I received this mail from a Pakistani forum, and I'm not sure who the author is. It has several new angles that are worth noting. I hope the readers of Bangladeshi forums will find those points interesting. The lines from the famous Faiz Ahmed Faiz poem are truly indelible!
The point I want to make is how our BD Jamaati fascits and their younger brood out-Paki the pakis. I am serously re-thinking about not simply labeling the blood-thirsty Bangalee Jamaati as 1971 collaborators of Pakistani army. They were then, and certainly now, a vicious and murderous bunch with a political agenda of their own. What a curse it is for this country to have this "political" party on the ballot of its national election!
Farida Majid
Subj: [khusroelley] Fw: Fwd. On This day , Lest we forget: 16th of December
--- On Mon, 12/15/08,
Date: 12/15/2008 4:55:44 P.M. Eastern Standard Time From: aamirb48@hotmail.com Lest we forget: 16th of December
On this day 37 years ago General ¡Tiger¢ Niazi CO Eastern Command surrendered.
Thus the state of Bangladesh was born. Some say that this birth was also the death of Jinah¢s Pakistan. In fact some would argue that Pakistan had actually died months earlier (on 25th of March when army action was launched) and 16th of December was just the day when the corpse was buried with full military honours. For General Arora was presented with a guard of honour before the signing of the surrender documents at Dhaka race course!
No doubt this was till then and still is the most traumatic moment of Pakistan¢s short history. Yet so little has been written about it since then. It is as we are so ashamed of what happened that we cannot bring ourselves to think about those dark days. Yet it is extremely important that we research and analyze the reasons behind this tragedy as only this can prevent something similar happening in the future.
To get a real picture of what brought about the partition of Pakistan one has to study history from the partition of India in 1947. However this will take up too much time and space. In a nutshell the people of East Pakistan had developed a sense of deprivation over the years. While some of their grudges against West Pakistan may be misplaced the truth is that majority of their grievances were justified. At the time of birth in 1947 Pakistan inherited two well developed organizations: The bureaucracy and the army. The political institutions were very rudimentary and the Muslim League was never able to establish itself as a viable political party. The first 10 years of Pakistan¢s life consisted of constant squabbling between the politicians and bureaucrats-turned politicians. The Bengalis formed the largest ethnic group in Pakistan, they were also more educated then their Western brethren. Yet they were almost unrepresented in both the bureaucracy and army.
In 1955 the number of army officers with the rank of major and above was 908 out of which there were only 16 from East Pak. In the central secretariat out of 741 elite posts there were only 51 from East Pakistan
.
It is possible if the democratic political system had been allowed to get established and continue the Bengalis would have achieved their rightful place in the affairs of Pakistan. Alas it was not so and in 1958 the army took over and suspended the democratic process. Under the military rule East Pakistan became a virtual colony of the West. Just like the British had exploited the natural and human resources of India the Punjabi-Urdu speaking military-bureaucratic rulers along with willing West Pak industrialists exploited the Bengali East. Devoid of any means of expressing themselves and with no representation in running their country the Bengalis became more and more alienated. This allowed radical separatist views to develop. In 1969 ZA Bhutto led a political uprising against the tyrant. The movement was joined by the Bengali¢s and for the only time in Pakistan¢s history the people of both wings were so untied. When students died in the West due to police fire the female students of Dhaka University marched barefoot in silence in a show of respect and silence.
Unable to find even a single iota of decency within him and hand over to political rulers the tyrant gave power to another general and brought in another needless martial law. Yahiya oversaw the first free elections in Pakistan¢s history (23 years after independence!). Two main political parties were involved. In West Pakistan the Pakistan People¢s Party let by ZA Bhutto and in the East Awami League lead by Shiekh Mujeeb. ZA Bhutto¢s manifesto was Roti, Kapara aur makan, while AL was fighting on a platform of the six points. The real meaning of six points has never been established. At worst they were a declaration of secession by the Eastern Wing; at best they were the voice of frustration to be used as bargaining chips. The six points were:
1. The Constitution should provide for a Federation of Pakistan in the true sense on the basis of the Lahore Resolution and for a parliamentary form of government based on the supremacy of a directly elected legislature on the basis of universal adult franchise.
2. The Federal Government shall deal with only two subjects; Defense and Foreign Affairs. All residuary subjects will be vested in the federating states.
3. There should be either two separate, freely convertible currencies for the two Wings, or one currency with two separate reserve banks to prevent inter-Wing flight of capital.
4. The power of taxation and revenue collection shall be vested in the federating units. The Federal Government will receive a share to meet its financial obligations.
5. Economic disparities between the two Wings shall disappear through a series of economic, fiscal, and legal reforms.
6. A militia or paramilitary force must be created in East Pakistan, which at present has no defense of it own.
However we argue the intentions behind the six points there is no doubt that if applied they would have lead to the death of the federation and the end of a strong centre. Even to this day such a concept of provincial autonomy is unacceptable to the majority of political/military leaders and citizens in Punjab. Just imagine that Sindhis form the majority of Pakistan population and they want to establish a government on the basis of such points.
