We must never lose freedom of speech ever again

The right to speak, to express oneself, is an extremely important chapter in a person’s life. People face a multitude problems in their lives at a personal, social and state level. When people can speak out unimpeded, then these problems can become tolerable. The student-people’s uprising of 2024 has created conditions for people to speak. For the past one and a half decades, people’s opinions had been dashed to the ground. The citizens would be too scared to even express their rights. A reign of terror existed in the country.

Thousands of people had to spend interminable times in dark prison cells, had to face all sorts of unspeakable torture simply because they did not laud the fascist government. Many had to give their lives. A student of Jagannath University, Jannatul Kubra, was kept in jail for 15 months because of “anti-government” statements on social media. Writer Mushtaq Ahmed died after 9 months behind bars. Popular cartoonist Ahmed Kabir Kishore survived. The police had arrested Mushtaq and Kishore together. They were subject to inhuman torture.

According to the law ministry records, till August 2024 there have been 5,816 cases in court under the ICT Act, the Digital Security Act and the Cyber Security Act. Thousands of people are victims of these cases. It is a relief to learn the Cyber Security Act is to be revoked shortly. The government has decided to drop all cases filed under this act too.

Nearly 100 days have passed since the July uprising. There is discussion on the successes and failures of the interim government led by Professor Muhammad Yunus. A hundred days is not a long time for a government. But if we examine the performance of the past days, an inkling can be gained of how the government will perform in the days to come.

From the very outset this government had to face a significant number of challenges. In the first few days of the government, various groups of people began to see themselves as “deprived”. Almost every day these groups began to gather at various important spots of the capital city to draw the attention of the new government and seek recompense for the deprivation. The media would ask, where were these demands all these days? The secretariat grew restive too, with demands of the “deprived” to be promoted and for appointments as deputy commissioners. It was the same within the police force. As a result, the administration at a field level had almost ground to a halt.At the public universities, many of the vice chancellors and other senior officials voluntarily resigned. Many were obliged to resign. Universities too had more or less come to a halt. And all sorts of debates and discussions cropped up. Elections first or reforms first? Should the constitution be amended or rewritten? How long should the interim government remain in power? Should the parliament be unicameral or bicameral? And so many more questions and issues.

Around two months after the interim government was formed, six reform commissions were formed for reforms of the constitution, public administration, judiciary, police, corruption and election-related processes. Outside of that, there are two committees to look into economic challenges and four commissions for health, women, media and labour affairs. It is overall a mammoth task. The commissions are visibly active. These have made the government’s areas of work clear. The reforms commissions are holding discussions with the political parties and persons or various professions and walks of life, taking their opinions on reforms.

The government’s initiatives for reforms are laudable. However, questions remain regarding how the reforms will be implemented. After all, there are been several reform commissions and reform proposals in the past. The subsequent government never took those into cognisance. In the meantime, the present commissions have been instructed to submit their reports within 90 days of the commissions being formed. Thirty days are up. Many are curious as to whether the commissions will be able to complete their tasks within the stipulated time.

The state institutions were extensively damaged during the rule of the past government. It is extremely difficult to work from this point. Take the police department, for instance. Over the past 16 years the police force was made into Awami League’s thug force.

During the movement, this force became the target of people’s anger. It is a large challenge to restore the professionalism of this force in the new circumstances. Over the past three months it still hasn’t been possible to fully activate the police force. The people are uneasy over the law and order situation. There is disorder in very sector since the fall of the last government. The unrest in the administration, however, has abated to an extent.

Academic excellence has been given priority in the case of the university appointments. But the recruitment process has not been completed as yet in these 100 days of the government. As a result, the universities are being pitched into a session jam of around six months. The steps being taken by the education ministry in this regard should be made public. As in other sectors, the universities had been rife with corruption and irregularities. Yet no commission has been formed for a sector as vital as the education sector.

This government has started off with a dilapidated economy. The entire economy of the country had been held hostage in the hands of a few unscrupulous businessmen and loan defaulters. The banks were steeped in embezzlement. According to the Washington-based Global Financial Integrity, every year Tk 800 billion (Tk 80,000 crore) would be siphoned out of the country. Two committees have already began work to restore order to the economic and banking sector

Unless the debts of the loan defaulters can be recovered and unless the money siphoned out of the country can be repatriated, the flagging economy cannot be strengthened. Latest figures, though, do indicate an upward curve in exports. Remittance is on the rise too. Now a proper operational system is required along with speedy decisions. It is also time to reevaluate the showy mega projects taken up with foreign loans.

The present government’s many positive initiatives are being put into shade by its failure to control the spiralling price of commodities. When the common people go to the market and see the prices of essentials, they cannot distinguish between this government and the past one. The ‘market syndicate’ was heard about during the last government. It is a matter of concern if the present government cannot address that.

An extraordinary unity had been forged among the people on 36 July or 5 August 2024. That unity is someone discordant, 100 days since then. The political parties have become antsy for power. Cracks are even appearing among the youth who had stood united in the streets during the movement. A distance seems to be growing between the government and the political parties. Many are questioning whether our student-people’s uprising will slip away like the Arab Spring. It would be a betrayal of the thousands of lives that were sacrificed, if we lose our freedom to speak because of our disunity, if we lose our path to democracy.

* Dr. Shahabul Haque is professor, Department of Political Studies, Shahjalal University of Science and Technology (SUST). shahabu14@yahoo.com