Bangladesh: The Sense of an Ending

THE CRISIS IN BANGLADESH deepens with every passing day. There is a clear feeling among citizens that things are not in control, that the interim administration installed by the country’s military in early August is at sea on governance. Just how acute the crisis is can be observed in the inability of citizens, especially the middle and lower-income groups, to come by reasonably good food on the table. Meat, chicken and fish have as good as gone out of people’s diets. The price of rice has been going up. And now it is vegetables which are going out of consumers’ reach because of their rising prices.

It is easy to understand the reasons behind this worsening economic crisis. The syndicates which have for years had a stranglehold on food prices, and in other areas as well, have continued to operate despite the political change. An instance of the severity of the problem is to be gauged from the high prices coupled with a badly limited supply of eggs. An adviser in the interim government surprisingly gave vent to his helplessness the other day when he informed the country that he did not have a machine to produce eggs. The comment led to much hilarity as also anger from netizens.

The national economy is at a crossroads, with investment receding and with such vital areas as the garments sector falling behind in production. In the over two months since the interim regime took charge, workers in scores of garment factories have re­sorted to strikes to demand better and regularly paid wages in addition to other benefits. And if anyone had thought that the depar­ture of the Sheikh Hasina government would bring an end to the extortion culture practised for years by her young party followers, they were soon to be proved wrong. With the Awami League and its affiliate organisations currently lying low, it is the cadres of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) that appear to have taken control of the space vacated by Hasina’s followers. They have engaged in toll collections in various lucrative areas. As for the Jamaat-e-Islami, which has had a gratuitous resurgence following the fall of the Awami League, the public perception is that it has smoothly been moving into key areas like universities and banks.

As for the crisis in other areas, particularly the space for religious practices by the Hindu and other communities has been shrinking. The Muhammad Yunus administration has certainly been bending over backward to convince people at home and abroad that Bangladesh remains a land of communal harmony. But the reality appears to be anything but. Buddhists have stayed away from observing their religious festival this season. Violence in the Chittagong Hill Tracts targeting the indigenous commu­nities has exercised public minds. In the recently concluded Durga Puja celebrations, the biggest religious festival of the Hindu community, extra measures were taken to ensure that the celebrations were not undermined by any communal disturbance. Even so, when a group of Muslim young men commandeered a puja in Chittagong and broke into an Islamic song, it sent out disturbing signals. And yes, detailed reports are yet to be had on what disturbances might have occurred during Durga Puja in Bangladesh’s interior. Hindus remain a beleaguered community.

The plight of the Hindu community has led to a spat between the Bangladesh and Indian governments. One will recall that in August, in his congratulatory message to Yunus on his assump­tion of office as chief adviser, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had called for security to be provided to Bangladesh’s Hindu citizens. In this last week, the concern expressed by India’s Min­istry of External Affairs (MEA) on the persecution of Hindus and the theft of religious items from Hindu temples led to an angry riposte from Bangladesh’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Dhaka rejected the allegations and took umbrage at what it saw as interference in its internal affairs. The incident was one more reflection of the downslide that has marked Dhaka-Delhi ties since August, a trend to be observed among elements with an anti-India bias in Bangladesh. Just how concerning such a dete­rioration is can be seen in the comments of a Jamaat politician to the effect that Bangladesh’s constitution, formulated and adopted by the country’s Constituent Assembly in 1972, a year after liberation, had been manufactured in India.

While the anti-India tirade goes on, the new regime’s ties with Pakistan and the US have been getting warmer. It is a trend that worries observers for it threatens the proper diplomatic relations which Dhaka had maintained with Delhi in the Sheikh Hasina years. Even BNP, out of power since 2006, has been speaking of the need for constructive ties between the two countries. The Indian high commissioner in Dhaka has met BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir in what was clearly a healthy discussion between the two. That said, it is the upending of history and politics by the interim govern­ment which increases citizens’ worries. The random arrests of functionaries of the previous government and clamping charges of murder on them, besides sending them on police remand, have given rise to an increasingly negative image of the administration.

Former ministers, lawmakers, journalists, theatre activ­ists and others have been humiliated on court premises by anti-Awami League lawyers and others pelting them with eggs and shoes. The degree of security necessary under the law for prisoners has been missing. Most people who were part of the Awami League government or were its supporters have remained in hiding owing to the mob violence which has per­sisted since early August. In the interiors, Awami League local leaders and workers have been murdered, but reports of such violence have not made it into the media. Which is concern­ing for the good reason that, where Yunus had initially made it known that people could speak freely and without fear, it is the precise opposite that has been happening. Media houses have come under assault and lists of journalists linked to the Awami League have been prepared, the better to punish them for their association with the old ‘fascist’ regime. The president and general secretary of the National Press Club were arbitrarily re­moved after August 5. The general secretary remains in prison.

In the last few days, the Yunus administration, through reconstituting the International Crimes Tribunal, has over­seen the issue of arrest warrants against Sheikh Hasina and 45 other individuals associated with her government. All the accused have been charged with committing genocide between mid-July and early August, but whether the trials of the accused, if they are at all produced in court, will be fair is a question being raised in the country today. A preoccupation of the rulers remains the extradition of Sheikh Hasina from India, but that is clearly a remote possibility. Meanwhile, the interim government has been taking flak for its harassment of eminent human rights lawyer Zahirul Islam Khan Panna.

