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Columnist: Rafia Noor
BANGLADESH next door is going through a period of instability in which street protests by students ended in a government being sent home after 15-odd years. The rapid political changes have led to a spate of discussions about possible parallels with Pakistan, spun in different ways to suit the various discussants’ leanings and preferences.
Hence, for one side, the events in Bangladesh were about people’s power and how it can bring authoritarian governments down, while for others it was about comeuppance for those who had once stood up against their compatriots in what was then West Pakistan. For still others, it was about democrats turning authoritarian.
But the spin aside, between the events in Sri Lanka two years ago (due to the economy) and then Bangladesh, where political inequality and political repression for over a decade had created a pressure cooker-like situation, there is no end to questions about how Pakistan may end up in similar circumstances. After all, the country is experiencing both a fragile economy and an unstable political environment.
However, there are differences, as well. For instance, the economic situation has deteriorated rapidly but not in the manner of Sri Lanka, where default led to massive shortages and a virtual breakdown. Similarly, there are few immediate parallels with Bangladesh where a single party had dominated the scene for nearly 15 years; in Pakistan, the anger of the people is dissipated every few years by the removal of most individuals — including prime ministers and others. The last time we saw protests was when Gen Pervez Musharraf’s eight-year rule led to street agitations, which brought together society as well as political parties, with no elected individual completing five years in power.
Be that as it may, Bangladesh does offer some food for thought. While there is perhaps an absence of strong student unions and organisations in Pakistan, it is not simply due to bans on them. The ethnic polarisation the country faces has spread to how students organise or are allowed to organise around ethnic cultural groups in many institutes.
However, this is not to say they are not politically mobilised. Their moblisation has led to two of the largest, organic movements in modern Pakistan. Both the Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement (PTM) and the Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC) are youth-led. But it is Pakistan’s misfortune that neither movement shows any interest in politics and parliamentary politics. Neither do they aim to influence politicians or push for their resignations. Their ire and focus is directed elsewhere.
So far, both movements claim to be averse to parliamentary politics. In Balochistan, the Baloch youth is attracted to neither mainstream political parties nor nationalist ones. Perhaps it would be inaccurate to limit this to the youth; the large crowds which have welcomed or greeted BYC gatherings suggest that the indifference is growing and spreading.
This is mainly due to the manner in which elections have been conducted in the province and the results they have thrown up, which has led to a widespread perception that the legislature and governments do not exist to address the people’s issues.
With the PTM, the approach is not much different; their moblisation is also limited to street agitation. Part of the reason for their aversion to mainstream politics is the role of dominant political parties in legitimising military operations in the militancy-afflicted areas. It is noteworthy that Ali Wazir and Mohsin Dawar had to leave the PTM once they decided to contest the elections.
Part of this disaffection with politics can be linked to the post-2008 period, where mainstream parties were willing to accept power and governance in Punjab and Sindh while allowing the establishment to control Balochistan and parts of KP to tackle militancy. Over the years, this, in a way, dismantled politics in these areas, and the result has been movements that are people-focused but divorced from politics. But the fault is not of the parties alone; the establishment has also aggressively broken the link between the people and the parties by wresting control from the politicians.
Perhaps this point can be stretched further by pointing out that from 2022 to the summer of 2023, the PTI was able to win election after election, despite having resigned from the National Assembly and not having a clear strategy with regard to whether it was going to retain the seats it was contesting.
At the other end were the party/ parties which were not just in government but also sincere about staying in power, and yet the voters chose a party which had no interest in the then parliamentary system. It was perhaps not as apolitical a choice as that made by the PTM and BYC, but it still revealed what the voters thought of parliament.
This attitude on the part of the party and its voters changed only after the May 9 crackdown, which made them realise their own limitations and inability to confront the might of the state. However, whether this ‘faith’ in the parliamentary system is long lasting or temporary remains to be seen.
This should lead to some soul-searching among those in powerful positions. If the youth, which is the present and future of the country, has no faith in the democratic forums of the country, they will only turn to agitation and eventually violence. Already, their disaffection is a major reason for the instability being witnessed in many parts of Pakistan. Only once this problem is understood and acknowledged, will we be able to move forward. To think that progress will take place in a vacuum where the people feel that their voice can only be heard through agitation and street protest will only lead to more instability.
