The idea of a National Unity Government-2

Sadeq Khan

The surprise attack on America on September 11, 2001, demonstrated how the costliest and most modern military vigilance and weaponry failed to deter low-cost low-tech "mass-destruction" blitz by a determined group of terrorists. It provoked the superpower to declare a global war on terror and challenge all nations to take sides, saying "you are either with us or against us." The UN convention on terrorism went along the dotted line of superpower demands, but remained ambiguous on the definition of terrorism.
   Through the decade prior to 9/11, sporadic attacks had been taking place against US embassies in Africa and other US targets in other places. The undeclared casus belli was blind support of the U.S. to brutal Israeli occupation and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. Taking into account the vehemence and persistence of Palestinian Arab resistance, and the vulnerability of the Western world to possible derailment of Arab oil flow in consequence, US Foreign Policy establishment was already toying with the idea of conflict of civilizations to replace Cold War games. The 9/11 attack on America decisively defined for the United States the civilisational "colour" of its enemy in the new war on terror. In one sweep, Bangladesh along with most Muslim majority states (exemplary exceptions being Turkey, the Emirates, Kuwait, Bosnia, and the like) became suspect in U.S. eyes, and to escape superpower wrath, promptly declared that they were with the United States in its war on terror.
   But complications arose from internal dimensions of low-key ethnic insurgencies and "class wars" waged in South Asia as a whole, and fall-outs from Afghan "jihad" against Soviet occupation that the Americans themselves stoked, preparing the al-Queda file, until Soviet withdrawal that foreshadowed the end of Cold War. Not only did the rival superpowers support ethnic wars and armed resistance covertly through the Cold War period to gain geo-strategic advantage over each other, but from as early as the end of World War I, the USA had also been sympathising with anti-colonial movements which often gave rise to armed struggle. The idealisation of the memory of anti-colonial terrorist practices (including Israeli terrorist strategy to gain control over the Israeli part of British Palestinian Mandate), therefore, is proving not very easy to erase.
   
   Bangladesh situation
   Bangladesh has its own glorified memory of irregular peasant revolts against British rule, conducted with religious zeal for over 100 years and ended coincidentally with introduction of local self-government by the British Raj taking over from the East India Company. But more recent Cold War version of class struggle took some root amongst the peasant population of Bangladesh prior to statehood, and the legacy of Bangladesh war also left pockets of armed outlaws alienated by post-1972 developments.
   On top of all that was added a new ethnic insurgency in Chittagong Hill Tracts, operating ferociously from across the border, but brought to a relative calm by a "peace deal" conceded by the government towards the end of the last decade. The situation on the ground is succinctly described by Major General Mohd. Aminul Karim, ndc, ldmc, psc, Ph.D, Military Secretary to the President of Bangladesh, in a dissertation as follows: "Pahari Chhatra Jana Sanghati Samity, formed in 1972 in Chittagong Hill Tracts as a mass contact organisation with communist leanings, harboured radical views; it formed an armed wing called Shanti Bahinee which undertook attacks on government security forces. After the Peace Accord was signed in 1997, the United People's Democratic Front (a new formation with terrorist leanings) emerged which led to armed rivalry with PCJSS for increased control over the hills."
   Maj. Gen. Aminul Karim also summarised the other home-grown terrorist threats that sprung up or regenerated in Bangladesh, starting with jihad-oriented terrorism inspired by contacts with Afghan Mujahedeen. He noted the major terrorism-related developments as follows: "The Huji's (Harkatul Jihad al Islami) aim was to establish Islamic Hukumat (rule) in Bangladesh by killing progressive intellectuals, and waging acts of war ambush against a corrupt western system of democracy and judiciary. Huji members have been incriminated in the attempted assassination of Sheikh Hasina in July 2000, attack against the British High Commissioner in May 2004, assassination of former Finance Minister Shah A.M. S Kibria, and the grenade attacks on the Udichi cultural programme.
   Next in the series was the JMB (Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen) whose aim was to do away with Bangladesh's secular democracy and establish a nation under Shariah law. The JMB was responsible for nationwide bomb blasts in August 2005. JMB member Husan Al Mamun was captured for killing two judges in a bomb attack in Jhalokhati in November 2005. Another member Abdur Razzak became first Bangladeshi suicide bomber when he exploded a bomb at Gazipur courthouse in November 2005. After the capture and execution of the six militant kingpins, the command and control of the organisations has suffered a great setback. Militant activities through bomb/grenade attacks have decreased a lot. It has however, been reported that about 250 activists of Allahr Dal are active in the three South-western districts of Bangladesh namely Kushtia, Meherpur, and Chuadanga who are urging people to establish rule of Islam in Bangladesh. Likewise, Hizbut Tauhid is also engaged in strengthening their network. Apart from preaching the jihadi ideas, their activities also include training course on militancy.
   No less threatening was the resurgence of outlawed leftist terrorist activities in the Southwestern, Northwestern parts of Bangladesh (often operating from hideouts from across the border). Some of such parties are Purbo Bangla Communist Party, ML Janojuddho, Marxist Leninist Lalpataka, Gono Mukti Fouz, Sarbahara Party, Gano Bahini etc. However, their motivation is on decline. As such, they are committing isolated acts of extortion and abduction. Left Wings' activities were, reported to be, involved in acts of murder, robbery, extortion, bomb/grenade attack, land grabbing and abduction for ransom."
   
