The state of student and youth politics in Bangladesh is worrying
Mehedi Hasan
Umran Chowdhury
Publish : 27 Dec 2021, 07:15 AMUpdate : 27 Dec 2021, 07:15 AM
In 1605, a man named Guy Fawkes wanted to blow up the English parliament. He was part of the Gunpowder Plot -- a terrorist conspiracy to destroy the Palace of Westminster and assassinate King James I. The secret plot was discovered before it was put into play on November 5, 1605. Fawkes and his co-conspirators were arrested and executed.
The English people have ever since commemorated November 5 each year as a day of thanksgiving. In what is known as Guy Fawkes Day, bonfires and fireworks light up the night skies across England. It marks the victory of the English over a plot of terror and treason.
I happen to live near Parliament Hill, where legend has it that Guy Fawkes planned to watch the explosion of the English parliament from a safe distance. But Fawkes was caught red-handed with gunpowder in the cellar of the Palace of Westminster before he could get to Parliament Hill.
In the murky world of Bangladeshi politics, every day can feel like a Gunpowder Plot or a Guy Fawkes Night. Bengal is after all the land of the infamous Mir Jafar. Back in my high school days, a literary friend would compare the assassination of Bangabandhu to the betrayal of Julius Ceaser by Brutus.
We all know about the sweet and glorious side of Bangladesh -- its history, its art, and its culture. But is there an underlying dark side to Bangladesh which is hardly talked about? Is there a propensity for the Bangladeshi to be like Guy Fawkes -- to be treacherous to the point of great harm?
I encountered this behaviour in East London of late. East London is well known for its contemporary concentration of Bangladeshis. There is Brick Lane, where alongside curry houses, you can find one of London’s best bagel shops which proudly hangs a picture of a visit by the Duchess of Cambridge.
On Roman Road, where the women’s suffragist movement once thrived, you will now find a Bangali population mixed with hard working Brits, Turks, and Italians. It was around here in November that I encountered a member of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party’s youth wing, or the Jubo Dal. The person and his wife only arrived in autumn from a remote corner of northeastern Bangladesh in Sylhet.
I first thought I met a Bangali hillbilly. The man said his name was Shaheen Miah. He claimed to be the central secretary of Jubo Dal and boasted about possessing a gun. Shaheen told me that he was implicated in a murder case back in Bangladesh. His wife talked about studying management in Hertfordshire and having a prior master’s degree from Bangladesh, though I clearly found her struggling to properly pronounce a sentence in English.
The couple seemed to take issue with me -- for God knows what reason. Shaheen was an admirer of the Taliban. His wife Tabassum came off to me as a sort of Shamima Begum without a burqa. They teamed up with an elderly Bangali man who was diagnosed with an illness and harboured delusions of being a leader of the Awami League in Britain. They also had two rather bearded Bangali men in their gang -- one who kept his identity ambiguous and another who claimed to be a student.
These people hurled vitriol and abuse which doesn’t even spare one’s own mother. I wanted to record their behaviour but they threatened to break my phone. The context appeared to be politically-motivated, although that would be a grossly misunderstood, blind, and pointless political context.
This raises the question of what kind of men and women our youth politics is producing. The Murad fiasco should force us to introspect into the kind of grassroots politics that have developed in Bangladesh. In the muffassil, it is common sight to find young men going astray by joining either the Chhatra League, Chhatra Dal, Jubo League, or Jubo Dal instead of going to college. Allegations of murder, assault, theft, bribery, extortion, sexual harassment, and vandalism are rife against members of these organizations.
The ruling party of the day often mobilizes their student and youth wings to harass the opposition and the general public. I am sure every Bangladeshi is privy to this. I for one have seen members of student and youth wings illegally collect tolls on highways and threaten a random shopkeeper over extortion.
Youth politics is supposed to be about young civil society, not a society of goons and hoodlums. Student politics and political societies also exist on the campuses of the United Kingdom. But here the discourse is about real issues that affect the people, including issues of domestic and foreign policy. Moreover, you are only a part of a student political group if you are enrolled in university.
Student politics should be attracting the best and the brightest. It should be a window into the real world of public policy and debate in order to prepare the youth for successful careers in many fields.
We are often told that student politics played an important role in the emergence of Bangladesh. Many of our great political leaders emerged from Bengali student politics, including Bangabandhu. Men like Bangabandhu stood up against the mighty British Empire and the dictatorships of East and West Pakistan. But it is important to remember that Bangabandhu was part of a generation that sacrificed for the sake of our self-determination and independence. They achieved their goals.
The legacy of Bengal’s once noble young political movements is not reflected in the thoroughly corrupt student and youth politics of contemporary Bangladesh. We are dishonouring the legacy of past student movements by allowing student and youth wings of our political parties to act as corruptly as they do.
There has been talk of a ban on campus politics. A ban seems to be a misguided solution. Why should there be a ban on politics in a free country? Instead, we need to address the cancer that has engulfed our student and youth politics head on. This means enacting stringent regulation and reform on the modus operandi of student and youth political wings.
I propose that parliament enact a statute governing the modus operandi and mandate of these student and youth wings. The statute can be called the Higher Education Political Societies Act. These organizations should be committed to the fundamental rights enshrined in the constitution, as well as the constitution’s list of fundamental principles of state policy.
Membership should be restricted to enrolled students in a particular university and the branch of a student youth wing in that university. Members should pay a regular fee to be a part of the organization. The leadership should be regularly elected and subjected to accountability. Activities should revolve around seminars, conferences, and legal avenues of fundraising. These organizations must respect the peaceful right to freedom of assembly.