The writer is a journalist.
Published in Dawn, August 13th, 2024
[DAWN: 13-08-2024]
Columnist: Javed Naqvi
WE may find a useful clue on Aug 15 to the direction the turbulence-stricken Bangladesh is heading in. Aug 15 marks India’s Independence Day, but it also became the day in 1975 when the founding father of Bangladesh, Sheikh Mujibur Rehman, was assassinated in a military coup. The Awami League government of Sheikh Hasina Wajed subsequently decreed it as the National Mourning Day of Bangladesh.
Now that she has been ousted from power and has taken refuge in India, it would be interesting to see if the usual black flag is hoisted and whether the national flag is kept at half-mast to remember the founder-president of Bangladesh, who was the deposed prime minister’s father.
Mujib’s family members present at home on the fateful morning were all killed, but Sheikh Hasina survived by not being in the country. Indira Gandhi gave her refuge and assigned her Bengali colleague, Pranab Mukherjee, to take care of her. Her father’s killing and her refuge in India were clearly an extension of the cat and mouse the contending superpowers played in third countries during the Cold War. India, Pakistan and Bangladesh are good examples.
The visuals of assaults on Mujib’s towering images in Dhaka during the mass protests brought memories of the pulling down of Saddam Hussein’s statue in Iraq under the US army’s watch. Which makes it tricky for the interim administration to tinker with the importance of the day the founder of the nation was murdered by antibodies among his own people.
Would it be easy to undermine Mujib’s towering legacy for the makeshift government? The interim leader named by ‘the students’ and endorsed by the army is a genial economist who won the Nobel Prize for setting up a village bank in 1976, a year following Mujib’s murder. It is said to have helped millions of women, mostly, come out of poverty with the help of tiny, unsecured loans. That the bank would get involved with the Ford Foundation was a curious development, say its critics.
There is already looming suspicion about the involvement of a ‘foreign hand’ in Sheikh Hasina’s ouster, even though she herself was the chief progenitor of the theory. Was Hasina masking her failure to read the runaway alienation and her unpopularity by blaming the ubiquitous foreign hand for precipitating the mass violence?
On several occasions as prime minister, she did refer to a ‘white man’ who met her to convey US interests in Saint Martin, a small coral island off Cox’s Bazaar peninsula in the Bay of Bengal. Had she heeded the wishes, she would be safely ensconced as the ruler in Dhaka, goes the claim.
According to her story, the US wants to set up a base on the eight-kilometre stretch abutting the strategic Strait of Malacca. And it would be a vital listening post also to China in the north. The idea could have carried weight at some point, but why would the US need a base on Saint Martin’s when they have no dearth of real estate in India as their observing post for China, and when the Indian navy could be co-opted to patrol the straits? Unless, of course, for obvious reasons, India is no longer deemed the trusted ally the US was looking for?
The flip side to the claim is, would a US base in the neighbourhood suit India, leave alone its close friends in Moscow? However, it was the foreign minister in the Vajpayee government who had reportedly clamoured for the US to use India as its base for the operations in Afghanistan. Pakistan won the trophy though.
On the one hand, it is not uncommon to see those that never had much to do with the creation of their nation, including those that were opposed to its creation, usurp power. The Jamaat-i-Islami in Pakistan, for example, opposed the creation of Pakistan and remained hostile towards its founding fathers. And yet it did not hesitate to grab power — in insidious and indirect ways — in the country whose very being it had opposed.
Ditto with the JI of Bangladesh, an offshoot of the Pakistani parent. It fought hard against the independence of Bangladesh, but then sought a share in power by aligning with the Awami League before switching sides to the rival BNP of Khaleda Zia. And look who is ruling India? They are the ideologues of a worldview that was opposed to the national movement. And, like the RSS celebrated Gandhi’s murder with sweets, according to Sardar Patel, the JI was thrilled with Mujib’s death.
So, who are these students who are credited with bringing down Hasina’s government? Do they have an ideology? It’s difficult to think of students as being only committed to human rights. As Howard Zinn said astutely, it’s a fallacy that one can remain neutral on a moving train. India’s Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad is a student’s front of the RSS, like the SFI is for India’s largest communist party. They have been rivals, mostly, but were strongly bonded in bringing down Indira Gandhi’s rule in 1977. The RSS has been quietly courted by the US for being vocally anti-communist. Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Narendra Modi have been beneficiaries of the affection.