   Foreign propaganda
   The situation has been brought well under control by robust security measures undertaken by the last representative government and continued by the caretaker government with heavy army involvement. But adverse foreign propaganda and suspicious geopolitical eyes remain focussed on Bangladesh as a possible cradle of international terrorism. Of late the weight of foreign pressure has eased somewhat, but remains a concern that the nation must face with united resolve and patience. We have also seen how the 'minus-two formula' was quietly implanted by "external stakeholders" (and their lackeys in the civil society). In contrast, the idea of a national unity government was mooted by "internal stakeholders" in the polity. Let us now examine our own historical precedents of what could be or was the nearest thing that we had to a national unity government.
   
   The United Front
   First, during Pakistan period as its territorially separated eastern province, the then East Pakistan obtained a national consensus for a United Front government that routed completely the official Muslim League in government. Only nine of the latter's nominees were able to pass the electoral test in a house of 309 members. In the public eye the Awami League (at that time Awami Muslim League), a major component of the United Front, was formed by veterans of the Muslim League, the party that negotiated transfer of imperial power.
   The alliance included other major political formations like the Krishak Sramik Party, Nezam-e-Islam Party, Ganotantri Dal, and Khelafate Rabbani Party. The alliance also had the tacit support of the minority community and tribal representatives, covert support being provided by left activists as well. Led nominally by the charismatic leader of Krishak Sramik (formerly Kirshak Praja) Party and the longest-serving Premier of British Bengal, Sher-e-Bangla A K Fazlul Haque, the alliance was built on the labour of a countrywide political work force organised by another veteran of self-rule movement and the last Premier of British Bengal, H.S. Suhrawardy, and on the mass appeal of the fiery leader of peasants and working people, Moulana Abdul Hamid Khan Bhashani of the Assam Line Movement fame. The two last-named developed the strength of the Awami League by drawing out the motor parts from the vehicle of the official Muslim League. In effect, with the support of other stakeholders including the organised political parties formally inducted in the Jukta Front, the Treasury Bench of the 1954 East Pakistan Assembly was a comprehensive body of national unity (or as the federalists would like to suggest: a comprehensive sub-national unity) with what one might term as institutional "soft power" sustained by its drawing capacity of people power. But it soon found itself at odds with the "hard power" of the state, that was held at that time firmly by the politico-bureaucratic coterie of the union government in Karachi. That coterie began to pull strings.
   First, the aged and volatile leader of the Krishak Sramik Party, who was elected Leader of the House by the United Front members of the East Pakistan Legislative Assembly, was persuaded to revert to adversarial parliamentary politics abandoning the electoral alliance. Asked to form the government, he counted too much on his personal charisma to be able to attract members from other parties and minority community legislators and also possible defectors from the Awami League to support his party political cabinet sworn in with a few close followers and relatives as members. But he caved in and expanded his cabinet with Awami League members, promising to be guided by the populist wisdom of Moulana Bhashani in running the government, when "people power" was demonstrated in a public meeting called by the other two charismatic leaders of the United Front. Before H.S. Suhrawardy or Moulana Bhashani began their public address, Fazlul Haque personally came to the meeting to announce the solidarity of the United Front. Thus baffled, the ruling coterie of Karachi took covert action, engineered two riots respectively in Karnaphuly Paper Mills in Chittagong and Adamjee Jute Mills in Narayanganj between Bengali and non-Bengali workers, and slapped President's rule in the-then East Pakistan alleging communist subversion. The "national unity" government proved unready and unequal to "hard power" machinations of the ruling coterie at the union level, and met its untimely demise.
   
