by R. Chowdhury 22 December 2023
When the big ones fight, small ones get crushed underneath. So seems to be the plight of the common people in Bangladesh today. They are in a political quagmire consequent upon power play by vested quarters. Everything goes in their name, yet they rarely figure in the greater scheme of things; in most cases, they are conveniently betrayed. It was so at the country’s birth; it continues to be so under the rule of the Awami League.
Betrayal at Independence
The refusal of the Pakistan military junta to honor the peoples’ verdict in the December 1970 election led to a complicated but dangerous scenario in the Indo-Pak subcontinent. The Bengalis of East Pakistan, winners in the election, sought justice and equality with their fellow citizens in the western half, which was not in the mood to obligate. To silence them, the West Pakistan-dominated military unleashed a brutal crackdown on the unarmed Bengalis, killing a few thousands in the first sweep on the night of March 25, 1971. A full-fledged independence war commenced.
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, then supreme leader, found it convenient to flee the scene and surrender to the military in exchange of safety and befitting treatment for himself and his family, of which today’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was a part. That was the first betrayal with the 70 million people, who were left to be massacred for nine months by the same military.
Borrowing an analogy from renowned political analyst and Freedom Award winner Zoglul Husain, I may explain that Bangladesh’s independence struggle had three major players: (i) Pakistan, supported by the United States, committed a genocide to crush Bengalis’ desire for freedom. China, though aligned with Pakistan, had no direct role; (ii) India, backed by the Soviet Union, wanted to break and divide its archenemy Pakistan with a view to turning the separated eastern half into its perennial vassal state, as well as for accruing geo-strategic benefits for controlling its troublesome northeastern states, romantically dubbed as Seven Sisters. (Former Indian External Affairs Secretary J N Dixit acknowledged in his book Independence and Beyond (1999) that the Indian scheme originated from the partition of the subcontinent in 1947); (iii) The patriotic Bengali elements of the former Pakistan military, joined by the people from all walks of life, fought to free themselves from the decades-long overlordship of West Pakistan.
Indian Design
To fight the war, the Mukti Bahini, Bangladesh liberation forces, had to avail the assistance of India, their enemy’s enemy. But the benefactor could not hide its true color. It forced the Awami League led Bangladesh exiled government to sign a Seven-Point Agreement, a virtual surrender of sovereignty to India, before committing military assistance to the Mukti Bahini. Another betrayal with the people and the country! In addition, India created Mujib Bahini, Kaderia Bahini etc. to serve its political agenda during the war and in post-independence Bangladesh. These forces were independent of Mukti Bahini command and often clashed with policy of the exiled administration. India did not even allow the Mukti Bahini to share the platform at the Surrender Ceremony, signed on December 16, 1971 on the soil of the land soaked with the blood of the martyrs of Bengali fighters. It was the betrayal of the highest order on the freedom and independence of Bangladesh. The betrayal continued through the India-sponsored Awami dictatorshps in 1972-75 under Sheikh Mujib and 1996-2001 and 2009 to date under his daughter Sheikh Hasina.
International Pressure
Nonetheless, a ray of hope showed up at the political horizon in the last few months. when the international community became vocal for good governance and a credible election in Bangladesh. The people, led by Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), staged huge successful rallies around the country demanding the unelected, illegal Hasina regime to step down, paving the way for a neutral caretaker administration to take over and conduct a free and fair election the soonest.
The repeated commitment of the administration of US President Joe Biden to ensure human rights, democracy, election integrity, as well as combating corruption and authoritarianism to be the US core foreign policy objectives gave fillip to their movement. Acknowledging that the past elections under the ruling Awami League were fraught with massive irregularities, US Ambassador to Bangladesh Peter Haas and other high US State Department officials consistently and forcefully demanded that the next election must be free, fair and participatory. Most other democratic nations and entities including the European Union, the United Kingdom, Australia, Japan and the United Nations echoed the US lead for a credible election in the South Asian country. The people thus had all the reasons to hope that their decades long suffering under the oppressive and autocratic regime of Sheikh Hasina would come to an end, and the country would return to democracy, freedom and a humane society soon.
Meanwhile, the US did not qualify Bangladesh at the two Democracy Summits it organized in 2021 and 2023. In addition, Washington imposed sanctions on the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) and a few of its top officials in 2021 for their serious human rights violations. In May 2023, the State Department announced Visa Restrictions on the election offenders. The people of the country greatly welcomed those steps and looked for a better future. However, the Hasina regime cared little for these punitive measures and continued its flagrant flouting of human rights and democratic practices, at times with increasing intensity as if in defiance.
Repeat of Electoral Farce
The renewed and intensified crackdown on the political opposition since October 28, 2023 and the announcement of the election schedule for January 7, 2024, to be managed by the corrupt ruling regime, all the hopes of the people seem to have come to a standstill, if not diminished altogether. They, as well as the rest of the world, see the regime proceeding towards another fraudulent election, as it did in 2014 and 2018, and award itself another 5 years of autocratic and oppressive rule.
In a Joint Statement on December 12, 2023, seven human rights organizations, including Robert F Kennedy Human Rights (RFKHR), Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (Forum Asia), International Coalition Against Enforced Disappearance (ICAED) and others said that following the October crackdown, the government of Sheikh Hasina “has massively and arbitrarily detained more than 20,000 individuals” belonging to the political opposition, “with 837 fabricated charges, for which bail is consistently denied despite valid grounds.” In addition, 17 opposition activists were killed and 8249 people were injured following the October brutalities that included “beating, electric shocks, waterboarding, deliberate shooting to maim, mock executions and forced nudity. All these were done in preparation of the electoral farce on January 7. (Please see https://rfkhumanrights.org/press/bangladesh-urgent-call-to-safeguard-human-rights-and-democracy-ahead-of-january-elections).
In a candid admission, Dr. Abdur Razzak, Hasina’s Agriculture Minister, said in a recent interview that they had deliberately detained thousands of members of the opposition BNP and other parties. He further explained that if they didn’t do it, the country would have been paralyzed by effective blockades and stoppages. In other words, it was the Awami game-plan to keep the main opposition out of election so as to ensure a free sailing for the fourth consecutive 5-year term in power.
170 million Bangladeshis at Sacrificial Altar
Groaning under Hasina’s renewed brutal crackdown on the political opposition since October 28, the 170 million people of Bangladesh were somewhat bewildered at the relative silence of the international community that was hitherto very vocal on human rights, good governance and credible electoral process in Bangladesh. They wonder what happened to the US and other countries’ much talked about commitment for a free, fair and participatory election, the stated Visa Restrictions on election offenders and other sanctions on defaulters when the serious wrongs are being committed before their very eyes? They also wonder if they have been abandoned in the midst of a heightened fascism perpetrated by the Hasina administration. They seem to be on the sacrificial altar of a continued autocratic rule.
Autocratic rulers care little about the fate of the people; their only interest is the seat of power by any means, even that means mortgaging the country to anyone who can ensure their continuity in authority.
The US and the West may have their reasons to allow Hasina manage another one-sided electoral farce but the people of the country have a sense of feeling that they will continue to groan under the oppressive steamrollers and slip down the destructive lane for at least another five years.
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Writer is a former freedom fighter of Bangladesh. He is a democracy and human rights activist, prolific writer and authored a few books.