Sheikh Hasina arrested, and the Army gambles with Bangladesh

[I actually wrote this last week but couldn’t get online for a while.]

At around 2am in Dhaka on Monday 16^th June, a thousand members of the security forces began to assemble outside the home of Sheikh Hasina, the former Prime Minister of Bangladesh and leader of one of the two main parties, the Awami League (AL). She was arrested on charges of extortion, taken to court, denied bail under the Emergency Power Rules and sent to a sub-jail by midday. After six months of running Bangladesh under a state of emergency, the military-backed caretaker government is finally beginning to lay its cards on the table, in doing so taking a massive gamble with the future of Bangladesh and its 150 million people. Currently, it’s impossible to predict if this gamble will pay off. 

Bye bye to Yunus, and brave leadership in Bangladesh

[Cross-posted at The Guardian’s Comment Is Free]

As Britain bids goodbye to Blair, and the sense of new political hope that he once symbolised, Bangladesh is also rapidly facing the reality that it has lost its chance of an alternative, fresh and progressive political leadership.

The awarding of 2006 Nobel Peace Prize to Dr Muhammed Yunus, confirmed his demi-god status in Bangladesh, and granted him incontestable moral authority. After the military coup on January 11^th a vacuum was created and the stage seemed set for him to save the nation by entering its political spotlight. By February 22^nd in an open letter, he announced his intention to form a party, ‘Nagorik Shakti’ (Citizen’s Power) in an open letter to the nation, and Bangladesh largely celebrated.

Yunus promised a politics that would “materialise the dream of the liberation war” and would offer a much-needed electoral alternative and clear path away from the democratic nightmare being fostered by the rule of the BNP and Awami League.

Terrorists strike again in Bangladesh

[Cross-posted in the Guardian’s ‘Comment Is Free’ section here.] 

Two weeks ago, the Generals in control of Bangladesh were on the cusp on completing their coup through the ‘democracy minus-two’ plan, with the imminent exile of both previous Prime Ministers, Khaleda Zia and Sheikh Hasina. This attempt to end their dynastic and allegedly hugely corrupt control over the country spectacularly backfired however, with the former leaders popular again, whilst the military-backed interim government has lost a huge amount of both international and domestic support and legitimacy. Then on Tuesday May 1st, three small bombs exploded in the three major cities, planted by ‘Jadid Al-Qaeda’. Political power and the responsibility that comes with it must now look far less attractive.

Before the electoral crisis erupted at the end of October last year, the rise of Islamic extremism in Bangladesh was raising the most international concern. Tuesday’s attacks have now reminded everyone that regardless of the current political posturing, outside of that arena another long-term threat to Bangladesh and the region is fermenting, and the people behind it have less interest in gaining power through the ballot box. The proliferation of jihadist groups willing to resort to terrorism must be addressed as soon as possible by
Bangladesh’s eventual democratic government.

Uncertain Times

[This has been cross-posted on The Guardian’s Comment Is Free blog. There are already comments, so maybe contribute to any debate there?]

Bangladesh is rapidly moving from being the world’s fifth largest democratic state, to the world’s largest state of total uncertainty. Since January 11, when the military stepped in to avert certain chaos and cancelled January’s scheduled but highly contentious general election, imposing a caretaker government under a state of emergency, the caretaker government, whilst initially very popular here, is beginning to look less military-backed and more military-run.

On Sunday in London the former prime minister Sheikh Hasina, the leader of the Awami League (AL) was humiliated when she was turned back from Heathrow trying to board a flight home as the military stated they would refuse to let her re-enter the country. Her bitter rival Khaleda Zia, the leader of the Bangladesh Nationalist party (BNP) and the most recent prime minister, is desperately fighting against exile to Saudi Arabia with her family. The coup began by the military is near completion.

The world wakes up to the mess in Bangladesh?

The august New York Times has published an editorial on the crisis in Bangladesh today. The NYT states:

April 15, 2007

Editorial

Bangladesh in the Generals’ Grip

Promoting democracy, especially in Islamic countries, is supposed to be a major goal of President Bush’s foreign policy. But his administration has raised little protest as Bangladesh — until January the world’s fifth most populous democracy — has been transformed into its second most populous military dictatorship.

Big Political Trouble in Little Bangladesh

The dam of lies and corruption is beginnning to burst, and everything’s spilling out now.