Something flipped in 1991. The Cold War ended, and Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated. Someone tapped Narasimha as prime minister. The obscure man was packing to leave politics and was not a member of any assembly or house of parliament. He tapped Manmohan Singh as finance minister, who, like the new Bangladesh leader Mohammed Yunus, was an economist.
The West has seldom courted an Indian finance minister as Manmohan Singh was lionised. When he became prime minister, Singh received George W. Bush, the man who was in bad odour everywhere, including his own country, telling him that Indians loved him. Yunus may be a variant of Manmohan Singh, but Bangladesh is not India.
The writer is Dawn’s correspondent in Delhi.
jawednaqvi@gmail.com
Published in Dawn, August 13th, 2024
Editorial of DAWN: 13-08-2024
THE anti-racism counter-protests witnessed across the UK last week brought a moment of relief to the country. Standing in defiance of far-right groups, the demonstrators provided a much-needed ray of hope, indicating that the hate-filled rhetoric of a few will not be met by silence but defiance and unity — especially from those who represent the nation’s multicultural identity. When far-right factions sought to exploit the tragic murders in Southport recently to sow divisions, thousands of anti-racist protesters responded. These brave individuals, from diverse backgrounds and faiths, stood shoulder to shoulder. From Liverpool to London, the message was clear: there is no place for hate in the country. The scenes of solidarity witnessed during these counter-protests are a powerful reminder that modern-day Britain’s strength lies in its diversity. For generations, the country has welcomed migrants who have made tremendous contributions to every aspect of British life, including, but not restricted to the health services, education and the arts. The far right’s xenophobic agenda, therefore, is not only morally questionable, it is also a direct threat to the values that have allowed Britain to prosper. The counter-protests are important, because not only do they defy the detestable ideologies of those who aim to bully, threaten and intimidate racial communities, they also serve as a strong reminder that the troublemakers are a minority.
Sadly, even as order appeared to have been restored in the last few days, with mass arrests and no more rioting, reports of a double stabbing in London’s busy Leicester Square on Monday afternoon was an alarming message that more than counter-protests are need to eliminate xenophobia. Action may have been taken by the police and authorities against the rioters, but the new incident has already elicited racist and intolerable responses on social media. The government will have to go beyond bringing rioters to justice if it hopes to effectively counter the hate.
Published in Dawn, August 13th, 2024
Editorial in DAWN: 13-08-2024
AT a time when the masses are struggling to put two decent meals on the table, the scale of fiscal malfeasance and mismanagement at state-owned enterprises, and the resultant costs borne by the exchequer, sting like nothing else. Speaking on Sunday at an exhibition in Lahore, Privatisation Minister Abdul Aleem Khan revealed that PIA’s losses have now ballooned to Rs830bn, or around $3bn. Once the pride and glory of Pakistan, the airline has been haemorrhaging so much money lately that it boggles the senses just trying to put its losses in perspective. Recent estimates suggest the national flag carrier has been bleeding about Rs13bn every month. This means that for every second its privatisation is delayed, PIA loses enough money to feed the average Pakistani household for an entire week, and the loss incurred for every minute the airline functions could be used to cover the monthly stipend for 30 families under the Benazir Income Support Programme.
Another SOE that was similarly emblematic of abject mismanagement and malfeasance is now officially considered “a piece of scrap”, with officials conceding that its industrial assets are “worthless in the current era”. A few weeks ago, the National Assembly Standing Committee on Industries and Production was informed that Pakistan Steel Mills’ gas supply was disconnected at the end of June to avoid further losses, and that its real estate assets are being parcelled out to various stakeholders. It seems that after years of failed attempts to turn the PSM around, all that is left is bones for the vultures to pick. The entity has become a tragic example of what happens when the right decisions are not executed at the right time. With that in mind, it is hoped that the PIA privatisation goes through as announced soon, and that its resources, or whatever is left of them, are put to good use by a new, competent management with a vision.
Published in Dawn, August 13th, 2024
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