Bush-Blair’s “Democracy” And
“War On Terror”: Submission Of
The Compliant Elite In BangladeshBy Taj Hashmi
08 February, 2006
Countercurrents.org
Recently US Assistant Secretary for State, Christiana Rocca, and an EU delegation visited Bangladesh to germinate a joint US-Bangladesh anti-terrorist cell and to ensure democracy in the country, respectively. Both the visits, because of their hidden and apparent agenda, and what the respective visitors and their local admirers discussed publicly are nothing to be proud of neither as Bangladeshis nor as conscientious human beings.
After their abysmal failures in anticipating, preventing and containing terrorism anywhere in the world, the Americans have no moral authority to ask Bangladesh to contain terror with their help. They should be rather admiring the efficient police and intelligence agencies in Bangladesh who have succeeded in apprehending almost all the top terrorists within three months after the major terrorist attacks in the country. What President Bush has written to the Prime Minister is also very objectionable. Who is he to advise the Prime Minister to hold the next parliamentary elections on time? He has not only shown his ignorance (as the care taker government takes care of parliamentary elections in the country) but has also poked his nose into the internal affairs of a sovereign country. Will the US entertain such unsolicited advice from Khaleda Zia as to how the US should conduct their presidential elections, not to repeat the Florida Scandal?
Since we know the reality of Bush-Blair’s so-called “war on terror” and their “quest for democracy” as the “new world order”, this essay is about how, and most importantly why, large sections of Bangladeshi elite are submitting to the pressure generating West, some even begging the US-EU duumvirate to physically intervene to “restore” democracy and overthrow the BNP-Jamaat Government to eliminate “Islamic terror” in the country. What is most surprising is not the way the dominant West has been behaving ever since the end of the Cold War to establish its hegemony, the most surprising (and disgraceful) is the way a section of our politicians, journalists and intellectuals have spontaneously been enthusiastic in preparing a ground for Western intervention into Bangladesh in the name of restoring democracy and fighting terrorism.
We may recall how Sheikh Hasina and her Awami League had been projecting their major political adversary, Khaleda Zia and BNP, as sponsors of terror and even as “friends with Bin Laden” since President Clinton’s visit in early 2000. Many would recall seeing coloured posters in Dhaka city walls with portraits of Bin Laden and Khaleda, side by side as birds of the same feather, on the eve of the Parliamentary Elections in October 2001. One may laugh at ignoring these cynical and childish acts as mere hyper-active electioneering on part of some not-so-mature political leaders.
If all these cynicism and gimmicks are parts of the Bengali political culture, one wonders as to how to evaluate Sheikh Hasina’s frequent lambasting of the ruling BNP and its coalition partners as “terrorists”, “Taliban agents” and “promoters/protectors of suicide bombers” in public forums at home and abroad. Even if one accepts Hasina and her party as politically immature, it is difficult to accept those highly educated members of the Bangladeshi Diaspora in the West and their intellectual supporters in Bangladesh as honest, sincere and politically mature either. Of late some Bangladeshi expatriates in the US succeeded in convincing more than a dozen American lawmakers, including senators Edward Kennedy (who openly supported the cause of Bangladesh in 1971) and John Kerry, who wrote a letter to the Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to intervene into Bangladesh for the sake of democracy and human rights.
It is difficult to find out the most appropriate expression to classify these highly educated lovers of gunboat diplomacy without crossing the threshold of decency. One may, however, call them “confused patriots” with a holier-than-thou mentality. These hyper patriots, again, would not leave any stone unturned to bring their dear party and its matriarch to power once again for the sake of democracy, human rights, secularism and what not!
This is really very unfortunate that mainly due to the constant harping on the theme by both the Leader of the Opposition and her blind followers/beneficiaries that Bangladesh is on the verge of a Taliban takeover or yet worse, the PM and the ruling parties are behind all terrorist bombings and killing in the country, Western leaders, donors and petty officials say and do things undermining the sovereignty of the country. They know it very well that this friction-ridden factious country simply cannot assert its will against any would-be-hegemon and dominant powers.
It is so disgraceful and shocking that excepting the Finance Minister Saifur Rahman, very few ministers and politicians in the ruling coalition could muster enough courage to condemn the highhandedness and uncivil innuendos of the EU delegates with regard to the PM, Election Commission and other government machinery. What is even more reprehensible is the dubious role of the so-called civil society, donor-driven corrupt and unaccountable NGOwallas, journalists and compliant, self-seeking sycophant intellectuals. One could not believe that the Daily Star could come up with an editorial, “EU on Elections: One more voice for sanity” (January 26, 2006), congratulating the intrusive EU delegates who had asked for reforms in the Election Commission to ensure free and fair polls in the country. Our only consolation in this regard is that neither the PM nor the Chief Election Commissioner gave any audience to the EU delegates.
One may cite another editorial of a national daily, which raised an alarm at Christina Rocca’s recent comments on Bangladesh. The avowedly pro-Awami League editorial, which unfortunately reads like an inherently anti-Bangladeshi piece, came out in the Bangladesh Observer (January 29, 2006). The paper takes an exception to the following comments by Rocca: “Bangladesh is not only a functioning democracy but also a role model for Muslim countries.” Imputing the recent rise of Islamic fanatics/terrorists in Bangladesh to Rocca’s previous comments two years back, the editor (“ Rocca’s 2 Certificates Unacceptable”) informs us: “Her certificate seems to have some contribution to the phenomenal rise of that dreaded Jagrata Muslim Janata, Bangladesh(JMJB) operation commander”[italics in original]. What an irresponsible observation!
In sum, Bangladesh should learn lessons from what the mighty US and its Western partners have done so far to their erstwhile “friends and allies”. They have dumped and abandoned almost all of their “friends” except Israel during the last fifty-odd years. Iraq and Pakistan are two glaring examples in this regard. Those who think by aligning Bangladesh with the US in the name of containing terror (actually to get some share in the $100 million already offered by the US for the purpose) Bangladesh would be a safe haven are simply day dreamers. They should not lose sight of how US missiles ruthlessly killed several innocent villagers in Pakistan in the name of hitting some al Qaeda leaders, violating the sovereignty of the country, which is an US ally in the “war against terrorism”. Bangladeshis should also learn that those who project their country as a failed state, ripe for an Islamist takeover, only out of political expediency to embarrass and eventually defeat the BNP-led coalition, are playing a dirty and dangerous “cry wolf” game, not at all good for their country. Last but not least, the over-polarized polity of Bangladesh, which neither nourishes nor promotes mutual trust and respect, cannot have political stability, let alone democracy, through the farcically ludicrous concept of “care taker government”, unheard of anywhere in the world. If they cannot trust and respect each other, the Bangladeshis should forget about democracy once for all and learn to live in the pseudo-democracy or dynastic rule, as they have been living for so many years.
Taj Hashmi - Simon Fraser University, Canada
