To be able to look ahead Bangladesh needs to resolve divisive issues
Saturday, 24 November 2007
Abu Rawsab
Bangladesh achieved national independence through liberation war, preceded by a long political movement and struggle. It involved sacrifice of a lot of lives. However, when we began to understand our national history, we came to realise that many contentious issues remain not only unresolved, but have been kept alive. A part of our population politically opposed the idea of secession, common to every liberation war and civil justice movement across the world. What is so puzzling to us a generation born after our liberation-our history provides no clear answer as to why a quarter of our population opposed the emergence of an independent Bangladesh. Historians largely tried not to uncover that mystery. Since it's a question of our identity and existence, we passionately feel that we need to have a clear understanding of not only "how" but also "why" a portion of our population did not subscribe to the idea of an independent Bangladesh.
In the absence of a clear historical account of our liberation war, the whole thing becomes so diluted and vague that often we have trouble in separating facts from fiction. We still suffer from a lack of consensus on some fundamental issues such as who declared independence, how many people were killed and raped, who opposed the war, why and in what way? One of the conspicuous factors behind this diluted atmosphere is, as we observe, using the "liberation war" for political purposes. The political culture of the post liberation decades was largely fraught with fabrications, concoctions and emotional ism. In the realm of politics, our national identity has become diluted and contaminated. We observe that most political leaders, engrossed and embedded in that contaminated politics gradually became so charged emotionally that they do not hesitate to attack their political opponents without caring for objectivity and fairness. Gross emotionalism, exaggerations, concoctions, obduracy and a lack of civility towards political opponents are some of the traits that our political leaders and their supporters have been nurturing for the last three decades. Consequences are apparent. It keeps the nation divided. For political ends they don't hesitate to personalise ideas and our history.
They do not resolve the issue of 1971 out of the fear that they will lose their political agenda. At times some people lose objective thinking and do not hesitate to wrongly brand freedom fighters who subscribe to a different opinion or even those who were born after 1971. In contrast even collaborators or ideology. And other people, whatever role they had in 1971, become razakars of 1971 can become great "freedom-fighters" if they come to their party fold. This way, being or not being with a political party becomes the "yardstick" for determining who is or is not a freedom fighter. They constantly focus on division, rather than cohesion.
The negative efforts to keep the nation divided needs to come to an end.
The issue can not be an individual's agenda, to assign national development, social cohesion and progress always a secondary priority. Keeping the issue unresolved could pull the nation back Consequently, our nation would lag behind economically, socially, and culturally. Many nations of the world faced almost similar juncture. But unlike politicians of Bangladesh, the leaders of those nations took a different strategies with vision to move forward and build their nations. They all focused on national cohesion, rather than division. Abraham Lincoln, for example, became famous as he devoted his efforts to erase the differences between the white masters and black slaves. Nelson Mandela did the same. Even the founding father of Bangladesh, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, declared a "general amnesty" to take the nation ahead, forgive harmony and cohesion among people. The biggest example remains Prophet Muhammad's (peace be upon him) "Victory of Makkah". The people of Makkah who once tried their best to hurt and eventually kill the prophet and forced him to migrate to Medina and waged several battles against him were forgiven by him after the victory.
The prophet (peace be upon him) told the people of Makka, "Today you are free and independent, I do not have any complaints against you." After that his mission was to create cohesion and peaceful coexistence of all the people, including of the other faiths. The people, who collaborated with Pakistani army to serve their interest, known as "razakars" were opportunists and paid agents. They were both Bangalis and non-Bangalis (especially Biharis). We achieved liberation from Pakistani oppression in 1971 with the hope that we would liberate ourselves from poverty, corruption, tyranny, foreign dependence and intervention and all forms of injustices. Rather than liberating ourselves from all these, we, unfortunately, have gone deeper into the quagmire of all these. We the post liberation generation strongly feel that we needs to liberate ourselves from the shackles that pull us backwards.