As expected AL won almost all of the seats in the East and as the number of seats were based on the population they now had more seats in the National assembly then any other party.
Many people argue that the reason for break up of Pakistan was that AL was not allowed to form the government and Mujeeb was kept from becoming the PM.
While there may be some weight in the argument the truth is that it was not so simple. The elections were held under a Legal Framework Order (LFO) conjured by Yahya as thanks to Ayub Pakistan had no constitution. The LFO had dealt with most affairs except the most important one which was the relationship between the centre and the provinces. This was left to the elected representatives to decide.
The fact is that in the absence of a constitution there was no question of Shaikh Mujeeb forming a government. Under the LFO the national assembly was NOT going to be a legislative assembly UNTIL it had made a constitution. So it was to have a dual life, first as a constituent assembly and only after it had made a constitution it will become the legislative assembly. The step of forming the government was after the step of forming the constitution.
To make matters worse the LFO only allowed a period of 90 days for the constitution to be drafted and accepted otherwise the assembly would automatically dissolve itself. A constitution is an agreement between various different ethnic/cultural groups to live together. It is important in the making of the constitution that the interests of minority groups are safeguarded. That is why in the US constitution while the number of representatives in the congress are based on the population of the states the number of senators is two from each state regardless of its population.
Here we were in 1970-71 with an intensely charged political climate. One party had virtually won the election on the basis of controversial six points. For the West Pakistani political representatives it was not easy to trust the intentions of AL. A logical step would have been for the 90 day limit to be relaxed and negotiations arranged between the political leaders from both sides before a formal session of the assembly. This would have allowed the parties to agree on safeguards for the minority groups. However Yahya refused to extend the 90 day limit.
In East Pakistan the Bengali resentments resulted in random acts of violence. From here started the most shameful period of Pakistan¢s history. The military junta hatched a plan to solve the Bengali problem for good. On the morning of 25thMarch 1971 operation Searchlight was launched.
Over the next few months the Pakistan army massacred its citizens without any mercy. In the name of counter-insurgency thousands of innocent civilians were killed (including hundreds of intellectuals). The Pakistani officers told the jawans that Bengali¢s were genetically inferior and it is our duty to improve their genes, therefore rape camps were established in Dhaka university and thousands of Bengali women were gang-raped to impregnate them. Sounds a bit like Bosnia doesn¢t it? Yet while every decent Pakistan felt so angry at the Serbs and so sad for the Bosnians there was hardly any murmurs of protest when their own countrymen/women were meeting the same fate. Part of it was ignorance as the military junta had total control over the media and sources of information. Still news of atrocities were filtering through and there were some voices of reason drowning in the sea of madness.
As Faiz wrote on the 8th of April 1971:
This is how my sorrow became visible: its
dust, piling up for years in my heart, finally
reached my eyes,
the bitterness now so clear that I had to listen
when my friends told me to wash my eyes
with blood.
Everything at once was tangled in blood,each face, each idol, red everywhere.Blood swept over the sun, washing away its gold.The moon erupted with blood, its silver extinguished. Thesky promised a morning of blood,and the night wept only blood.The trees hardened into crimson pillars.All flowers filled their eyes with blood.And every glance was an arrow,each pierced image blood. This blooda river crying out for martyrs-flows on in longing.And in sorrow, in rage, in love.Let it flow. Should it be dammed up,there will only be hatred cloaked in colors of death.Don't let this happen, my friends,bring all my tears back instead, a flood topurify my dust filled eyes, to wash this bloodforever from my eyes.(Poem: Bangladesh II translated by Agha Shahid Ali)
The actual figures of those who suffered are as usual greatly disputed. According to Bengali sources the Pakistani army and its paramilitary supporters killed 3,000,000 Bengalis, this is an obvious exaggeration. The Pakistan army sources stated that 26,000 people were killed. They claimed that most were Mukhti Bahani collaborators though acknowledged that some innocents might have been killed as well (collateral damage).
The true figure is likely to be somewhere in between. Let us try to bring this as close as possible to the Pakistan army figures. So let¢s accept that 50,000 to 100,000 Bengali¢s were killed. It is still a lot, and more then the Bosnians killed by Serbs or the Palestinians killed by Israel since its birth. The question of rape is even more contentious. The Bengali¢s claim that 300,000 teenaged Bengali girls were raped. The Pakistani sources (to their credit) acknowledge that Bengali women were mistreated at times but do not dwell upon the extent of such incidents and try to justify it by claiming (no doubt with some truth) that Mukhti Bahani and Indian army also committed rapes. Yet it is possible that several thousand women were raped by Pakistani military and Para-military units, perhaps a similar number to rapes committed by Serbs in Bosnia and certainly a lot more then expected from a professional army involved in counterinsurgency operations against its own citizens. As any expert of counterinsurgency would tell you it is as much about killing/capturing the militants as it is winning the hearts of the civilians.
