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Enlightened versus backward Bangladesh?

Moazzem Hossain
IT was my privilege to listen to writers from all over the world in the recently concluded Brisbane Writers' Festival in Australia. This is an annual gathering in Brisbane of both world famous and local writers, and is supported by the State -Library, of (Queensland and- the ABC local radio. It is a public funded meeting of writers, including authors of bestsellers, over a week.
One of the sessions, moderated by a radio personality of Brisbane, broadcast live on the ABC local radio, was addressed by a panel of three writers from the US and Canada. The subject was: "Is the US in decline?" The panellists touched on issues ranging from America's war on terror in Iraq and Afghanistan to climate change and its aftermath in South Asia. For obvious reasons, I was attracted to this panel because of my interest in South Asia.
One of the areas on which the panel was in agreement was the gradual decline in economic and libera] democracy in the US since the beginning of the Bush era. According to the panel, the great America has been divided into two: enlightened America and backward America. According to the panel, the backward America grabbed power through the 2000 presidential election by defeating the candidate of the enlightened America, Al Gore, by a narrow margin. George W. Bush, who was a candidate for the backward America, came out as the victor.
The panel defined backward and enlightened Americas on the basis of geographical and religious grounds. The coastal population and the secular voters were
regarded as enlightened, whereas the people in the mid-west and mid-America with non-secular strong religious beliefs were regarded as backward America. The panellists regarded George W. Bush, and more recently the Republican VP candidate, Sarah Palin, as the products of backward America.
• In'C«nclusion( the panoLwas of th'e view that although, in the post World War II era, the US had followed a multi-lateral and bipartisan foreign policy which gave birth to institutions like the United Nations and related agencies, American foreign policy is presently being made unilaterally -forcing its allies to join the non-stop confrontation with the so-called Islamist terrorists in the absence of any other formidable enemies after the end of the Cold War.
9/11 created the opportunity for the backward forces to indulge in increased spending on military hardware. This resulted in sustained increase in military spending, and domestic success in the economic and political fronts depended on victory in war theatres. The whole exercise was futile, and the American economy has been thrown into chaos. The Bush administration has opted to bail out collapsed financial institutions, pumping billions of dollars of taxpayer money without any success.
In view of the above, the case of Bangladesh immediately comes to mind. It was, accidentally or coincidentally, in a similar situation since 2001 under a so-called democratic regime. The Khaleda-Nizami regime can be regarded as the flag bearer of backward Bangladesh. Why?
Let us first define backward and enlightened Bangladesh
before addressing this question.
Backward Bangladesh: Unlike the US, backward Bangladesh is the product originating from the constituency which defied the constitution of this land after the bloody change in 1975. Originally, the constitution was based on four pillars: democracy, socialism, secularism, and ■ Bengali nationalism?‘>i- ■ “j um
Except nationalism (Bengali or Bangladeshi) all other pillars are in tatters under the backward constituency. Unlike the US, backward Bangladesh was urbanbased and had support in almost all district towns in 2001. The backward Bangladesh resembles the backward America only in religious terms, with fundamentalist elements of the Islamist political parties in action.
Enlightened Bangladesh: The enlightened Bangladesh is still trying hard to keep the four pillars of the constitution alive, and certainly struggling in this respect since the victory of the BNP-Jamaat coalition in 2001 general election.
Having defined the two terms, it is now clear that the BNP-Jamaat coalition without hesitation can be regraded as backward Bangladesh, which was proved through the coalition's actions against the three pillars (democracy, socialism, and secularism) since 2001. On the other hand, the 14-party coalition led by AL can be seen as interested in keeping enlightened constituency in its side to be able to achieve the economic goals of the centre-left and the left to establish a socialist economy and a secular society.
Recently, the leader of the 4-party alliance, Khaleda Zia, called upon all the religious parties and the elements of the
political right and centre-right to join BNP-Jamaat coalition to fight the forthcoming general election. She chooses to continue alliance with the backward constituency, having religion as the major pillar and the guiding principle in politics.
TheAL-led 14-party coalition, on the other hand, with the elements of political left and centre left, still seems committed to establish a socialist agenda with the secular pillar in tire forefront. Certainly, the alliance belongs to enlightened Bangladesh.
There are also some other political parties that are operating- outside, these..two major sides, but had roots predominantly either in the BNP or the AL. It remains to be seen whether they are going to join enlightened or backward Bangladesh.
As mentioned earlier, with the support of the backward Bangladesh, the BNP-Jamaat ruled between 2001 and 2006. Needless to say, this resulted in taking the nation one step forward and two steps backward over this period. At the end, the nation once again had to taste the flavour of an unelected administration over the last 20 months.
It appears that, like 1996, the pre-election wind is presently blowing towards the enlightened Bangladesh. Who knows whether this will remain steady until December 18? Certainly, in this regard, there is a parallel with the 2008 election in the US. It is possible that there will be some positive reflections of the US election outcome to Bangladesh's.
If enlightened America comes out as a victor in November, there is a chance that in Bangladesh enlightened forces would do well in December. Alas, the backward forces may have to be the opposition and rebuild the homes presently in tatters in both the nations.
Dr. Moazzem Hossain is a freelance contributor to The Dally Star.
***If enlightened America comes out as a victor in November, there is a chance that in Bangladesh enlightened forces would do well in December. Alas, the backward forces may have to be the opposition and rebuild the homes presently in tatters in both the nations.***