The lawyer, who was vocal against the excesses of the Hasina government in July, has lately been extremely critical of the actions of the Yunus regime. As a freedom fighter who is cur­rently chairman of Ain-o-Salish Kendra, a reputed human rights body, he has openly condemned the moves by the interim gov­ernment to undermine Bangladesh’s history as it evolved during the War of Liberation in 1971. That did not endear him to the government, as evident through a filing of charges of attempted murder against him, obviously with the nod from the interim government. The filing of the case has resulted in a backlash, with citizens across the board excoriating the move against Panna. Another bad move made by the Yunus dispensation was the arrest of Shamsher Mobin Chowdhury, lately the leader of a political party called the Trinamool BNP, whose founder was Barrister Najmul Huda, a founder member of BNP and former minister. Huda died more than a year ago. Chowdhury, a young army officer subjected to torture by the Pakistan occupation army in 1971 and freed only after Bangladesh emerged free in December of the year, went on to serve as a respected diplomat and at one point was adviser to former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia. A day before his arrest, Chowdhury and his wife were pre­vented from boarding a flight to Bangkok, where the latter was expected to receive medical treatment.

BANGLADESH LURCHES FROM one crisis to another, much of it having to do with the attitude of those who constitute the Yunus dispensation. New controversies are being created and encouraged, notably the spurious argument that the fall of the Sheikh Hasina government symbolised Bangla­desh’s ‘second independence’. Every effort is being expended by the interim regime to reverse the course of Bangladesh’s history. In a recent broadcast, Yunus paid tribute to the ‘martyrs’ of the movement against the Hasina government but steered clear of demonstrating any respect for the three million Bengalis who lost their lives at the hands of the Pakistan occupation army in 1971. Neither Yunus nor any of his advisers condemned the razing of the home of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the country’s founder. Nor has there been any concern from the present rulers about the vandalising of historical symbols, such as statues and murals.

Such attitudes can only worsen conditions. The Yunus administra­tion, installed in circumstances devoid of constitutional validity, has set up six commis­sions which will undertake reforms in certain key areas. One is the constitution, a measure that has already raised hackles among scholars. The government appointed an eminent lawyer, Shahdeen Malik, to oversee the reforms and then swiftly replaced him with a Bangladeshi- American academic based in the US. The new regime and its friends are doing all they can to not only suggest reforms to the constitution but to actually replace it with one that will deviate from Bangladesh’s secular ideals. The signs of danger are glaring. The government has decided to abolish two significant dates in Bangladesh’s history. One relates to Mujibur Rahman’s historic March 7, 1971 speech while the other concerns the anniversary of the assassination of Mujib and his family on August 15, 1975. New sophistry is being employed to undercut Mujib’s stature as Bangladesh’s founding father. That Bangladesh is speedily being pushed down the road to medi­eval darkness, to anti-history is a reality that has cast a pall over the country.

The regime has reconstituted the Interna­tional Crimes Tribunal, the objective being to place in the dock members of the Awami League government who will be charged with committing ‘genocide’ in the weeks leading to the political change in August. Worse, in a press statement, the Ministry of Home Affairs issued an order preventing any measures from being taken against those involved in the anti-Awami League agitation between July 14 and August 8. Obviously, fear appears to have motivated such a measure, for observers know only too well that the entire story behind the agitation, its planning at home and abroad, the vigilante steps adopted to force judges, academ­ics and civil servants out of office, and the illegitimacy of the Yunus regime will come under investigation once the interim government is gone. The measure, already being dubbed as a new indemnity law reminiscent of the infamous Indemnity Ordinance which provided legal protection to Mujib’s assas­sins until it was repealed by Parliament in November 1996, has drawn severe condemnation from lawyers and citizens.

Student followers of Muhammad Yunus, at the time of writ­ing, along with other anti-Awami League elements, had laid siege to the Supreme Court to demand the resignation of judges who took office in the Sheikh Hasina era. The new chief justice, appointed by the Yunus regime, invited the embattled judges to tea at his residence, ostensibly to coax them into submitting their resignations. And that’s another instance of the mob rule Bangladesh has been groaning under for the past two-plus months. Sheikh Hasina remains in exile in India and in contact with her party. With reports recently appearing in Dhaka of her having flown to the UAE, Bangladesh’s foreign ministry sought to know her whereabouts from India’s MEA. Delhi did not respond to the query, a fact noted by the foreign affairs adviser to the present regime.

Bangladesh is in an unenviable state. Its history is under organised assault; its politics is hostage to mob violence. Efforts are underway to compel President Mohammed Shahabuddin to resign, although how that will be done remains unclear since parliament has been dissolved and Speaker Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury has resigned. The president was elected, under the country’s constitution, by parliament. No roadmap has been given for the general elections that will restore democracy. Con­sensus has been quietly growing on political and constitutional reforms being a prerogative of an elected parliament rather than of the interim administration.

The trauma which Bangladesh has been passing through since the overthrow of constitutional government in August will take a long time to heal. Years after the Yunus dispensation exits the scene, Bengalis will remain engaged in repairing the grave damage already caused to the nation’s culture, heritage and politics.

BangladeshBNPDurga PujaHindu communitiesIndia-Bangladesh relationsMirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgirsecular identity