Things are not ‘normal’

The student protest for safe roads is over and it’s back to business in Dhaka and the rest of the country. On Friday a bus smashed into the home minister’s car. Ironically, this was during the Traffic Week. Police were all over the place, checking licences and car papers, when the bus hit the minister’s vehicle. It was the bus driver’s assistant who was driving the bus and he didn’t even have a driving licence. Fortunately, home minister Asaduzzaman Khan was not injured and the car was not damaged seriously.

Accidents are nothing new or unusual, but certain accidents can be quite symbolic. This minor accident was significant in the context of time and cause. Just as the 29 July accident that killed Diya Khanam Mim and Abdul Karim Rajib shook the entire national and became a symbol of the demand for change, Friday’s accident symbolised that everything was back to square one.

The sequence of the students’ movement is common knowledge, just as is the manner in which it was ended. The justified demand was suppressed with violence and force. Those who sit back in complacence, having put the blame of those spreading ‘rumours’, should take time out to think why the scope was created for rumours to spread. From the very third day of the movement these sages were sending out predictions of violence, but weren’t they the ones who created the circumstances for the violent attacks?

It was a matter of self-fulfilling prophecy. In 1948 a study by American social scientist Robert Martin first drew attention to such behaviour. The bottom line of a self-fulfilling prophecy is to falsely portray a situation from the outset in such a manner that it leads to behaviour where the lies ultimately become truth. Thus the perpetrators of the lies can take credit when their words materialise, saying they were the ones who had predicted the outcome from the outset. During times of crisis, such ‘prophecies’ can be more dangerous weapons than ‘rumours’, particularly in the hands of those at the helm of power. Some even see this as a form of instigation.

The students have gone back home from the streets, and those who proclaim in the media and social media that things are back to ‘normal’, actually mean that things are back to how things were. And things were not ‘normal’, as the students so bluntly pointed out. Those who fail to understand this are simply callous. Things on the streets have simply slid back to how things were before the nine days of street protests. It seems as if the students’ demonstrations, demands and movement were all just another incident, or rather, another ‘accident’. Those who had so readily hailed this as a historic happening, are now quite determined to relegate it to the footnotes of history. The manner in which things are proceeding, it won’t be surprising if the entire movement will soon be termed as the mere result of a rumour.

Many will say that such a big problem can’t be solved overnight. No one expects that. But what are the indications? So far one of the achievements has been the road transport act. It has been passed by the cabinet and it is just a matter of time for it to be passed in the parliament. The loopholes in this law are clear as it has nothing than goes an iota against the interests of the transport owners. With the representative of the owners firmly entrenched in the cabinet, how would that be possible?

The other elements of this law all seem to aim at impunity. Leaders of the Bangladesh Institute of Planners (BIP) made an important observation at a press conference. They said the law has created scope for impunity for the technical persons, bus owners and other authorities connected to the roads. Those who point to the long line of vehicles in front of the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) as a sign of road safety awareness, must also be aware that this has also become a good source of income for the ‘agents’ or middlemen. With such agents hovering around and the licences and papers being renewed with such alacrity, it is simply a reminder that there is no proper system in place. The presence of the middlemen points to corruption with no abatement in sight.

All of that is the legal side of the matter, the bureaucratic aspect. Technical and technological factors can be added to that. In that consideration, reverting to how things were may not make matters worse, but this can no longer be considered ‘normal’. That is what the movement has pointed out. I vehemently differ with those who call the prevailing situation ‘normal’, and it is not just a matter of semantics. After all, force was not just used to quell the movement. What happened after that was alarming.

The 22 students who were detained have been sent on remand. Their bail appeal was rejected and they were sent to jail. The education minister, who himself was once a student leader, rejected any possibility of their being freed, saying that the law would take its own course.

Through a report in the Guardian, the whole world now knows about the threat that ‘no one will be spared’, and how a witch hunt is being carried out to identify the social media accounts of the so-called rumour mongers. The ploy which had been used to instill fear amongst the youth who were active in the quota reforms movement, has now be intensified. This is a sheer use of force. There is no reason to think the young people, contemporaries of those who were in the movement, will take these strategies as ‘normal’. This may not be manifest right now. BBC has reported that many of the students assaulted during the movement for safe roads are now mentally suffering. We have no idea how many students are in this condition. It is sheer political consideration that is given priority in this strategy to create mental pressure, fear and panic.

The reaction of Shahidul Alam’s arrest clearly shows the attitude of the rest of the world towards such use of force and towards the so-called legal system. The manner in which he was picked up and how he is reportedly being treated in detention, highlights the prevailing system of governance in the country rather than the issue of road safety. If anyone had any scepticism regarding claims about the shrinking space for expression in Bangladesh, all their doubts have now  been dispelled.

• Ali Riaz is a professor at the Illinois University’s department of government and politics in the US. This article has been rewritten in English by Ayesha Kabir