Election 2008, victory month and the young
Wednesday, 31 December 2008
Md. Anwarul Kabir
AN unprecedented national election has been held in a fully different context and political climate. Holding this election in the month of victory has added to it a unique dimension too. In applying franchise right, presumably this time, the freedom-loving people of the country have got an opportunity to uphold the ethos of our glorious liberation war. And the landslide victory of the Awami League (AL)-led grand alliance does bear this out.
The incumbent government, though it initially received unanimous support from the common people, failed to hold it due to lack of transparency in many of its activities. Especially, its ill-designed futile attempt in implementing so called 'minus two theory' is to be cited. Moreover, the spiralling of essentials' prices due to naïve market management policy has eroded the government popularity. Yet, people are still appreciative for some of its pragmatic steps. In this context, drive against financial corruption, reformation of ACC, PSC and EC are to be mentioned. People have also appreciated the government's initiative to correct the distorted history in the text books. The patriotic citizens who nurture the spirit of independence perhaps became most enthusiastic at the vibrant utterance of the Chief Advisor and the Army Chief, two key persons of this government on war criminal issue. Although the government has not advanced towards initiating the trial of war criminals following the peoples' aspiration, it has succeeded in rationalising the demand in the mindset of the common people by raising the issue.
Albeit the trial of war criminals is yet a far cry, the voters of the country in this month of victory, have got a golden opportunity to combat the war criminals in the electoral battle. In this context, the young generation, as swinging voters (as the most members of younger generation are not affiliated to any political party) have played a significant role. However, the dilemma is that the members of this generation are deprived of the true history of our liberation war.
As a nation, we must be ashamed of the fact that as only after a few years of independence we deviated from the very objectives of our war of liberation, which could have been a driving force for the overall development of the country. The valiant freedom fighters in 1971 sacrificed their lives not just for achieving a mere nation state. Rather they dreamt of complete emancipation of the people of their Sonar Bangla in a dignified way. The Bangladesh as we are witnessing today is not in keeping with the ambition of the freedom loving people of that time. In fact their ambition was reflected in the spirit of independence, which is depicted in the 1972 Constitution as four firm pillars, namely, nationalism, democracy, socialism and secularism. The unfortunate distortion of these four pillars has undermined the nation as a whole.
Abandoning the much hated 'two-nation theory' in 1971, people of this land embraced Bengali nationalism and secularism as basic mantras for their salvation. The irony is that despite being a valiant freedom fighter, General Ziaur Rahman totally failed to foresee the implication of the reinvention of the two nation theory in the guise of 'Bangladeshi nationalism.' So, instead of secularism, as a nation, after a few years of our independence we stepped into the realm of communalism again.
Many have claimed that in the independent Bangladesh, it was none but Bangabandhu who killed democracy and established authoritarian rule by introducing BAKSAL in 1975.
Apparently this seems to be true. But this becomes a half-truth if we objectively analyse the rationale behind introducing BAKSAL on his part. In fact, it could be argued that democracy-loving Bangabandhu was bound to embrace the one-party BAKSAL in accordance with the demand of the time. The very objective of BAKSAL was to establish socialism in the country, which was one of the major spirit of our war of liberation. Besides, BAKSAL was formed in a democratic way through proper discussion in parliament and most of the people of the country, including leading intellectuals, journalists and other professional groups unanimously congratulated BAKSAL. However, right now, no conclusive remark on BAKSAL is possible as it died in infancy with the brutal killing of the Father of the Nation.
Socialism has been depicted as one of the vital driving forces in our war of liberation. At that time, for total economic emancipation, socialism was considered as the most powerful ideology.
Though, in the present global context the term socialism has no appeal to many, in the context of our country this symbolises the economic emancipation of the people. We have also distorted this spirit of liberation by importing consumer-driven and black money-oriented economy into our country.
The manipulated history as designed by the beneficiaries of 1975 and the collaborators of 1971 had successfully confused the generations.
Perhaps due to this confused state, the people from the younger generations who missed to be witnesses of 1971, voted and elected (as the lion's share of the voters are from these generations) the identified collaborators of 1971 as the members of the Parliament. For the same reason people did not raise their voice much when the war criminals like Motiur Rahman Nizami or Al Mujahid emerged as ministers in the last alliance government.
In election 2001, our collective blunder was to send dozens of evil elements to parliament as our representatives. Consequently, we witnessed a moth-eaten parliament along with the criminalisation of the power centre. Besides, as we sent a significant number of representatives from fundamentalist groups along with some alleged war criminals; they left no stone unturned in propagating distorted interpretation of Islam in society. So, the country saw the rise of Islamic extremism, series bomb attack, grenade attack in the public meeting of AL, killing of hundreds of innocent people and total mayhem throughout the tenure of the last government.
However, this time, the scenario must be different, as the election is in December, the month of our glorious victory. In this month, we all recall the ethos of out liberation war. As the young generation is more conscious now, especially in this month of victory, it will appear as the vanguard against all evil forces. Let the victory month's resolution be reflected in following slogans:
* Down with war criminals
* Down with corrupt leaders
* Stop communal politics
* Bring Equity in the society
* Revive the spirit of liberation war
The writer is an educationalist and a freelance writer. He can be reached at email: kabiranwar@yahoo.com
AN unprecedented national election has been held in a fully different context and political climate. Holding this election in the month of victory has added to it a unique dimension too. In applying franchise right, presumably this time, the freedom-loving people of the country have got an opportunity to uphold the ethos of our glorious liberation war. And the landslide victory of the Awami League (AL)-led grand alliance does bear this out.
