Awami League's 75 years: Success and censure

Into its fourth consecutive term of ruling the country, Awami League is commemorating its 75th founding anniversary. During its long stretch at the helm, it has achieved success in many areas, but questions revolve within the Awami League itself as to whether it has strengthened or weakened organisationally. There are also speculations as to whether Awami League's political influence on the government is slipping.

The party which was founded on 23 June 1949 in Rose Garden of Tikatuli in Dhaka under the name of East Pakistan Awami Muslim League, is the Awami League of today. The founders of the party include Maulana Bhasani, Hoseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy and Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.  

The Awami League under Bangabandhu's leadership, gave leadership to the liberation war of Bangladesh. The party went through ups and downs at various times. Prime minister Sheikh Hasina has lent leadership for the longest time to the party, 43 years in total. Under her leadership, Awami League has been in power for four consecutive years from 2009.

Over the past one and a half decades, Awami League's inner conflict has come to the fore several times. In May this year, the party's election member of parliament Anwarul Azim was killed in Kolkata. Jhenaidah district Awami League general secretary Saidur Rahman is in jail in this connection. Awami League's allies sometimes accuse the party of moving away from its non-communal politics.

Awami League has duly held its national councils every three years. The councils at the grassroots are also being held more or less regularly. However, government policymaking or political matters are hardly discussed at the party forum. There is criticism from within the party itself that Awami League has become dependent to a large extent on businesspersons and bureaucrats.

Awami League has been ruling the country for around two dozen years since the independence of Bangladesh. Of this, it has been in power for almost 15 years at a stretch. In this span of time, the party has been lauded for various infrastructural developments including Padma Bridge, Metro Rail and Bangabandhu Tunnel. The party has been commended for trying the war criminals too. Awami League leaders take credit for building a Digital Bangladesh too.

Despite being in power for such a long span of time, the party programmes are more or less restricted to commemorating various days. For the past one and a half years Awami League has basically been focused on launching programmes on the streets to counter the programmes of its political opponent BNP.

Political analysts say that Awami League was formed through the struggle for democracy and voting rights, yet the same party now is being accused of snatching away those very same rights.

Presently 281 of the winning candidates now in parliament were nominated by Awami League or are the party's independent candidates. Outside of that, 13 of the elected members are of the Awami League-led alliance or allies. Only five members of the Jatiya Sangsad (national parliament) are from other parties and ideologies. But even then, three of them were brought to the election with promises of victory. So there really is no one to criticise the government in parliament. Voter turnout in national elections and local government elections now is extremely low.

Awami League joint general secretary Mahbubul Alam Hanif, speaking to Prothom Alo, said Bangabandhu's Awami League has given the people an independent country. Under the leadership of his daughter Sheikh Hasina, Awami League has taken the country to the threshold of economic emancipation. The people have always placed their trust in Awami League. And Awami League is always repaying this trust. He said that there may be a few errors here and there in running the country for which there is criticism. Awami League makes efforts to correct these shortcomings.

Awami League came to power in 2009 with hard-hitting criticism against the coalition government of BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami. In its manifesto before the 2008 election, Awami League had said that stern measures would be taken to prevent and uproot bribes and corruption at all levels in the state and society, illegitimate earnings, extortion, tender manipulations, black money and muscle power. The ruling party made similar commitments in the subsequent elections.

Today the most talked-about issues in the country are corruption, financial scams in the banking sector and money laundering. The names of a former police chief, an NBR official and others have come up regarding the amassing of huge wealth through corrupt means. Before the last national election, information leaked out about a former minister's huge property abroad. In 2019 the government cracked down in casinos and corruption, but that drive did not last long. Now again the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) is probing into the corruption of former police chief Benazir Ahmed and a few others. But there is a general question as to how far the government will maintain its "zero tolerance" against corruption.

According to the evaluation by Awami League leaders, up until 1/11, politicians had dominance among the party's ministers and members of parliament. In the 2008 election the influx of businesspersons grew. Even controversial characters were included. This began to increase further from 2014. Many of the members of parliament were accused to corruption, aiding and abetting in crime, involvement in the narcotics trade, murder, smuggling and more.

Shushashoner Jonno Nagorik (SHUJAN) collects information on candidates who contest in the elections. According to their findings, 58 per cent of the Awami League-nominated candidates in the 2008 national election were business persons. In the 2014 elections the number of businessperson candidates totalled 56 per cent. In the 2018 election is number when up to 65 per cent. In the most recent elections this figure was 65 per cent too.

A central leader of Awami League, on condition of anonymity, told Prothom Alo that if military and civil bureaucrats are added to the businesspersons, then this number will exceed 80 per cent. If this trend continues, it will be difficult to find any politicians in the next election.

When Awami League formed the government in 2009, many parties were their allies and partners in their alliance. But over the past 16 years or so, while their allies haven't lessened in number, the distance from their allies has increased considerably, many leaders feel.

When the Awami League-led 14 Party alliance was formed in 2004, it was pledged that they would take part in movements unitedly and also form the government together. Now the 14 Party alliance has almost no joint political programmes whatsoever. The allies in the last two meetings of the alliance questioned whether the alliance had any relevance at all.

From 2009 till 2018 the allies had been part of the government. But there was no place for the 14 Party allies in the next two cabinets. Though they had contested in the election on the basis of understanding, the allies complained they did not get adequate seats in the election due to Awami League's non-cooperation. Parties of the 14 Party alliance have announced they will not take part in any joint programmes as an alliance until these contentions are cleared. Jatiya Party may have joined the parliament as the opposition following an understanding with the government, but its distance with Awami League has grown too.

Speaking to Prothom Alo about the matter, writer and researcher Mohiuddin Ahmad said that the leaders and activists of the party can certainly celebrate its 75th founding anniversary. But for the common people, the basic questions is -- what has the party done for them? Much is said about infrastructural development and other achievements during Awami league's long stretch in power. At the same time, there has been an erosion of democracy and voting rights in this span of time.

Awami League has launched a three-day programme to commemorate its 75th anniversary. The programmes include processions, cultural events and discussions.

* This report appeared in the print and online edition of Prothom Alo and has been rewritten for the English edition by Ayesha Kabir