“The fate of the country to be decided on the streets” reads a photo card posted on the verified page of Bangladesh Nationalist Party’s media cell attributing to acting chief Tarique Rahman who runs the party from London.
Importantly, days later, inside the country, violence and horror flared up on the streets. A grisly spell of arson attacks, coupled with vandalism, attacks on police vehicles, and clashes with law enforcement descended on the streets, reportedly led by armed BNP cadres -- a manifestation observers say exposes at best the true intention behind Tarique’s call to taking to street.
Ironically, the party leaders, known to be loyalists to Tarique, made a botched effort to justify these acts slapping an assertion of “fascist” tag on their rival AL. But every time any members of the BNP, or its intellectuals, call the present government of Bangladesh fascist, it is certainly an abuse of the term.
Let’s unpack my argument and consider what fascism is in light of activities pursued by the party.
A history lesson
Umberto Eco, an anti-fascist Italian novelist and essayist, wrote an article entitled Ur-Fascism, describing the fourteen features of fascism.
If we consider the characteristics of BNP with those of the Italian Fascist Party of Benito Mussolini, we find some striking similarities.
Umberto Eco, who witnessed the brutality of fascism in his childhood, argued, “[f]or Ur-Fascism, disagreement is treason”.
After boycotting the election in 2014, if we look at the two-year spell of carnage perpetuated on minorities across the country including burning their worship places, looting and ransacking of their houses by BNP-Jamaat men and torching vehicles plying on the streets leaving thousands injured clearly laid bare some core tenets of fascism.
Any party that seeks to uphold patriotic values cannot have faith in BNP’s call for democracy due to their past and present behaviour.
Moreover, BNP's latest public announcement to boycott talk shows in Somoy TV for what they stated as the channel producing and broadcasting a number of content against the Zia family is another pointer to fascist characterization. As in any democracy, the true power of a free media can only be reflected when the party in power and in opposition allow media outlets to criticize their activities; but the reportage on corruption on the part of Tarique and his now deceased brother, triggered this boycott approach by the party.
Now the party has asked the media not to report freely but to toe the line set by BNP and stop reporting Tarique's past misdeeds. It clearly makes BNP's call for upholding freedom of speech and its criticisms of digital security act ring hollow, almost akin to a fascist party.
A textbook example?
Another characteristic of fascism, as Umberto Eco says, is: “Ur-Fascism derives from individual or social frustration.” He also adds, “[t]hat is why one of the most typical features of historical fascism was the appeal to a frustrated middle class, a class suffering from an economic crisis … ”
Tarique Rahman has said that BNP struggled incessantly for the people. The truth of the matter is that they are very opportunistic. When the coronavirus pandemic raged all over the world, followed by the ongoing war in Europe which fuelled the global economic crisis -- which affected Bangladesh as well -- opportunistic parties like the BNP had been trying to use it to worsen the economic crisis and destroy democratic institutions.
However, the government has been working hard to overcome this. Hopefully, we will see improvements sooner than later as the current leadership has time and again proven itself to overcome hurdles, such as its Covid management and the completion of the Padma Bridge.
Politically, it is a farce that Tarique Rahman compared meetings of peace and prosperity, conducted by the ruling party, to the infamous Peace Committee constituted by the occupying Pakistan army committing war crimes with the help of certain collaborators.
Most of the top leaders of Bangladesh Jamaat-e Islami were members of Al Badr and Al Shams and the Peace Committees -- sidekicks of the Pakistan army. That is why they were tried and punished by the International Crimes Tribunals.
On top of that, advocate Rana Dasgupta, general secretary of the Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council, issued a statement expressing his fear of minority oppression that took place during BNP’s violent anti-government protests between 2013 and 2015.
Unfortunately, some US Congressmen were misled to believe that the present government is responsible for the decline of the minority population in Bangladesh.
Misinformation and disinformation campaigns have been incessantly waged at home and abroad. On July 27, the day before BNP’s public demonstration at Naya Paltan, 14 US congressmen issued a statement and the ringleader of this initiative, Bob Good -- a member of the US House of Representatives -- tweeted on the same day “expressing concern over violence by the Bangladeshi government against peaceful demonstrators.”
Having said that, we must remember a diplomatic cable sent by the erstwhile US ambassador James F Moriarty to Bangladesh, later leaked by Wikileaks, that depicted the BNP-Jamaat government controlled by Tarique Rahman as a kleptocratic government. Moriarty commented that the unconstitutional interference of Tarique Rahman had “weakened public confidence in government [from 2001 to 2006] and eroded the stability of democratic institutions.”
This same Tarique Rahman, who used the government as his family business, accused the Awami League government of destroying democratic institutions.
Warts and all
There is no doubt that we are not a perfect democracy, neither is any Western state to that end. The US Constitution in its preamble states that it endeavours to establish a “more perfect union.” Our goal is even nobler -- to establish socialism through democratic processes. Unfortunately, democracy was thwarted by the brutal assassination of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the father of the nation, along with most of his family members, on August 15, 1975. Major General Ziaur Rahman, a military dictator, took power and, along with Hussain Muhammad Ershad, another military dictator, ruled Bangladesh for 15 long years -- a dark period for democracy in Bangladesh.
In late 1990s, the military dictator was ousted from power by the people. The ruling party played a major role in restoring democracy in Bangladesh, meanwhile, the BNP -- a party created to legitimize the military dictatorship of Major General Ziaur Rahman -- has yet to tire of trying to prevent the democratic development in Bangladesh.
Tarique Rahman’s call is divisive in nature. He has divided the whole nation into “us versus them.” He says, “the country is divided into two sections.” It reminds us of Hitler’s call for violence against the parties that opposed his politics. Before dragging the world into a world war, Hitler first brought his country to almost a civil war.
We need to avoid such a fate in Bangladesh.
If the BNP and its leaders want to practice liberal democracy in their party and the country, they must avoid the words of conflict and violence. Democracy, according to John Stuart Mill, means a government by discussion. Hopefully, the BNP will engage in dialogue with the government and ensure free and fair elections by strengthening constitutional institutions and not by weakening them through their violent protests to install an unconstitutional and undemocratic system of “caretaker government.”
To close my arguments, I will remind you that all these words came weeks before a court verdict had found Tarique Rahman and his wife Zubaida Rahman amassing illegal wealth.
Is Tarique Rahman’s inconsistent speech that is full of gibberish a sign of his fear of being convicted again in a court of law? Is his speech, an attempt to persuade the judiciary to go against the law and judge the case, in favour of him? The answer is definitely in the affirmative.
All crocodile tears for democracy are a shroud to hide his intention to influence the court not to follow the rule of law. Disgracefully, in the name of protecting democratic institutions, Tarique Rahman is trying to destroy them completely.
Dr Mizanur Rahman is Former Chairman, National Human Rights Commission of Bangladesh.