We have been bombarded, ever since the new year, with news flashes and advertisements about how bad things were one year ago, and how a group on angels, disguised in army uniforms, have since led us out of the mess and towards our new, glorious Bangladesh. Of course, this Bangladesh is also the country where price of essential foodstuff goes skyrocketing and exports get severely hit, but, that’s not relevant to this military government, or to its media partners: Daily Star, Prothom Alo, and Channel I.
I came across a most curious article on Prothom Alo January 11th issue, titled What Really Happened That Day. It lays out how our hagiographic generals had had just enough of all the discord and the turmoil that our poor, helpless common people were being subjected to and to stop all this unpleasentness, they lionheartedly marched into President Iajuddin’s room and told him that they were ready to aid him in the execution of his duties, and how frail, old Iajuddin was mighty relieved and was glad to hand over the Chief Advisor post and get back to his quite life as President.
Right after January’s military coup, we had another account, this time from Dr. Abdul Momen, who also narrated some of the same events, if in a slightly, only slightly, less partisan manner. Now, I wonder how many of my readers have read The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie, a detective story in which, the narrator is himself the murderer, but he manages to keep the readers ignorant of this fact until the very last chapter, just by omitting one key sentence from the whole story.
Like the detective story, the narratives also omit some key information that reveal the matter in an entirely different light. For example, if BNP had indeed rigged the military and civilian administration so that they would help them win the elections, then how could the same military and civilian administration rise up in a coup against BNP? Thus, given that they did rise up in a coup against BNP, I hope those of us more astute in formal logic have already guessed what a lot of us of have known for the last year, that BNP had not, to any extraordinary extent, rigged the civilian and military administrations in its favor.
Indeed, General Moeen had been thirsting to launch a coup all through the end of January. However, he was held in check by Lt. Gen. Masud, who, as commander of Dhaka-based 9th division, had to be won over before any coup could actually be attempted successfully. After Moeen repeatedly met Anwar Chowdhury, a decision was taken by the BNP senior leadership to try and convince Iajuddin to replace Moeen. Learning of this, Masud had a meeting on the night of the 9th with Sayeed Iskandar, with several other people present, where he demanded, perhaps with some justification, to be made the new chief. Unfortunately, Sayeed Iskander openly ridiculed Masud and told him that an ex-JRB (Jatiyo Rokkhi Bahini) member like him could never hope to be army chief, and he’d better be thankful he was still there at all, instead of being retired several years ago, as he should have been after his multiple operations. As matter of fact, Maj. Gen. Rezaqul Haider, then our ambassador toTurkey, (there were two generals of this name in the army then) had already been contacted to come back and take over as the new CAS. Incensed, Masud stormed out of the meeting, drove straight to Sena Bhaban, and the rest, as they say, can be read in the Prothom Alo.
The January military coup was not borne out of any noble motives to “put the train back on track;” it was a simple power grab by a couple of soon-to-be retired soldiers, and no amount of pontificating by Prothom Alo or the Daily Star can change these facts. If one keeps this simple fact in mind, then the series of disasters that have befalled our nation since that fateful January night should become, in context, that much more clear.
January 13, 2008 at 12:13 am
Interesting and quite plausible description, tacit.
Looks like Prothom ALo’s started writing their version of history just within one year of the event.
January 13, 2008 at 1:03 am
Thank you, Rumi bhai.
What else do you expect from Prothom Alo? I do feel encouraged about one thing though, when people start trying to make up their own versions of a particular episode, it usually means that the episode is coming to the end. Let us hope we are nearer the end than the beginning for this military regime.
January 13, 2008 at 3:46 am
This is the 4th version of the event in the public domain then, Momen being the first, Shada Kalo’s version where Lt Gen Hasan Mashud (of ACC) was present in Bangabhaban being the 2nd and PA being the third. And this is not counting all the other bazaar gossips such as ‘Moeen used to call Mrs Zia ‘amma’ and it’s a sibling rivalry’ or ‘Moeen’s first boss was Oli, whom he looked up to like father…’
The relevant thing for me is not whether Masud moved the tanks first or punched somebody in the face. It’s not even whether Moeen was planning a coup since October (or earlier), or what grand conspiracy there were. Whatever role Masud played, he has obviously been pushed aside by Moeen. If the coup succeeds (that is, if the exit strategy preserves the regime’s actions) then Moeen will take the credit. And when the tables turn, and they surely will, it’s Moeen who will take the fall. Masud is going to be forgotten the way we have forgotten Khaled Musharraf (tragic though that his death was).
The relevant thing is not PA is trying to boost Moeen’s role. The relevant thing is, even if we take the PA’s version at face value, it is unambiguously clear as what happened on 11 January 2007 was a military coup. There may have been grand conspiracies. Or there may have been no conspiracy. Regardless, what happened was a coup.
And a coup ought not be supported. If nothing else, this creates a precedence for other generals. Suppose some future general with an Islamic bent desides that the country needs saving from the godless globalisation and launches another coup. Will Mr Matiur Rahman support it?
January 13, 2008 at 1:49 pm
Given his track record, yes, he will. So, if we ever see him growing a beard and starting a war against moral obscenity, I guess we’ll know what to expect.
January 13, 2008 at 4:59 pm
Tacit, but isnt that the usual trajectory for your standard bangladeshi man?
January 13, 2008 at 8:14 pm
No sir, it is not.
January 14, 2008 at 12:04 pm
How do we even know your account is accurate? Do we as Bangladeshis / human beings not adopt the narrative that conforms with the views we take. In this case a BNP-friendly perspective.
January 14, 2008 at 12:49 pm
Absolutely, you should scrutinize the events to see which account fits things the best.
But think of this, in the media blitz we saw during this government’s one year anniversary, not a single mention, in the newspapers or tv, was made about the media release that the UN resident coordinator had supposedly made, stating that the participation of Bangladesh Army in future peacekeeping operations would become doubtful if the elction went through. Yet right after the coup this was used as the main justification. The GOC of all the divisions were flown to Dhaka by helicopter, given a copy of the media release, and told to tell their troops that the emergency was there to save the army’s future.
This anamoly is because after the 9th night, when enough of the senior leadership was pro-coup, an excuse was still needed to pacify the jawans of the army, and that was provided by the UN resident coordinator, who along with Anwar Chowdhury and David Foscett were the mst anti-BNP diplomats then in Dhaka.
I am not saying that the meeting of the 9th caused everything. Rather, it tipped the scale in one direction, provided the straw that broke the camel’s back, and unleashed the military coup.
The reason why the events of 9th Jan matter? As I said above, to expose the hollow rhetoric that January’s military coup was anything other than a naked power grab. And to warn all of us that people who took power in this way won’t give up power easily.
January 21, 2008 at 12:37 pm
You are not doing a bad job yourself writing a juicy version of the history.
Throw some sex in to the mix and I’m sure you will get contacts from hollywood or bollywood.