Every December 16, I am reminded of a dreadful scene before Dhaka Stadium that took place two days after our Victory Day and the unthinkable surrender of Pakistan Army. That incident of a brutal killing of a suspected Razakar (Pakistani collaborator) by bayonet by a person in military uniform marred my joy of celebration with dismay and fear.
Are we going to relapse into the same miasma of hopelessness and desperation that had enveloped us for the last nine months? Are we not going to have a country for all of us that will assure us safety, liberty, and freedom from fear? Are we not going to have rule of law and protection for all, from the poorest to the richest?
My fear is captured very well by a person -- a vendor of paan, cigarette, and tea in a stall by the stadium. That young man was an epitome of courage, optimism, and cheer who kept his little shop operating during all those dark days of 1971, even when Dhaka was in danger of street battles in the first half of December.
I was an occasional visitor to his stall for tea, where he would tell me in a surreptitious voice that the end of Pakistan was near, and we would soon see the Pakistan army leave. He said he had this on good authority of Mukti Bahini, some of whom were his visitors. I welcomed his fanciful thoughts and said I wish they would come true.
But indeed, his fanciful thoughts came true, and then came this awful occurrence two days later right before his stall. I had gone to see him three days after December 16 in the evening. I thought he would greet me in great gusto and hug me in celebration. Instead, he was morose. In a doleful voice he said, "sir, I don't know what to say today after I witnessed this frightful killing here."
I had heard about the killing because it was all in newspapers with a photo. Yet I asked him why he thought it was awful. He replied, "this is not what should happen in a free country. This is not Pakistani soldiers killing a Bangali passerby just because he thought he was a Mukti. He was a Bangali killed by another Bangali. What about law, sir?" he asked.
"Sir, all these nine months I waited for the day when we would be free and ruled by our own people -- Bangalis. I thought the Pakistanis would leave sooner or later. But sir, if this is the way we have to live now, people killing people just because they think they were dalals, where would we get protection? Where is the rule of law?" I had no answer to his question then, and I do not have it now, even after 51 years of our independence.
Much has happened in the last 51 years. We saw the annihilation of our liberation dreams within three years of our independence after the brutal killing of the father of the nation and the key figures of liberation war in a brief period. We endured military dictatorship that ended our hope of a democratic country, and then two decades of cantonment based semi-democracy.
But we progressed economically, although politically we kept on stumbling. The irony was that the more we progressed economically, the less we advanced in promoting a just society that is sensitive to democratic rights of our people, to have a country with rule of law, transparence in governance, and the right to choose our own representatives without fear or favour.
If a nation's progress could only be judged by growth in per capita income, then perhaps we have a lot to be proud of. For a country described by some as a basket case at birth, to arrive at the doors of middle income is no achievement. Our literacy rate, even though it has a long way to go to be in the upper quintiles among nations, has been a shining example of our progress.
Our exports expanded, making us one of the top manufacturers of ready-made garments, while our foreign exchange reserves bounced with earnings from migrant workers. All these helped shine our economy and sped our path to higher income.
But did these allay the fears of the young tea stall owner of Dhaka stadium 50 years ago? Would he be happy to see what has happened to his dream of rule of law, and rights of ordinary citizens to life and property?
Unfortunately, while our wealth index has risen, our human rights index has fallen more precipitously. In the past few years, a major criticism of Bangladesh in world press and human rights watch groups has been extrajudicial killing, forced disappearances, and suppression of freedom of expression through enactment of laws to that effect.
Amnesty International in its last annual report (2021) stated “freedom of expression continued to be heavily curtailed by draconian laws. The authorities carried out serious human rights violations including enforced disappearances, unlawful detention, torture, and extrajudicial executions. Peaceful protests by opposition political parties and students were prevented and suppressed by the authorities, on some occasions using excessive force.”
I need not add criticism made by other countries and entities on the subject of human rights, voting rights, and transparence in governance. Suffice it to say that all of these contribute much to the negative image of the country, as opposed to the image of nation building and economic progress that our people have been able to put up to the world.
We are proud of our economic achievement, our progress in eliminating poverty and illiteracy, and our ability to shake off dependence on foreign aid. We are proud that the dream of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in making his country economically prosperous is happening. But we are not proud that his democratic ideals of giving every citizen their right to life, liberty, and freedom of expression have not met with the same success as the economy.
We have built this country from bottom up. We owe it to our people that they feel as much ownership as our political leaders do. People are not cogs in a wheel. They are the drivers of the economy and the country's future.
If we want them to have an equal stake in the country, we have to guarantee them a safe future, a safe life for their children who do not have to face draconian laws to curtail their freedom. A safe future where they can be protected by law and can have access to rule of law when they need.
It is then only that the promise of December 16 can be achieved.
Ziauddin Choudhury has worked in the higher civil service of Bangladesh early in his career, and later for the World Bank in the US.