A Nation Losing Its Soul

Fact: Bongobondhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was our elected and undisputed leader in the struggle for independence from Pakistan. Major Ziaur Rahman declared the independence of Bangladesh on March 27, 1971 from Kalurghat radio station in Chittagong on behalf of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman who had been incarcerated in West Pakistan by the military junta.

This galvanized the Bengali people to fight for their freedom, and after a brutal war and genocide, Bangladesh became an independent nation.

The rest is history.

A series of military coups and counter-coups followed: the assassination of Bongobondhu and his family members on August 15, 1975; the assassination of President Ziaur Rahman on May 30, 1981; and the ensuing military dictatorship under General Ershad. The struggle to restore democracy led to the emergence of two political dynasties -- Khaleda Zia of BNP and Sheikh Hasina of the Awami League.

The nation descended into crisis again on 1/11 (2007) when the military intervened amid irreconcilable differences between BNP and AL stemming from the August 21 (2004) grenade attack on Hasina’s rally. The intervention lasted for two years, culminating in elections under the caretaker government system in which AL secured a two-thirds majority.

Thus began fifteen years of dictatorial rule by the AL under Hasina. Hasina curtailed elections under the caretaker system via a Supreme Court ruling deeming it unconstitutional, effectively ending free and fair elections in Bangladesh. Institutions were purged of neutral civil servants and politicized. Enforced disappearances, extra-judicial killings, and the full force of the judiciary, police and security agencies were employed to subdue the opposition. 

While governance and infrastructure advanced, corruption and crony capitalism flourished. Since BNP had politically aligned with Jamaat-e-Islami, it was widely perceived that only Hasina could protect secularism and subdue the Islamists.

After the stolen elections of 2018, impunity spread; corruption reached sweeping levels among those loyal to Hasina. Taxpayer money and, even more troublingly, bank deposits were siphoned, with bad loans rising and inflation surging as the Taka devalued. Our core values -- honesty, integrity and patriotism degraded to such an extent that government employees no longer felt the need to hide their ill-gotten wealth. Even government peons and drivers amassed hundreds of crores.

Government jobs became the most coveted and were awarded to party loyalists by way of freedom fighter quotas.

Thus began the Students Against Discrimination movement that ultimately led to her downfall. If Hasina had simply acceded to their logical and legitimate demands, the movement would have dissipated. Instead, she chose to unleash her Chhatro League goons backed by police and a weaponized justice system to violently crack down on the peaceful protestors.

Hundreds were killed, thousands injured; the opposition parties joined the protests and took over the movement to topple the despot.

In a final act of desperation, she banned Jamaat-e-Islami, thereby giving them the full credit of the student movement before fleeing to India. She not only destroyed democracy, but secularism also fled with her.

To add insult to injury, she made Razakars halal in Bangladesh.

The nation breathed a sigh of relief when Professor Mohammed Yunus formed an Interim Government comprised of student advisors and other renowned citizens. We were hopeful that there would be a reset and an end to the dysfunctional politics that have plagued our nation since inception. The Interim Government was given a resounding mandate to hold free, fair, credible and inclusive elections, reform state institutions, and hold accountable all responsible for Hasina’s atrocities.

From the outset, the student advisors began to demonstrate their ideological alignment with Jamaat-e-Islami. They took down Bongobondhu’s portrait from all government offices, bulldozed his residence in Road 32, and printed new currency without his portrait. Particularly alarming was the filing of false cases against the ideological enemies of Jamaat-e-Islami, like the arrest and incarceration of Shahriar Kabir who was instrumental in the trial of war criminals.

All while forming a king’s party -- the National Citizen Party or NCP. They descended on Tungipara to destroy the mausoleum of Bongobondhu as a demonstration of their strength, but had to be evacuated by the army in Armored Personnel Carriers to avoid being lynched.

In their lust for retribution, they made a critical mistake -- they failed to distinguish between accountability and vengeance; Bongobondhu cannot be blamed for the misdeeds of his daughter Hasina. They can erase Bongobondhu from our currency and bulldoze his house, but they can never erase Bongobondhu from our hearts or our history. 

Granted he made many mistakes as the leader of new-born Bangladesh, but he will always be the Father of the Nation.

Perhaps the biggest disappointment has been the head of the Interim Government and Chief Advisor Yunus -- he could not rise above his personal enmity with Hasina and put the interest of the nation first. He is determined to purge Awami League from Bangladesh and replace it with an uncertain future, and in the process disenfranchise maybe 30 to 40% of the electorate, and thereby bring in an era of instability and radicalism. How can a Nobel Laureate and progressive academic have such a dystopian vision of our future and completely overlook our history, politics, and culture?

Hasina has been convicted of crimes against humanity and sentenced to death in absentia while in exile in India. Tarique Rahman was also convicted of orchestrating the August 21 grenade attack and sentenced to life in prison in absentia while in exile in UK. His conviction has been overturned after the fall of Hasina and he is set to return and take the helm BNP, but he has to return to Bangladesh first. Both the leaders of our two mainstream parties remain voluntarily or involuntarily in exile and there is no one to challenge Tarique or Hasina for leadership from within the parties. Both parties talk of democracy but do not practice it.

The King’s Party and the Queen’s party just perpetuate the cycle of dysfunction and corruption, while the people yearn for change.

The Jamaat-e- Islami practices party democracy – the Amir is elected. They have demonstrated organizational discipline and dedication, sweeping all the student council elections in the national universities. They are perceived to be honest and the only party that can field 300 candidates that can deliver change despite their dubious heritage. But the only change they can deliver is to further divide us. If we elect war criminals and collaborators, we will dishonor the martyrs of the Liberation War.

The anti-Liberation forces scheme to manipulate the transition and divide up the spoils among themselves, while the rest of us watch helplessly as the insanity unfolds. A nation that dishonors its martyrs and heroes is a nation that risks losing its soul.