Bangladesh: "On the verge" of embracing Democracy again!
Mohammad Gani (USA)
In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice but in practice there is. Plato once said, "Democracy...
During this defining moment of transition to so-called democracy in Bangladesh, one of the rare democracies among the Muslim nations, I strongly believe that it's recalcitrant and defiant leaders, especially Hasina and Khaleda would probably and urgently need brain transplants! Both of these Angels have big mouths and empty heads; and have become like reusable diapers; they both are being changed alternately and for the same reasons thereof. But before pulling their legs, I would like to briefly revisit the history of our independence, its purposes and missions, consequences for the failures in achieving any of these missions and lessons learned (from our history) by today's living politicians.
Our Freedom was not free. So, what were the exact "pre-independence" missions, visions, dreams and hopes of this nation those led us to 9 months struggles and miserable sacrifices? Could we recall any of those missions at all and/or of any success in accomplishing those missions during last 37 years? Emerging discontent against West Pakistani ruler's "public discriminations" against 75 million people of the then East Pakistan fomented the struggles for our freedom of coming out as a new nation, Bangladesh. At a 1966 Lahore conference of both the Eastern and the Western chapters of the Awami League, our founding father Mujib announced his controversial six-point political and economic program for East Pakistani provincial autonomy. He demanded that the government be federal and parliamentary in nature, its members to be elected by universal adult suffrage with legislative representation on the basis of population; that the federal government have principal responsibility for foreign affairs and defense only; that each wing have its own currency and separate fiscal accounts; that taxation would occur at the provincial level, with a federal government funded by constitutionally guaranteed grants; that each federal unit could control its own earning of foreign exchange; and that each unit could raise its own militia or paramilitary forces.
Mujib's six points ran directly counter to President Ayub's plan for greater national integration. Ayub interpreted Mujib's demands as tantamount to a call for independence.
………….. On March 25, 1971 the Pakistan Army launched a terror campaign calculated to intimidate the people of East Pakistan into submission. Mujib was captured and flown to West Pakistan for incarceration. Anthony Mascarenhas in "Bangladesh: A Legacy of Blood" estimates that during the entire 9 months liberation struggle more than 1 million people may have died at the hands of the Pakistan Army. And finally, 16 December 1971, this ambitious nation saw the light of freedom with the renewed spirits and hopes for better future for themselves, for their children and families. Could any of our politicians, especially Khaleda and Hasina remember those days? Do they, really?
It would obviously be unwise and inappropriate for me to adjudicate political predilections for the fall of Mujib on whether it was only due his failures, ignorance or betrayal. But as an ordinary citizen, I must recognize the reality that Mujib grossly failed to deliver any of the pre-independence expectations and missions of our freedom. He failed to analyze, evaluate and assume the risks, challenges and responsibilities in fixing nation's immediate problems as the head of the Government and almost instantly forgot all his past commitments. Instead, he transferred (blamed) all the risks to so-called criminals, Razakars....
However, most Bangladeshis still revered Mujib as "Bangabandhu" at the time of the first national elections held in 1973. Mujib was assured of victory and the Awami League won 282 out of 289 directly contested seats. After the election, the economic and security situations began to deteriorate rapidly and Mujib's authoritarian personality and his paternalistic pronouncements to "my country" and "my people" were not sufficient to divert the people's attention from the miserable conditions of the country. Widespread famine created severe hardship, aggravated by growing law-and-order problems. In January 1975, the Constitution was amended to make Mujib president for five years and to give him full executive powers. The following month, in a move, he wiped out all opposition political parties; Mujib proclaimed Bangladesh a one-party state, effectively abolishing the parliamentary system. He renamed the Awami League the Bangladesh Krishak Sramik Awami League (BAKSHAL) and required all civilian government personnel to join the party. The fundamental rights enumerated in the Constitution ceased to be observed and Bangladesh, in its infancy, was transformed into a personal dictatorship.
