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STRAIGHT FROM THE HEART

Is "Islam is in danger" slogan back in circulation?

Afsan Chowdhury
***It seems these are troubling times for culture that is not organised by the state or the parties in power... Shall we end up as a place where the only safe place to say or practice freedom is where the premises belong to a foreign embassy and the foreign envoy with the might of the West will be one person who shall be able to speak without the intolerant censor's long hand reaching out to still the voice?***
MATIR Moina's certificate, almost delivered to the filmmaker Tareq Masud has been withdrawn or withheld on the ground that it will hurt "religious feelings". Whose religion and whose feelings are we talking about anyway?
But that's the official bottomline, whether we like it or not. For a film like Matir Moina, produced for mass-market consumption by a filmmaker like Tareq Masud who is always aware of what the market wants and willing to adjust accordingly, the argument of Censor Board doesn't hold. Holds even less for those who have already seen the film, which is very sensitively made. This is beginning to look like plain and simple censorship of the earlier variety which one thought had died. The film has been viewed at Cannes, appreciated and distributed nationally. The government has walked into an image trap it wanted to avoid at a huge cost.
***
IN 1970, when Bangladesh was launching its final phase of the autonomy movement, a number of books were banned by the then Pakistan government on such grounds. This incensed the intellectuals and readers to such a degree that they became part of the active political movement. Given that BNP isn't doing too well governingwise, one wonders what motivates them to take exactly those steps, which makes them controversial and unpopular? It's a mysterious political party.
***
" ISLAM is in danger ".
This was the great catch phrase excuse to do anything to stamp down cultural opposition in pre 1971 Pakistan. It was so overused that it became a cliche and then a joke. "Islam khatra me hai" was such a bad policy that it lost all moral value, denigrated Islam itself and served no purpose except to unite its foes. Worse, competence was replaced by manipulation and when the time came for the bureaucracy and politicians to act, they tried to take the easy way out. But force-- be it banning or killing--doesn't work when the people no longer support the cause.
Is this on because the same officers and clerks are serving the various governments and the mindset hasn't changed along with a small band of politicians who are calling the shots? This is Dhaka's latest buzz.
***
PRESIDENT Ziaur Rahman is recognised for many things but few remember to mention his role in having initiated the Liberation War History Documents Project. Complaints and praise are both given without reading the volumes and so a major task is undervalued. Face the fact, it was Zia the freedom fighter who did it. Awami League in its two innings never did manage to do anything like this. This is not to praise Zia but a fact of history.
***
I worked in that project after finishing my university in 1978. Every Project is under a Section Officer (SO) and our SO did his best to make life difficult. In fact the then Ministry of Information staff regularly held up files and documents as part of a long tradition. Some even thought this would please the bosses. When Sukumar Biswas, a top-notch researcher on 1971 was hired as a part time worker, a MOI official asked, "Why are you hiring a Hindu? Couldn't you find a Muslim? "1971 was thought by some as an AL war. Since AL had always projected the 1971 war as a party activity rather than a national war this impression was inevitable.
This SO was one day transferred to the Family Planning Ministry. I happily congratulated him.
"Yes, now I will be able to do something." "You will be able to accelerate the programmes?"
"Family Planning is against Islam. As long as I am there no project will move easily."
***
IT'S a question of not tolerating dissent and we have set up a long tradition of that. What happens today are rooted in events far back. Pakistan was an intolerant state. India has a big question mark hanging after the Gujarat riots and Bangladesh is no different as much as its history displays.
***
WHEN Awami League came to power in 1971, it rode on the shoul-
ders of democracy and practised organised autocracy. The enemy of Awami League was considered the enemy of the people. And when dissent reached a high level and state management became very difficult, it imposed one-party rule--BKSAL, the most significant reference point of political intolerance.
It was during this period that most people were heard to praise AL and its leader. I don't know whether they liked having one-party rule or not but except for two AL MPs-- Barrister Moinul Hussain and Gen. MAG Osmany, the army chief during the liberation war--no one protested. The pro-Soviets supported this most. All army chiefs joined including Gen. Zia. Everyone joined in processions.
The mind belongs to the puppet master.
***
I have two memories.
It was just after BKSAL had been declared. I was in a teacher's room in the Dhaka University. Two students passed by. Their voice was clear.
"We shall sew the lips of anybody who talks against BAKSAL."
