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Recalling bogeys
The Awami League is missing out on the point that recalling and raising bogeys will create uncertainties that will impact on our economy, which is already in severe difficulties. Investments both at home and from abroad will dry up,
businesses, trade and commerce will decline further, prices and inflation will rise, making life and living for the populace even more difficult than it is right now, writes
Mahmud ur Rahman Choudhury
THERE is no dearth of bogeys in Bangladesh – we have bogeys of militants, conspiracies, threats to national security, threat to democracy and civil wars. A combination of these bogeys have often been used by different groups of people at different times either to capture state power or to maintain a hold on state power or to consolidate state power or to divert public attention away from some prevailing economic, social or political problems.
More often, these bogeys have been used by governments to impose some form of repressive, totalitarian control on the people and resources of our state. Consider, for example, the fact that every time a martial law was imposed, threats to national security and sovereignty were invoked; every time the political parties wanted to get back to power, threats to and conspiracies against democracy were invoked and the emergency imposed on January 11, 2007 was on the bogey of civil war.
Events and incidents were initiated or instigated to create ‘critical junctures’ which were then used to cynically manipulate public perceptions of prevailing situations, spawning mass phobias, generating social and political unrests, ending in nothing more than a replacement of one group of people in power with another group. Such has been the scene of politics, government and governance in Bangladesh since its independence in December 1971.
The BDR rebellion of February 25-26 and the mass killing of army officers was one such instigated incident of creating ‘critical junctures’ and the Awami League government in power is using it for all it is worth, recalling every bogey – militants, conspiracies, threats to national security, threat to democracy and civil wars – to what end is difficult to understand or justify.
Lieutenant Colonel (retd) Faruk Khan, the commerce minister and now the coordinator of investigation, who ought to have known better, has started this whole train of bogeys by claiming that militants are behind the BDR massacres. To manipulate and enhance public perception of this ‘militant threat’ bogey, the AL government has gone to the limit of constructing bunkers in front of the official residence of the prime minister, allowing the media to freely take photographs of these ‘defensive’ measures and splash them across every newspaper and TV screen on March 17 and 18.
In recalling all these bogeys, the Awami League is missing out on the point that these are rationalisations ‘after the event’ of the BDR massacres. From 9:30am on February 25, when the mutiny started, to 8:00pm on February 26, when the mutiny ended, the mutineers were given sufficient time, opportunities and space to carry out all the massacres, looting, burning and raping because the Awami League failed to visualise the situation and take immediate measures to contain and mitigate the disaster. So much for the bogey of civil war!
As for the bogeys of militants, conspiracies, threats to national security, threat to democracy, etc, the point that the Awami League is missing out is: are these threats against the nation-state or against the AL government or against the person of the prime minister? If these threats are against the prime minister and the government, constructing bunkers around the secretariat and the prime minister’s residence are tolerable but if these threats are against the nation-state, as the Awami League confusedly wishes to imply, why is the government not constructing bunkers for every household of common citizenry? Or are the 150 million people of this country not worth protecting? In either case, constructing media-friendly, photogenic bunkers are not going to deter ‘militants’ who hoodwinked the all-powerful DGFI, the Bangladesh Army and the absolute majority winning Awami League to carry out the massacre of army officers at Pilkhana between February 25 and 26. So, the ‘public’ is taking all these recalling of bogeys not with a pinch of salt but with a whole plateful of the stuff.
Most importantly, the Awami League is missing out on the point that recalling and raising bogeys will create uncertainties that will impact on our economy, which is already in severe difficulties. Investments both at home and from abroad will dry up, businesses, trade and commerce will decline further, prices and inflation will rise, making life and living for the populace even more difficult than it is right now. The ‘public’ is not going to view that with equanimity or tolerance and public support for the AL government is going to plummet, creating a renewed ‘loss of confidence’ in politics, government and governance – that’s not going to be good for the Awami League and democracy because the military might decide to once again invoke the bogeys of civil war and threats to national security and sovereignty and impose another martial law. So, bogeys cut both ways and the Awami League needs to be very careful, indeed, about how it recalls bogeys.
Mahmud ur Rahman Choudhury is the editor of The Bangladesh Today. editor@thebangladeshtoday.com
El Salvador: victory at last
Funes, who had fought as a guerrilla, became a correspondent of the CNN, the mouthpiece, according to many, of global imperialism and capitalism. As a popular journalist, he built his base not only in the traditional FMLN strongholds but among the middle class too. Here he resembles much to Bill Clinton, Tony Blair and Obama, writes Nehal Adil
MAURICIO Funes, the candidate of the leftist Farabundo Marti Front for National Liberation, has been elected president of El Salvador. He has been congratulated not only by President Lula of Brazil and President Chavez of Venezuela but also by President Barack Obama of the United States, the foremost adversary of the FMLN. The US of Ronald Reagan and George Bush helped the paramilitary of El Salvador perpetrate one of the bloodiest genocides of history. Fifty thousand people were killed out of a population of five million. A million fled to the US, Mexico and other countries. They spread drug and terror according to many. And to others they were victims of aggression. Whatever may be one’s opinion, the world’s deadliest terror groups, the Maras, came out of this turmoil. According to many experts, it is not al-Qaeda but the Maras that pose the deadliest threat to the US.
The Maras like al-Qaeda was born as a rightist terror group backed by the CIA. As al-Qaeda was born in the Afghan war, the Maras were born in the El Salvador civil war as anti-communist organisations. Al-Qaeda created from the upper class western educated Muslims like Bin Laden turned against the US with all its modern technology. The Maras were from working class El Salvadorans who were turned into violent criminals to fight communists. As a reward, the CIA allowed many of them to settle in many American cities where they formed the nucleus of their terror works. Just like al-Qaeda, they ultimately turned their swords against their previous mentor.