The writer, based in Canada, can be reached at: aburawsab@gmail.com
Bangladesh achieved national independence through liberation war, preceded by a long political movement and struggle. It involved sacrifice of a lot of lives. However, when we began to understand our national history, we came to realise that many contentious issues remain not only unresolved, but have been kept alive. A part of our population politically opposed the idea of secession, common to every liberation war and civil justice movement across the world. What is so puzzling to us a generation born after our liberation-our history provides no clear answer as to why a quarter of our population opposed the emergence of an independent Bangladesh. Historians largely tried not to uncover that mystery. Since it's a question of our identity and existence, we passionately feel that we need to have a clear understanding of not only "how" but also "why" a portion of our population did not subscribe to the idea of an independent Bangladesh.
In the absence of a clear historical account of our liberation war, the whole thing becomes so diluted and vague that often we have trouble in separating facts from fiction. We still suffer from a lack of consensus on some fundamental issues such as who declared independence, how many people were killed and raped, who opposed the war, why and in what way? One of the conspicuous factors behind this diluted atmosphere is, as we observe, using the "liberation war" for political purposes. The political culture of the post liberation decades was largely fraught with fabrications, concoctions and emotional ism. In the realm of politics, our national identity has become diluted and contaminated. We observe that most political leaders, engrossed and embedded in that contaminated politics gradually became so charged emotionally that they do not hesitate to attack their political opponents without caring for objectivity and fairness. Gross emotionalism, exaggerations, concoctions, obduracy and a lack of civility towards political opponents are some of the traits that our political leaders and their supporters have been nurturing for the last three decades. Consequences are apparent. It keeps the nation divided. For political ends they don't hesitate to personalise ideas and our history.
They do not resolve the issue of 1971 out of the fear that they will lose their political agenda. At times some people lose objective thinking and do not hesitate to wrongly brand freedom fighters who subscribe to a different opinion or even those who were born after 1971. In contrast even collaborators or ideology. And other people, whatever role they had in 1971, become razakars of 1971 can become great "freedom-fighters" if they come to their party fold. This way, being or not being with a political party becomes the "yardstick" for determining who is or is not a freedom fighter. They constantly focus on division, rather than cohesion.
The negative efforts to keep the nation divided needs to come to an end.
The issue can not be an individual's agenda, to assign national development, social cohesion and progress always a secondary priority. Keeping the issue unresolved could pull the nation back Consequently, our nation would lag behind economically, socially, and culturally. Many nations of the world faced almost similar juncture. But unlike politicians of Bangladesh, the leaders of those nations took a different strategies with vision to move forward and build their nations. They all focused on national cohesion, rather than division. Abraham Lincoln, for example, became famous as he devoted his efforts to erase the differences between the white masters and black slaves. Nelson Mandela did the same. Even the founding father of Bangladesh, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, declared a "general amnesty" to take the nation ahead, forgive harmony and cohesion among people. The biggest example remains Prophet Muhammad's (peace be upon him) "Victory of Makkah". The people of Makkah who once tried their best to hurt and eventually kill the prophet and forced him to migrate to Medina and waged several battles against him were forgiven by him after the victory.
The prophet (peace be upon him) told the people of Makka, "Today you are free and independent, I do not have any complaints against you." After that his mission was to create cohesion and peaceful coexistence of all the people, including of the other faiths. The people, who collaborated with Pakistani army to serve their interest, known as "razakars" were opportunists and paid agents. They were both Bangalis and non-Bangalis (especially Biharis). We achieved liberation from Pakistani oppression in 1971 with the hope that we would liberate ourselves from poverty, corruption, tyranny, foreign dependence and intervention and all forms of injustices. Rather than liberating ourselves from all these, we, unfortunately, have gone deeper into the quagmire of all these. We the post liberation generation strongly feel that we needs to liberate ourselves from the shackles that pull us backwards.
The writer, based in Canada, can be reached at: aburawsab@gmail.com