The other example was near the Indian Embassy after the Babri Mosque incident. An elderly Hindu had come for his visa. He was a religious man and wore the rudrakkho mala with his dhuti and the puja mark on his forehead. Almost without warning a group of men jumped on him and started to beat him. He was a Hindu. It was enough.
There are Gujarati rioters everywhere.
***
WILL AL tolerate any criticism of Sk. Mujib during their rule? Is there a law against saying anything against Bangabandhu? Can one say that the Father of the Nation did many things wrong?
And BNP completely banishes, vanishes and invisiblises Sk. Mujib from history as if it was a government file that disappear regularly.
In one of the most pathetic attempts at media manipulation and self-delusion, they don't take his name in the mass media and change textbooks in reference to 1971. As if, if the government doesn't say it, nobody will know the facts. It's not just the present but even the past is not to be tolerated.
Tareq Masud had problems with "Muktir Gan" till he made some adjustments, too. The movie is basically a one sided nationalist narrative which stokes the simplistic fires in viewers. As a source of information it's flawed and glorifies a political group rather than the people but he had a right to present what he did." His next film "Muktir Katha" though less seen is more mature.
His "Matir Moina" may be flawed for many reasons but saying that it will not be shown because it hurts religious feelings is hogwash. This intolerance for what may be construed as criticism of the madrassah based education system is unacceptable because it's illegal. This system is an official and formal part of public education, which is open to any public debate and critique. It seems seminaries will be kept above criticism to calm political insecurity. So madrassah protection is a priority now.
The powers that be simply haven't figured it out that people are reading something quite different in the decision. They are reading a fear not of AL by the BNP, but of Jammat-e-Islami deserting BNP and these decisions are seen as political incentives being made to them. And with 8 TV channels getting closed as a move to protect the "national culture", we are moving dangerously close to being silly and stepping 30 years back. Censorship in an electronic media simply isn't possible. The same bureaucrats who advised the Information Minister may go to Iran and see what happens with such attempts. Instead of listening to party cadres, they could do well to
listen to public opinion.
***
A "Matir Moina" movement, which will certainly go international, is already on. E-mails are already clogging our machines. But more importantly, it's being nationally released in France as a major film and will probably be seen all over Europe as a film that was banned in Bangladesh. And with friends like this BNP doesn't need enemies to show it as a pro-madrassah political party.
***
WE haven't been very successful in improving law and order. Murders and mayhem is so common that we are getting used to it. Titas Gas meter reading as a lucrative economic activity is regularly providing entertainment. Even governments are blaming their own trade unions for hassles now. Under such circumstances, the attempt to "preserve national culture and harmony" sounds as false as it always has. It begins from the idea that the government has the right to decide that its own benefit is that of all others. An idea that nobody buys now anymore.
***
MARTIN was from Argentina and I met him in the worst days of Pinochet. He was a writer who kept on scribbling and publishing even when anything critical was consid-ered anti-state.
"So how can you survive? What do you write? "
"All our freedoms have been taken away. We have no space to say anything democratic and no freedom except to have sex in our bedroom. That's why I write pornography. It's the only way to express ourselves, our time, our sense of suffocation. We have only that freedom left."
He gave me a cassette of Argentine folk music that I held on for long till it was lost in another of our regular moves from one rented place to another.
Is pornography the only substitute for democracy or replacement for autocracy? And Pinochet had to face the Court one day. My friend writes on.
***
MANY people still ask about Taslima Nasreen, the feminist writer. I feel that she was created by three forces, the Indian BJP, the Bangladeshi BNP and the European media eager for a feminist stereotype in Muslim South Asia. Many have observed that if BNP hadn't done so badly in the Municipal polls before the Taslima affair, they wouldn't have tried to create an "Islam is in danger" bogey like her. Yet BNP gained little from it and Bangladesh gained a bad image. Unfortunately, with the international environment far less tolerant today about the dynamics of 4-Party Alliance politics, preventing Matir Moina from being publicly shown may create another threat. "Lalsalu", by Tanvir Mokammel, a filmization of a legendary classic, has already met with resistance from retrograde social forces and now Matir Moina is facing that too. It seems these are troubling times for culture that is not organised by the state or the parties in power.
***
SHALL we end up as a place where the only safe place to say or practice freedom is where the premises belong to a foreign embassy and the foreign envoy with the might of the West will be one person who shall be able to speak without the intolerant censor's long hand reaching out to still the voice?
Afsan Chowdhury is a Senior Assistant Editor of The Daily Star.