Crisis in Bangladesh

The worthy Sheikh Hasina Wajid is back as prime minister of crisis-hit Bangladesh for the third spell in the wake of the recent violence-plagued parliamentary elections that lost credibility in the eyes of the international community.

These elections became a farce after the boycott by Begum Khaleda Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) led 18-party opposition alliance as well as the unopposed election of over 150 Awami League members to the 300-strong parliament even before polling day.

With a dismal voter turnout of around 20 percent compared to the almost 85 percent turnout in 2008, the newly elected prime minister may find it extremely difficult to continue in power after an election ‘victory’ that does not truly reflect the will of the majority.

Had Sheikh Hasina not scrapped the interim government system in 2010 and instead installed a neutral caretaker setup to oversee the January 5 elections, Bangladesh would have been spared the grave political turmoil and internal instability it faces today.

The pre-election campaign saw Sheikh Hasina and her Awami League leadership emulating the Indian model by inciting anti-Pakistan sentiment to win voters’ sympathy. Bangladesh’s politics continues to be sharply polarised and remains deeply impacted by the clear-cut divisions in society.

Sheikh Hasina leads the secular forces that consider the 1971 Indian supported ‘war of liberation’ as the basis of the country’s founding principles. The BNP’s Khaleda Zia and allied parties like the banned Jamaat-e-Islami represent pro-Islamist forces that still draw their inspiration from the 1947 freedom movement by Bengal’s Muslim stalwarts. Thus BNP governments encouraged and enjoyed cordial relations with Pakistan.

Sheikh Hasina’s successive governments showed a strong tilt towards India which, too, is naturally not prepared to accept a Bangladesh that is pro-Pakistan. Accordingly the last five years witnessed a deep low in relations between the two countries with Hasina declining an official invitation for a visit to Pakistan in November 2012 while her foreign minister demanded an apology from Pakistan for the 1971 war atrocities.

On an official visit to Bangladesh in July 2002 during Khaleda Zia’s rule, then president and army chief Gen Pervez Musharraf reportedly visited the war memorial near Dhaka and regretted the 1971 events. Later he repeated his regrets at an official banquet in Dhaka; this was well received by the political elite and people of Bangladesh.

In his remarks penned in the visitor’s book, Musharraf implicitly apologised: “Your brothers and sisters in Pakistan share the pain of the events in 1971. The excesses committed during the unfortunate period are regretted.”

Some human rights activists from Pakistan who received ‘Friends of Bangladesh’ awards from Prime Minister Hasina Wajid on the occasion of Bangladesh’s national day on March 24, 2013, demanded that Pakistan apologise for alleged 1971 atrocities by the Pakistan Army.

They forgot to read Sarmila Bose’s ground breaking book, ‘Dead Reckoning: memories of the 1971 Bangladesh War’, in which she rejected the oft-repeated Indo-Bangladesh allegation of ‘genocide’ of three million Bengalis by the Pakistan Army as “nothing more than a gigantic rumour”, since it was not based on any authentic accounting.

Perhaps there should be an apology or regret for the killings of thousands of non-Bengali men, women and children, West Pakistani businessmen and army officers/families who, according to Sarmila Bose, were victims of ethnic violence.

The 2012 war crimes trials that were condemned by international jurists and human rights organisations as flawed, unjust and non-transparent, achieved two objectives. First, the Awami League took revenge and prosecuted the country’s Jamaat-e – Islami leaders. Second, it revived anti-Pakistan sentiments amongst the post-1971 Bangladeshi generation.

The people of Bangladesh wonder if their country can afford to remain destabilised both on the political and economic fronts. They also ask if it is time to separate the warring political ‘begums’ who have held their country hostage all these years. Also, is there a need to infuse new blood in Bangladesh’s politics to guide the country towards political stability?

Is the country headed for another military intervention if the lawlessness and political impasse persist? Bangladesh has experienced a few successful military takeovers and around two dozen failed attempts, the most recent being one by hard-line Islamist army officers in 2012.

With the US, Australia and EU calling for fresh elections, the coming weeks will see Sheikh Hasina under increasing pressure from a determined Khaleda Zia for a political settlement to hold free and fair elections under a neutral caretaker setup.

Bangladesh should look into the appalling inhuman conditions in which thousands of stranded ‘Bihari Pakistanis’ still live in camps in and around Dhaka, yearning to be repatriated to Pakistan. Despite promises by Pakistan’s leaders, including Mian Nawaz Sharif, successive Pakistani governments failed to fulfil their moral and legal commitment to bring back as many of their countrymen to the home of their choice.

From Pakistan’s National Assembly’s recent resolution that expressed concern over the hanging of Jamaat-e-Islami’s leader Abdul Quadir Mollah to retaliatory burning of Pakistan’s flag in Bangladesh, relations between two countries are at their lowest.

It remains in the interest of both countries to move on and bury the bitterness of the past. There is need for intense people-to-people contact to promote friendship and enhance cooperation. Prime Minister Hasina Wajid should understand that she will not accomplish much by reopening old wounds.

The writer is a retired brigadier.  Email: fhkhan54@gmail.com