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JUST as there are overrated and overexposed writers, there are writers whose creative excellence remains half-hidden from the common readers. Alauddin Al Azad who wrote for six decades and produced at least seventy-five books in different branches of Bengali literature was, despite his prolificity and versatility, not quite a public figure. He shunned crowd and limelight and even when he was residing in the country he was seldom seen in literary assemblies or under TV spotlight. Of course, schoolchildren could not avoid being familiarised with him because his short stories have often been part of the curriculum. Yet Alauddin Al Azad has been inadequately evaluated at the level of literary critics. And not only because for many years he lived abroad or away from the capital; in this so-called Age of Information a great writer has also to be a mediagenic writer, which he was not. During the last few years of his life he particularly lived in relative obscurity.
   With the death of Alauddin Al Azad last Friday night at his home in Uttara, the rank of the revered poets and writers whose names are associated both with the language movement and the liberation war has been decimated almost to the point of extinction. In that sense also the death of Alauddin Al Azad has diminished the cultural milieu in a tragic way. He was an icon of progressive cultural movement. As a student he made his mark by writing a poem titled ‘The Tower of Memory’ in an anguished response to the demolition by the Pakistani military of the martyrs’ memorial that had been erected by students after February 21, 1952. The starting lines were ‘You have destroyed the tower of memory/No fear, friends, we are a family of forty million still here./Let them demolish the tower of bricks/We a family of forty million have built one great Tower.’ Like Abdul Gaffar Chowdhury’s song on Ekushey and Munier Chowdhury’s play ‘The Grave’, this poem too can be called a theme-poem of the events of 1952.
   The language movement upheld a broader cause than the rights of the Bengali speaking people; it had also unleashed the progressive secular forces in the country and enlisted many young adherents. This group of poets and writers who included Munier Chowdhury, Gaffar Chowdhury, Shawkat Osman, Sekander Abu Jafar, besides many others, sought to move away from the communal cultural mould fostered by Pakistani rulers. Of course, some of them had been writing since before 1947. This was the resurgent cultural circumambience which cradled poets and writers like Alauddin Al Azad. And Alauddin Al Azad was a specially gifted student. By dint of his talent and diligence he was able to overcome his material disadvantages. He had lost both his parents in early life and battled with the challenges of life which await the uncared-for ones in this country. We think such stark experiences were a powerful driving force in his creativity. He was a successful teacher and laborious researcher. He was an authority on Ishwar Chandra Gupta. His long career spanned different fields of activities and was not confined to teaching. He held administrative and diplomatic jobs also.
   His books make a long catalogue, and equally long is the catalogue of the awards he won. It was hinted above that he did not receive the kind of attention he deserved. But this was true only in respect of the media and the common readers. He was one of the few writers to gain an international exposure. His books were translated into English and other languages. His most celebrated novel is perhaps Oil Painting Number 23, The Karnaphuli and Hunger and Hope. He wrote a number of short stories and a few stand out as all-time greats. ‘Dark Staircase’ is a short story that no credible anthology of short story of Bangladesh can omit.
   In his early writings Marxist influence is evident but in latter-day works psychological themes seem dominant. The Karnaphuli for which he was given the UNESCO award is perhaps the first novel depicting the ethnic minorities of Chittagong Hill Tracts. The novel had a revolutionary import at that time. After his death a revaluation of his works will be a worthwhile exercise. Some of his books are reported to be unavailable. The Bangla Academy may take the initiative to bring out his collected works in a series of inexpensive volumes.

