Abu Hena :
Anarchy in its worst form is now prevailing all over Bangladesh. It is the result of a kind of violence which threatens to rip the country’s laws and the legal system, the long established social order, and the economy. From the recent happenings in the capital city and Sholakia, Kishoreganj it is evident that a war among the various sections of the people has been set aflame and the government which continued its rule claiming legitimacy on the basis of the controversial 5 January election, has finally lost its power of action on the society which has now become sharply divided into stronger and weaker factions. Its arbitrary use of power and reckless witch-hunt have driven the panic-stricken main political opposition to total despair and disillusionment. Its non-inclusive 5 January election has rendered vast majority of the country’s population unrepresented in the parliament. They have neither a participatory role in law making nor a say in the administration. The recent union council election which left hundreds dead and thousands wounded was a shame.
The age-old, time-tested local government institution which was built in 1860s has been totally destroyed by politicization. The elected District Board which carried the British democratic legacy is now extinct. On top of that the larger section of the general public now feel totally insecure against the arbitrary actions of the government and the excesses of its party loyalists. The result is anarchy let loose in wild fury, and it has come as a consequence of the divisive, irrational and egoistic policies of the rulers. President James Madison expressed the same thoughts. “It is of great importance in a republic”, he said, “not only to guard the society against the oppression of its rulers, but to guard one part of the society against the injustice of the other part….Justice is the end of government. It is the end of civil society…. In a society under the forms of which the stronger faction can readily unite and oppress the weaker, anarchy may as truly be said to reign as in the state of nature, where the weaker individual is not secured against the violence of the stronger; ..”
The neo-anarchists are out to introduce in our system a new kind of violence tearing us apart from the principles of our statecraft and our familiar, comfortable social moorings. As a result the worst symptoms of state failure are evident in the murderous disorder that is now unfolding. Political tyranny with all its manifestations of oppression and injustice remains entrenched and continues to bedevil our lives. The recent nationwide crackdown in the name of curbing militancy was a bizarre act of blatant infringement on the people’s right to freedom and justice. In the first five days of the ruthless campaign 12 thousand people were taken prisoners by the law enforcement agencies who have been recently debarred by the country’s highest court from making arrests on mere suspicion under section 54 of Cr. Pc. Only 145 of those prisoners featured in the suspect list maintained by the police.
The country’s Chief Justice has expressed dissatisfaction in so many ways over the manner justice has been administered so far in Bangladesh. In a verdict delivered on June 15 in another case, the High Court observed: “Rule of law would not be established in the country unless a fair political culture is developed. Democracy will be thwarted .” And now only fifteen days’ after the cautionary remarks recorded by the country’s apex court, gunmen held dozens of people hostage inside a popular hangout for foreigners in the capital’s diplomatic zone of Gulshan and fought a fierce gun-battle with the law enforcers killing two police officers on the spot.
The hostage standoff began at nightfall on 1 July after six men carrying firearms, bombs and swords stormed into the Holey Artisan Bakery in Gulshan and ended after 12 hours when a joint forces operation code-named ‘operation thunderbolt’ stormed the café but only to bring to the media the horrific scenes of blood, shock and horror : nine Italians, seven Japanese, two Bangladeshis , one Bangladeshi -American and one Indian were brutally murdered within 20 minutes of the chilling siege. Six militants were killed in the joint operation and one captured alive. Five of them, according to the police chief, were under their watch as listed terrorists. Surprisingly, these five young men who were listed as terrorists were left free during the recent crackdown which enabled them to plan and execute such a deadly strike right at the heart of the heavily guarded diplomatic zone .
In this ‘State of Nature’ we find ourselves stripped of all security and are confronted by violent men who can perpetrate such brutality while remaining under the watch of the law enforcers at the same time. The government, here, has become an exercise in predation, without the slightest pretense of providing public good including the most important public safety and security. Such cynical behaviors are the manifestations of the self-seeking policies of the ruling coterie who are privy to the extra judicial killings and torture to suppress the dissenting voices. Such actions consequentially push around the suffocated people and especially the juvenile delinquents to take up arms out of desperation, registering protest. They are the worst victims of an exploitative economic system that collects bulk of the taxes and levies from the poorer classes by indirect taxation and transfers wealth to the top financial tycoons only to be laundered abroad.
The daily widening income disparity and deepening social inequality intensified by the acute shortage of job opportunities explain the reasons why bright young men are choosing a ‘short cut’ to go up the ladder.
At the heart of the problem lies the so-called spoils system, which has been created over the years by way of awarding jobs, honors, positions, titles, promotions, and other patronages for political loyalty. Merit-based impartial selection of government employees at various tiers of administration without regard to ruling party affiliation or elitist backing has been totally blocked. Private sector jobs are scarcely advertised.
Businesses are controlled by the criminal syndicates, which comprise lawmaker and law breaker alike. A section of the general administration and the police has teamed up with the ruling party hierarchy using arbitrary power and putting themselves into a state of war with the people. Because of their divisive attitude the law enforcement agencies have lost the support of the general public, which is critical. All these in a nutshell may account for the Gulshan tragedy, where a young man who finished his O’ Levels with flying colors decided to die a jahadist’s death hoping for justice in the other world. He was, in the words of poet William Blake “mad from life’s fury, glad to death’s mystery, sweet to be hurled, anywhere, anywhere out of the world”. It has been revealed now that the young man who was killed in the Sholakia bomb blast was a student studying Business Administration in the North South University. Hundreds of BBAs and MBAs are loitering in the streets of Dhaka looking for jobs to start a career. It is still not known how many such ‘troubled’ youngsters are waiting in the pipeline to die in this way.
Today, though eighty percent of the nation’s population live on farms in remote villages in dire condition, country’s bloated bureaucracy continue to swell to dig deeper into taxpayers’ wallets throwing public money down the hole. Thousands of them are either ‘in-situ’, doing the same job even after promotions to higher ranks or are officers on special duty enjoying their pay and perks, now doubled, just sitting at home. All powers are now concentrated in the over-blown central secretariat leaving the local government tiers bereft of all powers and functions. Every year the country needs two million jobs to accommodate fresh graduates in various disciplines. Against that hardly three hundred thousand jobs are available. The reason why the jihadists who went to English medium schools and top grade private universities decided to sacrifice their valuable lives for a Jihadist cause may not be far to seek. In their demonstration of bravado and defiance they made exemplary killings of innocents showing no feeling of wrongdoing. And this sense of self-justification, more than anything else, worries us most.
Whatever be the cause it is now clear that a kind of war has begun in the minds of me. All efforts must now be made to put the mind at rest. It is a major civil liberties challenge to defend the right of the people to live in peace, to organize and to speak with unity of purpose. Time has come when all free associations, civil liberties groups and the citizenry must perceive the essence of history as the endless struggle by which people master their destiny and join together for a commonality of purpose.
We must, first of all, start looking at the basic issues holistically and without bias so as to prevent the mighty and the powerful from manipulating the system to keep its control on state power and wealth extraction thus creating conditions for desperate acts by the oppressed and the marginalized public. We must protect our society from violence and protect every member of the society from the injustice and oppression of every other member of it. Focusing on the Islamic faith, to which ninety three percent of the people of Bangladesh profess their adherence, as the cause of ‘terrorism’ is not only an affront and insult to the country’s democratic and religious values and its non-violent heritage but something that is likely to make Bangladesh more unsafe and vulnerable in future.
[Writer was elected MP in the 7th and the 8th Parliament]
