Editorial
Foreign diplomats at it again
THE secretary general of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, Khandaker Delwar Hossain, deserves praise for reminding the foreign missions in Dhaka, in no uncertain terms, that they should not interfere in local politics and ‘not make any statements which cause harm to the people, go against the interest of Bangladesh and violate the diplomatic norms as laid out in the Vienna Convention.’ The reminder is indeed timely, comes as it does when some foreign diplomats and international civil servants stationed in Dhaka, not surprisingly led by the US ambassador, the British high commissioner and the resident coordinator of the United Nations, have once again become increasingly vocal about the political situation in Bangladesh, the underlying tone being that the elections to the ninth Jatiya Sangsad could be held under the prevailing state of emergency.
As their presence in the local print and electronic media becomes increasingly conspicuous, we are reminded of the days leading to the declaration of a state of emergency and the subsequent installation of the military-controlled interim government of Fakhruddin Ahmed. Then, too, the foreign diplomats and the international civil servants shuttled from one political camp to the other, called on the army chief and made statements that bordered on blatant interference in the affairs of a sovereign state. Their active support is believed to have played no less a crucial role than the local factors in the January 2007 changeover. Just as their overt exhortation then for emergency rule was contradictory to accepted diplomatic norms and inimical to the interest of our people, so is their covert support for the perpetuation of the prevailing state of emergency now.
The state of emergency, which strips people of their fundamental rights, runs counter to the concept of democracy, which, needless to say, is about the protection and promotion of people’s rights. It irrationally empowers the state, which, in turn, induces an all-pervasive fear in society. The suggestion made by the foreign diplomats — the Indian high commissioner being the latest addition to the chorus — that the people would somehow freely exercise their right to adult franchise in such a climate of fear sounds like a cruel joke. Such pleas would surely ring like music for the interim government, whose advisers hardly ever hesitate to seek advice from the diplomats about the internal affairs of the state, but could, and should, result in the diplomats being perceived by the people as their enemy, which cannot be good for either our people or the people they represent. The diplomats would, therefore, be well-advised not to make such exhortations and stay within the ambit of accepted diplomatic norms.
Having said that, we would like to believe the reminder reflects the BNP’s realisation that interference by the foreign diplomats in the internal affairs of Bangladesh is detrimental to both dignity and interest of the nation. The major political parties, of which the BNP is one, had hardly hesitated in the past to take their partisan bickering to the foreign diplomats stationed in Dhaka for mediation; in fact, they did so as recently as in the lead-up to the January 2007 changeover. We hope they would shun such double standards when the country returns to governance by elected representatives of the people, and stick to the belief that letting foreigners interfere in the internal affairs of the state is dishonourable for, and detrimental to, the interest of the people.
CMSD must be held accountable for
substandard paediatric equipment
WE ARE outraged at the irresponsible way in which the Central Medical Stores Department under the health ministry is treating a possible case of fraud in its procurement of equipment for paediatric care. A New Age report on Saturday revealed that a Shanghai-based company – Larkcop Ltd, which has supplied the CMSD with baby incubators, photo therapy machine and radiant warmers worth Tk 5.5 crore, falsified its safety certificates for the equipment, meaning infants treated with this equipment could suffer fatal overexposure to radiation among other complications. As revealed by New Age, the Norwegian company whose certification was submitted with Larkcop’s bid to supply this equipment has denied certifying the products. It is increasingly evident that the errant company may have secured the winning bid, not through the merit of its equipment but with connivance of some of the topmost officials of the CMSD. Needless to say, medical radiotherapy equipment must adhere to the highest standards of precision and quality because the slightest of overexposure to radiation can be fatal in the long run. It is no surprise that the CMSD also broke with tradition by excluding experts from the procurement’s technical committee and choosing outsiders instead.
Despite the serious allegations and the unravelling proof, the CMSD director, a brigadier general, first denied the allegations, claiming the equipment was ‘examined thoroughly and all of them were alright in all aspect,’ and later refused to speak to the media. While we can only denounce in the harshest terms all those depraved individuals who can reconcile with allowing infants, or for that matter anyone, to be exposed to such risks, we demand that punishment be applied as per the law.
