Trusting in the students to lead us to a brighter tomorrow
Let’s get one thing straight: The only north star here is the students. They fought, suffered incarceration and torture, bled, and died to see this revolution happen. The only people I trust in this whole mess we find ourselves in are them.
I heard Nahid Islam and some of the other coordinators of the movement speak last evening and they are still the only voices of reason. It is very heartening to hear them say they won’t accept any government that is backed by the army or proposed by the president after declaration of a state of emergency. The only government we should support at this point is an interim one proposed by the students themselves.
I was very disappointed with the army chief’s address to the nation yesterday. While it’s understood he is under enormous pressure and is having to perform a role that is almost certainly not of his own choosing, he seemed very ill-prepared and sent wrong messages. When asked which political parties were invited to the dialogue, the first one he mentioned was Jamaat. Twice.
Why Jamaat? They are a banned, politically and morally bankrupt party who were against the very idea of Bangladesh, were responsible for innumerable war crimes, and won only three seats in the last national elections they participated in. Mentioning them first like that feeds the narrative that the movement was backed by Jamaat-Shibir and takes away from its credibility.
Why did the army chief not arrange security for key public structures like the Ganabhaban and the National Parliament? Why were vitally important monuments to our history like Bongobondhu’s Dhanmondi Road 32 residence and the museum situated there not protected? That place stood as a testament to our heritage even after Bongobondhu’s entire family was massacred that bloody day in August 1975. Now we have lost that irreplaceable part of our history to some vandals.
Why were the places of worship and residence of people from religious minorities not protected? Anyone with any sort of understanding of socio-politics here would have known they would have been the first group to have their security jeopardized by perpetrators and opportunists of various shades. Why did law-enforcement authorities not stand by them?
Just like in 1971, the only people who came to their aid were their neighbours, many of them Muslim. Just as it happened then, in the midst of mayhem, there were many stories of glorious heroism.
How were police stations allowed to be attacked and vandalized? Will we ever live down the shame of watching people display their loot from the Prime Minister’s residence and the parliament on social media? The awful spectacle of vandals displaying firearms looted from police stations?
I don’t trust the army. I don’t trust the politicians. I don’t even trust the intellectuals who are acting holier than the Pope all of a sudden. We know many of them for what they are. I only trust our north stars, the students. They led us here, and I trust them to know the way to a better day.
https://www.dhakatribune.com/opinion/op-ed/353926/our-north-stars
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
State terror in Bangladesh / Informal reports on the ground situation
Bangladesh: Students Have Often Led Protests That Have Transformed the Country
105 people killed; national curfew imposed in Bangladesh after student protesters storm prison
An Open Letter to the world on the Bangladesh crisis of 1971
P. B. Mehta – Violence and communalism: South Asia’s disturbing commonality
After the truth-shower 