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Overpowering “Ershad Syndrome”

By Taj Hashmi

02 February, 2014
Countercurrents.org

Bangladesh is at war with itself. Interestingly, the political crisis, social disorder and economic uncertainties the country has been experiencing since long are not ideological or political by nature. The adoption of “secularism” and “socialism”; one-party rule; successive military takeovers; or even the adoption of Islam as the “state religion” were anything but ideology-driven. They simply reflected the ruling elites’ political expediency, and their desperate quest for legitimacy.

This article is a sequel to two of my earlier op-eds, one on the “Black Swans”, and one on “Ershad Syndrome” in Bangladesh (DS, Jan 7 & 18, 2014). Despite the overthrow of Ershad, Bangladesh is still under the spell of what he carefully promoted and nurtured during his so-called presidency. While during the first decade of independent Bangladesh, one wrong step after another by the ruling elites kept the country under the spell of crises and disasters, the legacy of Ershad’s decade-long hedonism, intemperance and profligacy are still so overpowering that his overthrow in 1990 and successive elections since then have not ushered in the post-crisis era in Bangladesh.

As I have argued earlier, a) there is no point in either glorifying or blaming Mujib or Zia for what Bangladesh has achieved or failed to accomplish since its inception; and b) no other events are as responsible as Ershad’s corrupt, perverted and systematic ways of governance in gravely damaging our traditional social ethos and cultural norms of decency, honesty and integrity.

Identifying “Ershad Syndrome” as the main retrogressive force is necessary, but it cannot be an end in itself to reverse the process of degeneration. Bangladesh needs the way out of the crisis. What most experts and analysts fail to notice that contrary to the popular perception, Bangladeshis are not the most politically conscious people in South Asia. Thanks to Ershad’s legacy of political opportunism and over-indulgence to corruption, Bangladeshis are in fact one of the least politicized people on earth.

We know, politics is all about human behaviour in power perspective; and the quest for legitimate power to do good to society or nation is an exalted human attribute. We must identify the “Ershad Syndrome” as an antonym of politics; and realise that the Syndrome promotes Mafia-type acts of collective banditry from the top, while the people at the grassroots either resign to their “miserable fate” (become God-fearing and next-worldly), or adopt “pre-political” behaviour or short-lived, sporadic violent acts against real or presumed enemies. Masses in Bangladesh at times are not aware of their own role, as are they unaware of the role of their leaders. Pre-capitalist, pre-modern values – a combination of “caste system” and colonial rule – have further legitimized their rulers as their patrons and benefactors. While Ershad’s predecessors were not innocent spectators, he was the main actor and promoter of this “caste system”, which later metamorphosed into what we may call the “dynastic democracy” in Bangladesh.

Despite the holding of so many rounds of parliamentary and local elections by now since the overthrow of Ershad, Bangladeshis have miserably failed to agree on the method of elections – especially to elect their lawmakers – and the bulk of the supporters of the losing parties do not consider the winners as legitimately elected representatives of the people. In sum, the end of military rule has not signalled the end of autocracy and dysfunctional governance. The “Ershad Syndrome” is breathing too heavily on the neck of the nation.

There are examples in history that unless the factors that nurture evil monarchies, ruthless dictatorships and corrupt autocrats are not uprooted once for all, countries experience what France and Russia experienced after the overthrow and executions of Louis XVI and Czar Nicholas II, respectively. France and Russia went through decades of tyranny after their glorious revolutions, in the name of liberty, equality, freedom and social justice. While successful uprooting of the roots of dictatorship in Germany, Italy, and Japan after World War II brought democracy and peace in no time, corrupt politicians still run Bangladesh in the name of democracy.

The mass euphoria and optimism one witnessed in the wake of Ershad’s fall have practically disappeared today. Ershadism is very much well entrenched at every level of society. One wonders if war criminals could be tried more than forty years after they committed the crimes for the sake of justice, why should Ershad and his cronies remain unpunished? Unless members of the civil society, students and workers come forward to eliminates the “Ershad Syndrome” – once for all – what Gramsci has called “Passive Revolution” will prevail in Bangladesh for an indefinite period. “Passive Revolution” is all about the ascendancy of reactionary values where the masses remain as inert as “sacks of potatoes” (to paraphrase Marx); and elites represent them to safeguard their own interests. Bangladesh needs new sets of rulers and political parties to make people constituent parts of the state.

It is time to get rid of the “Ershad Syndrome”, which has become an indispensable part of Bangladesh’s “dynastic democracy”. The country needs to try Ershad and his cronies – academics, bureaucrats, professionals and generals – to attain what Germany, Italy and Japan accomplished by exterminating the last vestiges of authoritarianism after World War II. Once the last remnants of the “caste system” and pre-capitalist values are eliminated, people become free. And as Washington believed: “Liberty, when it begins to take root, is a plant of rapid growth”.

The writer teaches security studies at Austin Peay State University in Tennessee. He has authored four books, including Global Jihad and America: The Hundred-Year War Beyond Iraq and Afghanistan (Sage 2014 – forthcoming).

 



 

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