Former chairman of the National Human Rights Commission of Bangladesh Prof Dr Mizanur Rahman on Thursday asked the western countries to remain as friends and help Bangladesh to develop, instead of “dictating” like “big brothers”.
“Please behave like friends. Our foreign policy is friendship to all, malice to none. But if in the guise of friends, you want to dictate things, sorry Bangladesh is not prepared for big brothers. Bangladesh is not prepared to take commands from foreign lands. This is the lesson we have learned in 1971. We cannot go beyond that,” he said while speaking at a seminar.
The Empowerment through Law of the Common People (ELCOP), of which Prof Mizan is the chairman, organized the seminar titled “Democracy and Human Rights in Bangladesh: Violence Preceding Elections in Perspective” on Thursday in Dhaka.
Bangladeshi lawyers, teachers, members of civil society, NGOs and media participated in the seminar.
Besides, four foreigners - Prof Dr Mark Jackson of the University of Bristol, UK; former member of the EU Parliament Paulo Casaca, founder and executive director of the South Asia Democratic Forum; former principal economist at the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs in New York Dr William van der Geest and Editor at South Asia Democratic Forum Lisbonne Madalena Borges Coutinho Casaca - who are visiting Bangladesh as part of the observing pre-election situation, attended the event.
The ELCOP said they organized the seminar following the recent increase in the level of violence by some political parties ahead of the general elections.
They showed a comparative analysis of the number of pre-election violence from 2001 to the upcoming one. The presentation also highlighted the systemic violence against minorities after 2001 for supporting the Awami League.
Prof Mizan said the election has to be held “not only free and fair, but must be held in a violence-free atmosphere.”
“If anyone resorts to violence, it is the responsibility of the state, the law enforcing agencies to take measures for the safety of the people. It’s your choice whether you will participate in the elections or not. But you cannot resort to violence in order to thwart elections,” Prof Mizan said.
“I cannot attack those who will take part in the elections. This is not the democratic culture,” he said, adding that those who want to do politics here, must believe in the ideals of the 1971 war of liberation. “You cannot do politics in Bangladesh, keeping Pakistan in your heart.”
Paulo Casaca said the countries who talk about Bangladesh must know the ground reality.
“What we have heard today (Thursday) is absolutely terrifying. People had to leave the country because of the post-election revenge,” he said.
He also criticized the US role here in Bangladesh and said: “Secretary of State Antony Blinken must go to the archive and reread the ‘Blood Telegram’.”
The Blood Telegram is a state department dissent memo on American policy during the 1971 Bangladesh genocide sent by Archer Blood, the American Consul General to Dhaka, then East Pakistan.
He said Blood Telegram explained that “the US is betraying their very basic principles by which it is instituted on respecting democracy.”
“I would advise you to come here, to learn, to understand, and to see that military rule is certainly not better than democracy. And a government like a caretaker is not the way to produce democracy. This will not give us democracy. Yes, there are lots of problems. But we must keep a very close eye on the regularity of the elections,” he said.
Rights activist Dr Ulfat Hossain said: “The bomb that is hurled in the street does not know who is Muslim, who is Hindu. It can kill anybody. We all are sufferers. I don’t know of any country where people can do politics without upholding the spirit of the country’s independence”.
“We have a section of people and political parties who don’t care or support the ideals of independence. That’s the main reason for violence. Unless violence is done, unless people are made scared unless they take hold of the street, they would not be able to come to power,” he added.
Prof SM Masum Billah, dean, Faculty of Law of the Jagannath University, asked all to understand the history of Bangladesh.
“This is Bangladesh where the Father of the Nation was killed, and then an indemnity ordinance was issued so that no one can try the killers. The ordinance was included in the constitution. Then the killers were posted in different foreign missions in Bangladesh, and some of them were included in politics and made them opposition leaders. This is the history we have. And again there were a series of bomb blasts across Bangladesh in August 2004 and a grenade attack on the then opposition leader in 2004,” he said.
Prof Dr Mark Jackson said he had an “unease” feeling in Bangladesh during the last four days of his visit.
“But this is not a question here in Bangladesh alone. This is a global question because we know the former president of the US Donald Trump is on trial for facilitating post-election violence,” he said.
“I am not here to tell foreign countries how they should conduct elections. My presence here is to observe and recognize that this is a global question. Democracy and democratic sentiment is eroding globally. This is a problem in the US, in New Zealand, in Canada, and in the UK also. Violence during elections and post-elections is a global problem and global question,” he said.
Advocate Abraham Lingkon, journalist Selim Samad, Nirmal Rozario, president of Hindu Bouddha Christian Oikya Parishad, Sanjeeb Drong, president of Bangladesh Indigenous Peoples Forum, Md Hamid, former director general of Bangladesh Television, and Ven Thero Sunandapriya, president of Bangladesh Christian Association also spoke at the event.