On the morning of August 15, 1975, Mujib and several members of his family were brutally murdered in a coup engineered by a group of young army officers, most of whom were majors. Some of the officers in the "majors' plot" had a personal vendetta against Mujib, having earlier been dismissed from the army. In a wider sense, the disaffected officers and the several hundred troops they led represented the grievances of the professionals in the military over their subordination to the Jatiyo Rakkhi Bahini and Mujib's indifference to gross corruption by his political subordinates and family members. By the time of his assassination, Mujib's popularity had fallen precipitously, and his death was lamented by surprisingly few.
How could possibly churlish Hasina and mean Khaleda forget these historical events so fast? When or ever would they learn from all these turbulent history of Bangladesh? Why don't they have any compunction for their failures? Are these 2 women ever going to shut up and back off? Why do they discharge all these troubled waters of the past under the bridge without paying any attention and heed to? Do not they have any fear of facing the same unkind and brutal consequences that Mujib paid for his failure? They got on my last nerve now but stupid (s) shall never learn and my worst fear of panics is that once again, unbelievably this beleaguered nation would have to agree with either Hasina or Khaleda! I think things could never be worse and though I am a supporter of 150 million people; I find in the adage, never underestimate the stupidity of these 150 million "blue moons" of Bangladesh. They keep doing the same mistakes over and over expecting a different result! It never ceases to amaze me how people will cast their votes again for these 2 liars and cheaters (Hasnia/Khaleda) based on the same old rhetoric and lies. This started scaring me to death and scared of the very possibility that one of them shall steal December 2008 election again and we all will have these clowns running the country! Truly amazing!
We need to vote out all incumbents of Hasina and Khaleda and need an entirely new and clean set of people those the CTG may introduce by enforcing clear restrictions on AL/BNP leadership. Their Governments were the worst garbage in our history and these 2 disgusting "parties" have destroyed Bangladesh, made the entire nation to suffer from Down syndrome who transformed it from a "bottomless Basket" to the most corrupted country in the Universe for last 37 years. I cannot understand how such idiots could lead this poor nation again!
What exactly more surprises me now is how our native intellectuals, think tanks and scholars worldwide have been defending these 2 mercurial characters for years over 150 million "blue moons" of Bangladesh. Weren't these smart natives partly responsible for the miserable fate of Mujib those built fire walls around him and kept him away from noticing the actual national crisis and sufferings of his "My people" and "My country"? Well, unlike Mujib, Khaleda and Hasina were/are the prime modules of all public corruptions, bribery, extortion……… and no wonder, those natives and toady scholars who have now built concrete walls around these 2 crooks to distract them from looking through the field reality in the cultures of endemic corruption could someday invite Mujib's's fate for both Hasian and Khaleda too! May Allah save this nation from these native intellectuals and scholars of corrupted minds and wisdom those put their leaders before the "common causes, common interests, common benefits" of the common people of Bangladesh. So I clearly see, there are 2 evils now have been reigning in Bangladesh for last 37 years. One is injustices and another is suffering from it and injustices, as I find it, are a greater evil than suffering. Sadly, these 2 tyrants and their political gangs would "only" judge everyone else but themselves!
We need to fix this Bangladesh. This nation must enforce "cultural change of politics" at every level in the Government, outside the Government and also in the minds of truly patriotic and smart citizens. The nation should not let their (politicians) corrupted wisdom succeeds at the cost of the fates of 150 million poor people with pervasive/democrati
We also need to change our impressions on our prevalent belief that social control or the maintenance of public order is always contingent upon the formal laws governing our conducts and imposing legal sanctions against deviants. Thus, at this point, it would be impractical to expect absolutely perfect democracy overnight but it is our sincere hope and prayer that we do not sink back into the abyss of political hegemony again that has plagued our country and our lives into endemic corruptions, bribery, grafts, extortions and patronage, nepotism and cronyism, embezzlement and kickbacks at all levels in the so-called democratic Government. It is the perfect timing to dismantle all the evil umbilical political cords of Khaleda and Hasina that appears immensely powerful than any ideological strength of morals. The Care Taker Government must not ignore/suppress any of its own commitments during its arrival on 1/11/2007 and must leave the trails of precedents and rudiments towards the direction of progress and prosperity of this the poorest and the most corrupted country in the world, before exiting.
May God bless Bangladesh.
Mohammad Gani
Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
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