AKM Wahiduzzaman is a geographer. He used to teach the subject at Bangladesh’s National University. A keen sportsman, he represented Bangladesh in basketball in the 1980s, and a vocal BNP supporter in various online platforms.
He has been in jail twice in the last three years. For the past year, he has been in hiding. He may well be going back to jail soon. Seeing his ordeals, his father has become seriously ill.
Make no mistake, his ordeals are caused by his politics.
AKM Wahiduzzaman is a very good Bangla commentator, possessing verve and wit. He writes galagali-free polished Bangla, not indulging in ad hominem attacks – itself an extreme rarity in the Bangladeshi cyberspace. Just as rare is his steadfast and frank support for the BNP. Unlike so many, he does not hide behind so-called non-partisanship.
Because of his politics, he comes under attack from Awami Leaguers (and their ultra-nationalist “useful idiots”) as well as Islamists. There is nothing curious about that. And that’s not particularly tragic either – your opponents will try to hurt you, that’s how it works.
It is, however, tragic when those who claim to be neither AL collaborators nor Islamists – the so-called non-partisans – don’t stand by Mr Wahiduzzaman. If there is one genuine case in Bangladesh where free speech is under threat, his ought to be it. It is a tragedy that this is not the case.
But it’s not at all surprising. Not to me. I am not surprised that our so-called progressive people don’t speak out for him. You see, to our progressive intellectuals and activists, Wahiduzzaman is BNP.
Sanaullah Babu was hacked to death four years ago. He was BNP. There were no human rights violation sympathies for him. Similarly, no rights for Ilias Ali or others who have been abducted. They were all BNP.
So why should it surprise me that no one cares about Wahiduzzaman? It doesn’t. And this article isn’t about demanding justice for him. Because he will not receive it.
The following are some translated examples of Mr Wahiduzzaman’s writing, on Bhasha Matin, the Awami League, and political Islamists agreeing on two-and-a-half points:
1. Bhasha Matin was secular (as a pro-China communist, of course he was secular).
2. It is un-Islamic to donate one’s body for medical purposes after death (and yet they feel proud of Muslim physician Ibn Sina. I ask them, if it is un-Islamic to donate the body, then how is medical education that uses corpses Islamic?)
2.5. Bhasha Matin did not lead the Language Movement. On this point, they are only half agreeable. According to the Awami League, the Language Movement was led by Sheikh Mujib, through his letters from the prison toilets, while the Islamists claim that the Language Movement was led by Ghulam Azam because as DUCSU GS he read a memo (as far as I know, Ghulam Azam himself never claimed to be the leader of the Language Movement).
