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South Asian Politics
The meaning of Democracy in Thug nation by Sophia Barkat Elections are fair: but nothing else works! While Americans may not be able to say they have the cleanest politicians or the fairest elections, we Bangladeshis can at least say our elections are fair. In the November 2001 elections, 500 foreign overseers sat on as millions of Bangladeshis went to vote. And judging from the outcome, one knew that the election was fair. You see, in Bangladesh all we have are two major parties and many smaller parties, and the major parties, if elections are fair, always change sides in the Parliament. It happens because of negative votes against the ruling political party, who by then, has proved to be incompetent. In the last election, people voted against Awami League -- a party that fosters thugs and let law and order completely go down the drain. Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), it's main opponent, was slated to win by a landslide. 911 & Bush On September 11, 2001 the world changed. The World Trade Center was attacked. The illiterate Bush declared a "Crusade". And people in the Muslim world took to the streets. To protect her own turf, Khaleda Zia, Chair of Bangladesh Nationalist Party and opposition leader in the Parliament, took a political decision. At the wake of angered demonstrations in Bangladesh protesting George Bush's impending war on Afghanistan and his "Crusade", Khaleda Zia declared that her party was going to form a four-party coalition for the upcoming election in October 2001. Even though she was slated to win due to negative votes against the ruling Awami League, she decided to win over the Muslim political parties just so that she could control them and also reassure her own win in the Bangladesh Parliament. The Unholy Alliance As predicted, BNP won. As a result, BNP & it's shady Alliance includes three parties including the controversial Jamaat-e-Islami. It is doubtful that Jamaat would have won any seats in the Parliament, had it not been for Sept 11 and Bush's outrageous wars. Just following Sept. 11, people in Bangladesh took to the streets condemning the attack. But following Bush's call for Crusades, the crowd again took to the streets condeming the US. And even then, Jamaat's voters did not come from the Urban areas. Most seats were won in Rajshahi District, and had something to do with the rise of Indo-Bangladesh communal tensions. Smart Campaigning It is strange how Jamaat Islami crept up this far because it's leader, Gholam Azam, is one of the most infamous national traitors and a wanted man in Bangladesh -- for the deaths of uncountable East Paakistanis in the War of Independence. It's also said that he supports Al-Qaeda and does not consider Osama bin Laden a terrorist. And yet, Jamaat won seats in the Bangladesh Parliament, probably by making the most of communal tensions in the India-Bangladesh borders, following 911. So pro-Islam had the voters become in that region that BNP had to change it's usual course of action in election year. But at what cost? Even though both Khaleda Zia and Awami League's Sheikh Hasina, now the opposition party in Parliament, have both approved Bangladesh's support for the U.S. fight against terrorism -- a decision taken by the caretaker administration that took over from Hasina on July 15th to supervise the elections -- and Khaleda Zia and Sheikh Hasina both support secular laws, the presence of Jamaat in BNP's alliance sends the wrong message to the world as well to people in Bangladesh. It says that we are run by thug politicians and cannot live up to the pledge of secularism that the nation was based upon. It says we are pro-Osama because the coalition government includes them, even though Jamaat won just 4% of the 300 seats, and BNP could have done without them. Jamaat's Identity Fact is Jamaat smells of rotten eggs even to Bangladeshis and we know it. Jamaat-e-Islami and the many hitherto unheard of Muslim parties who registered to run for seats in the past parliamentary election are all funded by money from the Middle East. They support an Islamic State. They gain political power from poor illiterate people in villages and not urban voters. They have a missing moral leadership, exemplified by people such as Gholam Azam, who up until the 1990s was a political exile in Pakistan. They have no interest in giving women equal place in public life, as is promised in the Bangladesh Constitution, even though Jamaat insists it will protect the Family Court if it ever came to power. Why they voted for Jamaat? The voting population in Bangladesh consists largely of poor people who live in villages, don't have formal education and have never read any book other than their own religious text, which in most cases is the Qu'ran. As such they are easy bait for fundamentalist political parties searching for more power. The voter profile doesn't vary much from region to region, implying that people are equally likely to vote based on emotion anywhere in the country, and border tensions and pre-existing communal unrest will provide the necessary reason to vote on emotion. Bengal has a proud history of fighting the British, being the last to fall to the imperial rule. People have a habit of standing up to imperialists. But we tend to not be under the leadership of great leaders like the historic Nawab Sirajudawla, or Sheikh Mujib or Ziaur Rahman. Sadly enough, there are no great men or women in politics who will ask the cluesless masses to question the integrity of those who fake piousness when they have blood in their hands. After all, it was the politicians who let Gholam Azam back into the country, and not without cause. Jamaat's Money Trail? At some point in the '80s people like Gholam Azam were able to return to Bangladesh, with money from the Middle East and ample political connections. President Ershad, known to be a corrupt President, let Gholam Azam back into the country in search of the latest dime. That's how Jamaat got back in and that's how they planned on staying. They set up charities where they could, using the ready crowd of mollahs as their silent regiment. Dhaka is known as a city of mosques. For the devout, this means that they can step out the door and walk into a mosque. For the fundamentalists this means a place to show people the generosity of the Middle East, a place that is otherwise notorious for poor human rights. Hence the love affair with Jamaat began. Cut at the Base The only way to stop Jamaat and the like is to cut off the money line to these fundamentalist groups and to increase literacy and education of the people. Though the Bangladesh Constitution outlaws forced religious education in schools, Muslim Madrasas are very popular amongst the poor. But with George Bush cutting foreign aid -- health care etc. -- to Third World Governments that are dependant on foreign aid to maintain their "expense accounts" there is a need to look elsewhere. Hence, any alliance is a good one as far as Khaleda Zia is concerned. The Ramifications It is sometimes easy to forget the global implications of domestic policymaking. Perhaps BNP and Awami League are so swept up in partisan politics that they can't think beyond the myopia of election year. That fact that the democracy is dysfunctional unless the country has law and order and not incessant political strikes has completely eluded them, that much is sure, but to risk bringing on the wrath of the gungho West is too irresponsible even for them. It is high time both parties started acting with dignity and started addressing the real needs of the country. For surely heading in this direction can be of no good to the nation. |
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