Soft selling the ineptness of BNP government by some assonantal intellectuals

A.H. Jaffor Ullah

Nothing pains me the most than when I see that a handful of leading intellectuals of Bangladesh coming out of their cocoons to give the present inept government of Khaleda Zia an encomium of some sort for dealing “appropriately” in the aftermath of August 21 grenade attacks on Hasina Wajed and her party members.  The reason I mentioned about theirs coming out of cocoons are the following: 1. The bomb blasting and grenade lobbing incidents have been going on since March 1999.  However, they kept their pen dry all these years.  All of a sudden, they woke up from their long slumber to smell the ground reality.  Well-done boys!  2.  This bunch of intellectuals has nothing good to say about the leading secular party, Awami League, despite the fact that Bangladesh was delivered on a platter, so to speak, before them.  As far as I know, the members of this coveted bunch never did fight in 1971.  One of them, who serves as a columnist for ‘New Age’ had even served as a civil servant (read CSP) under Ayub and Yahiya Khan.  So much so for his valor!   

The commentary of one of the members of these leading intellectuals showed up as a guest editorial on August 29, 2004, in daily ‘New Age.’  This article written by Hasnat Abdul Hye entitled “Beware, Bangladesh” epitomizes the soft selling of Mrs. Khaleda Zia’s government.  The writer made no bones about his liking for the present government.  What the nation expects from an intellectual is his or her honest opinion and candor.  During 1997 through 2001, I wrote a whole bunch of articles critiquing Hasina Wajed and her government some of which were published in the Internet e-forum NFB and some were published in the Daily Star.  Many diehard Awami Leaguers labeled me as a BNP sympathizer; however, since October 2001, these critics have changed their mind after perusing my innumerable articles in which I severely admonished the ruling government for harassing civil rights activists Shahriar Kabir, renowned journalist Selim Samad, bureaucrat turned politician Dr. Alamgir, the English journalist Zaiba Malik, Italian photo journalist Mr. Sorrentino, etc., by putting them into jail for weeks.  Now the same bunch thinks that I am an ardent supporter of Awami League.  What bothers me the most is that I never read one single article penned by Mr. Hasnat A. Hye on the issue of gross civil rights violation perpetrated by the government of Khaleda Zia in the last 3 years.  However, the same columnist is now agog giving a clean bill of health to Mrs. Zia.

Mr. Hye tried his best to whitewash the ineptness of the present government to deal with the grenade attacks on Hasina Wajed.  Thus, he writes in his latest article: “The government’s reactions and measures taken regarding the grenade attack so far are in the right direction.  But more needs to be done.  First and foremost is the need for revamping and strengthening the intelligence network.  By all accounts, the intelligence agencies have failed to deliver adequately and satisfactorily.” 

Any person who has analytical mind can see that Mr. Hye is trying very hard to shift the blame on the intelligence department of Bangladesh.  The writer has served many governments of Bangladesh and even served the army Generals of Pakistan as a petit bureaucrat.  He knows darn well that like any other agency of the government, the executive branch tightfistedly controls the intelligence department.  Nonetheless, he blames them while giving mild encomium to Khaleda Zia’s government and at the same time hurling his mild criticism to the department, which is responsible for sifting through the evidence at the carnage site.  I read in one news published today (August 29), which puzzled me the most.  The report says the DB and some police have visited the carnage site 5 days after the grenades were lobbed.  They lamented by saying that most crucial evidences were lost by now.  Any intellectual worth his salt should ask: why did the government block the investigation?  In any other republic, this lackadaisical attitude of the government would not be tolerated.  As long as we have an entire bunch of fawning intellectuals writing endlessly columns in various English news dailies, there is no hope for Bangladesh.  Many of the vernacular newspapers with the exception one or two have given space to some excellent writers.  These guest editors do not resort to sycophancy while they speak their mind.  Why is this a different case when it comes to the English newspapers published from Dhaka? 

Dhaka has come of age in the twenty-five years to become a bustling capital.  The city serves as a temporary home for many diplomats.  They essentially read the English newspapers routinely to digest the news, editorials, and commentaries to get an assessment of the pulse of the nation.  That is precisely why it is so vital that columnists maintain a sense of equilibrium and write their opinion on events as they see them without even thinking whether they are kowtowing the executive branch of the government.  Lest we forget, beginning from 1972 through 1974, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein—these two reporters went after Richard Nixon to unearth the Watergate scandal.  Do you think that Enayetullah Khan would have allowed any of his reporters from ‘Holyday’ to dig General Zia’s goading of the young army officer to do something about the growth and establishment of one single and unified political party in Bangladesh in the last days of Sheikh Mujib’s life?

Mr. Hasnat A. Hye to protect the good image of the Prime Minister has taken the entire intelligence department of Bangladesh to task.  Read what he wrote in his August 29 articles for ‘New Age’:

“Even the ruling party stalwarts have criticized the agencies for this. It is, however, not enough to criticize because the capacity, ability and willingness of intelligence agencies to collect information and interpret them depend to a great extent on the government. Do the intelligence agencies have enough trained manpower? Are they kept in one post for a reasonable period of time? Do they have enough fund and equipment? Are they completely unfettered in their intelligence gathering and investigation? Do they have access to information from international sources like Interpol? In dealing with a threat like terrorism, do they have a system of sharing intelligence with other countries? Do the agencies brief the PM separately and daily about their findings so that she can draw her own conclusion? These are some of the questions that need to be addressed urgently the failure of intelligence has been glaring because it is not inevitable.”

