Their bad politics, their dismal record
Syed Badrul Ahsan
BEGUM Khaleda Zia would like a change of government in Bangladesh. And to make sure things happen in line with her desire, she stands ready to lead a movement, spearheaded by her party, that will bring about the fall of the Awami League-led grand alliance government.
All of this sounds rather strange, for quite a few reasons. Go into that matter of a movement first. The Bangladesh Nationalist Party is not quite the vehicle you envision as a symbol of popular uprising. We will not waste words on this point here, but do go into the history of the party since its formation in the late 1970s and nowhere will you find an instance of it leading a mass upsurge in defence of democratic rights in the country. Yes, yes! You will be sorely tempted to point to the struggle against the Ershad autocracy in the 1980s. Do not forget, though, that had the Awami League not been there as the leading voice of the fifteen-party alliance, not much would have happened.
The difficulty with the BNP is the tradition it has come wrapped in. Its rise in the late 1970s, per courtesy of Bangladesh's first military dictator, was made possible through bringing together an assortment of elements whose sole objective was to keep the Awami League at bay.
So-called leftists happy to identify themselves as pro-Peking; old Pakistan followers, whose collaboration with the Pakistan army in 1971 disqualified them from enjoying the fruits of Bengali liberation; and communal elements not quite happy about Bengali nationalism banded together to form the party, which in truth was a platform arrayed against the fundamental principles on which the War of Liberation was waged in 1971.
In more ways than one, the BNP was a reminder of what the Convention Muslim League used to be in Ayub-era Pakistan -- a happy gathering of men and women whose future was assured by association with the army. Such a happenstance is at variance with talk of a movement.
The bigger problem with Begum Zia and her party is somewhere else. And that is the corruption typified by the BNP in the years between 2001 and 2006. Let us make no mistake: the government of the BNP-Jamaat alliance is the worst example of a political administration in the history of this country. You only have to recall the tales of the simple men who had nothing in 2001 but by 2006 were the owners of newspapers and television channels.
The tales of the sons of the Begum and their associates still put us all to collective shame. The indignities that respectable men like Muntasir Mamoon and Saber Hossain Chowdhury were put through, the search for a scapegoat for the August 21 explosions in the person of a naïve Joj Miah, the mass arrests of citizens day after day, the farce of an Election Commission under Justice Aziz, the brazen attempts to replace the Proclamation of Independence with a fictitious account of reality into the constitution are a measure of the sufferings we went through as citizens in the years when Begum Zia presided over the fortunes of this country.
And now these very people who would not let us out of the deep, dark woods speak of their desire to topple a legally, constitutionally elected government. You do not do that in a political condition where the nation has chosen the men and women who will preside over the state for five years. And you especially refrain from doing that when your own reputation is not something to be proud of. Ah, but who listens? Begum Zia, having remained absolutely silent for weeks and months on the matter of the war crimes trials, now decides that speaking out on the issue is in order.
Sheikh Hasina's government, she proclaims vociferously, is set to divide the nation through these trials. Give your memory a little jog. Wasn't it the military regime of the BNP's founder which sliced through Bengali national unity in the 1970s with its ham-fisted treatment of the fundamental principles of this people's republic? "Bangladeshi nationalism" was never an invention of the Awami League, if you would care to remember. Secular Bengalis did not protect the assassins of 1975 for decades on end.
The Begum is indignant about the war crimes trials and would first like the war criminals in the Awami League to be put in the dock. That is a bit rich coming from one in whose party and government known collaborators of the Pakistan occupation army have cheerily run the show. It was a shame for the BNP to have allowed war criminals into it in the first place. It was a scandal when it co-opted two known associates of the Pakistan occupation army in the government it formed in October 2001.
Begum Zia and her party have got their priorities all wrong. It is not enough for them to hammer away at the Awami League government's putative incompetence and corruption. They will be doing themselves and the country much good if they go for a degree of introspection, acknowledge the blunders they made in the years in office and inform the nation that they are ready to reform themselves. Sheikh Hasina's government has been making mistakes, yes. Begum Zia's party, given its dismal record in government, is not quite qualified to pronounce judgment on it.
Syed Badrul Ahsan is Editor, Current Affairs, The Daily Star.
Email: bahsantareq@yahoo.co.uk.
