won by the BAL even before a single vote was cast. Elsewhere not even 10% voters cast their votes. The nation expected the government to open discussion and dialogue, after this show election, to solve the problem. The government had other things in their mind. The turned the face away from the issue and declared that next election would only be held after a full term of 5 years i.e. in 2019. This gave a clear hint to one-party and one-family rule. On the anniversary of that so-called election the government started its preparation to celebrate on 5^th January, 2015 as victory for democracy, BNP and 20 other allied parties prepared for movement for democracy.

The movement was absolutely peaceful and Khaleda Zia addressed several public meetings. But the BAL government got worried with the growing popularity of Khaleda. When Khaleda was scheduled to address a rally at Gazipur, the government banned it imposing curfew in Gazipur. Next Khaleda was scheduled to address a similar rally in Dhaka when she was blocked by imposing a virtual house arrest. This was done without any court order and her office was encircled by trucks carrying sands, water tanks and hundreds of armed policemen. It was at that point that Khaleda Zia declared nationwide blockade to paralyse the government. The government immediately arrested hundreds of BNP leaders, workers and supporters all over the country. On the instigation of the government, the police force engaged itself in totally unlawful extra-judicial killings in the name of cross-fire and gun-battle. The government initiated the violence thinking that they would diminish BNP once for all but it back-fired. The movement gained momentum and gradually becoming a national issue. It reminds me of 1975 when Sheikh Mujib banned all political parties and activities; and created BAKSAL to rule as one-party state, he also thought everything was over. Then he paid very dearly with his life. Popular movement for genuine cause can never be crushed by barrels of guns.

The BAL has finally engaged different wings of its party to use cocktail bombs and fire bombs against the innocent people of Bangladesh and blame it on BNP. They are doing so that they can attract attention of the western world in their so-called fight against terrorism. They are also using this as an excuse for not negotiating with BNP. By now the whole world knows it as a political problem. It is a problem created by the government to perpetuate their rule by crushing all opposition. How can BNP do such act when all their leaders, right up to village level, are behind the bars?

One good thing that we observed is that our armed forces refused to come in the aid of civil administration. They would not like to damage their image by associating themselves with the activities of the illegal government. Both at home and abroad everyone is talking about solution of the problem through political dialogue and negotiation. The light at the end of the tunnel is that BAL has to go. The solution is reintroduction of constitutional provision for general election under care-taker government that will bring peace for all times. There will be no more any reason for street demonstration and violence. We should become a truly democratic country.

London, 23-February-2015.                                               <[email protected]>