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Bangladesh's current crisis: A looming threat of extremism

Peter Custers
BANGLADESH faces an unprecedented political crisis, one which can well be measured in historical terms. Numerous political commentators in Dhaka have given their 'balanced' advice aimed at ensuring that the upcoming elections be held in a neutral fashion.
But some seem to forget that the holding of 'free' and 'fair' elections in itself is no guarantee that Bangladesh's fragile democracy will survive once elections are over. Bangladesh's own history teaches otherwise. Didn’t widespread violence against the country's minority Hindu community occur in the wake of the parliamentary' elections of 2001? Weren't these despicable acts at the behest of the victors in the elections followed by a sponsored attempt to decapitate the country's opposition by killing Sheikh Hasina with bombs exploded at a central rally organised by the Awami League (August, 2004)? Have we forgotten that Bangladesh was shaken by countrywide, serial bomb blasts against the country's entire judicial system (2005) -- blasts which unmistakably targeted the weakening of the country's democratic infrastructure? Isn't it high time we review the risks of a recurrence of those events, lest the upcoming elections become the springboard for launching an illiberal agenda?
Most discourses on the current crisis, to my knowledge, appear to skip the issue, yet it needs to be stated frankly and fearlessly. The Jamaat-e-Islami, BNP's close ally, is basically a dogmatic political force. This surely will be disputed by my detractors. After all, the Jamaat-e-Islami does not bank on national chauvinism - as far right parties in Europe during the period between the two world wars did. But then the fascistic phenomenon as the policy formula to address capitalism's unending crisis emerged in historically specific circumstances.
The Jamaat-e-Islami is a reactionary political force predisposed to violence on at least the following counts. It turns religious minorities -Hindus, Buddhists, Christians and Muslim Ahmadiyas - into scapegoats so as to divert the attention of the common people away from the sources of their poverty. Secondly, the Jamaat systematically employs the weapon of intimidation so as to scare civilians. Such as when its cadres derail trains, set fire to buses, and mutilate cops killed during self-declared hartals. Thirdly, it is able to muster significant mass support from neglected sections of the populace, be it mainly indirectly. In spite of the party's proven unpopularity among large sections of the public, it is in a position to direct and strike.
Further, the Jamaat's capacity to influence Bangladeshi politics has grown, not diminished, since the period when the BNP-Jamaat coalition was in power (2001-2006). While the International Crimes Tribunal, by indicting top-leaders of the Jamaat for war crimes committed during Bangladesh's Liberation War, temporarily put the party on the defensive, it managed to resume its offensive in the wake of the Shahbagh uprising of February last.
With the overwhelmingly large and unchecked financial resources it commands the Jamaat has been able to muster a power bloc that appears well consolidated. On the one hand, it has succeeded in communalising BNP's politics; on the other hand it has fielded a frontal organisation, the Hefajat-e-Islam, which in April and May last was able to mobilise a huge
number of Qawmi madrasa students and teachers for its Dhaka rally and Dhaka siege programmes.
In fielding the Hefajat-e-Islam, an organisation virtually unknown until March of this year, the Jamaat removed two obstacles in one go. It responded to the threat of a state ban on its politics, which issue had come to the fore through Shahbagh. And it circumvented the problem of the party's own insurmountable lack of mass popularity. No matter the archaic character of the Hefajat-e-Islam's demands, the fielding of this force has put the Jamaat in a strategic position to capture state power as the brains and treasurer of the power bloc it has forged.
What should Hasina’s government do under the given circumstances? It is true the government's own record is far from convincing. It, for instance, failed tragically to provide security to female and male labourers in the readymade garments sector. The country had to wait for a worldwide outcry over the Rana Plaza disaster (April last) to occur before the government finally agreed to undertake measures to improve factory safety and strengthen the labour inspection regime. Given the chain of accidents that has marred the sector's history - both fire incidents and building collapses -- the enhancement of workers' safety should have been a top priority from the very start of the Mahajote's rule.
Moreover lack of concern for people's security is not limited to the garments sector alone. One notably fails to comprehend how the government, within less than two years after Fukushima's nuclear catastrophe, could sign a treaty with Russia for construction of a nuclear power plant at Rooppur in Pabna, close to the river Ganges. To all accounts, the Japanese authorities have not managed to prevent leakage of radioactively contaminated water from the 1,000 storage tanks (I) with cooling water at Fukushima. Fears are growing that the food chain in the world's oceans will be affected permanently. Why not review the Rooppur project in the light of Japan's experience? Why should any government want to put the safety of its future generations at risk?
These criticisms are not meant to undermine the government's efforts to sustain Bangladesh's democratic processes. In fact, I believe that Hasina’s cabinet should face the country's current crisis head-on, by not giving in to BNP's demand for a non-party interim government, for the time being at least. Although BNP's incessant and violent hartals do hurt the interests of both the working population and the business community, it would be very wrong for the government to give in to the opposition's politics of intimidation and terror. In fact, from a long-term point of view there is a need to go slow on preparations for the next polls.
Meanwhile there are plenty of steps towards strengthening democracy that Hasina’s government can take. It can work to remove all obstacles for the functioning of independent trade unions in the readymade garments sector. It can encourage Sufi fraternities opposed to the Jamaat to spread their message of tolerance and cultural reform in the country's remotest areas. And though it would be wrong to patronise or co-opt, the government can facilitate emergence of a new electoral bloc of left and democratic forces accommodating Shahbagh activists and the new generation of professional intellectuals.
The writer is Research Scholar, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi.