By Ahmad Shihab 6 April 2023
Since her installation as the Prime Minister in January 2009, Sheikh Hasina has been running a fascist rule in Bangladesh where democracy, human rights, rule of law and good governance have been relegated to textbooks. Constitutional provision of an election-time neutral Caretaker Government (CTG) has been unceremoniously thrown away with a view to managing subsequent elections to ensure victory for her candidates. People have seen its farcical staging and outcome in 2014 and 2018 and they term the Hasina regime as unelected and illegal.
The vast multitude of hapless people live in a virtual Nazi-like concentration camp with no voice, no freedom and constantly fearing the ugly reach of the draconian Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), and fearsome police with their brutal tool of Digital Security Act (DSA) designed to punish people for criticizing government’s corruption and misrule, or even a slight frown at the ruling family. Many succumbed to torture under the DSA.
The US sanctions on the notorious RAB and its top officials have made little difference, as the Hasina regime continued to use the elite force to persecute political opponents and its critics. In defiance to the sanctions, Chowdhury Abdullah Al-Mamun, a sanctioned official, was soon made to head the Police, another fearsome arm of the regime. Earlier, Benazir Ahmed, another sanctioned officer and the immediate predecessor of Al-Mamun, was sent to attend a UN meeting in August 2022, which generated considerable diplomatic row between Dhaka, Washington and the UN.
On April 3, 2023, German Deutsche Welle (DW) and the Sweden-based Netra News exposed the modus operandi of the RAB in their in-depth investigations that included video footage, in the production of “Death Squad: Inside Bangladesh’s Rapid Action Battalion.” It contained the depositions of victims and two former RAB officials who volunteered to speak the truth on condition of anonymity. “If RAB found out he had talked to the media, ” says one of the whistleblowers, “he would end up dead.” The whistleblowers confirmed that the elite force of 13,000 was used as a political tool by the Hasina regime against her opponents. The Nazi Gestapo-style tales are harrowing. They gave the graphic details of how the RAB committed enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings, approval of which originated from the Prime Minister and routed through the Home Minister. Drugs, alcohol, foreign currencies and “offensive” literature were suitably planted to implicate the victims. Please see the story in the following link:
https://www.dw.com/en/death-squad-inside-bangladeshs-rapid-action-battalion/a-65209010
In February 2021, Qatar based Al-Jazeera released “All the Prime Minister’s Men,” exposing the close connection of Prime Minister Hasina and then army chief General Aziz Ahmed with top level criminal gangs operating within and outside the country. (See the report @ All the Prime Minister’s Men – Wikipedia).
RAB was created as an elite force in 2004 with the good intentions of controlling law and order and drug trafficking. It received training, funding and intelligence from the US, the UK and Mossad (discreetly) and other donor partners. After becoming Prime Minister in 2009, through a questionable election process, Sheikh Hasina utilized this force as a political tool against the opposition, mostly the activists of Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), as well as the critics of her wrongdoings. Many of the RAB victims are never seen again. Death in its custody is a common feature. The US stopped its assistance to RAB in 2018. The force’s heightened and unchecked violations of human rights prompted the US sanctions in December 2021.
The next election is due in a few months and the Hasina administration intensified its pre-election political operations against the opposition. On March 27, 2023, New York’s Bloomberg published an article by Arun Devnath who forecasted a fourth 5-year term in a row for Sheikh Hasina crediting her for the country’s economic management. To the contrary, the ground scenario is totally opposite. High level corruption and faulty policy priorities left the banks dry and the government’s reserve alarmingly depleted. People are groaning under the skyrocketing prices of daily essentials, even during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. At the same time, the people are unable to talk for fear of persecution under the repressive DSA. It is unfortunate that a media house of Bloomberg’s standing chose to entertain such a grossly false and misrepresentative piece.(Please see the report @ Bloomberg lauds PM for reforms to maintain economic stability | Online Version (bd-pratidin.com).
If Sheikh Hasina continues in authority, there will be no chance of even a trace of democracy, human rights, freedom, good governance and fair elections in this South Asian country of 170 million for decades to come.
Prime Minister Hasina and her officials routinely provide scripted lines of “fairness” in the next election to the international visitors, who are keen to see a fair, participatory and internationally acceptable election in Bangladesh. These assurances mean nothing, if the regime’s past performances are to be scrutinized. The Hasina administration is absolutely incapable of holding a fair and credible election.
As such, the only way for Bangladesh to return to a semblance of democracy, human rights and good governance—thereby saving itself from fascism– is an urgent election under a neutral, non-partisan caretaker administration. Let the people decide, under a free choice, who they want as their next leadership and what they desire in an administration.