The year 2009, till now, has been exceptional on the global politics front. During the course of this year, and as in many previous years and decades, the world has had borne witness to escalating Middle East violence. When discussing international relations, the Middle East ought to be conceptualised as a region that spans south-western Asia and north-eastern Africa. Many global issues of concern have their roots in this region – the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the never-ending Israeli- Palestinian conflict, Iran’s nuclear ambitions, to name a few.
   Iraqis celebrated ‘Sovereignty Day’ on June 30, which was supposed to be the deadline for the US forces to be out of Iraqi towns and cities. The retrenchment comes two years after the US ‘surge’ of extra troops between February and June 2007, which saw US troop levels in Iraq reach 170,000.
   Taking this cue, one is bound to question the nature of withdrawal of foreign forces from Iraq and more fundamentally, to what extent has democracy been instilled in Iraq.
   Before turning to these questions, it is imperative to understand the state of affairs in Iraq. In the latest World Food Programme survey, an estimated 3.1 per cent of Iraqi households – 930,000 people – are described as ‘food insecure’. However, this is a considerable improvement from 15.4 per cent, the figure when the survey was last carried out in 2005. It is widely known that Iraq relies on oil to generate much of its wealth. It has the fourth largest proven oil reserves in the world – accounting for just below 50 per cent of its GDP. Oil production figures had dipped at the start of the invasion but have since remained relatively buoyant though production has not returned to the 1979 peak of 3.5 million barrels a day. One of the most important economic issues of concern is power shortage. Power cuts are still a regular feature of life in Iraq, with many homes receiving electricity for less than half a day.
   Though electricity production is increasing – in the third quarter of 2008 it rose by 8 per cent on the previous year, according to the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction – demand is also simultaneously on the rise, as increasing numbers of Iraqis are using consumer goods like computers, refrigerators and air conditioning units. At present, daily demand for electricity stands at around 209,000MW but only about 50 per cent of that is being met because of fuel shortages, insufficient transmission lines and a lack of trained staff. Many homes also have no running water and rely instead on wells or streams for their supplies. According to the World Health Organisation, ‘outbreaks will recur in Iraq until access to safe water and proper sanitation is ensured for all people.’ The UN has stated that only 32 per cent of the population have access to clean drinking water, and only 19 per cent have access to a good sewerage system.
   In the context of the US pullout from Iraq, as far as Iraqi towns and cities are concerned, while the US forces remain on call outside city limits, their role in urban areas is now expected to shift to one of moderating security-related activities. Some 131,000 US troops remain in Iraq, as a precautionary measure to help deter conflicts, including 12 combat brigades. The total is not expected to drop below 128,000 until after the Iraqi national elections in January 2010 take place, which will be a litmus test for the new regime and its security forces.
   One of the growing issues of concern in Iraq has been corruption. Many Baghdad residents are apprehensive over the fact that once the US troops leave the city at the end of June 2010, their welfare will be in the hands of the national police and army that are accused of being seriously corrupt. According to the anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International, Iraq is one of the most corrupt places in the world, third only to Burma and Somalia.
   One of the moral issues of concern is that of rehabilitating the families of tens and possibly hundreds of thousands of people who are estimated to have died in Iraq in the recent years of war and violence, and many more who have been injured, and more or less disabled, for a long time. To make matters worse, supply of doctors have not been able to meet the mounting and multifaceted medical needs. The UN estimates that more than 400 specialised doctors have left Iraq since the war began in 2003, alongside the lack of basic infrastructure and security, which has had further exacerbated the situation.
   So how far has democracy been instilled in Iraq? The answer will depend on the vantage point one prefers to take in responding to this question.
   In my opinion, democracy remains a far-fetched illusion for the Iraqis who are regularly falling prey to suicide attacks and other forms of violence. If Saddam Hussein’s rule is taken as a proxy, it can be safely deduced that Iraq, at least, is no longer being run by an autocratic government. Then again, some will argue against this point. For many Sunnis, the world under Saddam was a much better one to live in than today’s Iraq and once again, to refute this claim, Shias and Kurds will reiterate the sufferings they had to bear during the Sunni leader’s rule.
   In economic jargon, the opportunity cost of Iraq war can be said to have outweighed its real costs. All things remaining as they are, the pullout from Iraq will prove to be a decisive factor in safeguarding the Democrats’ ideologies at least in the US itself. Even those who had supported the Iraqi invasion, there is a mixed feeling as a result of the prolonged six years of combat which has left the US led coalition chastened. The withdrawal of the US troops from Iraq, and also the British troops from Afghanistan, will provide a breathing space for the Muslims residing in the developed world in general. However, the same cannot be said in case of Iraqi residents. For the US in particular, the withdrawal of its troops from Iraq by 2010 is likely to provide more fiscal space for the president to continue with his buoyant welfare enhancing programmes and help curb the rising US budget deficit.
   Leaving aside the nitty-gritty of the issue, one must not forget that elections in Iraq (and also Afghanistan) are expected to take place in early 2010. In case of Afghanistan, President Karzai remains the only significant figure so far to have declared his candidacy and the consensus is that — despite his setbacks and increasing disapproval — he would be a tough candidate to defeat. The crucial question for Iraq is whether the Sunnis, Shias and the Kurds will be able push through a government which is at least tangible in meeting the diverse perceptions and at the same time, maintains its cohesiveness. Whether democracy in Iraq is going prove to be success story or not remains a matter of debate but one can only hope that pulling out of Iraq does not push it into an era of unprecedented violence which has the potential to spill over into other conflict-prone areas.
   To conclude, many in Iraq believe that democracy will be instilled in the country despite factional violence. According to a Shia MP, ‘there is no going back to dictatorship or a one-party system in the country now…people have tasted democracy…Nobody can enforce dictatorship again on [Iraq].’ Indeed, provincial elections which took place in January, 2008 set in motion a commendable model of democracy, with influential parties in some cases losing out to small parties, but accepting the results with grace. Nevertheless, how long such parties will maintain such morale in Iraq, given its diverse ethnic groups, and more fundamentally, will the powerful parties act in the same way as they are at present when the US troops have left Iraq, are key dimensions that would world, and particularly the International Development Community, will be closely watching as democracy unfolds itself in Iraq.
   For now, it can only be hoped that Mill’s description of democracy as the ‘the tyranny of the majority’ does not prove to be true in case of Iraq, as it has in many parts of South Asia!
   Hasanuzzaman is a researcher for the Centre for Policy Dialogue.

‘Ruling alliance wants caretaker
govt system consigned to bin’

Caretaker government to conduct impartial election is an invention that may be unique but not something to take any pride in. Apart from its dubious logic, the system reflects a lack of trust in the incumbent government; also represents a condition of ‘democratic adolescence’.
   Elections are just one element, albeit an important one, in the total democratic experience; building democratic institutions and norms of practice that are above persons and parties is even more important. Democracy, including fair and free elections, is a ‘learning by doing’ exercise; there is no short cut. Caretaker system is not the one that can or will cure deeper malaises within parties and the political culture.
   Mohammad Rubaiyat Rahman
   Student, LL. B, University of Dhaka

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