   Government-in-Exile
   The second national unity government we had was the government-in-exile that the leaders of Bangladesh formed during the Liberation War. After the formal declaration of independence on April 17, 1971 by public representatives of 1970 elections gathered at a Meherpur border mango-grove, available 76 elected members of the Pakistan National Assembly and the East Pakistan Provincial Assembly in a joint meeting unanimously elected the next day a war government headed by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman as absentee President, and in order of seniority, Syed Nazrul Islam, Khandakar Moshtaque Ahmed, Tajuddin Ahmed, Monsur Ali and Kamruzzaman as the cabinet of President's Advisers. Later, presumably on the basis of an understanding reached with the host country of the government-in-exile about the necessity to have a present head of government (parliamentary style), the cabinet of advisers after consultations with student (trainee guerilla force) leaders, a labour leader and another veteran parliamentarian from East Bengal of Pakistan Constituent Assembly experience, decided to convert itself into a ministry of four with Tajuddin Ahmed as Prime Minister, and Syed Nazrul Islam (the senior most) assuming the office of Acting President. Albeit it turned out to be a party political government, since only AL public representatives were available and the Awami League had overwhelmingly won the 1970 elections in which Maulana Bhashani's National Awami Party did not participate protesting state neglect of calamitous 1970 cyclone and flood victims. But on March 10, 1971, Maulana Bhashani had publicly declared that he was joining with Sheikh Mujib in the "all-out struggle" to protect the independence and rights of the people of East Pakistan.

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Nigeria's Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's epic novel reminds of Bangladesh war