The incumbent government, though it initially received unanimous support from the common people, failed to hold it due to lack of transparency in many of its activities. Especially, its ill-designed futile attempt in implementing so called 'minus two theory' is to be cited. Moreover, the spiralling of essentials' prices due to naïve market management policy has eroded the government popularity. Yet, people are still appreciative for some of its pragmatic steps. In this context, drive against financial corruption, reformation of ACC, PSC and EC are to be mentioned. People have also appreciated the government's initiative to correct the distorted history in the text books. The patriotic citizens who nurture the spirit of independence perhaps became most enthusiastic at the vibrant utterance of the Chief Advisor and the Army Chief, two key persons of this government on war criminal issue. Although the government has not advanced towards initiating the trial of war criminals following the peoples' aspiration, it has succeeded in rationalising the demand in the mindset of the common people by raising the issue.
Albeit the trial of war criminals is yet a far cry, the voters of the country in this month of victory, have got a golden opportunity to combat the war criminals in the electoral battle. In this context, the young generation, as swinging voters (as the most members of younger generation are not affiliated to any political party) have played a significant role. However, the dilemma is that the members of this generation are deprived of the true history of our liberation war.
As a nation, we must be ashamed of the fact that as only after a few years of independence we deviated from the very objectives of our war of liberation, which could have been a driving force for the overall development of the country. The valiant freedom fighters in 1971 sacrificed their lives not just for achieving a mere nation state. Rather they dreamt of complete emancipation of the people of their Sonar Bangla in a dignified way. The Bangladesh as we are witnessing today is not in keeping with the ambition of the freedom loving people of that time. In fact their ambition was reflected in the spirit of independence, which is depicted in the 1972 Constitution as four firm pillars, namely, nationalism, democracy, socialism and secularism. The unfortunate distortion of these four pillars has undermined the nation as a whole.
Abandoning the much hated 'two-nation theory' in 1971, people of this land embraced Bengali nationalism and secularism as basic mantras for their salvation. The irony is that despite being a valiant freedom fighter, General Ziaur Rahman totally failed to foresee the implication of the reinvention of the two nation theory in the guise of 'Bangladeshi nationalism.' So, instead of secularism, as a nation, after a few years of our independence we stepped into the realm of communalism again.
Many have claimed that in the independent Bangladesh, it was none but Bangabandhu who killed democracy and established authoritarian rule by introducing BAKSAL in 1975.
Apparently this seems to be true. But this becomes a half-truth if we objectively analyse the rationale behind introducing BAKSAL on his part. In fact, it could be argued that democracy-loving Bangabandhu was bound to embrace the one-party BAKSAL in accordance with the demand of the time. The very objective of BAKSAL was to establish socialism in the country, which was one of the major spirit of our war of liberation. Besides, BAKSAL was formed in a democratic way through proper discussion in parliament and most of the people of the country, including leading intellectuals, journalists and other professional groups unanimously congratulated BAKSAL. However, right now, no conclusive remark on BAKSAL is possible as it died in infancy with the brutal killing of the Father of the Nation.
Socialism has been depicted as one of the vital driving forces in our war of liberation. At that time, for total economic emancipation, socialism was considered as the most powerful ideology.
Though, in the present global context the term socialism has no appeal to many, in the context of our country this symbolises the economic emancipation of the people. We have also distorted this spirit of liberation by importing consumer-driven and black money-oriented economy into our country.
The manipulated history as designed by the beneficiaries of 1975 and the collaborators of 1971 had successfully confused the generations.
Perhaps due to this confused state, the people from the younger generations who missed to be witnesses of 1971, voted and elected (as the lion's share of the voters are from these generations) the identified collaborators of 1971 as the members of the Parliament. For the same reason people did not raise their voice much when the war criminals like Motiur Rahman Nizami or Al Mujahid emerged as ministers in the last alliance government.
In election 2001, our collective blunder was to send dozens of evil elements to parliament as our representatives. Consequently, we witnessed a moth-eaten parliament along with the criminalisation of the power centre. Besides, as we sent a significant number of representatives from fundamentalist groups along with some alleged war criminals; they left no stone unturned in propagating distorted interpretation of Islam in society. So, the country saw the rise of Islamic extremism, series bomb attack, grenade attack in the public meeting of AL, killing of hundreds of innocent people and total mayhem throughout the tenure of the last government.
However, this time, the scenario must be different, as the election is in December, the month of our glorious victory. In this month, we all recall the ethos of out liberation war. As the young generation is more conscious now, especially in this month of victory, it will appear as the vanguard against all evil forces. Let the victory month's resolution be reflected in following slogans:
* Down with war criminals
* Down with corrupt leaders
* Stop communal politics
* Bring Equity in the society
* Revive the spirit of liberation war
The writer is an educationalist and a freelance writer. He can be reached at email: kabiranwar@yahoo.com