Bangladesh: Three Enemies of Sheikh Hasina’s Government
Sheikh Hasina is playing with her enemies to take them in her own basket. She is a matured and efficient politician; so it can’t be said so easily that she has made a mistake because the game has just started which will go far away.
( May 12, 2017, Dhaka, Sri Lanka Guardian) In Bangladesh, development works are progressing smoothly. There is no agitation politics in the street, but the country is getting through a hard time. The Chief of the government, Sheikh Hasina, is facing three unmatched fronts; these three are terrorism, a Wahhabi Islamic leader Maulana Shafi along with his group, and the Chief Justice of the country. Although all of them are on the back foot now, they are making unnecessary disturb to the government by not only hampering the normal life of the people but also making the people confused.
In last ten months, the terrorist could not attack any people or any target, rather, police attacked 22 dens of the terrorist and killed 52 terrorist leaders and suicidal terrorists successfully. While the government is successfully operating the cave of the terrorist, the Chief justice of the country is delivering the speech like a political leader that there is no rule of law in the country. Amnesty International and Asian Human Rights Watch have quoted several times the part of the speech of the chief justice to justify that there is no rule of law in Bangladesh. Establishing their opinion, those organizations are producing and circulating the death of the terrorists encountered with the police as the death of innocent people in their report. They are quoting the speech of Chief justice and telling that it is happening due to the lack of rule of law which is also demanded by the Chief Justice of Bangladesh. Therefore, some of the common people are confused now due to the discourse of the Chief Justice; they are thinking, is it really true that country is heading without rule of law? On the other hand, some educated people are unable to understand that why has the Chief Justice taken this role and why is he talking too much like a reckless politician? He is giving speeches everyday publicly that no other political leaders did before. This is why, the law minister of the country was bound to say to the journalist that no Chief Justice of any country talks that much, they just deliver judgment. Even the Prime Minister of the country said, “It does not suit that one organ of the state will condemn another organ, rather, it is wise to work together.” After this valued speech of Prime Minister, the Chief justice did not shut his mouth up rather he is behaving irresponsibly without thinking his position and the result of his speech.
In this situation, the general secretary of one of the opposition parties named Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) is upholding the speech of the chief justice, and this party has a relationship with the terrorist. They are telling it in every occasion that there is no rule of law in the country. Even they are not mentioning the terrorist but uttering that government is killing the innocent people, indicating the killing of the terrorist. After that, Prime Minister has told in the parliament that she could not understand why Chief Justice had told, there is no rule of law in the country; if there was no rule of law in the country, how would the BNP leader’s time petition be granted by the court for one hundred and forty times in one case? She indicated that these are the same group in the country which is working both directly and indirectly in favor of the terrorist.
However, it is a million-dollar question, why is a Chief Justice behaving like a reckless politician? It is true that the Chief Justice, Mr. Surendra Kumar Shina, came from a minor ethnic group, is a self-declared collaborator of Pakistan army in the freedom struggle of Bangladesh. Besides, he had to admit in the court in the State vs Swadesh Roy case that he met the relatives of accused war criminal Salauddin Kader Choudhry and arranged the bench according to his relatives’ suggestions. Likewise, another roundtable conference was held against him accusing him that he was trying to save another war criminal Mir Kasem Ali from sentence to death. Although he gave punishment to Swadesh Roy, his editor, and the two ministers who were in the roundtable conference, people thought that judgment was an arbitrary. Their thinking was justified because there is no contempt rule for the appellate division of the Supreme Court in Bangladesh. However, after confessing in the court regarding the meeting with the relative of the BNP leader Salauddin Kader, he has lost his ethical right to continue as a judge, but he is continuing. To continue as a Chief Justice and to make himself an ethical person, he took the path to condemn the government. He knows that if he condemned the government, he would get the support of the BNP and other fundamentalist groups of the country, besides, he was a collaborator of Pakistan army, similarly, BNP is a party of the collaborator of Pakistanis, so he is their natural ally. To be more precise, another side of his coin is his activities. He is doing in favor of BNP, and last few days, he tarnished the image of the government which was not possible by the BNP leaders even. So holding the Chair of a Chief Justice, he is working as the main leader of BNP.In spite of that, Sheikh Hasina has to get on with her unscrupulous works for the sake of the rule of law of the country, but the reality is that one of her main enemies is getting coverage of the rule of law. It is not only the misfortune of Sheikh Hasina but also the misfortune of the country.
The third enemy is the Wahhabi Islamic group and their leader of the Bangladesh. They made an alliance named Hefazat – E- Islam. They are very much against women empowerment and modern education. Under the coverage of BNP in 2013, this radical Wahhabi group went to ruin Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, to overthrow the government. Now Sheikh Hasina made a rapport with them. The western world is very much in favor of it; moreover, European Union (EU) has already praised the step of Hasina. However, in Bangladesh, Muslims love and respect Saudi Arabia as a holy place of Islam, but they are not basically Wahhabi, their mindset is constructed by the Sufism. That is why, the Muslims of Bangladesh are more liberal than any other Muslims of the world; besides, they love their geographical culture very much. However, Sheikh Hasina is playing with her enemies to take them in her own basket. She is a matured and efficient politician; so it can’t be said so easily that she has made a mistake because the game has just started which will go far away. Despite, we can say that Sheikh Hasina is playing with fire, but the hope is that she is not a child, as a dynamic politician, she is playing with fire. Sometimes politician has to play like this, because, politics is such a game where politician has to walk on a rope which is hung between death and life.
Swadesh Roy, Executive Editor, the daily Janakantha, Dhaka, Bangladesh, he is a highest state award winning journalist. Can be reached at swadeshroy@gmail.com
