Editorial
SAARC drifts off course
The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation began its journey on December 8, 1985 with the express objectives, among others, to promote the welfare of the peoples of South Asia and to improve their quality of life; to accelerate economic growth, social progress and cultural development in the region and to provide all individuals the opportunity to live in dignity and to realise their full potentials; and to contribute to mutual trust, understanding and appreciation of one another’s problems. Twenty-two years on, South Asia is home to 43 per cent of an estimated one billion poor people in the world, with 33 per cent of the one billion living in India alone. Child mortality rate remains exceptionally high, as does maternal mortality rate. Economic disparity between the rich and the poor continues to widen. A huge majority of the populace has no access to the most fundamental means of sustenance.
When survival itself remains an almost insuperable challenge, the opportunity to ‘live in dignity and realise their full potentials’ is nothing short of a distant dream. Intriguingly, as millions of people in the region reels under extreme poverty, the governments have been more keen on developing individual military might rather than collectively working out a strategy to ensure their economic emancipation. Such egocentric pursuit of military excellence has heightened mutual mistrust and suspicion among the SAARC countries. Instead of understanding and appreciation of one another’s problems, the SAARC countries appear more intent on becoming one another’s problems.
Overall, on every count, SAARC has drifted off its course, which is manifested in its essential inertia. Its very existence seems to have become ritualistic, confined to holding summits, secretarial- and ministerial-level meetings. That it has become ritualistic is amply reflected in the curious similarity of the pre- and post-summit statements of relevant officials. On March 31, at the end of the two-day meeting of the SAARC standing committee in New Delhi, which is hosting the 14th summit of the association this year, the Indian foreign secretary, Shivshankar Menon said, in response to question on the South Asian Free-Trade Arrangement, ‘We discussed how we could move forward.’
Moving forward is something that the association has failed to do over the years. As a result, when the summit is being held on the theme ‘connectivity’, the SAARC countries are becoming increasingly disconnected and distanced from each other, and when the very essence of the SAARC Charter is to engender mutual trust, the SAARC countries are becoming increasingly suspicious about each other. In such milieu of mutual mistrust and collective indifference to the interest of the marginalised many, religious fundamentalism and extremism has raised its ugly head and turned into a potent threat not only to an individual state but to the region as a whole.
As the governments have failed miserably to uphold the SAARC spirit, it is now up to the people of the region to take charge. Increased people-to-people contact, on which the SAARC Charter puts emphasis on, can not only help the people of one country to have their misgivings about their counterparts in another dispelled but also build up a trans-border people’s movement, which will eventually force the states back on the SAARC course. After all, the SAARC Charter is a people’s charter and it is in their interest that the charter must be upheld.
Contest in the sky
It is good to know that kite flying as a sport and pastime is not yet extinct in this country. Thanks to the residents of the older section of Dhaka city, occasional kite flying events are still held and this healthy universal hobby is kept alive. On last Saturday, according to a newspaper report, a group known as the Kite Association organised a kite flying festival at Purana Paltan in a bid to revive this dying sport of the country. One hundred and twenty-eight contestants, mostly youngsters, took part. The kites included some which were of unconventional shapes and designs.
Kite flying is a sport with a universal appeal. It is loved by people in all communities and continents. In Bangladesh, however, kite flying looked all but extinct as far as the young generation is concerned. The evening sky is no longer studded with shrinking, wind-blown specks in colour. Kite shops no longer find a place in the market loaded with all variety of imported consumer goods and youngsters no longer spend hours preparing ‘manjha’ (a paste of gum and powdered glass which reinforces the kite’s thread to give it a cutting edge). Without intending to sound pontifical we would urge that today’s youth, especially in the affluent sections, seem more interested in some newly-arrived diversions all of which are not equally healthy or equally compatible with our native cultural ethos. It is by the underprivileged youth and underprivileged sections of society that kite flying is still pursued.
Apparently kite flying is out of place with the cramped living that rapid population growth and urbanisation have forced upon us. But by that token it is also a much-needed relief from constricted living. Kite flying is a communion with the wide open sky achieved by the launch of a paper-made floater towards infinity. Decades ago when this contest in the sky was quite a vogue in this country, a famous short story was written titled ‘Gabriel’s Wings’ featuring an underprivileged lad who was so filled with a passion for kite flying that with his kite he tried to communicate with the angels in the heavens. It is in the nature of this game that the threads from two kites will inevitably get tangled up and one will cut the other out. There is a winner and a loser but usually they never know each other, located that they may be on two distant rooftops or meadows.
Kites must be kept flying and since this is a healthy sport, the sports ministry can take steps to encourage it.
A battle against Islamist extremism
won, the war not yet
Winning the war on terror is as much about winning the ideological fight against extremism and cutting the sources of finance for terrorist activity as it is about apprehending and executing terrorists. While the execution of Shaikh Abdur Rahman, Bangla Bhai and their partners is significant in this war, the government will do well to focus its energies on ensuring that these organisations are not able to receive funding on the one hand, and recruit members on the other, writes Shameran Abed
A significant milestone in our war on terror was achieved in the late hours of Thursday last, when six top militants of the banned militant organisation Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh were hanged till death in different jails around the country. Individuals like Shaikh Abdur Rahman, the supreme leader of Jamaatul Mujahideen, and his infamous protégé Siddiqul Islam Bangla Bhai, both hanged on Thursday, had started and presided over a reign of terror in northern Bangladesh, killing and maiming dozens in their efforts to establish Islamic rule in the country. Their removal from the scene, along with some of their important cohorts, will undoubtedly have an adverse affect on Jamaatul Mujahideen in particular and, one hopes, to religious terrorism, in general. However, we must not live under any illusion of Islamic terrorism having been defeated, as a result of the hangings, or even of Jamaatul Mujahideen having been destroyed. The execution will only deal a temporary blow to this outfit, and unless the war on terror is continued on several different fronts simultaneously by our government, we can rest assured that it will regroup in quick time and raise its ugly head once more.
