August 15: the war is on
Tuesday, 11 August 2009
N.M. Harun
"History is important. If you don't know history, it's as if you were born yesterday. And if you are born yesterday, anybody up there in a position of power can tell you anything, and you have no way to check up on it."
-- Howard Zinn, the author of A People's History of the United States
On the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, Benjamin Disraeli said in the British House of Commons: "Assassination has never changed the history of the world." It was in 1865. Lincoln's assassination did not reverse the course of American history. The basic outcome of the American Civil War held good; slavery did not return to America. The history of America has apparently vindicated Disraeli.
Two centuries later, here in Bangladesh, there will be few, if any, to view political assassination with such philosophical nonchalance. The assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, in 1975, was an apocalypse. It radically changed Bangladesh. What remained of Bangladesh, was merely its geographical configuration. The fundamental political and ideological gains of the War of Independence were overturned, and the politics and ideologies, which were defeated in the War of Independence, were resurrected. It was not only the physical annihilation of Sheikh Mujib but also -- and historically, more significant -- the annihilation of the soul of Bangladesh. As if, with the assassination of Lincoln, slavery was restored in America.
Any claim that the whole nation is united in demanding the execution of the death sentence meted out to the killers of Mujib (or the restoration of the Spirit of the Liberation War and re-establishment of the original version of the Constitution or the holding of the trial of the war criminals), is utter nonsense. This will be denying the grim realities of the post-1975 Bangladesh. It is a divided nation, one faction cherishing the legacies of the War of Independence and Liberation and the other aggressively championing the politics and ideologies which flowed from the killing of Mujib. In the politically divided Bangladesh, the trial of the killers of Mujib is the most sensitive issue.
Only a person suffering from the worst kind of amnesia can forget that the killers of Mujib were protected by 'law', the infamous Indemnity Ordinance, for more than two decades since the commission of the crime on August 15, 1975. The ordinance was initially a martial law proclamation. It was later ratified by the parliament in 1979 and upheld by successive BNP and Jatiya Party governments of General Ziaur Rahman, Justice Abdus Sattar, General H.M. Ershad and Begum Khaleda Zia. Besides the legal protection, the killers of Mujib were rewarded with government jobs and allowed even to earn a sort of political respectability by floating a political party, the Freedom Party. In the 4th Parliament, election to which was held on March 3, 1988, there were two MPs from the Freedom Party including Major (retd) Bazlul Huda who was later sentenced to death in the Bangabandhu Murder Case. In the presidential election, held on October 15, 1986, the chairman of the Freedom Party, Lt. Col. (dismissed) Syed Faruqur Rahman, who was also later sentenced to death in the Bangabandhu Murder Case, was a candidate. One MP from the Freedom Party was elected to the 6th Parliament the election to which was held on February 15, 1996.
The Awami League, under the leadership of Mujib's daughter, Sheikh Hasina, returned to power through the election of the 7th Parliament whch was held on June 12, 1996. Hasina's government repealed the Indemnity Ordinance and cleared the way for trying the killers of Mujib in the court of law. The Bangabandhu murder case was filed in October, 1996, the prosecution began in March, 1997 after necessary investigations and the trial in the Sessions Court was completed in November, 1998. There was an inordinate delay of two years in raising the case in the High Court Division of the Supreme Court for the confirmation of Sessions Court's judgment which awarded death sentence to the convicts in the case. As many as eight HC judges felt 'embarrassed' to hear the case and the Awami League, though in power, demonstrated in the streets against the behaviour of the judges. Finally, the case was taken up by a HC bench in December, 2000 and the HC stage was over in April, 2001. Only the hearing of appeal petitions against the death sentences at the Appellate Division was left for the completion of the trial of the Bangabandhu Murder Case. Meanwhile, the Awami League lost power to the BNP in 2001 and the Bangabandhu Murder case was sent to the cold storage.
Hasina and the Awami League are again back in power, with more than three-fourths majority in the 9th Parliament. The election to the 9th Parliament was held on December 29, 2008 and Hasina formed the government on January 6, 2009. And this extraordinarily powerful government had to take seven months' time to remove the obstacles and complete the process for beginning the final stage of the trial of the Bangabandhu Murder Case at the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court. The Appellate Division may take up the case any day -- before August 15, according to the law minister.
Mujib's killers, who are now on the death row, are merely the foot soldiers of the August 15 conspiratorial blitzkrieg. The very nomenclature of the Bangabandhu Murder Case also shows that Hasina and the Awami League are dealing exclusively with the criminal aspect of August 15, deliberately remaining silent about the most obvious fact. That fact is: the killing of Mujib was essentially a political undertaking by domestic and international forces which were determined to subvert the Bangladesh of '71. The killing of Mujib snowballed into a full-fledged counter-revolution which was formalised through the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution. The masterminds and beneficiaries of the counter-revolution have built over the years a formidable political, economic, social and ideological structure. Hasina's government of 1996 did not have the strength and necessary international support to frontally confront the counter-revolution.
Once the foot soldiers of the 1975 counter-revolution are finally convicted and punished, the politico-ideological halo around August 15 will be replaced by the stigma of crime and conspiracy. This may create a political environment which will be congenial for holding the trial of the war criminals and reviving the original version of the Constitution in which are enshrined the principles of democracy, secularism, socialism and nationalism. Only then the counter-revolution will be neutralised and defeated, and justice proper will be done in the case of the assassination of Mujib. It's a long way to go, while keeping in mind that the godfathers and beneficiaries of the August 15 changeover, though weakened, have neither reconciled with the government of Hasina nor have they relented on their political and ideological struggle and manoeuvrings.
harun1943@gmail.com
"History is important. If you don't know history, it's as if you were born yesterday. And if you are born yesterday, anybody up there in a position of power can tell you anything, and you have no way to check up on it."
