Bangladesh burning Shortly after the failed 1944, 20 July plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler, he appointed General von Cholitz as the military governor of occupied French Capital Paris. He asked General Cholitz to destroy Paris by burning it down completely, similar to the planned destruction of Warsaw. Paris was too beautiful to be destroyed and General Cholitz backed out of the plan to destroy Paris. Hitler would frequently call Cholitz and enquire whether Paris was burning. Soon the allied forces under General Eisenhower took Paris and the city was saved. Cholitz may have been a German General but he had some humane qualities which we in Bangladesh do not see amongst our politicians, especially the BNP and Jamaat kind. Today not one city is burning but the entire country is being systematically ravaged and torn apart by the armed goons of BNP and Jamaat in the name of restoring democracy and voting rights, though in reality the mayhem is staged because Begum Zia and her son Tarique Rahman are tired of staying outside the power corridors of the state. They also want to get out of the Zia Orphanage Trust case in which both are primary accused. The case has been in the court and waiting for a verdict since the days of the previous Care Taker Government. It has come up for hearing at least on fifty occasions but Begum Zia appeared in only seven of those. Every time the case comes up for hearing her lawyers either files a time petition asking for time or calls a hartal on some pretext. If convicted she and her son could land up in prison and debarred from participating in the next general election. Jamaat is fuelling this mayhem to execute their own agenda, i.e., freeing their leaders convicted for their war crimes committed in 1971. Jamaat cannot participate in future elections under their own name as the party has been delisted by the Election Commission for not fulfilling mandatory requirements. In the process of burning the country the thugs have introduced a deadly weapon, the Molotov Cocktail, commonly known as petrol bomb. Children, women, students, the bus, truck and three wheeler drivers, the common people on the street none are safe from these lethal bombs. The deadly militants like Boko Haram, IS, Taliban or Al-Qaeda shoots to kill but are not known to have burned people to death by either pouring petrol on the victim or hurling petrol bombs in public buses. Burn units of different hospitals are running out of space. These militant groups can learn a lesson or two from the goons of BNP and Jamaat. Jamaat’s killer group, the Islami Chattra Shibir is known as the third most dangerous terror outfit in the world by the UK based Jane’s Defense Weekly. Most security analyst and the sleuths of the law enforcing agencies agree that the Islami Chattra Shibir goons are the brainchild of the petrol bomb attack on the innocent people. The BNP Chairperson Begum Zia, who also happens to be the leader of the 20-party alliance called for a countrywide indefinite blockade on January 5 last, as she was debarred by law enforcing agencies from leaving her Gulshan office to join an alliance rally. The rally was earlier forbidden by the concerned authorities as the ruling party also called a rally on the same day to celebrate their one year in power. Apprehending trouble the police stopped all types of public rally in Dhaka city until further order. Obviously this infuriated Begum Zia, and she called for this blockade. From London Tarique Rahman ordered that the capital be cut off from rest of the country and each ‘mohalla’ be cut off from the other. This was his version of an urban guerilla warfare, not realizing how much of misery it will cause to the common people and damage done to the nation’s economy. The Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DCCI) has put losses inflicted by the BNP’s blockade for the first sixteen days, ending on January 21 at a staggering Taka 365 billion, or nearly 2.7 percent of Bangladesh’s GDP. According to the DCCI, the apparel sector suffered the biggest loss of Taka 134.8 billion while the transport sector is struggling with a loss of Taka 48 billion. Agriculture, real estate, tourism are all bleeding white. The education sector is in tatters and even the thousand of devotees coming to Bishwa Iztema were not spared. Currently 1.5 million SSC examinees face extreme uncertainty as their school leaving exams are scheduled to begin on February 2nd. Thanks to the stubbornness of Begum Zia and her son. A saner section of her party’s policy makers are divided over this blockade but in the end has to yield to the wishes of the mother and her self-exiled son. The current political impasse goes back to the 10th. Parliamentary election of January 5, 2014 which Begum Zia and her alliance boycotted by choice. She was demanding the election be held under a constitutionally non-existent Care Taker Government (CTG). Earlier the Supreme Court ruled that holding an election under such an arrangement is ultra-vires of the constitution as it stands against the basic structure of the constitution. Begum Zia refused to accept the verdict and pushed to have the election in her own way. Sk. Hasina the then and the current Prime Minister requested that the election can be held under an all party interim government formed by members of the parliament. She even offered Begum Zia the choice of whatever ministry she wanted. Sk. Hasina also promised that once an election is held under such an arrangement, which was necessary under the provision of the constitution, another election may be held at a convenient time. Begum Zia was not convinced. She not only boycotted the election but also announced that it will be resisted at any cost. The petrol bomb culture was introduced resulting in the death of 148 innocent people which included members of the armed forces, the BGB, the other law enforcing agencies including presiding officers on the day of the election. 500 schools used as polling centers were torched. As Begum Zia refused to come to the election proposed by Sk. Hasina there is no reason for Sk. Hasina to agree to an early election, though such a decision is entirely discretion of the government. There is a widespread belief that if Begum Zia participated in the election of January 5 she and her alliance would do well. The introduction of extreme violence by the BNP-Jamaat axis in the Bangladesh politics runs the risk of allowing IS brand militant outfits to take a free ride on their back into the political arena of Bangladesh. In a recent international conference held in London on the rising scare of militancy it was revealed that Bangladesh is not immune from the IS terrorists. Few days back some militants were arrested from Dhaka who are believed to have connection with the IS. A section of the media has also reported that about seven hundred militants belonging to Islami Chattra Shibir have assembled in Dhaka and are planning something big. Some civil-society think tanks often propose that the government should open a dialogue with the BNP to defuse the current situation. They forget that unless the BNP denounces all such violent acts no dialogue can be meaningful. No one talks about holding talks with IS or Al-Qaeda. When a group of militants entered the Charlie Hebdo, a satire magazine in Paris and killed twelve journalists there was no talk of opening a dialogue with them. They were shot at the earliest opportunity. Sometimes the law enforcing agencies may have to resort to extreme tactics to save the lives and properties of the innocents. Law permits that. Law also permits an individual to take whatever measure is appropriate in self-defense. Hope Begum Zia and her son will realize where they are driving the country, their party and themselves for petty personal gains. Let the burning of the country stop and let patience be given a chance. Awami League was compelled to stay out of power after the killing of Bangabandhu for twenty one years. Politics is a game of strategy, impatience can prove counterproductive. By: Abdul Mannan The writer is a former Vice-chancellor, University of Chittagong Sat, 24 January 2015
Posted on: Sat, 24 Jan 2015 06:22:09 +0000
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