Straight Talk
Alliances have consequences
A vote for BNP is a vote forJamaat. Photo: Munir Uz Zaman/drik News
IN between elections, it seems as though the country is firmly united against both the elements that were opposed to the liberation war in 1971 as well as those who would try to misuse religion for their own political gain. Thus, we regularly see meetings and seminars and (in the days before emergency) demonstrations and rallies protesting the rehabilitation of war criminals and demanding the ouster of anti-liberation elements from the political sphere, if not their prosecution for war crimes. The newspapers are filled with condemnatory op-eds and editorials and a chorus of talking heads on television denounces the anti-liberation elements in unison. It is the same with pseudo-religious hucksters trying to abuse the people's religious sentiments for political advancement. When they rallied to force the authorities to remove five baul sculptures from in front of Zia International Airport, the outraged backlash was genuine, and the counter-demonstrations dwarfed the original protests by the Islamists. People well understood that there is nothing un-Islamic about statues per se and that the obscurantists were misusing religion for their own ends: to demonstrate their political muscle and to strike a blow against Bangladesh's indigenous, syncretic Islamic tradition that the bauls represented. The affection among the Bangladeshi public for events such as Pohela Boishakh and for activities such as jatra, much hated by the pseudo-religious obscurantists, is similarly widespread and genuine. Nor is this merely an elitist point of view. Television shows do voxpop segments and there are any number of opinion polls out there that will confirm that large majorities of Bangladeshis have no sympathy for those who were opposed to our liberation war and that they are also opposed to the politicisation of religion. Indeed, any random stroll down any middle-class or working-class neighbourhood, urban or rural, will turn up evidence that these concerns are shared in every section of our society. One could be forgiven for concluding, therefore, that any political alliance that encompasses either unrepentant and unreconstructed anti-liberation elements or pseudo-religious confidence men, to say nothing of both, as core constituents, would be consigned to political oblivion at the polls. Certainly, when the Jamaat-e-Islami runs independently on its own steam, its record is unimpressive. The last time it faced voters without the protective umbrella of the four-party alliance was in 1996, and the party was almost wiped off the face of the earth. Indeed, if we look at the JI's share of the popular vote, we see that it has diminished steadily since 1991, when the party secured over 12 per cent of the vote, to 1996 when its vote share had diminished to around 8 per cent of the total, to 2001 when its vote share was below 5 per cent. In 1991, the party's 4 million plus votes translated into eighteen seats in parliament. In 1996, the party's share of the vote shrank by around half a million, and the number of its seats in parliament plummeted to three. In 2001, the party's vote shrank even further, to less than two and a half million, but, due to being in the four-party alliance, it received seventeen seats in parliament, which it was able to parlay into two cabinet seats. There can be little doubt that in the absence of its electoral alliance with BNP, JI would be confined to the margins of Bangladeshi politics, in line with the extent of its support among the public. What alliance with the BNP has allowed the party to do is to leverage itself into a position where it can wield influence and power far in excess of its popularity. It has allowed the party to place its people throughout the civil administration and the police services. It has allowed them to steadily move the centre of political gravity in the country to the right even though there is little support among the voting public for such a shift. How has this been possible? It is possible because many people who would never dream of voting for the JI turn a blind eye to the fact that it is a key component of the four-party alliance when they vote for the BNP. Surely, the time has come for those who profess to be opposed to anti-liberation elements and religion-based politics to put their votes where their mouths are. It is time to accept the hard truth that in the world of coalition politics a vote for BNP is a vote for JI. There are many BNP voters who are appalled at this, as there are many AL voters who are appalled by the AL's alliance with the JP. These BNP voters are pro-liberation and pro-secularism and are very opposed to JI. So what should they do? If BNP voters want their party back they need to make a stand against the alliance with JI. They do not need to vote for the AL, which would be anathema to them. There are other parties to vote for, there are independent candidates, and there is the no vote, signifying lack of confidence in any of the names on the ballots. I would suggest that any of these options would be the more conscientious one for those who do not wish to empower the JI any further.
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