Critical review of Shahbagh: food for thought for the Thinkers

১৯ শে ফেব্রুয়ারি, ২০১৩ সকাল ৮:৩২

I want to submit humbly the following facts for the youths of Shahbagh rally to think about. Honest comments and discussion is appreciated.



1. Because of the Padma Bridge corruption scandal, the entire world now knows that Bangladesh government is nothing but a gang of thieves. People more powerful than Abul Hossain used him to pocket a large portion of World Bank money for the proposed Padma Bridge. That is the reason why the government protected Abul at the expense of the bridge only to hide the involvement of bigger people in the Padma corruption. Through the World Bank, the international community has now full knowledge of the degree of corruption in Bangladesh government. Why are these youths not shouting to have all government ministers involved in Padma corruption punished? Have these youths not lost their sense of right and wrong?



2. An amount of more than 7 million Bangladeshi takas was heading towards Suranjit Sengupta’s residence in Dhaka on the night of 9 April 2012. The money was the Minister’s share of a larger amount of bribe collected from the prospective job applicants of the railway department. After making a number of self-contradictory statements, Suranjit Sengupta finally gave in to the media reports and gave up defending his character. Despite all evidences of his corruption, Sheikh Hasina has kept him in her cabinet, as it is believed that she did not take the risk of inciting one possible whistleblower to expose her corruption records. Why are these Shahbagh youths silent about such massive corruption in the government? Is this silence about corruption and [about] the stealth of public money a spirit of the 1971 liberation war?



3. These young men and women want the death sentence for a number of Jamaat leaders, especially Abdul Quader Molla. Let us look into this matter and see the degree of folly of these youths. The judges who passed the verdict of the life sentence for Molla were not appointed by Jamaat. The prosecution failed to provide any credible evidence to prove that Molla was involved in any sort of crimes against humanity in the 1971 war. While the defence team wanted complete acquittal of Molla, the judges gave him life sentence because of pressure from upstairs, as evidenced by the Skype revelations. How much do these youths know about Abdul Quader Molla? Do they know that in 1974-75 Awami League was in power in Bangladesh, and at that time Molla used to teach at the Udayan School of Dhaka University? Then he taught at Rifles Public School and College in 1977. Now the logical question is: If Molla were involved in war crimes in 1971, would the Awami League government or the people of Dhaka allow him to teach at Udayan or Rifles only few years after the liberation war when the public memory was full of all those horrendous experiences of 1971? How long will our youths follow the wrong leaders who only want to exploit them?



4. Many countries in the world have their momentous events like Bangladesh’s 1971 liberation war. In such difficult times, a country can be divided along political lines. When such periods are over, all countries in history have buried their past and started re-building their land unitedly. Ordinary people may remember the murky past, but the leaders cannot afford to do that as they are supposed to unite their country and consider the entire population on the same scale, without taking into account each group’s partisan perceptions. But in our country, we see a totally different trend. Whose interests do Awami League leaders serve by dividing the nation on the basis of the differences of 1971? Political differences are fine; but have these youths realized how their hearts have been poisoned with the hatred of their compatriots?



5. These Shahbagh youths want the death sentence for Jamaat leaders because there has been media hype to associate Jamaat leaders with the war crimes of the 1971 Bangladesh liberation war. Firstly, war crimes are committed by military personnel and all these accused Jamaat leaders are civilians now as they were then. The Awami League government appointed its chosen judges to handle the accusations of war crimes against its arch-enemy Jamaat. The prosecution could not prove beyond doubt the war crimes accusation against Jamaat Abdul Quaden Molla. The defense team strongly believes that Molla should have been acquitted, as all accusations against him are fabricated or at best based on hearsay. It is believed that the judges were in a tricky situation and had to strike a compromise and awarded Molla the life sentence instead of acquittal or the death sentence. Now this gathering at Shahbagh wants the death sentence for Molla. How logical is their demand?



