Saving Sheikh Mujib And Pre-Empting Future Eviction
Monowar Hussain BadrudduzaNovember 21, 2010, 1:58 am
Bangladeshi politics is polarised and polarised it to the point of danger. I believe that the way to decrease polarization in this country and come together on a joint platform is to prevent abuse of all our deceased leaders including Zia Ur Rahman and Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
Politics, as done in our country, has two basic weaknesses. First, politics focuses on accumulating power and benefits. Sheikh Mujib had started his political career emphasizing that "to do service for the people is to do service for Allah." Although his role model was many world leaders including Gandhi, Lenin and Mao, he never mentioned Mohammed (pbuh). I am sure he and a handful of his colleagues were sincere in their quest to make Bangladesh a fairer and prosperous country. But special interests came to the fore. We all know that every government creates its own riches and brings material improvement to its close supporters. Even if leaders or top executives act idealistically and with sincerity, things they do not approve of may occur and lower echelons of a political movement, may cause those ideals to end up in disarray.
The second weakness of politics in our country is its inclination to abuse the values of the masses. Thus, these values are used to exact political benefits. Secularism, nationalism, to a certain extent religion, martyr Zia and Sheikh Mujib are among the most frequently abused values. This in turn does the greatest damage to all of those.
Sheikh Mujib was a leader. His ability to organize the masses is indisputable. Yet he was a human being like any of us. He had flaws or deficiencies like everyone. He was a child of his own time. He acted according to the mentality, conditions and possibilities of his time. In assessing Sheikh Mujib, we need to take into consideration the tragedies of a collapsing relationship between the east and west part of then Pakistan, the traumas of its administrators, the external pressures and impositions and the misery of an exhausted nation. Yes, Sheikh Mujib was not a democrat because he did not have a democratic environment. At that time, no one could become a democrat. Moreover, even many politicians today are not democratic. BAKSAL was the last straw of his non-democratic aspiration and the single party regime was a repressive regime. Sheikh Mujib was a single man.
Fortunately those who came after him has acted in democratic-harmony with the world. Actually, the external developments forced Bangladesh to do so. In this respect, martyr Zia's farsighted decision to introduce the multi-party system was a major step.
The basic problem was the lack of change in the BAKSAL'ites' mentality. The public could not know what is right. They could not make decisions on their own. The elites of the republic, who assumed authority, established a tutelary system. They needed an ideology. Then, they introduced "Mujib-baad plus secularism" as twin ideology. They stuffed this ideology into the essence of constitutional institutions. They started to portray Sheikh Mujib as a supra-human being. They could not be satisfied with Sheikh Mujib being a leader, a historical personality, because they wanted to use him as a veil to prevent the tutelage from being questioned. No explanation can be made, for Mujib was being used as a justification for all sorts of short sighted decision and harmful actions, although he had declared Parliament as the sole representative of the national will.
They referred to "secularism" in order to exert pressure on religion and devout people. For them, modernity meant escape from religion. They built walls in front of freedoms, rules of law, democracy and secularism that pay respect to beliefs and wrote "Father of the nation" on them. "If Sheikh Mujib was alive, he would do this or that," they were threatening people. The BAKSALites own actions portrayed Sheikh Mujib as a person who is miles away from faith and spirituality, and then asked us, "Why don't you love him?" and urged us to love him.
The road to learn about the true Sheikh Mujib and adopt universal democratic values must be opened. He should not be used as an instrument for ideological or material gain. "Sheikh Mujib's principles and actions" should be erected in front of democratization. Save Sheikh Mujib from being the Bongobondhu of rather, born again AL, the Bongobondhu of neo-BAKSAL'ites and the 'Father of the Nation' of pro-tutelage groups. Let him be a part of history as a joint value of society.
Insult and humiliation by evicting a former prime minister in front of the whole world, wife of a former head of state, commander in chief, above all a freedom fighter, by the state, is the result of pro tutelage politics in Bangladesh. It is in no way sign of democracy or tolerance. Sawing the seed of vicious cycle and vengeance will be in no one's benefit but tutelary politics.
- The writer lives in the UK and can be contacted via Monowar_b@hotmail.com
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