The Darkness Revisited

1971 is the defining moment of our life as a nation. We came together as a people, and we won for ourselves freedom and independence, the chance to set the course of our own destinies, and we won it against heavy odds.

The men and women who won for us our freedom are peerless. No matter where the rest of their lives took them, their actions in 1971 would ensure that successive generation of later Bangladeshis would look up to them as heros, as larger-than-life icons, as reminders of what we could achieve when we allowed the best that is in us to emerge.

But beside the light, there is darkness. 

For the the nine months between March and December 1971, our people were laid bare before a frenzied force of animals, whipped up by propaganda on their side to to regard us as fair game in the war. In these nine months, while we won for ourselves our freedom, aided by allies from India and around the world, we paid a terrible, sickening, generation-damaging price for it.

I still can not help but wonder, as I look back at those nine months, was there a failure of military and political leadership? Could someone have anticipated and planned better? Could the terrible toll that was extracted from our people in life and dignity been reduced, or avoided?

Could our leadership have pursued a course that did not entail our people caught bare and helpless in front of an army?

But then, maybe I am being too harsh. Maybe it is easier to sit here and now, thirty-six years later, safe in the knowledge that we won in 1971, and question the wisdom of those who won us our freedom. Because after all, if theirs had been such an avoidable mistake, surely we would have avoided it a second time around? Surely we would not allow the situation to arise once more where force is again the final arbitrator of justice in our country? Surely we would have spent time and labour developing institutions that would prevent precisely this scenario?

Surely we would have made sure that our people are never again left defenseless against any army, anyone who would try to overpower them? That even in an infinitely smaller scale, the same terror would not afflict them again? 

In a way, I prefer writing about the political news nowadays. It gives the illusion that these are still some rules, some norms of decency that our society is still adhering to. It distracts me from the over-hanging darkness that is now present all around us in Bangladesh, that would swallow any of us if we looked too closely.

Witness the plights of Jahangir Alam Akash, a reporter from Rajshahi, whose crime was to have reported human right violations RAB, Bangladesh’s para-military security force. He reported about a man whom RAB officials had shot and left to die in front of his wife and daughter. He apparently, foolishly, still believed in the freedom of press under this military government, still believed that the concept of human rights had any validity in our country today. Thus he now lies in jail, both of his legs shattered through torture, facing a host of false cases, fighting a system and a force which seek to deny him any of the rights we usually take for granted.

Witness Dr. Mahbubul Islam, a professor at St. Francis Univeristy in Pennsylvania. He moved back to Bangladesh to give back to his beloved country, both in term of his learning, and his resources, which he invested in Bangladesh’s economy. Today he sits in a cast, beaten by the goons of Geeteara Safiya Chowdhury, who, ironically enough, is the civilian head of Bangladesh’s Social Welfare Ministry under the current military junta. It’s probably safe to say that beating up people and terrorizing them is not a formal part of her job description.  

 Witness Khandokar Delwar Hossain, an old man, slapped and threatened by soldiers, now on a hospital bed. His crime, to still work for democracy, and refuse to obey the orders of the military government. As a seasoned politician, and one of our elected represantatives, he deserves civility from our administration, no matter who is currently in power. Instead, the military government sees fit to send soldiers to his home, to assault him verbally and physically, and to arrest his son. That is all the fate that awaits all who dare resist the military junta, who dare to throw any spanners in their plans.

These are just snapshots of what must be happening all across our country today. I urge you to write to our government, to tell them torture and denial of free speech is not an acceptable mode of governance. I urge you to visit the blog of Nazim Farhan Chowdhury, Ms. Safiya Chowdhury’s son and start a dialogue with him regarding the newspaper reports detailing his parents’ activities.

And I urge you to ensure we do not make the same mistake again.