Victory Day in a different context

While gossiping with a student of Dhaka Residential Model College (DRMC) near Mohammadpur Fertility Services and Training Centre (MFSTC) recently, the ninth-grader seems to be shy as he was unknown. He was standing as his shoes were being polished by a shoeshine. I was also waiting to get my slippers repaired. He was dressed in a white shirt and pants, his school uniform, and in course of our conversation I told him that my son also studies in DRMC. He became a bit friendly and asked in which class my son was in. I said he is in Class VII.

When asked how his school was doing now, the boy answered, fine. The conversation was being held after former prime minister Sheikh Hasina was ousted from power amid the student-people's uprising on 5 August. He hinted at some changes including academic curriculum and introduction of exam. In reply to a query, he said, "Now I can eat the tiffin provided by the college as it is a bit better. Earlier, I couldn't as the quality was not good." When asked whether there is a corruption in tiffin supply, the student smiled. I also told him that my son never ate tiffin provided by the school. This proves irregularities and corruption have penetrated in every nook and corner of the society. Even former ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina at a press conference said her peon had taken away Tk 4 billion.

After the fall of Sheikh Hasina, the media, whose freedom was curbed during the last 15 and half years, started publishing reports of mind-boggling corruption, embezzlement and money laundering. On 2 November at a seminar in Dhaka, Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) executive director Iftekharuzzaman said evidence has been found that 17 billion dollars has been laundered using formal medium like banks. Based on different incidents, it can be estimated that on an average 12 to 15 billion have been laundered from Bangladesh annually.

After taking control of the Islami Bank Bangladesh, the S Alam Group and several companies took out a loan of a total of Tk 731.13 billion from the bank. However, the value of the assets deposited against the loan was only Tk 43.59 billion. (4 November, Prothom Alo English)

During the 15 and half years' rule of Sheikh Hasina, the banking sector was destroyed as rules and regulations were not followed while disbursing loans. Most of the institutions including judiciary, the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) and the election commission were turned non-functional.

At a press conference Debapriya Bhattacharya, chief of the committee in charge of preparing the white paper on the state of the economy of Bangladesh, said the country was turned into a kleptocracy from “crony capitalism” during the government of Bangladesh Awami League. He further said everybody, from parliament to government executives, had collectively become a part of these looting while local politicians, businesspersons and former and current bureaucrats associated them. The ACC, which was supposed to fight corruption and bring the corrupt people to book, sat idle at the behest of the then government. The watchdog didn't take any action against the big fish.

The country's election system was completely destroyed during the period as three elections in 2014, 2018 and 2024 were faulty.  The then ruling Awami League won 153 seats unopposed in the election in 2014 which was boycotted by the main opposition BNP. The election held in 2018 was widely known as the vote cast at night. Even an Awami League leader from Moheshkhali claimed that the ruling party’s MP of Cox’s Bazar-2 Asheq Ullah Rafiq won by the vote cast at night before the day of election in the 2018 general election.

The election held on 7 January this year was widely known as dummy as the then ruling Awami League fielded dummy candidates to show elections competitive. The main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party boycotted the election. On 8 March, the European Union in its assessment said the 12th national polls held on 7 January did not meet some internationally recognised standards for a democratic election. Although the exercise of civic and political rights is fundamental for democracy, it was limited. Seat-sharing agreements between participating political parties, as well as the Awami League engineering a system of internal competition between its own official candidates and ‘independent candidates’ affiliated with this party, did not offer voters genuine freedom of choice.

After seven months of the election in which Awami League won a landslide victory, the government led by Sheikh Hasina was ousted from power amid a student-people's uprising on 5 August. Sheikh Hasina fled to India while most of the party leaders went into hiding. A section of Awami League leaders left the country while some are in jail. The Awami League, which led the country's liberation war and achieved independence and the party which gave no space to the opposition  for the last 15 and half years, is now nowhere in the political arena. In this context, the country celebrates the Victory Day today, 16 December. The question is why? The question also must be raised why the people of the country fought.

One of the main goals of our independence was to eliminate inequality. However, we have not been able to eradicate this inequality. We have not been able to establish the core values and goals of independence and the liberation war—democracy, equality for the people, human dignity, and social justice.

Despite some achievements including poverty alleviation and life expectancy rate in our national life, we must admit that politically we are lagging behind. Parliamentary democracy has been in place for three decades, but the national parliament has not become the focal point of politics. The democratic space has shrunk, and democratic institutions have gradually become fragile.

The pursuit of an inequality-free society is the true spirit of the liberation war. But the disparity between the rich and the poor is growing, as is regional inequality. The electoral system has practically collapsed, and voters have lost trust in it. The freedom of expression has been curtailed, and the principles of tolerance and consensus in politics are absent.

While in power for 15 and half years, Awami League defied all those aspirations of people and the party never thought that their grasp of power will break away all of a sudden. But the incident took place. Don't know whether party will realise their misdeeds or not. But the history never pardons anyone.

At the cost of over 1000 lives and injured over 20,000, fascist Sheikh Hasina ousted from power, a new expectation has emerged. An interim government led by Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus has been formed. This government has assured that they would hand over power to an elected government through a free and fair election.

If we want to reach our desired goal, to establish democratic rights and human dignity for all people, there is no alternative but to consolidate the spirit of democracy and the liberation war. It is expected that people's aspiration will never be dashed in future.

* Rabiul Islam is a journalist at Prothom Alo. He can be reached at rabiul.islam@prothomalo.com