At the end all this gave India the opportunity to invade and dismember Pakistan. For along with Muslim Bengalis thousand of Hindu Bengalis were targeted in a holy jihad declared by soldiers of Islam. Over ten million refuges crossed into India, the largest ever migration in history. Their presence started to destabilize Indian Bengal and the Indian government came under increasing pressure to interfere in East Pakistan.
Yet it is amusing to note that it was not India that started an all out war. This was done by Pakistan air force launching a pre-emptive strike against seven Indian air force bases at 1700 hours on 3rd of December 1971 and Pakistan army crossing the international border the same night. It defies logic why when faced with a virtual civil war in the East and a vastly superior Indian army on both fronts why the Pakistani high command decided to start an all out war. But then the actions of Pakistani military commanders are often irrational and bordering on suicidal (the Kargil debacle a more recent example).
Not one of the Pakistani Generals was ever tried. Instead of facing court martial for incompetence and cowardice they were given promotions or peaceful retirements. Instead of standing before tribunals for genocide and crimes against humanity they were welcomed as heroes when they returned from POW camps.
While the conduct of Pakistan army was no doubt deplorable the role of West Pak politicians is more controversial. There is little doubt about the role played by Jamat-i-Islami as the main Para-military organization involved Al-Badar belonged to this party. The role played by ZA Bhutto is much more blurred. My late father was passionate about defending Bhutto and insisted the Bhutto was only trying to save the West Wing perhaps realizing after the elections won by AL on the basis of non-negotiable six points that break up was inevitable. Certainly there is some credibility to this argument especially if you consider this in the context of Shiekh Mujeeb¢s past history. Still I have come to the conclusion that Bhutto¢s silence on the issue of army atrocities makes it very difficult to exonerate him of all guilt. If he was not The villain of breaking Pakistan he certainly played some role in it (though his guilt was no where as great as the military) and his silence makes him a party to the crimes against humanity.
The repercussions of those days are still with us. The Indian sub-continent is now divided into 3 separate countries. It is ironic the two of these countries have a Muslim majority yet they share a bloody past which does not allow them to form a close friendship. Pakistan feels a lot closer to godless China then to Muslim Bangladesh.
No one has put this any better in words then Faiz who visited Bangladesh (with ZA Bhutto) in 1974 and on his return wrote the poem: ¡Dhaka say wapsi¢and I quote:
Hum key thehray ajnabi
Itni mudaraton kay baad
Phir banain gay aashna
Kitni mulaqatoon kay baad
Kab nazar mein a¢ay ge
Baidagh sabzay key bahar
Khoon kay dhabbay dhulain gay
Kitni barsaaton kay baad
Well that was there and then and this is now and here so what has all this got to do with us? I think a lot. We can look and learn a lot of things from this tragedy.
I don¢t want to bore you with such details but for me the most important lesson is the realization that such catastrophes are always the end product of long periods of tyranny and can only be prevented by a continuous uninterrupted democratic process. As Pakistanis we have the habit of looking for individuals as our saviours. There is a widespread misconception that all Pakistan needs a good leader and when such a Messiah comes all will be well. People defend or criticize individuals and live in hope of the great leader rising Phoenix like from the ashes to lift Pakistan to the skies. Alas such are false hopes. If one studies the history of nations that rose to greatness and stayed there for a while one can see that they did not get there because on a single individual leader. They got there because they established a system which allowed them to get there. Such a system was never perfect but it was simply better then the model followed by the nations that failed/their competitors. There can be passionate arguments regarding what is the best system for Pakistan. I am convinced that despite periodic setbacks, over a long period of time the best system is a secular democratic system. Democratic process is still worth it despite periods of rule by corrupt and inefficient politicians and is still better then a rule by a tyrant who is an angel (if such a thing exists).
I am sure there are a lot of people who will dispute this argument and support this with a lot of individual facts, yet to me they are once again arguing about individuals and not stepping back and taking a broad view of history.
I do not accept that due to illiteracy, poverty, corruption etc. democracy is not the right system for Pakistan. This a bit like saying that principles of modern medicine are difficult to apply in Pakistan (for more or less the same reasons as above) therefore they should be abandoned and health care in Pakistan should be provided by hakeems.
The only chance Pakistan has of a future is by establishing and strengthening democratic institutions in a secular environment and rejecting any tyranny military, civil or religious.
References:
Hamoodur Rehman Report into: Inquiry of 1971 war.
Pakistan: A Modern History: by Ian Talbot
The Duel, Pakistan on the flight path of American Power: by Tariq Ali
Pakistan¢s Drift into Extremism: by Hassan Abbas
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