Syed Badrul Ahsan
BEGUM Khaleda Zia would like a change of government in Bangladesh. And to make sure things happen in line with her desire, she stands ready to lead a movement, spearheaded by her party, that will bring about the fall of the Awami League-led grand alliance government.
All of this sounds rather strange, for quite a few reasons. Go into that matter of a movement first. The Bangladesh Nationalist Party is not quite the vehicle you envision as a symbol of popular uprising. We will not waste words on this point here, but do go into the history of the party since its formation in the late 1970s and nowhere will you find an instance of it leading a mass upsurge in defence of democratic rights in the country. Yes, yes! You will be sorely tempted to point to the struggle against the Ershad autocracy in the 1980s. Do not forget, though, that had the Awami League not been there as the leading voice of the fifteen-party alliance, not much would have happened.
The difficulty with the BNP is the tradition it has come wrapped in. Its rise in the late 1970s, per courtesy of Bangladesh's first military dictator, was made possible through bringing together an assortment of elements whose sole objective was to keep the Awami League at bay.
So-called leftists happy to identify themselves as pro-Peking; old Pakistan followers, whose collaboration with the Pakistan army in 1971 disqualified them from enjoying the fruits of Bengali liberation; and communal elements not quite happy about Bengali nationalism banded together to form the party, which in truth was a platform arrayed against the fundamental principles on which the War of Liberation was waged in 1971.
In more ways than one, the BNP was a reminder of what the Convention Muslim League used to be in Ayub-era Pakistan -- a happy gathering of men and women whose future was assured by association with the army. Such a happenstance is at variance with talk of a movement.
The bigger problem with Begum Zia and her party is somewhere else. And that is the corruption typified by the BNP in the years between 2001 and 2006. Let us make no mistake: the government of the BNP-Jamaat alliance is the worst example of a political administration in the history of this country. You only have to recall the tales of the simple men who had nothing in 2001 but by 2006 were the owners of newspapers and television channels.
The tales of the sons of the Begum and their associates still put us all to collective shame. The indignities that respectable men like Muntasir Mamoon and Saber Hossain Chowdhury were put through, the search for a scapegoat for the August 21 explosions in the person of a naïve Joj Miah, the mass arrests of citizens day after day, the farce of an Election Commission under Justice Aziz, the brazen attempts to replace the Proclamation of Independence with a fictitious account of reality into the constitution are a measure of the sufferings we went through as citizens in the years when Begum Zia presided over the fortunes of this country.
And now these very people who would not let us out of the deep, dark woods speak of their desire to topple a legally, constitutionally elected government. You do not do that in a political condition where the nation has chosen the men and women who will preside over the state for five years. And you especially refrain from doing that when your own reputation is not something to be proud of. Ah, but who listens? Begum Zia, having remained absolutely silent for weeks and months on the matter of the war crimes trials, now decides that speaking out on the issue is in order.
Sheikh Hasina's government, she proclaims vociferously, is set to divide the nation through these trials. Give your memory a little jog. Wasn't it the military regime of the BNP's founder which sliced through Bengali national unity in the 1970s with its ham-fisted treatment of the fundamental principles of this people's republic? "Bangladeshi nationalism" was never an invention of the Awami League, if you would care to remember. Secular Bengalis did not protect the assassins of 1975 for decades on end.
The Begum is indignant about the war crimes trials and would first like the war criminals in the Awami League to be put in the dock. That is a bit rich coming from one in whose party and government known collaborators of the Pakistan occupation army have cheerily run the show. It was a shame for the BNP to have allowed war criminals into it in the first place. It was a scandal when it co-opted two known associates of the Pakistan occupation army in the government it formed in October 2001.
Begum Zia and her party have got their priorities all wrong. It is not enough for them to hammer away at the Awami League government's putative incompetence and corruption. They will be doing themselves and the country much good if they go for a degree of introspection, acknowledge the blunders they made in the years in office and inform the nation that they are ready to reform themselves. Sheikh Hasina's government has been making mistakes, yes. Begum Zia's party, given its dismal record in government, is not quite qualified to pronounce judgment on it.
Syed Badrul Ahsan is Editor, Current Affairs, The Daily Star.
Email: bahsantareq@yahoo.co.uk.
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