This was merely the beginning. In 1996, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party held an election boycotted by the opposition, which took to the streets and paralyzed the nation with its hartals for months. It became apparent that no party could be trusted to hand over power after an election – that the parties were, in fact, just as authoritarian and anti-democratic as the military, if not more.
A clever change to the constitution was engineered: the provision for a caretaker government to oversee every election. The ruling party would step down a few months before elections, and the caretaker government would supervise and hand over power to the winning party. There was a catch: who would be the head of the caretaker government? The retired chief justice.
What happened should have been obvious: the parties started influencing the judiciary in the most brazen manner. Justice Syed Amirul Islam, who retired on January 13 at the age of 67, was the most senior judge, but he was passed over again and again for appointment to the Appellate Division in favour of junior colleagues.
The other institution bankrupted by the politicians is the civil service. A neutral civil service is essential for the functioning of a democracy, so that whichever party comes to power, the bureaucracy will not stymie its actions along party lines. In 1996, when the Awami League took to the streets for months, several bureaucrats came out openly in favour of the League and against the BNP. The League went on to win the election, but from then on it was clear that every party would try its level best to politicise the bureaucracy.
The army, similarly, became politicised. General Mustafizur Rahman, who is related to the Mujib family, and whom the author personally knows, was brought out of retirement and made army chief by the Awami League. Even medical personnel at the state hospitals were appointed along party lines. Thus, the whole of society, split between the two parties, stood ready for a confrontation of a devastating nature, when, urged on by donors, the army took over, and a fresh caretaker government was formed. Recalling an earlier event of deliverance from an impending doom, the people rejoiced.
Why Support the Politicians
Given all this, we may wonder why some people, like Abdul Momen (there are quite a few like him), are so fond of the politicians.
For one thing, the two political leaders are extensions of earlier dictators: Khaleda Zia of the BNP is wife of General Zia-ur-Rahman, and Sheikh Hasina is daughter of Sheikh Mujib. We saw how Mujib began a cult of personality (which Zia failed to match): therefore, quite a few people are loyal to the House of Mujib, and wish to see that House installed in power. Indeed, the anti-democratic and authoritarian tendencies of the two parties can be traced directly to the fact that they were born of dictators, one civilian, another military. One would be surprised, to say the least, if, in their heart of hearts, the two women could ever repudiate the authoritarianism of husband and father. The present government has made it their single-minded task to uproot the two dynasties, and end the adversarial politics once and for all. Loyalty (of an irrational kind familiar to students of Hitler, Mao and Stalin) renders some people blind to every evil perpetrated in the last sixteen years.
Then there are the donors, especially Washington. The donors are blowing hot and cold in the same breath: they want the parties purged and democracy up and running in the not-too-distant future. Consequently, savvy intellectuals find it politic to keep up the democratic argot, knowing that the western powers will ultimately push for democracy.
After all, when all is said and done, at the end of the day, Bangladesh must appear what she has always been: a colony of the western powers.
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