Commentary by Mahfuz Anam
Propaganda and the war crimes trial
What have we done to counter the Jamaat narrative?
Speaking at what could be their last meeting before facing his ultimate fate, war crimes convict Kamaruzzaman told his wife Tuesday that he was being "killed" because he was trying to establish Islam in the country. According to media reports, he said that he was sacrificing his life for the cause of Islam and that many more such sacrifices were needed.
For a death row convict it is very natural to put the most dignified and honourable explanation to what he stood for and why he is being punished. That is understandable. What, however, is not is why some people, however few in number should believe him? Why should anybody, except his family or his diehard party followers accept his narrative?
However unpalatable it may sound to us, it is true that there will be some who will. They will believe that this trial was not necessary, that this trial is a farce, that it is against the interest of Muslims, that there is some hidden agenda of some quarter to damage Islam through these trials, that this trial is a political action, that this is a ploy to destroy Jamaat as a party and also damage BNP which it has taken as an ally, that this trial has been organised to take revenge on political opposition.
In other words, there is no principle, no seeking justice, no correcting of a historic wrong, no upholding of humanitarian values, nothing except vengeful politics. In other words, there is no truth behind these war crime trials.
This is still possible in Bangladesh, in however miniscule a fashion, because we have never made any effective effort to counter the propaganda of the Jamaat and their supporters and have never challenged their narrative in an organised, consistent and sustained manner. Yes, there are occasional attacks on Jamaat as a political party and as to what they did in 1971. That is not what we are talking about. It is about the defence of the trial, of a process of seeking justice, of a process of establishing the truth about '71 that is needed, and one which is sorely absent.
Our fundamental failure has been in the realm of politics. With the murder of Bangabandhu and the capture of power by an ambitious faction of army officers with Mushtaque and his group, our Liberation War narrative changed.
To justify Bangabandhu's murder and that of the four national leaders their legacies had to be vilified. To vilify the legacies of the very architects of our Liberation War, the very Independence War itself had to be vilified. And the more that was done the more Jamaat and other opponents of our Liberation War gained ground. Thus one thing led to another and the history of our independence struggle became a plaything in the hands of the usurpers of power and also in the hands of, very shamefully, those who opposed it.
We know the stories from then on. In every subsequent political development the war criminals and their party were rehabilitated through direct or indirect linkages and promises from our major political parties, including the Awami League.
Our tragedy is that distortion of history started from the very beginning. Awami League, which was definitely the party that played the leading role in our Liberation War, made the mistake of claiming the totality of the credit of that momentous event.
The war was a peoples' war and its success only happened because every citizen of this country -- save the collaborators -- directly and indirectly contributed to its success. Most of the leftist parties and a few left-of-centre national parties and prominent leaders like Bhashani and Moni Singh, however small their contribution, did collectively play a significant role. If for nothing else, the image of national unity that their participation projected to the outside world was vital in countering the Pakistani propaganda that AL was isolated and freedom fighters were a handful of "miscreants" in India's pay.
In claiming total credit after independence, AL alienated all others and the process moved towards its natural conclusion, ending with bestowing all credit on one leader excluding all others. As is natural, this greatly narrowed the ownership of the most significant event in the life of the nation. As the 'revolution began to eat its own children' the military dictators' -- Zia and Ershad -- task became easier. All they needed to do was to destroy Bangabandhu because the other leaders had already been sidelined by the AL before.
While AL and BNP were busy being at each other's throat, there was another group -- Jamaat and the religious right who were all opposed to our independence -- that came into the scene with their original thesis that birth of Bangladesh was all wrong because it was not a country based on Islam. Instead of reverting back to Pakistan, which was no longer possible, they opted for 'Pakistanisation,' meaning turning Bangladesh into a religious state, and cleverly packaged their propaganda that they wanted to bring about the "rule of the Holy Quran." Thus Jamaat thought nothing of using the most sacred text for every Muslim for its own political end, which was to gain political power exploiting the religious sentiment of the people.
It was in the midst of that narrative that war crimes trial came.
So what Kamruzzaman told his family is the narrative that every Jamaati leader tells his followers and their followers tell those who work with them, who in turn tell all those who come under their propaganda umbrella.
The question is what, if anything, have we done to counter it? Nothing.
Let us explain the crucial need for it.
Can we recall how suddenly Dhaka city was in the grip of Hefajat and how on the evening of May 5 last year it required a quasi-military action to disperse them? Nearly one lakh (some say far more) people were forcibly pushed out of the city centre, and in the process several dozen demonstrators (13 on May 5 and 27 on the following day) were killed.
Did we think what stories these dispersed people told their family members, neighbours and fellow villagers once they returned home? The human tendency is to always exaggerate an attack upon one's own group, especially if the attack is from the government. Thus the most outrageous claims were made, and perhaps sounded credible as the listeners were sympathetic fellow villagers. Hefajat claimed 3,000 died that night. BNP, in its eagerness to embrace every criticism of the government called it a "genocide," insulting the victims of the real genocide of 1971. Howsoever outlandish it may sound, the "thousands killed" story was believed in areas where the returnees lived.
Though the "tough" dispersal action was well executed, there was no accompanying countering of the 'Hefajat-narrative' which resulted in, our view winning the 'battle and losing the war.' Hefajat failed to destabilise the government but it was able to win the propaganda war that the government unleashed a reign of terror to have its way.
Similarly, while we have been able to win the legal battle over the war criminals, what have we done to win the propaganda battle of Jamaat against these trials? Media reports stated how millions of dollars were spent in hiring US based lobbyist to swing US political opinion against the trial. It is quite possible that similar amounts, if not far more, are being used to discredit the trial inside the country.
We strongly urge that a fact-based well argued, media-friendly and easily understandable narrative should be made ready and a massive awareness campaign should be launched so that people have credible information and are not swayed by propaganda of those who couch their political aims in religious language and play on the religious sentiment of the ordinary people.
Care should be taken not to make it sound like AL's party propaganda. That would be counter-productive.
The writer is Editor and Publisher, The Daily Star.
Published: 12:03 am Friday, November 07, 2014 Last modified: 2:33 am Friday, November 07, 2014
http://thedailystar.net/propaganda-and-the-war-crimes-trial-49149
Also read:
The meaning of Nizami's verdict - Commentary by Mahfuz Anam
PM's steadfastness must be lauded
http://www.thedailystar.net/the-meaning-of-nizamis-verdict-48224
ইসলামের অপব্যবহার করেছেন নিজামী
__._,_.___