Jamaatul Mujahideen came into prominence in the spring of 2004, after widespread media reporting of the exploits of Bangla Bhai in Bagmara upazila of Rajshahi brought him under the national spotlight. It had taken on the task of cleansing the northern districts of the ultra-leftist Sarbaharas and as a result to restore peace and calm in those areas. The vigilantism carried on by Bangla Bhai and his group took deadly form, as he held public beatings and executions which were not only attended by thousands of people but also top officials from the police and civil administrations in Bagmara. At the time, although the government had officially asked the police to arrest Bangla Bhai and his men and to stop his vigilante activities, it was unofficially providing support to him. The police were asked quietly to assist Bangla Bhai where necessary, instead of arresting him. After all, he and his men were doing their work for them, successfully fighting Sarbaharas where the police had for so long failed to deal with them. However, fighting Sarbaharas was just one front in the war that was being waged by Jamaatul Mujahideen. At its core lay the overthrowing of the government and the establishment of an Islamic state in its place.
For two years after its rise to fame, Jamaatul Mujahideen carried on uninterrupted. In that time, they had not only carried out bomb attacks inside the court premises in several districts, bombed offices of non-governmental organisations that promote women’s empowerment, killed two judges in Jhalakati, and carried out simultaneous bomb blasts in 63 districts on August 17, 2005, among many other terrorists activities. It took the government till the end of 2005, and especially the countrywide bombings and the death of the judges, to realise that Jamaatul Mujahideen were no longer doing their bidding for them. Having cleansed the northern districts of known leftists, it had set their sights on destabilising the government by creating anarchy and hence, panic, in the country. This time, the government took their threat seriously and Shaikh Rahman and Bangla Bhai were arrested in March 2006 by the law enforcement agencies from Sylhet and Mymensingh respectively. They were tried and sentenced to death by a district court in August 2006.
From the information extracted from the terrorist kingpins after their arrests, we know that Jamaatul Mujahideen had been operating for several years before their activities caught the public imagination, and had spread to all parts of the country. Bangla Bhai had boasted as early as in May 2004 that Jamaatul Mujahideen had thousands of dedicated workers and activists around the country. Even now, only a handful of them have been caught, while the vast majority remain outside the dragnet of the law enforcement agencies, quietly biding their time before their strike again. So clear and present is the threat posed by them that the government not only carried out the executions without any prior information to the media regarding their time and place, but also felt it necessary to significantly increase the security presence in the capital and around the country for fear of revenge attacks by JMB operatives for the hanging of its leaders.
The war on terrorism in this country has thus far been fought almost entirely on a single front in trying to apprehend terrorists associated with Jamaatul Mujahideen and similar organisations. However, this is a flawed approach, as the ability of the terrorist organisations to recruit new member far outstrips the ability of our law enforcement agencies to apprehend them. While the arrests, trial and execution of its leaders is significant for several reasons, not least because these actions may act as deterrents for others who may have been tempted to join in terrorists activities, the ultimate success in the warn on terror will depend upon the government being able to break the backbone of the extremist movement. That, of course, is much more difficult to achieve than the arrests of a few known terrorists against whom airtight cases of terrorism and murder are very easy to build.
As the efforts of the law enforcement agencies continue to nab members of these terrorist organisations, the government must relentlessly pursue their financiers and backers. After all, these organisations were not able to spread their wings so far and so quickly without powerful supporters, both political and financial. That would include investigating high-level members of the last government and preceding governments, including cabinet and state ministers, against whom allegations of supporting and patronising these criminals exist. The government should also investigate any links that may exist between these terrorist organisations and the mainstream political parties, especially the religion-based ones, to ensure that the parties that solicit the mandate of the people in elections are not at the same time involved in anti-state activities. The government must also investigate links with possible external financiers of terrorist activities, as there are allegations that the governments and private organisations and individuals in several countries, especially in the Middle East, have financed terrorism in Bangladesh through the setting up of religious NGOs in this country. Being able to cut the source of funds for these terrorists organisations will deal a terrible blow to their activities, and will be a major success for our government in the war on terror.
Winning the war on terror in Bangladesh will also depend upon the government being able to tackle the root causes of extremism in this country. Other than ensuring that the Madrassahs are not used as terrorist camps by organisations like Jamaatul Mujahideen, and the students turned into soldiers in their fight to establish an Islamic state, the government also has a responsibility to make sure that the Madrassahs provide the kind and quality of education that is required for society to be able to absorb their graduates. At present, that is hardly the case, as the irrelevant education provided by the thousands of madrassahs in this country produce graduates who are totally unemployable. Instead of transmitting certain values which are consistent with Islam, such as respect and tolerance, these madrassahs promote intolerance and hatred. Hence, their graduates become easy targets for the religion-based terrorist organisations to recruit as their foot soldiers.
Winning the war on terror is as much about winning the ideological fight against extremism and cutting the sources of finance for terrorist activity as it is about apprehending and executing terrorists. While the execution of Shaikh Abdur Rahman, Bangla Bhai and their partners is significant in this war, the government will do well to focus its energies on ensuring that these organisations are not able to receive funding on the one hand, and recruit members on the other.
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