People's Democracy

Political Turmoil & Clashes Mar Bangladesh Life

Kamal Choudhury

A SITUATION of political clashes and turmoil continued to prevail in Bangladesh even a week after a caretaker government was installed in the country, and there is no certainty as to whether it would be possible to hold the national parliament (Jatiya Samsad) elections in time. Unprecedented violent street clashes occurred all over the country, including capital Dhaka, from October 27 to 29, prior to the installation of a caretaker government for conducting elections after the expiry of the tenure of office of the coalition government. The latter comprised the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and the Islamic fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islami. 

OPEN YANKEE INTERFERENCE

This free and indiscriminate use of firearms as well as sharp and blunt weapons by rival political groups left at least 28 people dead and more than 2,000 injured in those three days. The 14-party opposition front paralysed life in the country for those three days, stalling the entire transport system. The front, led by the Awami League and Bangladesh Workers Party, had served an ultimatum upon President Yajuddin Ahmed, stipulating November 11 as the deadline for creating a congenial atmosphere for holding free and fair elections in the country by removing the present election commissioners, guilty of partiality for the erstwhile coalition government, and appointing an impartial Election Commission in their place. The front also declared that it would organise yet another spell of continuous siege all over the country from November 12 onward if its 11-point demands were not fulfilled by the stipulated date.

In fact it was the outgone coalition government of BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami that created this knotty situation of clashes today prevailing in Bangladesh. They have been bent upon recapturing power through shameless and unscrupulous use of state machinery in their own petty interest, by making the administration and the Election Commission function as their stooges.
While Bangladesh passes through such a volatile and complex situation, foreign diplomatic missions are contacting various political parties, with the US ambassador posted in Dhaka especially visiting their offices regularly and openly offering them advices. US deputy secretary of foreign affairs Richard Boucher, who recently extolled as ‘moderates’ the militant fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islami and its associates, also visited Dhaka. To note, it was only last year that the Jamaat’s frontal organisations like the Jagrata Muslim Janata, Harkatul-Jihad and others had unleashed terror all over the country through bomb attacks on judicial courts and other places, killing at least 30 people including judges and lawyers and injuring more than 1,000 people, all in the name of establishing an Islamic rule in the country. The US administration is directly interfering in the day-to-day conduct of administration, policy decisions and election mechanism in Bangladesh.

SABOTAGE OF DEMOCRACY

Though Bangladesh achieved independence in 1971 through the martyrdom of lakhs of freedom fighters, democracy is yet to find a stable institutionalised shape in the country. On August 15, 1975, Sheikh Mujibur-Rehman, leader of the struggle for independence, was brutally assassinated along with some family members by a group of military officers. The latter staged a military coup at the behest of the CIA and the ISI who jointly hatched a conspiracy to stifle the nascent democratic and secular system in the country. In November the same year, the same conspirators killed the first Bangladesh prime minister Tajuddin Ahmed and vice president Syed Nazrul Islam along with other top leaders of the country in the Central Jail of Dhaka. Bangladesh remained virtually under military rule from that time till 1990 when a mass uprising by the people overthrew the military junta led by General H M Ershad.

Now a parliamentary democratic system was established in the country and the constitution amended to make a provision for setting up an impartial caretaker government before every election and vesting it with the responsibility of conducting elections to the national parliament, so that no ruling party could misuse the state machinery in its petty interest. As per this amendment, the last-retired chief justice heads the caretaker government and, if he cannot shoulder the responsibility for some reason or other, his immediate predecessor in office heads the caretaker government. But the caretaker government’s head must in no case be above 72 years. If no former chief justice is ready to shoulder the responsibility, the president must select for the job someone else known for non-partisanship, failing which he may himself take over the responsibility. In 1996 and 2001, elections in Bangladesh were held under the supervision of such caretaker governments headed by former chief justices. 

However, in a bid to sabotage this system of conduct of elections under an impartial caretaker government and to ensure the appointment of a BNP-Jamaat yes-man as the caretaker government’s head, the ruling coalition extended through an administrative order the term of office of the incumbent Supreme Court chief justice by two years --- from 65 to 67. The idea was to keep Justice J R Modassir in office at the election time and thus prevent him from heading the caretaker government. In his place, the last-retired chief justice would have been K M Hasan who is one of the BNP’s founder members and a former secretary of its International Cell, and he would have headed the caretaker government. And to be doubly sure of their victory in the elections, the BNP-Jamaat coalition government also appointed ardent BNP supporters as the chief election commissioner and other members of the Election Commission.

The 14-party front of opposition parties has been organising intensive movements in the last one year against this bid to install a puppet caretaker government and a puppet Election Commission. They have also given specific proposals to the parliament for electoral reforms. Though the BNP-Jamaat coalition government once sat with the opposition to discuss the electoral reforms proposals, in the end it refused to accept any of the opposition demands and the talk failed to yield any result. The 14-party front declared that it would at no cost accept Justice K M Hasan as the head of the caretaker government, and that the Election Commission needed to be reconstituted. The front organised a siege of Dhaka and in all districts and sub-districts from October 27.

OPPOSITIONDEMANDS

The siege brought everything in the country to a standstill and paralysed the transport network, offices and courts, business centres, industrial establishments, in short the entire life in the country. There also took place terrible street fights between the pro-government and anti-government sides, and the police resorted to firing at several places. Owing to relentless pressure, Justice K M Hasan withdrew himself from the job he was assigned.

But Yajuddin Ahmed, elected president as the BNP-Jamaat candidate, appointed himself quite unseemly as the head of the caretaker government, instead of appointing another former Supreme Court chief justice to the post. Later, though he appointed ten persons as advisers, he retained with himself portfolios like the Election Commission, home, defence, foreign affairs, general administration etc in the caretaker government.

The 14-party front, some other parties, the Supreme Court Bar Association, many professional organisations and intellectuals criticised the president for this usurpation of powers of the caretaker government and grab of all important ministries. They also complained that he has been running the caretaker government in the interest of the BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami. The Awami League, Bangladesh Workers Party, Communist Party of Bangladesh, Liberal Democratic Party and others served an ultimatum upon the president for a reconstitution of the Election Commission, a reallocation of portfolios to advisors, removal of defects and fake names from the voters list, and removal of the BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami men from important offices of the police and administration before November 11. The opposition also accused the Election Commission of listing one crore and 40 lakh false names in the voters list while expunging the names of more then one crore genuine voters from it.

In the meantime, erosion and a split have taken place in the ruling BNP. Dr A Q M Badrudduza Chaudhuri, former Bangladesh president and one of the BNP’s founders, former minister Ali Ahmed who was also a member of the BNP standing committee, 13 ministers and MPs left the BNP, formed a new party called the Liberal Democratic Party, and established ties with the front led by the Awami League. A split also occurred in the Jatiya Party of General H M Ershad, with a section revolting against his decision to have an alliance with the BNP. They have formed a new party and declared that they would forge ties with the Awami League.

Recently, on the other hand, the election commissioners appointed by the BNP-Jamaat government declined to voluntarily resign their posts despite requests from the president’s council of advisers. The Jamaat-e-Islami also urged the president to deploy the armed forces to stem the movement the 14-party front had threatened to launch from November 12 to besiege the whole country. Workers Party of Bangladesh president Rashid Khan Menon vehemently protested against this stance of the Jamaat-e-Islami and warned the president that solely upon him would be the onus of the dangerous repercussions that are sure to follow if he deployed the army to stem a political movement. The political instability persists.

November 6, 2006