Elections, Awami League and a point to ponder

At a recent event, Badiul Alam Majumdar, secretary of Shushashoner Jonno Nagorik (SHUJAN), also head of the commission for election commission reforms, had said, "Awami League leaders are currently on the run. If AL is unable to reorganise itself and fails to contest in the next election without anyone preventing it from doing so, then the elections without Awami League won't be unacceptable." Heads nodded in approval and agreement. But his words also evoked a couple of raised eyebrows on how democratic would it be to leave out such an old political party steeped in history. Food for thought, for sure, and without going into the nitty-gritty legalities of the matter, we can ponder.

When a party in power for over 15 years has been immersed throughout in corruption, violence, human rights violations, embezzlement, spreading disinformation, oppression, suppression, repression, enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killing and any and every vice under the sun, does it have the moral right to even think of contesting in the election?

From the party president, who was the prime minister, to the assembly of thieves, crooks, debauches, embodiments of corruption, thugs, goons, sadists, icons of dishonesty, clowns, sycophants, obsequious toadeaters -- who were members of her cabinet, the ruling party Awami League (AL), business syndicates and others of the AL ilk -- they all were sunk in the malodorous sludge of depravity. Do we ever want to see their faces again, unless behind bars? (I hesitate to say gallows due to various international conventions against the death sentence and, perhaps, my own conscience.)

Do the above two paragraphs seem a bit too vitriolic, melodramatic, too bitter, exaggerated, hyperbolic? I kid you not, those accusations and adjectives are like sonnets compared to the actual immensity of their crimes.

People are gasping in horror at the enormity of the July-August massacre, but truth be told, that was just the culmination of equally cruel killings, maiming, torture and enforced disappearances all throughout the dastardly 15-year rule of Awami League. They instilled such a degree of fear among the people, the media, the human rights activists, the civil society, students, teachers, everyone, that even as I pen these words, I admit I still imagine a menacing shadow lurking behind me, peering over my shoulder.

But let's not beat around the bush anymore. No more oblique statements and hushed criticism with the hope that readers can decipher and discern. To play safe is to be intellectually corrupt. And now that Damocles' sword has been lifted from above our heads, let's talk.

I'll leave the task of dishing out the digits, data and details to statisticians, economists and institutions who measure the degrees of crime and corruption.  But just in case some among us have a goldfish memory, let's randomly recall some sordid instances of the past regime's moral turpitude.

As a media person, let me first remind us all of the gruesome murder of journalist couple Sagar and Runi, tortured and killed in their apartment in front of their little son back in 2012. The murder was hushed up, investigations went nowhere and the case was enshrouded in an ominous silence. What had these scribes unearthed? Had Runi delved too deep into the devious deals of a powerful business body? Hopefully, now the truth will surface and justice will be done. Maybe the trauma of their son Akash will be assuaged even to a smallest degree.

There was the sensational Narayanganj seven-murder case in 2014, involving enforced disappearance and killing of seven people by members of the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB). They say that dead men tell no tales, but when the dead bodies of these victims floated up on the Shitalakshya river, they spoke volumes. They spoke of the brutality of the regime. It would take a volume to write about such enforced disappearances and deaths.

Do you remember the manner in which the retired army major Sinha Mohammed Rashed was shot dead at point blank range on the scenic Marine Drive in Cox's Bazar? Police OC Pradeep Kumar Das kicked his inert body to make sure he was dead. Journalists say Pradeep Kumar Das and others were running a thriving narcotics business in the seaside town. Was Sinha, who was filming a documentary there, on to something that would reveal their narcotic network? Whatever the case may be, it was just another instance of extrajudicial killing.

It is such a matter of pride and joy to see how the young students in this recent movement turned the tide and reminded us that youth does not mean the goons of the Awami League student front Chhatra League or youth front Jubo League. What torture and humiliation they meted in the various universities and campuses! They were seen as Sheikh Hasina's foot soldiers, amply rewarded for their dirty work and for effectively spreading the fear. A newcomer to university would not get a seat in a hall unless they agreed to become subservient followers of the Chhatra League leaders, remaining at their beck and call, joining political rallies, serving with almost slavish obedience. If they defied orders, not only would they be deprived of a place to stay in the halls, but would  be tortured, humiliated and made to rue the day they dared to say 'no'.

Remember Fulpori, the Islamic University student? She was tortured and humiliated by Chhatra League leaders and activists, also girls, at the hall where she stayed. Remember Khadija of Jagannath University who was placed behind bars merely because someone on a virtual discussion that she was conducting had spoken against the AL government? She wasn't even 18, still officially under-age, when she was sent to jail. Then there was the Eden College girl beaten with a cricket stump. The list goes on and on.

Then there was the Jahangirnagar University Chhatra League leader who boasted of raping 100 girls. He was not brought under the law. On the contrary, influential people in the government provided him a safe passage abroad.

Coming to the business of business, look at the pitiful predicament of the banking sector. BASIC Bank ripped off by Sheikh Abdul Hye Bachchu, known to be close to Sheikh Hasina. Farmers Bank cleaned out by Mohiuddin Khan Alamgir and transformed into Padma Bank, ripped off in turn by Chowdhury Nafeez Sharafat. The boards of so many banks were conveniently manned by several members of the same families and hollowed out, left high and dry. Even the most successful bank of the country, Islami Bank, was brought to its knees by embezzler extraordinaire S Alam (whose maid even had 10 million taka in her bank account!) The prime minister advisor on investment and private industry Salman F Rahman's default loans have been readjusted and rescheduled ad infinitum which no signs of repayment.

Capital flight has been another field of "expertise" where our wealth has grown wings to fly off all around the world, from the British Isles to Canada, the US to UAE, Singapore to Malaysia, anywhere except Bangladesh. Money laundering had become a norm, leaving us mere mortals gasping at the sums of money illegally earned and illegally transferred. Dollar rates shot up, foreign exchange reserves hit near rock bottom, inflation spiralled and the man on the street scratched his head in puzzlement as to why his wages no longer could buy the bare necessities.

Certain names are enough to make us remember the crime and corruption of that reign, of what made the US slap sanctions of certain individuals and institutions. The flamboyant police chief Benazir Ahmed, the crooked army chief Aziz Ahmed, the shady NBR official Matiur Rahman who had amassed millions, the former land minister Saifuzzaman who owns 360 houses in UK alone, the list is endless as is their shamelessness.

We quake in horror are the torture chambers/detention cells known as Aynaghar where dissidents of the AL government were kept for years and after, in conditions horrific beyond words. How can we forget the police Detective Branch chief Harun? With perverse pleasure he would make video recordings of him having a hearty meal with his victims, as if all is well, though the torture and grilling they underwent was hardly a secret.

Let's stop here or else we will never stop. How can we forget the little children maimed and killed in the July-August uprising, with the woman on top demanding more blood to be shed in order to hold on to her throne? And her minions, her Awami League men and women, urging her on, basking in reflected power.

So when Badiul Alam Majumdar says, "Elections without Awami League won't be unacceptable," do we say yea or nay?

* Ayesha Kabir is head of Prothom Alo English online