Following a violent month of July, filled with hundreds of losses of innocent lives, the government of Bangladesh, ruled by Awami League president Sheikh Hasina was ousted. Hailed as the party of independence, party of the secular middle class, as properly described by current home advisor, the party is going through a catastrophic tornado after 15 years of iron-fist ruling. The former prime minister and party chief Sheikh Hasina absconded unexpectedly leaving not only the country but also the party in complete disarray. What lies ahead for the largest political organization of Bangladesh? Will it be able to stand back up on its feet once again? To understand the broader picture, along with the unfortunate events of last month, the fifteen years under former prime minister Sheikh Hasina must be analyzed thoroughly.
What started as a protest for the quota system in government employment by a group of students, ended up violently uprooting the government. The ousted government's minister of road, transport and bridges, Obaidul Qader's statement ended up provoking the student wing of the Awami League to take matter into their own hand and violently and unethically charging on the protesters. And these attacks on students by the chatra league ended up causing loss of lives which outraged more and more students. With one after another wrong decision, made by a group of loyalists, many of whom lacked the basic qualifications to perform the duties of their assigned roles, a very tragic month emerged for the country which was being praised for its growth only a few months ago. The way the events were handled by the government-- shutting down the internet, ordering the law enforcement to shoot live rounds of ammunitions on the protesters, executing block raids to use scare tactic and arresting students unlawfully to slow down the protests--outraged most of the population of the country. And when people of a country take on the road, there is no power strong enough to stop them. There never was any in the history of recent civilization. The ultimate result: The fall of the government by a revolution led by students and supported by the citizens.
Now, with the fall of the government, the party that brought independence of Bangladesh, the largest and oldest party of Bangladesh, the party of the greatest Bengali of all time, father of the nation, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman is going through a period of uncertainty. Messages are coming from former prime minister's son through social media and his interviews with various media. There is in fact no leader leading, with most of the top party leader being in hiding. In this writer's opinion, it is high time that Awami League hit the brake pedal and go on to reflection.
Awami League is Bangabandhu's ideology controlled political party, which has a constitution, a philosophy. However, there had to be a lot of wrongs on the part of Awami League to see this day when mob violently destroyed the Dhanmondi 32 house of Bangabandhu. In this time of reflection, Awami League must first figure out the mistakes, accept the mistakes, and perform corrective actions to gain support of the population again. Over the course of 15 years, the power structure in the party had become too centralized. The party president failed undoubtedly to create leaders surrounding her who would criticize her decisions when her decisions are questionable. No human's every decision can be the correct one, and former PM Sheikh Hasina is only a human.
“Consequently, there were mistakes after mistakes in policy making that
alienated her completely in the global political field. With only
blessings from India, by signing one after another deals with them that
only benefits them, one can hold onto power only for so long”
As a result, the former PM were never made aware that she, too, can make mistakes. Perhaps the culture of questioning, the culture of democracy in the party hit the rock bottom and political leaders stopped questioning, stopped criticizing for saving their own positions. Even in the time of former general secretary of Awami league, Sayed Ashraful Islam, the culture of criticizing, questioning existed to a certain extent. However, the ever-dynamic Obaidul Qader abolished it completely. With his three terms as general secretary of the party, he centralized the party power excessively and filled it with undeserving, unqualified people. On the part of government, the former prime minister filled her cabinets with ministers who lacked basic qualifications to perform their duties.
Consequently, there were mistakes after mistakes in policy making that alienated her completely in the global political field. With only blessings from India, by signing one after another deals with them that only benefits them, one can hold onto power only for so long. Amongst the critical mistakes of the former government, suppressing the freedom of expression of its people, failing to control corruption, committing extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances and trying to curtail the rights of its citizens to vote are at the very top. The other mistakes are matter of discussion for another day.
Now, can Awami league make a comeback? It absolutely can, and it will. Awami league's heritage could not be erased even after brutally murdering the whole family of Bangabandhu and it will not be erased now. But Awami league must reform. The culture of practicing democracy must first start within the party itself. If everything of the party is decided from one point, the engagement of its party people bears no meaning. And this is exactly what has happened in the recent years.
By depending too much on bureaucracy and law enforcement to hold onto power, the party got disconnected from the reality; the reality that it is in fact a political party that need politicians who mean well for the country. Awami League now needs to go back to the very founding philosophy of the party, the philosophy of Bangabandhu. Awami League is a political party that is supposed to be for the oppressed, it is not supposed to be on the side doing the oppression. The whole party needs a complete overhaul. It needs to remove people who wants to be involved in politics only for personal gain. Bangabandhu dedicated his whole life for Bangladeshi oppressed people, Awami League will make even a stronger come back, if and only if it can learn from its mistakes and be the party that Bangabandhu meant it to be.
The writer is an Aerospace Engineering Consultant, Spirit Aerosystems ,Wichita, KS, USA
