The political dynamics are moving into uncharted territory in Bangladesh as the agenda of the leaders of the student movement becomes clearer. It seems to be shifting towards an accommodation of Islamic ideology within the structure of the state.
In a strategically significant move, the political guru of the students’ movement, Mahfuz Alam, a 26-year-old law student from Dhaka University, has been appointed Special Assistant to the Chief Adviser, Muhammad Yunus. It will permit him to closely shape and guide Yunus’s reform agenda.
Student leaders have been declaring that the 1971 revolution was incomplete and arguing for a “second revolution”. What this meant became clearer last week at a conference on “Dialogue for Democratic Restructuring: The Constitution Context” in Dhaka. Alam indicated the broad direction in which he would like Bangladesh to move at the conference.
Arguing for a new Constitution for Bangladesh, he emphasised the need to rewrite the constitution by reflecting the ‘will of the people’. Criticising the Constitution adopted by Bangladesh in 1972 he declared enigmatically, “The 1972 constitution was ideologically unilateral, merging the party’s principles with those of the constitution. That ideological space is now missing, but there is potential to reconstruct it. Other political parties still need to make changes in their ideological spaces as well.”
Alam’s statements have several politically significant implications….
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After the truth-shower 