In the course of events they gathered support from some leftists too, because in the grey zone of fight between life and death there is no dividing line as the Colombian film Premier Noche, the first night, showed.
Funes, who as a seventeen-year old had turned an auxiliary supporter of the FMLN, joined the peaceful life of the mainstream El Salvador after the peace treaty was signed in 1990. The treaty was itself a great victory of Latin diplomacy. After the fall of the Soviet Union, everyone started declaring communism was dead. Though, in fact, there was no such historical evidence to justify it as we witness the present global chaos of capitalism and rebirth of left.
Marxism is based on dialectics – the unity of the opposite. Funes, who had fought as a guerrilla, became a correspondent of the CNN, the mouthpiece, according to many, of global imperialism and capitalism. As a popular journalist, he built his base not only in the traditional FMLN strongholds but among the middle class too. Here he resembles much to Bill Clinton, Tony Blair and Obama.
The democratic change has brought Obama at the head of the American continent’s greatest country while, on the other hand, it has brought Funes as the head of the continental America’s smallest country, El Salvador.
El Salvador has a population of six million and a land area of only twelve thousand square miles. This density of population makes it one of the poorest countries on the planet. El Salvador was used by the American multinational fruit companies to grow bananas. As such, it was called one of the banana republics. The US virtually ruled the country. Its army, the civil guard, was loyal to the US embassy, not to its government. The ambassador of the democratic United States would just order the civil guard to oust any government that the US disliked.
Vast majority of the people are of Indian or mixed Indian origin, the Mestizoes, but the elite was of white origin. The United States nurtured this white minority, which was opposed to its bigger neighbour, the revolutionary Mexico. Mexico was opposed the United States. So the US had a perennial interest in fanning anti-Mexican feeling in El Salvador, despite the linguistic and racial unity of the two countries. This fragmentation politics succeeded in dividing Central America in too many banana republics.
In the thirties of the last century a change came when an El Salvadoran general revolted with the support of the communists and nationalists. They succeeded for a short time, but the mighty Octopus from the North stepped in. The Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin believed in socialism in one country, the fatherland of the workers. So they did not come to support the newly founded communist state of El Salvador. Thousands perished in the resistance.
But the spark they lighted never vanished. In the thirties and forties there were sporadic resistance. After the victory of the Cuban revolution in the sixties, the new revolutionary focus emerged in Central America and the Caribbean. This led to the victory in Cuban and Grenadian revolutions.
Ronald Reagan and the new born American right, born out of the inglorious defeat in Vietnam and Iran, got panicked. They resorted to a new course of war and annihilation. The Reagan-Bush policy was for total confrontation. The Communist leadership in Moscow failed to realise the ferociousness of this game. They thought Reagan and Bush would be satisfied with Central America. They hit at Moscow, the Soviet Union itself.
After two decades, imperialism is defeated by its own contradictions. Moscow has re-emerged in the world arena. President-elect Funes in El Salvador has been congratulated by President Obama in Washington. Funes has called for peace and reconciliation. With red flags in hand, the FMLN activists in El Salvador cheer him in that great effort.
Ministers’ comments on BDR issue
I could say that Shafique, the law minister is the first person in this government not to have made frivolous remarks about legal matters. After all, our justice system demands that a person is innocent until proven otherwise. Most politicians forget this fact.
Imtiyaz Husain
Gulshan, Dhaka
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Comments made by the minister or anybody in the matter of the BDR issue before the report is formally out will only put a question mark on the validity and credibility of the report and thus would only do harm than any good.
MT Hussain
Via e-mail
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Law minister Shafique Ahmed has said the right thing at the right time. Analysis and guessing are one thing and probe outcomes are another. Let the facts talk and let the information reveal what the motive of the massacre was.
Gopal Sengupta
Canada
Black money
If the law-breakers continue to be awarded with the provision of whitening their black money with only a nominal percentage of tax, where the general and honest businessmen are bound to give higher percentages, it is difficult to even estimate after how many years our country will get a good business environment.
A citizen
Via e-mail
Ministers’ poor show
Ministers’ poor show has irked the prime minister. The responsibility falls on the prime minister as she selected all of them excluding the senior MPs who are vocal and knowledgeable in the parliament. It is true some should have been more matured to become ministers. Only the prime minister can correct the situation by appointing elderly people as ministers.
F Islam
Dhaka
State of our zoos
I visited Rajshahi zoo the other day and was very frustrated to see the pitiable condition of the animals there. The next morning I read the New Age report of six animals dying in the space of just one month in Dhaka zoo. I request the authorities concerned to close down all zoos and concentrate their limited resources in one, good and humane zoo at any town or city in the country where these creatures may abide in peace and the nation itself be taught the quintessential value of humanity.
Mizanur Rahman
Banani, Dhaka
Pakistan situation
Due to lack of sincerity in the development of democracy and economy, Pakistan has become almost a failed State. As it is noted for double talk with the international community and its neighbouring countries Pakistan has lost the goodwill of the world. As terrorism is used as its defence against others Pakistan is posing as a great threat to the region and the world. So, unless it dismantles terrorist outfits there is no safety for its nuclear arsenal and its danger looms large over the countries there.
Nasir Rahman
Via e-mail
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a. KPI security heightened (New Age, March 18)
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c. Arafat sued for money laundering (New Age, March 18)
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