Bangladesh’s national elections scheduled
Bangladesh goes to the 11th national polls on December 30. This will be the most important election in the history of Bangladesh. There is just no other time at which voters’ decisions will determine the fate of the country and its direction to such an extent … We are at a moment in which a conservative, communal, reactionary and rightwing pro-fascist-type opposition political front is chuting in front of us. I don’t even want to imagine what that is going to be like if they win … It would be the beginning of the end of democracy, secularism, and the remaining oddments of our glorified liberation war of 1971.
The violence will get worse and become more visible as one can auspicate. We live in a democracy and we want to continue living in a democracy. I am really hesitant to make analogies with the 1930s – but similar things happened to Germany. We know Hitler came to power through legitimate forces. If the opposition political combine (Jatiya Okiya Front) succeeds in the polls, they have got to give the core ideologies on which Bangladesh was founded in 1971– a kick up the bum, but we can’t allow this to bechance in the approaching national elections.
It has been 47 years since this country emerged from a dreadful bloody war. Millions of people died. Many were tortured. There were parents who had not been able to bury their children … and we have never been so close to what happened back then. The time has come for us to pause, find our voices and say: No vote to the anti-Bangladesh liberation force and their mango-twigs in a loud applause.
Bangladesh is now seen as an up-and-coming developing country, with strong economic growth and a rising global profile. A change in leadership will likely mean a shift in current policy. When voters head to the polls this month, they will elect not only a new parliament but also a political party to power. The two major political fronts in the election on December 30 will go that will ultimately determine country’s next government.
Not adhering to ethical or moral principles, National Unity Front (NUF) under the billet of Dr. Kamal Hossain has a vague plan to return the people’s power to the hands of people. The rise of NUF is not a just cause, but a symptom of deeper crisis to bring in to punish our people with more ferocity. Given Bangladesh’s fractured political landscape — where alliances among political figures and parties are more often based on corruption and political expediency than on actual principles — it will be difficult for any of the political fronts to implement their domestic policy agendas when they take office.
The forthcoming elections will also have a lot of influence over the way the country interacts with its neighbours and the rest of the world. If the outcome of the election is a Grand Alliance’s victory, it will refine efforts to address further people’s welfare oriented development programmes in Bangladesh. The Bangladesh’s state is a very big machine and very complicated to run and people, regardless of their political preference, are very concerned about what comes after the election, and where the country goes from there.
The 2018 election will have a big blackball impact on the country and its people if the voters fail to pick out the right political party.
It is reported in the news media that the obnoxious nexus of CIA and ISI in collusion with their local cronies are very combat-ready to send off the present political party in power by hook or by crook to fulfil their inauspicious designs. We know the west and particularly the US have a long history of rigging polls, supporting military coups, channelling funds and spreading political propaganda in other countries.
According to a research, there were 117 “partisan electoral interventions” between 1946 and 2000. That’s around one of every nine competitive elections held since Second World War. The majority of these – almost 70 per cent – were cases of US interference. And these are not all from the Cold War era; 21 such interventions took place between 1990 and 2000, of which 18 were by the US. 60 different independent countries have been the targets of such interventions. The targets came from a large variety of sizes and populations, ranging from small states such as Iceland and Grenada to major powers such as West Germany, India, Bangladesh, Brazil and many more countries. It’s important to note that these cases vary greatly – some simply involved steps to publicly support one political and undermine another. But almost two thirds of interventions were done in secret, with voters having no idea that foreign powers were actively trying to influence the results.
Those countries where secret tactics have been deployed by the US include: Guatemala, Brazil, El Salvador, Haiti, Panama, Israel, Lebanon, Iran, Greece, Italy, Malta, Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria, Albania, Sri Lanka, the Philippines, South Vietnam and Japan.
Historically, election meddling has actually been far more common than other methods of political intervention, like military invasions and coups. Covert interventions have been done by many countries over the years and – because they are shrouded in secrecy – it’s impossible to get a comprehensive picture of every instance across the world.
Part of the reason why we know about lots of US operations is that its government is relatively transparent when compared to some others. ‘Relatively’ is the key word here: there is much we may never know about its secret foreign plots, but the release of many historical documents do allow us to shed some light – albeit usually years later. One of the very earliest examples of covert US interventions came with Italy’s 1948 election, when the CIA helped the Christian Democrats beat the Communist Party.
Nearly 50 years later, a former secret agent admitted: “We had bags of money that we delivered to selected politicians, to defray their political expenses, their campaign expenses, for posters, for pamphlets.” The Washington Post has reported the CIA’s operation also included “forging documents to besmirch communist leaders via fabricated sex scandals,” and “spreading hysteria about a Russian takeover and the undermining of the Catholic Church”.
Over the years, many of America’s interventions have involved ploughing funds into their preferred candidate’s campaign. For instance, throughout the 1950s and 60s, the US secretly financed the ruling Liberal Democratic Party in Japan, despite denials from party leaders. Former intelligence officials have said America’s aim was to undermine the Left and make Japan one of Asia’s most strongly anti-communist countries. In the 1980s, an American official confirmed to the New York Times that “about US$20,000” had been given to support Nicolas Barletta presidential campaign in Panama.