The columnist, Mr. Hye, has high opinion about the acumen of the Prime Minister.  Thus, he blamed the intelligence department for not briefing the PM daily.  What one gathers from Mr. Hye’s write-up is this: Don’t blame the PM because the intelligence department does not adequately briefed her. 

One does not have to be a rocket scientist to discern that the secularists are at the receiving end of the grenades, bombs, and whatnot.  When Prof. Humayun Azad had received mortal wounds from a bunch of Islamists outside Bangla Academy in the evening of August 27, 2004, it was crystal clear in the minds of millions of Bangladesh people who are behind all the carnages.  But our veteran columnists that includes some retired Brigadier Generals are gung-ho about giving Mrs. Zia a character certificate implying that she is not be blamed for the rise in mayhem and absolute lawlessness in Bangladesh.  In fact, there is a confederacy of fawning newspaper columnists and editors who are writing incessantly to give the ruling party a pristine “image” as far the governance of the nation goes.  The notable among them are Shafique Rehman, Ataus Samad, Hasnat A. Hye, Enayetullah Khan, Brigadier General (retired) Sakhawat Hossain, Mozaffar Ahmed (economist), Anwar Hossain Monju (Ittefaq’a), and few more.  It is noteworthy that even Prof. Emajuddin Ahmed who used to admonish Hasina Wajed and her party for minor infraction of good governance is now criticizing the present government for doctoring the textbook vis-à-vis the call for independence in March 1971 and for their inability to control the spate of grenade attacks in recent days.  Prof. Emajuddin learned the hard way; but sadly, there is no hope that our obsequious bunch of editors, commentators, etc., will ever learn how to write articles in an objective way to reflect the ground realities of Bangladesh.

On the other extreme, we have only a few columnists who are trying their best to inject Indo-phobia amongst our people.  They are touting their pet hypothesis that India is behind the grenade attacks of August 21, 2004.  Their view is as follows: India wants to annex Bangladesh under the scheme of ‘Akhanda Bharat.’  Therefore, they are trying to prove that Bangladesh is a ‘failed state.’  To make Bangladesh politically more unstable India is doing all the bomb blasting and grenade lobbing.  India is concerned because Bangladesh wants to take away from India the turbulent Seven-Sister-Hill States to make the new nation of “Greater Bangladesh.”  Bangladesh is alleged to have provided safe haven to the Maoists in Northern parts of Bangladesh.  By citing the work of one Hindutwa writer by the name Mr. Jaideep Saikia, whose article had graced the page of many newspapers and e-forums directed towards educated folks from NEI.  Mr. Saika considers himself as an expert on “Islamic militancy in North East India.”  After 9-11, anyone could have secured a grant from America to study rising Islamic militancy in any part of the world.  Thus, Mr. Saika was able to visit University of Illinois to study his pet subject of imaginary rise in Islamic fundamentalism in Assam.   

Mr. Sadeq Khan, the elder brother of Enayetullah Khan took the onus on him to establish the fallacy that India has a grand scheme “Akhanda Bharat” to annex Bangladesh in the future.  Therefore, to destabilize Bangladesh, India is doing the bombings and grenade tossing all over this nation.  Mr. Sadeq Khan quotes profusely the work of Mr. Saika.  He also cites Prof. Taj Hashmi’s article.  Dr. Hashmi a sworn anti-Indian scholar is equally confused about the role India is supposedly playing to make Bangladesh a “failed state.”  Prof. Hashmi is a secularist but he has paranoia about India’s political and military might.  Recently, a young barrister by the name M.B.I. Munshi from Dhaka has become a great disciple of Mr. Sadeq Khan.  Mr. Munshi is very active in cyber forum NFB to propagate the message of this school headed by Mr. Sadeq Khan.  When 3 cinema halls were blasted in Mymensingh on Eid Day in December 2002, Mr. Munshi announced right away before any investigation could be done that the blasts were the work of RAW.  No evidence, no logic were put forth by a person who claims to have an advanced law degree from England.

In summary, to distract our readers who mostly peruse English news dailies we have seen a whole bunch of “intellectuals” lining up to shore up the sagging image of Mrs. Zia and her party.  Quite a few Bangalee writers who mostly pen their article in Bangla also have joined the writer brigade.  We also have witnessed the emergence of another bunch of writers who are out there to portray India as the proverbial 600-pound gorilla about to devour Bangladesh.  These folks have forgotten the message learnt so well in 1991 in the aftermath of Persian Gulf War when a New World Order was created.  Saddam was defeated and pushed back in January 1991 to liberate Kuwait.  These charlatans have forgotten the new axiom that no one could gobble up another sovereign nation.  Together, these two groups are soft selling the ineptness of the present government.  The bigger question however is – when would they wake up to smell the coffee?

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A.H. Jaffor Ullah, a researcher and columnist, writes from New Orleans, USA