In the last few days, charges first of extortion/corruption and today murder have been levelled against Sheikh Hasina, the leader of Bangladesh’s Awami League, who was PM from 1996-2001 and leader of the party pretty much since her father was assassinated in 1975.

Sheikh Hasina has been on holiday in America, since all politics is banned in Bangladesh, but she’s announced that she’s coming back as soon as possible to fight the charges, and has completely denied them, obviously.

You can read about the murder charges here, on the BBC. Most Bangla news sites at the moment are still buzzing with bias.  They’re based around who was responsible for the riots on October 28th when six people were beaten to death. I was there and it was disgusting. It’s the kind of charge that’s completely politically motivated and may well never even see court, but personally, I would agree with this summation, by Kawsar Jamal who runs the Change Bangladesh website:

“150 million people including the Non-resident Bangladeshi are responsible for October 28th, 06 occurence. The factors that played hard for the occurence to happen are
lack of education,lack of information sharing between people to people,lack of humanity and humanness(n)and lack of proper process and procedures of so called filthy democracy,familycracy and autocracy thats been followed for last 35 years after independence. It doesn’t look to good even now, so I won’t be amazed if I see the same occurence sometime soon too, who knows may be very soon or little later unless things gets strengthen up very soon.”

The suspension of politics in Bangladesh – the end of freedom?

On Sunday Fakhruddin Ahmed, the Chief Advisor to Bangladesh’s ‘interim’ military-technocratic administration came to Sylhet. He declared that the administration was directly accountable to the people, and was a constitutional government as it had assumed office taking the oath on the Constitution. He went on to say that his government wanted real democracy, adding that a peaceful atmosphere and social stability were the pre-requisites for holding free, fair and credible elections.

This is all utter nonsense, and I’m disappointed that I was in the office and unable to witness his statements myself.

These are the facts about the political situation in Bangladesh at the moment:

‘The greatest game’: Bangladeshi politics, the story so far

I haven’t been posting about every latest political development here because I never intended that to be the purpose of this blog – and working a six day week and doing other things means I don’t have as much time as I’d like; just keeping up with the news is hard enough.

But I do find the ever-changing situation fascinating, and I think for anyone who’s studied or had an interest in politics, what’s happening here is…in a word, spectacular.

On the Drishtipat blog, an excellent, short but thorough round-up has been published, including some eye-watering examples of gross corruption, and some photos which really do tell a thousand words. Check it out here.

Yunus enters politics, and is wrong

On Sunday Professor Yunus, the 2006 winner of the Nobel Peace Prize and consequently seen by the people here as both their pride and saviour, finally decided to get his hands dirty and enter politics.

 

Over the last four months it has struck me as strange that the Nobel Peace Prize recipient should travel the world receiving accolades and free dinners whilst back home his country falls to pieces, but I suppose he’s decided that now is the time to actually do some peace-keeping.

 

He’s chosen his moment well, because currently, with no legal government, all political protests banned, some fundamental human rights suspended, he can enter the political vacuum and fill it with his beaming smile, use his moral authority to force the interim military-backed administration to hold elections at some point this year (which otherwise would not be likely), and win with a landslide. Easy.

 

Of course, I only want Bangladesh to develop as a country, with a legitimate democratic government that rules in the best interests of the people with their consent. This is what Yunus might be able to achieve. But he would achieve it in a most unusual fashion, and is starting from the wrong position.

Bangladesh – Military Coup on the quiet?

This document came to my attention, and is a fascinating account of rumoured events leading up to President Iajuddin’s resignation as Chief of the CTG, and declaring a state of emergency.

Essentially, it is saying that the army decided to stage a bloodless coup because they were threatened by various international actors that if they assisted in the running of rigged elections, they would lose their prestigious and financially lucrative contracts with the UN.

It is written by Dr. Abdul Momen, a professor in Boston, USA who seems to have good sources, but either way, it’s a nice story, and unfortunately all too believable.

What I personally find interesting is how the fate of whole countries can rest on the whims of a few people, who are typically unelected and inexperienced to handle that level and type of power. Indeed, they might be ignorant of it. Power sometimes, I believe, at critical points can become an independent force, and it is all man can do to try and keep some modicum of control before events and unintended consequences propel situations towards human disaster. I’m not sure if we’ve created a way to manage this. I’m not sure if we ever will.