The top political leadership of the country must foster rational and civil discourse within these organizations -- not the plethora of hate and spite which currently infects student and youth politics.
Our best and brightest?
In 1605, a man named Guy Fawkes wanted to blow up the English parliament. He was part of the Gunpowder Plot -- a terrorist conspiracy to destroy the Palace of Westminster and assassinate King James I. The secret plot was discovered before it was put into play on November 5, 1605. Fawkes and his co-conspirators were arrested and executed.
The English people have ever since commemorated November 5 each year as a day of thanksgiving. In what is known as Guy Fawkes Day, bonfires and fireworks light up the night skies across England. It marks the victory of the English over a plot of terror and treason.
I happen to live near Parliament Hill, where legend has it that Guy Fawkes planned to watch the explosion of the English parliament from a safe distance. But Fawkes was caught red-handed with gunpowder in the cellar of the Palace of Westminster before he could get to Parliament Hill.
In the murky world of Bangladeshi politics, every day can feel like a Gunpowder Plot or a Guy Fawkes Night. Bengal is after all the land of the infamous Mir Jafar. Back in my high school days, a literary friend would compare the assassination of Bangabandhu to the betrayal of Julius Ceaser by Brutus.
We all know about the sweet and glorious side of Bangladesh -- its history, its art, and its culture. But is there an underlying dark side to Bangladesh which is hardly talked about? Is there a propensity for the Bangladeshi to be like Guy Fawkes -- to be treacherous to the point of great harm?
I encountered this behaviour in East London of late. East London is well known for its contemporary concentration of Bangladeshis. There is Brick Lane, where alongside curry houses, you can find one of London’s best bagel shops which proudly hangs a picture of a visit by the Duchess of Cambridge.
On Roman Road, where the women’s suffragist movement once thrived, you will now find a Bangali population mixed with hard working Brits, Turks, and Italians. It was around here in November that I encountered a member of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party’s youth wing, or the Jubo Dal. The person and his wife only arrived in autumn from a remote corner of northeastern Bangladesh in Sylhet.
I first thought I met a Bangali hillbilly. The man said his name was Shaheen Miah. He claimed to be the central secretary of Jubo Dal and boasted about possessing a gun. Shaheen told me that he was implicated in a murder case back in Bangladesh. His wife talked about studying management in Hertfordshire and having a prior master’s degree from Bangladesh, though I clearly found her struggling to properly pronounce a sentence in English.
The couple seemed to take issue with me -- for God knows what reason. Shaheen was an admirer of the Taliban. His wife Tabassum came off to me as a sort of Shamima Begum without a burqa. They teamed up with an elderly Bangali man who was diagnosed with an illness and harboured delusions of being a leader of the Awami League in Britain. They also had two rather bearded Bangali men in their gang -- one who kept his identity ambiguous and another who claimed to be a student.
These people hurled vitriol and abuse which doesn’t even spare one’s own mother. I wanted to record their behaviour but they threatened to break my phone. The context appeared to be politically-motivated, although that would be a grossly misunderstood, blind, and pointless political context.
This raises the question of what kind of men and women our youth politics is producing. The Murad fiasco should force us to introspect into the kind of grassroots politics that have developed in Bangladesh. In the muffassil, it is common sight to find young men going astray by joining either the Chhatra League, Chhatra Dal, Jubo League, or Jubo Dal instead of going to college. Allegations of murder, assault, theft, bribery, extortion, sexual harassment, and vandalism are rife against members of these organizations.
The ruling party of the day often mobilizes their student and youth wings to harass the opposition and the general public. I am sure every Bangladeshi is privy to this. I for one have seen members of student and youth wings illegally collect tolls on highways and threaten a random shopkeeper over extortion.
Youth politics is supposed to be about young civil society, not a society of goons and hoodlums. Student politics and political societies also exist on the campuses of the United Kingdom. But here the discourse is about real issues that affect the people, including issues of domestic and foreign policy. Moreover, you are only a part of a student political group if you are enrolled in university.
Student politics should be attracting the best and the brightest. It should be a window into the real world of public policy and debate in order to prepare the youth for successful careers in many fields.
We are often told that student politics played an important role in the emergence of Bangladesh. Many of our great political leaders emerged from Bengali student politics, including Bangabandhu. Men like Bangabandhu stood up against the mighty British Empire and the dictatorships of East and West Pakistan. But it is important to remember that Bangabandhu was part of a generation that sacrificed for the sake of our self-determination and independence. They achieved their goals.
The legacy of Bengal’s once noble young political movements is not reflected in the thoroughly corrupt student and youth politics of contemporary Bangladesh. We are dishonouring the legacy of past student movements by allowing student and youth wings of our political parties to act as corruptly as they do.
There has been talk of a ban on campus politics. A ban seems to be a misguided solution. Why should there be a ban on politics in a free country? Instead, we need to address the cancer that has engulfed our student and youth politics head on. This means enacting stringent regulation and reform on the modus operandi of student and youth political wings.
I propose that parliament enact a statute governing the modus operandi and mandate of these student and youth wings. The statute can be called the Higher Education Political Societies Act. These organizations should be committed to the fundamental rights enshrined in the constitution, as well as the constitution’s list of fundamental principles of state policy.
Membership should be restricted to enrolled students in a particular university and the branch of a student youth wing in that university. Members should pay a regular fee to be a part of the organization. The leadership should be regularly elected and subjected to accountability. Activities should revolve around seminars, conferences, and legal avenues of fundraising. These organizations must respect the peaceful right to freedom of assembly.
The top political leadership of the country must foster rational and civil discourse within these organizations -- not the plethora of hate and spite which currently infects student and youth politics.
Umran Chowdhury works in the legal field.
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