Madam Prime Minister, where
are you taking us?

Zahid Zamir

Political vendetta is not new in Bangladesh. In recent months it has reached a new height worsening political situation in the country.
   After a long wait the army-backed caretaker government held election on 29 December 2008. The Awami League (AL) and its allies, 17-party grand alliance, won 259 seats in the 300-seat parliament. Of the seats, Awami League alone secured 230 seats. The unprecedented margin of this victory surprised many political observers, including AL leadership itself. AL's presidium member and finance minister Abul Mal Abdul Muhith was quoted to have telling BBC: "We were certainly expecting victory, but perhaps not as big as this. This is clearly a major challenge for us; we have to deliver."
   Surely, winning is one thing but delivery is different. Having won a landslide victory, the Awami League-led grand alliance now faces high expectations from voters. A year has passed since the AL came to power. During the campaign, the AL and its allies made a series of populist appeals, pledging to reduce poverty and unemployment, lower prices of essential commodities and uplift the lots of the rural poor and above all to establish the rule of law. Recognising the high proportion of young voters, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina promised to build a "digital Bangladesh" and improve training, education and job opportunities.
   All these promises came in the name of "A Charter for Change". Can the Prime Minister claim that she has brought changes? What people want from any government is security of their life and property above everything else. That was the leading reason that people voted AL-led grand alliance and brought them to power with such a large majority.
   
   Political violence kills 13 daily
   People won't accept a regime that fails to provide security of life and property, no matter how rosy promises a government makes. How ridiculous it sounds when Bangladesh is praised for her active role in the UN peace keeping mission, securing the law and order in other countries under the auspices of UN but fails to provide security to its own people in her own land.
   What is more ridiculous when we hear from our home minister? Since the inception of the Government, Law and order situation in Bangladesh has been deteriorating. Recent statistics shows that on average 13 people are getting murdered daily all over the country and of course many more go unnoticed. So we can take no comfort about the law and order situation of Bangladesh.
   According to the data published by Odhikar, the year of 2009 saw the death of 251 persons and injury of 15,559 persons through political violence.
   
   Chhatra League factor
   In the past 13 months since the Awami League-led government assumed office, the Chhatra League (BCL) has consistently hogged the headlines, needless to say, for the wrong reasons. Its leaders and activists have run amok in different universities and colleges across the country. In the first couple of months or so, they went after their political opponents in a bid to establish territorial control on the campuses. Later, once their dominance over their political rivals was complete, they turned against each other.
   The violence perpetrated by the BCL elements is, again, needless to say, mostly related to tussle for control over rent-seeking, tender manipulation, 'admission business', etc. Madmam Prime Minister we have seen you, on many occasions in the past warned of disciplinary and legal actions if any BCL leaders and activists were found to be involved in violence or violation of law and order. But unfortunately such warnings, like most campaign promises, were hardly translated into decisive and demonstrative actions.
   Worse till, the government, of late, seems to have softened even its public posture against violence and vandalism on campuses by unruly BCL elements. In the wake of the recent intra-BCL clash at Dhaka University, the home minister sought to play it down as a 'stray incident'.
   
   'Unable or unwilling'
   The inaction of the government and the ruling party, and the apparent change in their public posture tend to indicate that the government is either unable or unwilling to rein in the unruly elements in the Chhatra League. Since the AL-led grand alliance won the December 29, 2008 parliamentary election with a historic landslide victory, it has been reported on many occasions in different dailies in Bangladesh how BCL activists got themselves busy with violent intra and inter-organizational clashes; killing, beating, maiming and chasing out of dorms its rival leaders and activists over establishing supremacy at educational institutions. The recent remark by the Secretary General of Awami League Syed Ashraful Islam that Shibir men have infiltrated into BCL is to cover up the crimes committed by the BCL. This too is a laughable remark by the AL leader.
   Every time there is violence, killings or skirmishes on a college/university campus, we see reports and news in every electronic and print media. Very often we also see a high-powered inquiry committee is formed to bring the perpetrator (s) in justice. After some time every one stops talking about that and the report submitted by the committee gets evaporated.
   People of Bangladesh want all the killers and their godfathers specially those who are involved in the violent death of Abu Bakr, Faruque, Shahin, Mohiuddin and others to be brought to justice. Death of every student is a great loss for the entire nation. nation move forward.
   
   74 students killed at DU
   To stop violence, commotion and infighting once and for all, this is the time for the government to get the root cause of that and it has to be done transparently so it does not raise any question in the mind of the people. We have to treat each and every murder victim equally; all steps must be taken in this regard. No discrimination must be done. If we look at only the University of Dhaka (DU); statistics tells that since independence 74 students have been murdered and the real culprits were never brought to justice. Every time there is a clash between government-backed student organizations with its arch rival; and it is always the opposition that gets harassed and tortured as a result.
   Combing operations against whom?
   The present combing operations in the name of uprooting or obliterating one opposition party and its student wing will destroy the democratic process in a country. We have seen in Bangladesh those who use state machineries to stop opposition movement or to oppress them have failed ay last. Now is the time for a complete paradigm shift in our political landscape.
   Now is the time for the political parties to analyze and assess the costs and benefits of having student wings. If costs outweigh benefits then it is the time to ban all political parties having student wings. Although according to Bangladesh Election Commission, political parties must not have any student wings, it has not been materializes as yet.
   If the political parties in Bangladesh do not show any regard or interest in disbanding student wings, then the violence will never stop on college/university campuses. Major political parties in Bangladesh use their student wings as weapons to fight. Violence takes place not only because of student politics but mainly because of teachers' involvement in politics. Political parties not only patronize student politics but teacher politics as well. Teachers at out public universities do not have time and resources for research because they are busy with teachers' politics all the time. One does not have to be a rocket scientist to understand the reason why the quality of education in our public universities and colleges is on the ebb. It is so upsetting that those who should set a model for their students to follow in every aspect in life, bring that political vendetta in the faculty lounge also. Unless we stop teachers' politics on campuses and appointing administrators in all the public universities based on political affiliation rather than merit, there is no way we can contain campus violence on college and university campuses.
   No government in the past took any initiative to stop this political madness and introduce and instill a culture of civic discourse among all political parties. Whether the criminals belong to BCL, Chattra Dal, Shibir or other parties, they must be brought to justice. Unless government provides conducive environment for our students in all the educational institutions free from violence, commotion, and infighting 'digital Bangladesh' will remain a hollow slogan producing nothing.
   The writer teaches in the School of Business and Information Systems at York College of the City University of New York. He can be reached at zzamir@york.cuny.edu

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