First and foremost, the director of the CMSD owes the public answers – and it is not within his rights to deflect questions from the media. A government that has pontificated long and tall about transparency and accountability in governance must certainly lead the way by demonstrating in practice what it has been preaching. The CMSD authorities must appear before the media to explain the basis of the allegations. Meanwhile, we demand a thorough investigation by an independent body, not as an alternative to media enquiries, which should continue side by side.
We commend the World Bank’s role in exposing the possible corruption that may be responsible for the procurement of this substandard equipment. It was, after all, the World Bank which first flagged concerns regarding the standards of the equipment in question, since it is one of the lenders for the Health Nutrition and Population Sector Programme under which the equipment was purchased. We can only hope that the World Bank will apply the same levels of transparency and accountability that it is calling for, with the development projects that it oversees in Bangladesh and across the developing world, not to mention the often shady procurement processes that are associated with its own operations.
Another round of cowardly capitulation
It is a sorry reminder that the elite class is so mentally bankrupt that they are unable to take a position on what is a religious and what is a political standpoint. By allowing the same forces that have continuously made advances against the cultural icons of the people, we have morphed into becoming a race without identity and confidence,
writes Afsan Chowdhury
THE attack on the baul sculpture is not an attack on religion or values, let alone culture, but is a description of the political mess we have landed into. Bigots and murderers, social misfits and traitors have taken centre stage, thanks to the policy of political convenience of our leadership.
What began as a political move by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party allowing Jamaat-e-Islami after 1975 has travelled a long distance to become a full-blown attack by the forces of the same ilk while we stand by apparently helpless and frothing in our mouth out of fear. It has been going on a while.
The Awami League, a party that rose to prominence on the platform of opposing Islamic extremism amongst other issues, has also capitulated and its leader Sheikh Hasina even tried to craft a political agreement with the obscurantist forces giving them fatwa rights which got busted in the end but it shows a clear trend concerning the patterns of unprincipled politics that dominates our landscape.
If the present government had any moral authority which they claim through their Anti-Corruption Commission and Truth and Accountability Commission activities, it would have taken a position on a piece of heritage art it had itself commissioned and stood by it. Instead, it ran away fearing a backlash from the same group it has given indulgence to including their street agitation against rights of women even as it assiduously claimed no politics was allowed under the emergency.
It is a sorry reminder that the elite class is so mentally bankrupt that they are unable to take a position on what is a religious and what is a political standpoint. By allowing the same forces that have continuously made advances against the cultural icons of the people, we have morphed into becoming a race without identity and confidence.
The attack on baul sculpture was carried out by the sa#me forces that had attacked the sculpture ‘Duranto’, now housed in the Shishu Academy, quite a few years ago. Many other instances have occurred over time but whatever has suited the ruling class has happened. If the sculpture of a child can seem offensive, one can imagine the mindset of the people behind such attacks. It is our duty to counter such quarters but our political history has become a long narrative of capitulation to the very same forces that we claim to be opposing.
One wishes that the debate was about a statue or two and limited only to disagreements about whether it constitutes an inadmissible act as per scriptures but, as it happens in the world of politics, it is essentially about carving out a space for those who see in this act a victory of their views and an endorsement of their belief that the forces against extremism are weak and flabby, unable to defend themselves. It seems we have been sending that message for a long time and the latest is once again a statement of our enfeeblement and their strength. If only they had broad support in society! Had they had that, they would have been in power by now. For the moment, nervous governments will do for them.
Why this lack of confidence?
In 1971 the religious practice structure was simpler. People were living through extreme situations and were so anxious that they needed faith to survive. At the same time, people saw the extremities committed in the name of Islam, both by the Pakistani forces and also by their local supporters, almost all of whom were located in the religious orthodoxy establishment.
This configuration allowed people to advance their own belief structure and almost no one was tempted to join the Pakistanis or commit atrocities in the name of religion. In fact, during this period, religion was personalised and turned into a matter of personal and social communion which militates against the public interpretation of Islam as enforced occupier of all spaces. During this extreme period, there was no conflict of faith and reason, and no religious invocation in the name of the scripture and the text could whip up popular sentiment as humanity enveloped religious expressions. This triumph was possible because the social and political objectives involved everyone and the legitimacy of those pursuits was not questionable.
