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commentary : Tutsi and Hutuisation of Bangladesh Politics

Coming of 'tribalism' in our parties?

Mahfuz Anam
It was the death in a plane crash of Rwandan President Habyarimana, in April 1994, that triggered the vicious killings between the Hutus and Tutsis. The world shuddered at the horror, and the ordinary people of Rwanda suffered immeasurably at the hands of the killers from both tribes, quick to take advantage of the situation.
Are we witnessing a "Tutsi and Hutuisation” of AL and BNP's politics? It is with a heavy heart that we ask this question?
Obviously our situation is different. We have a far longer tradition of struggle against oppression, we have a glorious history of defeating dictatorships through mass movements, and above all we have the proud heritage of waging an armed struggle to gain
an independent country for our people.
However the question is being forced into our minds and we are compelled to ask if we are witnessing the rise of a kind of "tribalism" in our politics?
In a tribal conflict, group identity overwhelms everything else. Every member of one side hates everyone of the other, simply because they belong to the opposite side. The belief is that there cannot be anybody or anything good on the other side. Therefore there is no qualm about depriving every member of the opposite side of all his or her basic rights. Demonising the other side becomes a full time affair, and gangs of one group going out and painting the other side as "devil incarnate" becomes an everyday sight.
In such circumstances propaganda holds centre stage, and all sorts of discussions and debates become impossible. Conversely every crime committed by "my side" becomes acceptable because it has been committed against the "devils". Thus all semblance of justice, rule of law, evenhandedness, fair play, and right or wrong lose meaning and relevance, and the society loses its basic values.
The prevailing all encompassing hatred between the AL and BNP, the irrationality of the violence, the inconsideration about the effect on the economy, and the indifference towards the impact on lives of ordinary citizens - smacks of the rise of a type of" tribalism" in our politics.
In the eyes of AL, every member of BNP and Jamaat are "enemies" who deserve to be eliminated, howsoever. Those who were political contestants for power, and with whom state power has been sequentially shared over the last 24 years — with each party coming to power by turn through elections -have now become intolerable "rivals" deserving death. The dehumanisation of our politics is now complete.
There is absolutely no rationale for what the opposition is doing. Brutal killing of ordinary citizens, indefinite stoppage of industrial production, meaningless political programme of "aborodh" that nobody is observing voluntarily, can only be termed as a totally immoral, unethical, and conspiratorial grab for power that no freedom loving people can accept even for a minute. Till yesterday 68 people were killed. Many of them burnt to death. The last time in history when people were burnt alive at the stakes as a matter of practice - when proponents of the present agitation burn people regularly, what can we term it but "practice" - was in tire middle ages. Have our politicians taken us back to the medieval times with buses replacing the stakes?
On the contrary, the government has not given us any explanation why it denied the BNP the right to hold a rally to commemorate the 5th January, 2014, the day they claim when "democracy" was killed, which triggered the present sad events. Why was Khaleda Zia forcibly "confined" in her office and why her free movement was restricted? Why thousands of BNP activists and most of their leaders are either in jail or on the run? Why there are mountains of cases against many of the BNP leaders?
While we will never tire of saying that nothing justifies the killing of innocent people as the opposition activists are doing, at the same time we must raise the question of political space for the opposition for peaceful demonstrations. There cannot be any denying of the fact that today there is no space for any peaceful protest in the country.
A good example of the state of our free expression is the reaction of the ruling AL to a suggestion by some eminent civil society members for a dialogue simultaneous with the stoppage of the violence. Instantly the group was condemned, with the food minister saying, "...They are like cancer on the society. This parasite...the
cancer named civil society must be uprooted from the society."
Who are these "cancerous" elements and "parasites"? One of them is the former chief election commissioner under whom the present government got elected in December 2008, another is a leading framer of our constitution and a close collaborator of Bangabandhu - not to mention an internationally famous and sought after lawyer. There were many others with immaculate reputation, and long career in development and nation building. But they are all "parasites and should be uprooted from society” just because they hold a different view to that of the government.
If we look around the strife ridden world we will see many countries and societies are being torn asunder by territorial, ethnic, religious, linguistic, cultural, and tribal conflicts. In comparison we appear to be supremely blessed by the absence of such conflicts. We are a unified people, and our unity is unique, and as such precious. Given the facts that we are 95 percent Bangalees, more than 85 percent Muslims, that also Sunnis, that we are nearly from the same ethnic and racial stock, and that almost every one of us have the same mother tongue, makes us one of the most homogeneous and unified people in the world. (I am also very conscious that our massive "unity" has made us blind and insensitive to the rights and needs of our minorities. A failure that might cost us dearly in the future.)
Our present day divisive, acrimonious, and zero-sum politics is destroying that precious, rare, and highly prized unity. The AL and BNP were united in the anti-autocracy struggle that caused Gen Ershad's fall. Together they restored the parliamentary system in place of the presidential one. They also worked together to install the caretaker government system, insisted upon by the AL. In spite of the culture of boycott, MPs from these two parties worked together in various committees of the parliament and brought about many changes through their collective wisdom.
There are many countries in the world where relationship between their leading parties is far from ideal. Presently the relationship between the Democrats and the Republicans in the US is so hateful that one author has termed it as the "second civil war”. The relationship between the BJP and the Congress in India, between the Muslim League and Imran Khan's Tehriq-e-Insaf in Pakistan, between the rival parties in Sri Lanka, South Korea, Indonesia, and the Philippines are all known to be extremely bitter. But this bitterness surfaces only during the elections, and that also within prescribed limits, and recedes after the polls.
However there is an exception where election after election could not stop the rivalry - Thailand. Political infighting created the opening for the military to capture power. In Egypt we also saw the return of the military, because President Morsi misused his electoral mandate.
This paper, this writer, and by far the majority of the people of this country abhor and oppose extra-constitutional action by any quarter. But just as they abhor and oppose, so also they expect our political leaders from both sides to ensure peace and stability, to show political acumen, to be accommodative, to be welcoming of dissent, to be matured in dealings with rivals, and most of all to adhere to a democratic culture and ensure good governance.
Burning by the opposition, and crossfire by the government will destroy our prospect for growth, and feed the tendency towards "tribalism” in our politics, a clear sign of which is contained in the comment of our information minister, saying, "How can there be a dialogue between demons and humans?"
To the Hutus and the Tutsis, the others were the demons. Need we say more?