6. Jamaat in 1971 took a political stance of supporting a united Pakistan, which was simply a foolish political view and but had nothing to do with the war crimes committed by the Pakistani army forces. Unfortunately, the Awami and leftist intellectuals, politicians and their media machines have wrongly been associating Jamaat with all the atrocities of the Pakistani army. By doing so they are showing total disrespect to the generosity and farsightedness of the first Prime Minister of Bangladesh Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. Through an investigation he had identified 195 war criminals in 1973 and all of them were Pakistani military officers.



Then he introduced the International Crimes (tribunal) Act 1973. The very name of the tribunal suggests that the war criminals were not Bangladeshi. Otherwise, the word ‘international’ would not have been used. However, after diplomatic exchanges between Bangladesh, India and Pakistan, the Sheikh Mujib government decided to follow a “Forgive and Forget” policy. His prudent policy of “Forgive and Forget” was applied to the native Bangladeshis also who supported a united Pakistan. Sheikh Mujibur Rahman wanted to settle this issue once and for all, as he was focused on building and uniting the country. Now, those who are shouting a war cry of punishing a section of political leaders are going against Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s policy of ‘forgive and forget’. Sheikh Mujib said: “Let the world know how Bengalis can forgive.” Unfortunately, his daughter Sheikh Hasina is now showing the world how undemocratic, vindictive and murderous she is! Current Awami League ministers’ meanness complicates their love and respect for the father of the nation, as Sheikh Hasina’s hostile attitude towards Jamaat very much questions her loyalty to her father’s political view.



7. The Awami League party had been in power in 1996-2001. At that time, the Awami League regime did not raise the issue of 1971 war crimes. Again it came to power in early 2009. Between these two tenures, BNP and Jamaat formed an alliance and ruled the country from 2001 to 2006. The Awami League considers the BNP-Jamaat pact the main hurdle for it to come to power again. Now it is using the settled issue of the 1971 atrocities for political gain. It is believed that, while victimizing Jamaat leaders Awami League government is also persuading them to stay alone and to leave the alliance with BNP. Since Jamaat has been honest in their commitment to the 18-party alliance, the government has been persecuting its leaders and affiliates in the street and in prisons. Do these Shahbag youths understand this political game?



8. Since Bangladesh was born, Jamaat people have wholeheartedly accepted it and shown complete loyalty to the country. There is not a single instance to suggest that Jamaat people have ever desired to re-join Pakistan or to discredit the liberation that Bangladeshi people proudly achieved in 1971. Any independent survey would suggest otherwise and indicate that Jamaat-Shibir affiliates are the most law-abiding group in the country. Corruption rate among them is next to zero. Two of its senior leaders were in the government in 2001-2006, and not a single case of corruption was found in the administering of their ministerial duties. If such a group of honest and sincere people can be stifled and marginalized in Bangladesh, it will benefit our international enemies who want to see our country in a perpetual corruption so that they can fish in the muddy waters of Bangladesh politics. Have these misguided youths thought about this?



9. Some media outlets have regarded the Shahbagh rally as imbued by the spirit of 1971. My understanding is that the 1971 war was inspired by people’s sense of justice and fair play. We rose up against the injustices of West Pakistan. If the Shahbagh youths were really inspired by the 1971 spirit, they would have taken to the street upon the kidnap of Maulana’s Delwar Hossain Sayeedi’s defence witness by government forces and upon the recent leakage of Skype conversations between the former Chief Judge of ICT-1 and a Brussels-based expatriate Bangladeshi. The Skype conversations unequivocally reveal the fact that the Tribunal and government of Sheikh Hasina have regularly maintained communication and that the latter wanted the former to convict detained Jamaat leaders and to pass verdicts by stipulated times.



10. Around the Shahbagh area of Dhaka, there are three mosques: Katabon mosque, PG Hospital mosque and Dhaka University mosque. On Friday 8 Feb 2013, these youths remained at the square and didn’t stop their loud singing and dancing during mid-day Jum’ah prayer. This tells us who these youths are. Once I was listening to a BBC documentary that retrospectively commented on the Orange Revolution of Ukraine. The BBC did not omit the fact that two intelligence agencies of two big powers were behind the orchestration of the Orange Revolution. Right-minded and discerning people in Bangladesh also know which foreign intelligence agency is behind the Shahbagh rally.

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