That situation changed after 1971 when political parties in an independent state mismanaged and misruled enormously creating the alienating space between the ruler and the ruled. It is in this narrow band of discontent that the religious caravan of orthodoxy found a safe place to park. It came out as rejection of ‘secularism’ during the Mujib era but as no secular policy was in place, it was in essence a rejection of the governance and, by extension, of those policies. It had become a religious question because the constitution was used by the then government for its own purpose. What the people had achieved in terms of carving out their independent space in relation to faith, religion and politics was severely damaged in just three years.
The Zia regime extended the cynical application of political logic. It used anti-Awami League sentiments to allow these retrograde forces to enter the Bangladeshi scene from which they had been socially discarded since 1971. They were given a welcome mat when they were desperately jostling to find a new space in a new land. By allowing Jamaat-e-Islami, the crime was not just of extreme political cynicism and convenience but, more significantly, that of negating the force of social judgement of the people. People had rejected them and Zia brought them back. Mujib created the space and Zia opened the door. Once inside they have been able to exert influence like never before.
Ershad’s enactment of the eighth amendment and declaring Islam as a state religion was not out of any miscued notion of piety but again using politics for private gain, his own and that of his cronies. It is no surprise, therefore, that the BNP took the next step in the continuously unfolding scenario of manipulation and politics with the assistance of the religious extremists and orthodoxy in 2001.
Looking at the history of Bangladesh, it is no surprise that the present government has failed to take a position on the issue because no government faced with the wrath of the Muslim bigots have ever dared to face them. This is largely because of their own moral cowardice as they have always used various forces to come to or sustain their power. The crisis that we see today is not of the rise of the extreme religious but the rise of the callous to the extreme in politics.
Such people are never confident and this episode is a good illustration of that.
What the latest means?
It does mean that Lalon occupies a smaller space in public life and contests from those who are opposed to him in every form and shape will have ascendancy. In effect, the extremist orthodoxy is deciding what the nature of the socio-cultural expression of the people can be and should be. The force that stood by or assented to the dismantling of the Lalon sculpture in effect became party to the same process. In this demolition job, political convenience has won again.
Should one ask if the decision was linked to the stance adopted by the present government towards Jamaat-e-Islami as they weave in and out of the political framework? After all, the mysterious refusal of the authorities to rein in Jamaat leaders when they are seen in public while the government says they are on the run is a good example of a group ready to make itself flexible. It is not religious bent but politics.
It is this stance that dogs this government, its journey from a position of self-proclaimed ‘moral force’ to that of a facilitator of political forces. One supposes that the presumption of morality brought about by the failure of political parties at a point of time needs to be tested at another point of time.
It is, therefore, necessary to explore the character and nature of this government, its strange mixture of opposites such as trashing the confidence of people in the judiciary by manipulating bail arrangements and the orders relating to the separation of the judiciary from the executive. It is a government which has in a period of only two years turned ‘elasticity’ into a virtue claiming it is all for the common good.
Which is why the government’s claim to be interim should not be taken seriously because it is part of the essential sequence under which all past governments have run through our history.
It is no accident that the powers that sit should refuse to try war criminals arguing that it should be left to political governments when it has jailed so many politicians on corruption charges and continuously manipulates politicians and politics. It has never explained why crimes against humanity should be lesser than corruption crimes. Although it has deliberately kept some members of the ruling class from scrutiny, it has claimed to be even-handed in meting out justice of the caretaker variety. It too has a constituency, it too has an identity and it too functions in the same way as past governments have done.
One may think that this government is neutral and on the surface it carries no party colour but it certainly belongs to a cluster of positions and values and in the geometric arrangement of power, it too has a space and a colour.
In serving that power base, both civil and military, it is unfair to expect that they will stand up as people did in 1971 and claimed their space. All powers that be that have ruled Bangladesh have always sided with extremism, be it one-party rule or religious orthodoxy. In that process, we have a state where homage to Lalon is censored and outlawed and bigots rule the streets. It’s about the price we all have paid for our lack of character and identity and our ever-present sense of denying our own shame.
It is not about Lalon, it is about who we are and have become.
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