Going Deeper
Back to the future
One wonders about the audacity of Jamaat-e-Islami leaders raising questions about the liberation war and their description of the war as a civil conflict not so long ago. It should not be lost on Jamaat that the moment the Bangalis refused to be a part of Pakistan and the armed forces and the civilians took up arms (as well as those who did not, but rebelled against the central authority) -- the "civilian" character of the conflict dramatically changed.
It was not the French Revolution against an insensitive king and aristocracy or the Bolshevik Revolution against the Czar, though both changed the course of the world history, it was a war by the people, for the people, and of the people.
Only an amnesiac can forget that a Jamaat leader himself as the president of East Pakistan Islami Chatra Sangha and as the chief of the infamous Al-Badr back in 1971 helped then occupying Pakistani army in carrying out massacre, looting, and rape. The present amir of Jamaat-e-Islami, as president of Islamic Chatra Sangha, directly supervised the formation of Al-Badr Bahini and became its commander-in-chief.
The atrocities committed by the Pakistani army and their cohorts, namely Jamaat-e-Islami and their offshoots like Al-Badr, Al-Shams and other collaborators, have been documented in many books, journals, and research papers. Yet a follower of Jamaat-e-Islami, albeit unsurprisingly, would rather accept Hamoodur Rahman Commission Report that less than 26,000 people died in what he termed as "civil conflict" than the figure of three million killed, mentioned by the Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
To quote a report on Bangladesh by the International Crisis Group on Bangladesh: Islamists, especially the Jamaat-e-Islami Party, are often accused of siding with Pakistanis, joining in genocide and actively assisting massacres, especially targeted killing of intellectuals in Dhaka in the last weeks.
The same report states that as early as April 1971 US officials protested their government's support for West Pakistan and argued that the overworked term genocide was applicable. Perhaps, one of the most telling accounts of Jamaat's collaboration during our war of liberation has been given in a book titled "Witness to surrender" by Pakistani major Siddiq Salim of the anti-liberation role played by Jamaat, Muslim League, and Nizam-i-Islam.
His book is regarded as a detailed professional account of the war. He wrote that due to the atrocities committed by the occupation army, the Bengali population who were not very fond of Pakistani army before, became even more opposed. Hence there was no question of mass cooperation by the Bengalis. Of the collaborators, Salik said that the elderly and the prominent among them formed the Peace Committees while the young and able-bodied were raised as Razakars to augment the strength of the Pak army who numbered 100,000 while the Razakars numbered 50,000.
In under-developed societies, political community is sometimes fragmented into opposed religious, ethnic, racial, and ideological groups, more familiarly known as identity politics, and the democratic structure therein being fragile, religion-based politics can invite instability.
In Bangladesh, it is believed that corporations run by religious extremists make an annual net profit of billions of taka of which ten percent is used by Islamic extremists for organisational purposes like carrying out regular party activities, providing remuneration and allowances to about half a million party cadres, and running armed training camps.
The number of primary schools since liberation has doubled while that of dakhil madrasas has increased eight-fold. Concern about possible rise of Islamic extremists, who look for areas of weakness, has been expressed by Western countries.
Bertil Lintner, Elizabeth Griswold, Time magazine, Wall Street Journal, and others have voiced concern about rising religious extremism in Bangladesh. Indians, being our next-door neighbour and having been subjected to religion-based atrocities, both from within and without, have linked increasing activities of Islamist extremists with elements within the immediate past ruling coalition in Bangladesh.
If one were to look at the political landscape of Pakistan, one can easily find the basis of strength of Muttahihiha Majlis-e-Amal, a conglomerate of religion-based parties that were courted from the days of late president Ziaul Huq till today in order to marginalise moderate political parties like that of Benazir Bhutto.
Added to the woes of democracy deficit in Pakistan, the Brussels-based International Crisis Group observed that sectarian conflict in Pakistan was the direct consequence of state policies of Islamisation and marginalisation of secular democratic forces. Co-option and patronage of religious parties by successive military governments have brought Pakistan to a point where religious extremism threatens to erode the foundation of the state and society. The Islamists in Bangladesh, who reportedly have transnational links, are likely to have links with their fellow travelers in Pakistan and other countries.
These days, Bangladeshi liberation war heroes, sector commanders, civil society and politicians appear to have reached near unanimity in their demand that Jamaat-e-Islami, that collaborated with the Pakistani occupation forces during the war of liberation, should be banned and barred from contesting the elections, and all those found guilty of crimes against humanity should be tried by a special tribunal.
The argument is not only based on acts against humanity perpetrated by them during the war of liberation, but also to prevent the incendiary nature of religion-based politics in Bangladesh. It now appears that though the Zia government in 1976 repealed the restriction on communal politics imposed by the 1972 constitution, they and successive governments did not repeal the Special Powers Act of 1974, still in force, providing for ban on communal politics and punishment for violation of the SPA.
We should, however, be conscious that the proposed tribunal does not imitate the one that tried Saddam Hussein, as many people believe that Saddam was already pre-judged to be hanged before the trial even began. Our endeavor should be to have tribunals like the International Criminal Court or the Rwanda Tribunal or UN backed Cambodia Genocide Tribunal that would receive international legitimacy.
If political parties are meant to strengthen social coordination among different interest groups in order to maximise social benefits, then parties like Jamaat that foster dissention and sectarianism among the people should not be allowed political space in the country.
If Bangladesh were to revert back to secular politics, which was one of the country's founding principles, it would not have to compromise its Muslim identity, because the great majority of the people are devout Muslims and do practice religion in their day-to-day life -- and Jamaat never got even double digit popular votes before 2001 elections.
Kazi Anwarul Masud is a former Secretary and Ambassador.
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