And, in 1990, US$400,000 was given to organisations Czechoslovakia, which were leading the revolution against Communist rule, and which become political parties for the country’s first free elections in decades.
Funding was also provided for parties in Albania. According to reports, one US diplomat explained: “If Albania votes for socialism in this election, a lot of Western investors and governments are going to direct their aid elsewhere.”
All this is to say nothing of US-backed coups against democratically elected leaders. For instance, in 2013 the CIA finally admitted it had been behind the coup against Iran’s secular prime minister, Mohammad Mosaddeq, which took place 60 years earlier. Reports say that the UK persuaded President Eisenhower to take action after Mosaddeq nationalised the British Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, (later known as BP). The CIA duly planned to install a “pro-western government” in Iran.
An internal CIA document stated: “The military coup that overthrew Mosaddeq and his National Front cabinet was carried out under CIA direction as an act of US foreign policy, conceived and approved at the highest levels of government.” It was a similar story in Guatemala, with the overthrow of President Jacobo Arbenz in 1954. The New York Times has likened his personal politics to a “European-style democratic socialist”, but Arbenz’s reforms angered the American multi-national United Fruit Company, which had huge landholdings in the Guatemala.
Declassified CIA documents reveal how it launched a huge US$3m clandestine operation against the government, including “attempts to subvert and or defect Army and political leaders, broad scale psychological warfare and paramilitary actions”. They trained military groups and set up a “clandestine broadcasting station” which aired anti-communist propaganda designed to “intimidate” public officials.
Secret agents also made up fake reports claiming that the Soviet Union was sending submarines full of weapons to help arm the Arbenz regime. (Eventually a real shipment did materialise). The CIA itself justified action citing Arbenz’s “communist influence and a hardening anti-US policy”.
Reports of American interference in other countries is not confined to Cold War history. But with more recent cases, there is generally less evidence available because secret documents have yet to be declassified. This means many of these incidents broadly remain allegations, without the detail to tell the full story.The Honduran coup of 2009 saw President Zelya being “seized and, still in his pyjamas, hustled onto a plane to Costa Rica“. The US refused to join other countries in declaring it as a “coup”, claiming that – if they did – “you immediately have to shut off all aid including humanitarian aid”.
What’s more, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, said there were “very strong arguments” for the coup which had “followed the law”. And crucially – rather than calling for the democratically elected president’s return – America pushed for fresh elections. Clinton later admitted developing plans to ensure “elections could be held quickly and legitimately, which would render the question of Zelya moot”.
There are also questions around America’s role in the Ukraine. After the country’s government made a trade policy u-turn, towards Russia rather than the west, Senator John McCain joined protesters in the capital. He said he was there “to support your just cause” and supported “a grassroots revolution”. Later, a leaked phone conversation between the US Ambassador to Ukraine and the US Assistant Secretary of State hinted at extensive involvement. They spoke about the need to “midwife this thing” and said Arseniy Yatsenyuk was “the guy”, shortly before he became president.
The true extent to which America was actually involved in these cases may not be known for years. And Bangladesh is no exception from this trap-net to be used by the obnoxious nexus of CIA and ISI.
Prof Dr. Muntassir Mamamun Sir, do you hear me? A quite few years ago, having grossed out, you wrote in an article that ‘everything is possible in Bangladesh.’ Yes, tout de suite it has come out that you wrote it aright. A fraction of seasoned Bangladesh liberation force has now melted down with the criminal outfit of Anti-Bangladesh liberation force, the war criminals and their batrachians. They have now taken sanctuary in their den before the 11th national polls to bring the country back to the public slaughter house like 1971 and with a primal design only to slice up power for their own interests in the forthcoming parliamentary elections. These unblushing ring-leaders are no one else but Dr. Kamal Hossain, ASM Abdur Rob, Kader Siddiqui, Dr. Zafrullah Chowdhury and their compadres. On the one hand, they have encamped them with the anti-Bangladesh liberation force which brutally murdered three million of our people including the intellectuals and molested 3 hundred thousand of our mothers and sisters in 1971; on the other hand, they went to place the floral wreaths on the sanctified graveyards of martyred intellectuals at Mirpur, Dhaka on December 14. Look at their irremissible temerities! They have made them dunghill and can be thought of as third rater highwaymen and these midgets deserve to be excoriated in the most abrasive language. Policemen also should have ruthlessly stamped down the assaulters on the motorcade of Dr. Kamal Hossain and his chums.
Bangladesh’s political parties are in full campaign mode ahead of national elections and unfortunately signs are emerging that election-related violence is a real possibility. Every stake-holder to take steps to reduce the risks of coercion and possibly even bloodshed. Since the demise of its military dictatorship in the early 1990s, the country has made remarkable democratic progress and development works to build the country as a modern Bangladesh. Still, widespread corruption bedevils the country—which in many respects presents its biggest policy challenge and its biggest threat to stability and development.
Political parties or political fronts are targeting the youth, in particular and in the build up to the election, the Bangladesh’s Grand Alliance is leaving nothing to chance. Withal, we want to frontwards to vote down the anti-Bangladesh liberation force and their confederates in the December 30 national elections; must we defeat them; and upraise our glorious National Flag being triumphant.
-The End –
The writer is a senior citizen of Bangladesh, writes on politics, political and human-centred figures, current and international affairs.