-- Howard Zinn, the author of A People's History of the United States
On the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, Benjamin Disraeli said in the British House of Commons: "Assassination has never changed the history of the world." It was in 1865. Lincoln's assassination did not reverse the course of American history. The basic outcome of the American Civil War held good; slavery did not return to America. The history of America has apparently vindicated Disraeli.
Two centuries later, here in Bangladesh, there will be few, if any, to view political assassination with such philosophical nonchalance. The assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, in 1975, was an apocalypse. It radically changed Bangladesh. What remained of Bangladesh, was merely its geographical configuration. The fundamental political and ideological gains of the War of Independence were overturned, and the politics and ideologies, which were defeated in the War of Independence, were resurrected. It was not only the physical annihilation of Sheikh Mujib but also -- and historically, more significant -- the annihilation of the soul of Bangladesh. As if, with the assassination of Lincoln, slavery was restored in America.
Any claim that the whole nation is united in demanding the execution of the death sentence meted out to the killers of Mujib (or the restoration of the Spirit of the Liberation War and re-establishment of the original version of the Constitution or the holding of the trial of the war criminals), is utter nonsense. This will be denying the grim realities of the post-1975 Bangladesh. It is a divided nation, one faction cherishing the legacies of the War of Independence and Liberation and the other aggressively championing the politics and ideologies which flowed from the killing of Mujib. In the politically divided Bangladesh, the trial of the killers of Mujib is the most sensitive issue.
Only a person suffering from the worst kind of amnesia can forget that the killers of Mujib were protected by 'law', the infamous Indemnity Ordinance, for more than two decades since the commission of the crime on August 15, 1975. The ordinance was initially a martial law proclamation. It was later ratified by the parliament in 1979 and upheld by successive BNP and Jatiya Party governments of General Ziaur Rahman, Justice Abdus Sattar, General H.M. Ershad and Begum Khaleda Zia. Besides the legal protection, the killers of Mujib were rewarded with government jobs and allowed even to earn a sort of political respectability by floating a political party, the Freedom Party. In the 4th Parliament, election to which was held on March 3, 1988, there were two MPs from the Freedom Party including Major (retd) Bazlul Huda who was later sentenced to death in the Bangabandhu Murder Case. In the presidential election, held on October 15, 1986, the chairman of the Freedom Party, Lt. Col. (dismissed) Syed Faruqur Rahman, who was also later sentenced to death in the Bangabandhu Murder Case, was a candidate. One MP from the Freedom Party was elected to the 6th Parliament the election to which was held on February 15, 1996.
The Awami League, under the leadership of Mujib's daughter, Sheikh Hasina, returned to power through the election of the 7th Parliament whch was held on June 12, 1996. Hasina's government repealed the Indemnity Ordinance and cleared the way for trying the killers of Mujib in the court of law. The Bangabandhu murder case was filed in October, 1996, the prosecution began in March, 1997 after necessary investigations and the trial in the Sessions Court was completed in November, 1998. There was an inordinate delay of two years in raising the case in the High Court Division of the Supreme Court for the confirmation of Sessions Court's judgment which awarded death sentence to the convicts in the case. As many as eight HC judges felt 'embarrassed' to hear the case and the Awami League, though in power, demonstrated in the streets against the behaviour of the judges. Finally, the case was taken up by a HC bench in December, 2000 and the HC stage was over in April, 2001. Only the hearing of appeal petitions against the death sentences at the Appellate Division was left for the completion of the trial of the Bangabandhu Murder Case. Meanwhile, the Awami League lost power to the BNP in 2001 and the Bangabandhu Murder case was sent to the cold storage.
Hasina and the Awami League are again back in power, with more than three-fourths majority in the 9th Parliament. The election to the 9th Parliament was held on December 29, 2008 and Hasina formed the government on January 6, 2009. And this extraordinarily powerful government had to take seven months' time to remove the obstacles and complete the process for beginning the final stage of the trial of the Bangabandhu Murder Case at the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court. The Appellate Division may take up the case any day -- before August 15, according to the law minister.
Mujib's killers, who are now on the death row, are merely the foot soldiers of the August 15 conspiratorial blitzkrieg. The very nomenclature of the Bangabandhu Murder Case also shows that Hasina and the Awami League are dealing exclusively with the criminal aspect of August 15, deliberately remaining silent about the most obvious fact. That fact is: the killing of Mujib was essentially a political undertaking by domestic and international forces which were determined to subvert the Bangladesh of '71. The killing of Mujib snowballed into a full-fledged counter-revolution which was formalised through the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution. The masterminds and beneficiaries of the counter-revolution have built over the years a formidable political, economic, social and ideological structure. Hasina's government of 1996 did not have the strength and necessary international support to frontally confront the counter-revolution.
Once the foot soldiers of the 1975 counter-revolution are finally convicted and punished, the politico-ideological halo around August 15 will be replaced by the stigma of crime and conspiracy. This may create a political environment which will be congenial for holding the trial of the war criminals and reviving the original version of the Constitution in which are enshrined the principles of democracy, secularism, socialism and nationalism. Only then the counter-revolution will be neutralised and defeated, and justice proper will be done in the case of the assassination of Mujib. It's a long way to go, while keeping in mind that the godfathers and beneficiaries of the August 15 changeover, though weakened, have neither reconciled with the government of Hasina nor have they relented on their political and ideological struggle and manoeuvrings.
harun1943@gmail.com