Mahfuz Ullah

The generation of fifty years and above today, who were exposed to media during the four years preceding the birth of Bangladesh, should be able to recall the establishment of Republic of Biafra through Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI) in 1967. The UDI was a big surprise to many, especially the former colonial masters of Nigeria, the United Kingdom.
   Nigeria gained freedom from colonial rule in 1960 under the charismatic leadership of Haji Abu Bakar Belwa Tafwa. But in a country with about 200 ethnic groups strife was not long in the coming. The northern region of the country, because of large population, was able to dominate the whole country politically. Friction increased between the Hausa in the North and the Igbo in the southeast, which resulted in a military coup led by easterners in January 1966. During and after the military takeover many Igbo living in the north were killed and many of the survivors fled to their homeland in the southeast. Many northerners claimed it was an Igbo move to seize power but within six months another coup placed the non-Muslim northerner Gowon in command.
   Ojukwu led the struggle for freedom of the pre-dominantly Christian Igbo (spelled and pronounced Ibo by the westerners) population against the central authority based in Lagos. Most of the big countries, either socialist or capitalist stood by the Nigerian government under General Yakubu Gowon.
   The move to gain independence from Nigeria led to bloody war. The Republic of Biafra, against all odds, survived till 1970, when the Igbos were defeated resulting in thousands of causalities, either dead or incapacitated. In the beginning the Biafrans were confident about victory as they controlled the Port of Harcourt on the Atlantic coast and geographically controlled the major oil producing areas. The Igbos had also hundreds of intellectually enlightened people who could successfully run the Republic if it had won. During the war only Tanzania extended support to Biafra and non-government initiatives stood by them to take relief and material assistance.
   In the then East Pakistan some people mentioned the case of Biafra and observed Sheikh Mujib could have declared UDI in 1971 before 26 March. But that's a different story.
   It has been four decades since the failed journey of the Igbos for freedom but Nigeria is not free from ethnic strife. But surprisingly, the war has produced many literatures of which the book entitled Half of a Yellow Sun, the name signifying the flag of Biafra, strikingly cuts above all, being termed a 'masterpiece and a classic.' First published in 2006 the book got a wide readership when the paperback edition was launched in 2007. The writer of the book, Ms Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, had already been popular for earlier producing the best selling fiction Purple Hibiscus.
   The contents of the book, apart from incidents of economic blockade, air strife and bombings of civilians, loot and plunder, centres around five principal characters. Ugwu, a boy from a poor household who works as a servant (termed houseboy in Nigerian context) for a radical university lecturer. A young woman, Olana, born to rich parents, who made money utilising all types of connections and palm greasing after independence, abandons her life of privilege in Lagos to live with the lecturer, the new found charismatic lover. The third is Richard, a Briton, who is on tour of Nigeria to write a book but is fascinated by Olana's twin sister Kainene. As the war ravages Biafra the loyalties of these individuals are tested as the emerging situation was beyond their comprehension. They were all confident Biafra would win and they would plan their lives differently. For which they often joined the chorus: 'Biafra win the war, Armoured car, shelling machine, Fighter and bomber, Hu anweghi ike imeri Biafra.' But their dreams were shattered and the most attractive of the twins Kainene was lost in the 'enemy'-controlled areas.
   The writer, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, was born on 15 September 1977, seven long years after her parents and other relatives had swallowed the defeat. She says in the book, "I wrote this novel because I wanted to write about love and war, because I grew up in the shadow of Biafra, because I lost both grandfathers in the Nigeria-Biafra war, because I wanted to engage with my history in order to make sense of my present, because many of the issues that led the war remain unresolved in Nigeria today, because my father has tears in his eyes when he speaks of losing his father, because my mother still cannot speak at length about losing her father in a refugee camp, because the brutal bequests of colonialism make me angry, because the thought of the egos and indifference of men leading to the unnecessary deaths of men and women and children enrages me, because I don't ever want to forget." what a similarity with the events many Bangladeshis have gone through. This long statement, which is not her usual writing style, speaks about the book. Some critics have termed her 'a new writer endowed with the gift of ancient storytellers.'
   Those of us who have Nigerian friends know that the story is still discussed in many ways, and remains a strong political issue, because the issue of Biafra is an ethnic issue, of people victims of disparity and deprivation. Those who fought against Biafra think that Igbos should get over it but the Biafrans claim they were talking to make facts right. They have also initiated a new movement called MASSOB, the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra, which in the past was only a dream to many Igbos.
   Chimamanda has, with literary excellence, handled different expressions of human interest in a range of circumstances, from romance, lovemaking to conflict. Some of the descriptions of intimate human relationship are not obscene but so craftily written that one has to admit the beauty of the language. This is also possible because of the permissiveness of the Nigerian society. The other side, the rape of thousands of Biafran women is so telling that emotion hardly dies down: "They forced themselves on her. Five of them. ...Where did it happen? It has been more than a year. I asked where? Oh, Nnesinachi's voice quavered. Near the stream. Outside? yes. Ugwu bent down and picked up a stone. They said the first one that climbed on top her, hit on the arm and drew blood. They nearly beat her to death. One of her eyes has refused to open well since."
   Reading the paragraph would not touch you but as you read it chronologically you feel like crying, memories come back to you. The life in a refugee camp, evacuating for safety from habitat to habitat, dilapidated or occupied house of the refugees as they saw after their return, relive the memories of Bangladeshis who have gone through the war in 1971. Incidentally, a year just after the fall of Biafra the events of Bangladesh are missing in fictions. The attraction of the book lies in the capacity of the writer in narrating the events - sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes creating hatred, sometimes funny and sometimes refreshing. But it is not simply a fiction, it has blended fiction with reality.
   Nigeria has produced literary giants like Chinua Abeche, Cyprian Ekwensi, Amos Tutuola and 1986 Nobel winner Ole Soyinka. Probably, Chimananda is going to surpass all of them, in terms of readers' acclaim, if not prizes. Nevertheless, her other best selling fiction Purple Hibiscus has already won the Commonwealth writers' Best first Book prize. Purple Hibiscus is also based on the political events of Nigeria; it tells the story of a girl when Nigeria begins to fall apart under a military coup.
   The speed with which the prose of the book takes you from beginning to end would not be unfair to call it poetry, Half of a Yellow Sun, is amazing. Once you start reading it takes you without any monotony excepting that some of the names sound quite difficult for non-Nigerians. The book is full of politics and political statement and has used local words here and there, but the strength of the fiction lies in the art of story telling. The writer was, however, concerned not to distort history, rather as said earlier was to relive the history. The book has rekindled the international memory about Biafra; it would shame people for violating human rights and denying the right to freedom to an ethnic nationality.
   Whether you like it or not, Biafrans fought for independence and Chimamanda has produced a wonderful fiction, in most cases with characters based on actual persons, spread over 433 pages. Bangladesh has also fought for independence and has gained it. But the world of Bangladeshi fiction misses a book like Half of Yellow Sun. Biafran struggle continued for four years but it had all the elements which the Bangladeshis suffered and witnessed a year after. The book describes desertion, loot, plunder, rape, killing, enlisting people as volunteers to fight for Nigeria. Bangladesh had also these and may be more. So after reading the book, one has the regret: If Bangladesh could own a book like this, to take the story of Bangladeshis to a global readership.

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