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| Sunday, 12 February 2006 |
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Silver lining in Dhaka clouds Between the Lines by Kuldip Nayar IT was a sea of humanity: Tens of thousands of Bangladeshis, converging at Dhaka early this week after trudging along for four days from different parts of the country. This was their Long March, like the one in China that had led its people to throw out the Chiang Kai-shek government to bring a communist rule. Here, in Bangladesh, people wanted a change: the Khalida Zia-Jamiat-e-Islami coalition to quit and pave the way for fresh and fair election. I saw on their face the same glow as I had found in the wake of the birth of Bangladesh some 35 years ago. Their slogan then was Jai Bangla. This time it was liberation, the return of democratic and pluralistic society - the country's ethos. There were signs of strain and skepticism but pride was writ large on everybody's face. I had no doubt that they would find a solution to repair their fractured society. At the end of the march itself, I saw the beginnings of rapprochement of sorts. Opposition leader Sheikh Hasina announced to end the boycott of parliament. She promised to place before the House their demands like a new chief election commissioner, the release of detainees and the end of draconian, suppressive laws. Hasina's gesture was endearing. There was a wave of relief in the country because it had been living for decades in the shadow of conflict between the two ladies - Khalida Zia leading the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and Sheikh Hasina heading the Awami League. Their differences might be ideological but their hostility was destructive. It had cost the nation dearly. So much was dependent on the settlement between the two that Bangladesh, although averaging an annual growth rate of six percent, would have little future without an orderly politics. Already a bomb blast here or an extra-judicial killing there was a daily occurrence. Terrorism was an integral part of the country's scene. According to a White Paper published by a civic group - committee to eliminate the criminals and collaborators of 1971 - over 10,000 incidents of violations of human rights of the minorities - both religious and ethnic - occurred in Bangladesh during the four-year-old Khalida Zia regime. The police did not record even one tenth of them. The editor of the White Paper said he was able to record only one tenth of the incidents as many people did not come forward to record their complaint fearing further repression. What shook the nation were some 500 bomb explosions on a single day, August 17, not only in Dhaka and Chittagong but even in the remotest corner of Bangladesh. People suddenly woke up from their deep slumber of over confidence. For the first time they felt that their country was in the midst of terrorism and that they had been indifferent to the activities of criminals and terrorists. The government heaps the blame on "a neighbouring nation." Khalida Zia says sarcastically: "If the explosives came from across the border, the government must take up the issue with that country." The real danger is that a substantial part of bureaucracy and police are mixed up with those who indulge in violence. Belatedly, the government has begun action against terrorists but the real culprits still enjoy the support of extremists in the BNP and the Jamiat. Terrorists are instruments of the two parties and they cannot afford to blunt them. Accordingly, the anti-Indian propaganda has got a new edge. The government imagines it can divert towards New Delhi the people's anger against the failure to deal with terrorism. True, the anti-India feeling is more palpable than before. But this is because the ruling BNP has made New Delhi a whipping boy. The coalition believes that the anti-India feeling will give the two parties more votes. Election is only 10 months away. New Delhi looks at the developments helplessly. Woefully, some in the government of India put their faith in Khalida Zia's son Tariq, a Sanjay Gandhi in Bangladesh politics. Little do the pro-Tariq elements realise that he was burning midnight oil for getting the BNP back. Left to Khalida Zia, she would like Bangladesh to be an independent East Pakistan. But the liberation spirit pervades too strongly in Bangladesh to make this possible. However, her alliance with the Jamiat, a fundamentalist political formation, gives the BNP a veneer of Islam which has some pull. Still, the liberal streak in a Bangladeshi Muslim has always pulled him back from fanaticism. Even when East Bengal was part of Pakistan before December 1971, it seldom got swept off its feet because of religious frenzy. This temperament was the real cause of Dhaka's distance from West Pakistan and ultimately for the parting of ways. I asked a top BNP minister why his government was against India. "You are so pro-Awami League that you do not allow us to think differently," was his reply. Whether this is true or not is a matter of opinion but Dhaka makes no secret of its preference for Islamabad over New Delhi. Khalida Zia is undertaking bilateral trips to Pakistan and India in March, visiting Islamabad first, to show where her heart is. No doubt, the Jamiat has polluted the atmosphere and it has made Bangladesh more anti-India than before. But what seems to have stalled the Jamiat's onward march is Washington's fiat to change the portfolio of a Jamiat minister who was inducting his cadres to the Bangladesh countryside. Khalida Zia did not even inform the Jamiat before changing the portfolio of the minister. It shows the extent of influence America wields in Bangladesh. Still she needs the Jamiat for the next polls - the crucial eight percent votes it wields. Who out of the two ladies will win at the polls is difficult to say at this time. After the Long March, people's tilt towards the Awami League alliance is becoming visible. Yet, there is no doubt that dark clouds are again gathering in the political horizon of Bangladesh. There is terrorism, corruption and bigotry. The atmosphere is thickening. The only ray of hope is ethical journalism which, though limited, is beginning to make its mark. One example of it is that of The Daily Star, which celebrated its 15th anniversary a few days ago. It has led campaign against fanaticism and parochialism. In its anniversary issue it has said on its front page: "After a long, dark age of autocracy, Bangladesh had just emerged into a democratic environ. Arguably, the most important general elections in the history of Bangladesh was about to take place. The institutions that work for democracy and the economy were in
ramshackle conditions. Nothing could be a better time for a free, objective
and independent newspaper to look at events and processes with a new air..." |
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