Image matters. Countries spend fortunes to project an aura of positivity. Image is nothing concrete. It’s a concept, rather amoeboid, perpetually fluid and morphing. The way we dress, talk, and act are the determinants of how we project ourselves to others. Media presence is an added component, but can’t work in lieu of obvious facts. I would like to discuss some of the most oft-repeated news stories and/or governmental hoopla which are affecting our national image in foreign countries, especially in the developed world.
Execution of even the most heinous of criminals remains unpleasant to the civilised and cultured (at least by some definitions). Europe does not execute its criminals. The US federal government does execute the likes of the unrepentant Oklahoma terrorist that killed 168 people in one strike. Most states in the US, however, do not execute. When it is done, it is done with no fanfare, unless the anti-death penalty vigil brings it to the forefront.
The second term of the AL government began with the rightful hanging of a few self-declared murderers of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. It was done with enormous foofaraw. There were joyous rallies, distribution of sweets, attempts at denying burials for the dead at certain locations with an unprecedented Awami zeal. I cringed at the news that the deshi diaspora of Awami stripe celebrated the execution in New York City, apparently oblivious of the fact that the state of New York effectively abolished capital punishment in 1860 by repealing hanging as a method of execution without prescribing an alternative.
“Hang them” (fashi chai) sloganeering again came to the fore on February 5, 2013, with the beginning of the Shahbagh phenomenon: A sea of rather immiscible collection of citizens renouncing a court verdict of the life imprisonment of a 60-year-old man and demanding fashi, no matter what the legal merit of the case be. No, they were not chanting for justice, they were chanting for a judicial process with a pre-determined outcome, which is no less than capital punishment. The government hanged Quader Molla. Shahbagh was a big event. Shahbagh and the consequent rise of Hefazat-e-Islam dominated the total zeitgeist for almost the entirety of 2013.
Does anyone wonder about the kind of image we tend to cultivate when we hang people to death, as if in a nation-wide fandango, or when tens of thousands of urbanites sing in falsetto to execute someone, curiously asking for justice with a predetermined outcome reminiscent of the age-old saying, “I want justice, but the tree is mine” (bichar chai kintu taal gachh amar)? Is this really the image of justice?
Killing with fanfare or promoting the notion of killing for whatever lofty reason is no good. As per the law of the land, execution of a convict should be a necessity of reluctance for any people or nation state. We should carry on with this necessity only with a certain sense of sadness.
Governance
Following a short lull after the January 5 election, the government is again in troubled waters -- intra-mural power struggle for money and turf, Rab for hire, the student front gone totally haywire, and more. Governance has ebbed to a low point.
Every day, new cases like “Limon vs the State” are coming to the fore. Harold Pinter’s 2003 poem “Democracy” was aimed at the hypocrisy of Western democracies, but this democracy is just as depressing.
The abject thoughtlessness and callous political calculation of the current government are an anathema for building a better international image for today’s Bangladesh.
The professor
Hurting the image of the brightest international image of Bangladesh is no good either. Yes, I am talking about the professor who easily could have had a great, productive, and trouble-free life in any away-from-home country, but has chosen to stay at home and suffer the indignities of attending a remote magisterial court while another Nobel-winning professor from a neighbouring country cracks wise words. This does not bode well for a country that is interested in building a positive image.
Thanks to the prevailing noxious effluvia of dysfunctional politics of many decades, Bangladesh does not have much to boast of internationally. The two most visible and approving international images of Bangladesh belongs to Yunus/Grameen and Abed/BRAC -- they already have a tremendous positive branding, we just need to build upon them further.
The Sundarbans and the Royal Bengal Tiger are great, and we should be branding them as our own, however, trashing Yunus/Abed or leaving them aside is just nonsense. We should mind the fact that certain things transcend the national and/or geographic boundaries of Bangladesh, and should be treated as such.
The diaspora
Prompted properly, the Bangladeshi diaspora can really promote a positive image for Bangladesh with much more effectiveness than anyone living within the geographical confines of Bangladesh. We are failing here, because of meaningless deshi-style political rancour. Unfortunately, the image of Bangladesh gets warped with similarly unflattering media.
Our polity’s mysterious behaviour is reminiscent of that proverbial ostrich that ditches its head in sand and feels that everything is hunky dory.
The world is getting increasingly globalised with its built-in disjuncture as the different scapes (of Arjun Appadurai) come into play. The ostrich mentality is not going to save the day.