Mizan Rahman
I’m one of those migrating ‘birds’ of Bangladeshi winter
who, having no natural wings of our own, must rely on the mechanical wings of commercial airlines to swoop down on this
wonderfully welcoming land of ours, in time to enjoy both the Poush Mela for
our aesthetic and gastronomic pleasures, and the Ekushe Boi Mela for our intellectual nourishment. We, the
so-called expatriates of the mother country, are, by the grace of Allah the
Great, well accustomed to enjoying the best of both worlds, to the extent that
we have almost developed a healthy sense of entitlement, much like the culture
of entitlement that seems to have gripped the upper echelon of the Bangladesh
society of today.
On a personal note
this is the third time in a row that I landed in Dhaka to be promptly greeted
by a paralyzing episode of chest and throat congestion that quickly became a
matter of great concern to my good sister at Gulshan , who bundled me up to
deposit at a doctor’s clinic. Having nothing to do but bide my time watching
the pretty girls singing their hearts out on the TV screens, I was able to
glean the premier newspapers of Dhaka and find out what was going on in the
country. Not much different, I thought, from previous years. A little hush
hush, perhaps. Understandable, in view of the emergency, the rifles in the
barracks and the rule of the RAB. The gun and the rod have always been an
effective silencer for the agitation-prone fellow Bengalees of mine. One thing,
however, must always go on in our country: sports. Even when there are no games
to play. Especially when there are no games on international fields, because
that is about the only times our team doesn’t lose. Politics is probably the
next competitive sport in the country, that every talks about, everybody shouts
about, everybody fights about, sometimes even kills about, yet nobody seems to
have any idea what really it is all about. Students are always out of classes
shouting slogans, demanding something, anything, workers are always carrying
placards, if not busy burning effigies and tires or breaking windshields. This
is a country where politicians seem to be more concerned with percentages than
national affairs, where the bureaucrats are squabbling about perks and cuts,
the businessmen about how to buy up the corrupt officials, the engineers about
how to become millionaires within a year of graduation from college. This is
also a country where people are yet to decide who the real father of the nation
is ( as if that is such a pressing issue for the nation) , or whether they are
Bangladeshis or Bangalees. This is one country where professors are not known
by their research output, but by their white or blue labels, where the
policemen are always saluting the notables and screaming at the un-notables,
while the traffic runs amok all over the streets, and the seasoned criminals and
political cronies prowl the alleys enjoying the best fruits of independence.
Thankfully, or
should I say unfortunately ( depending on which side of the fence you are on ),
we see a sudden bump—an unaccustomed halt in the free fall of the Bangladshi
society that has been going on almost uninterrupted since the dawn of
independence. Is this man real? This well-dressed man from the ivory towers of
the World Bank, the well-spoken man from high heavens—is he genuine? Is he the
Messiah, or just a front man for our brave men in uniform? So we speculate. We
give opinions. We all have opinions—we are true Bangalees. I am an outsider, an NRB, according to the
new terminology (it sounds so much more respectable than an expatriate ). I am
a nobody, yet I am a somebody as soon as I arrive at Zia. So I must have an
opinion. After all, I have the same blood.
So, what did I see
in Dhaka? The first couple of weeks the papers
were abuzz with two issues: rice, and the amazing theater of teacher-student
trials. Rice, understandably, generated a lot of heat, that had the potential
of having a few heads roll. A few heads did roll, not entirely due to rice, but
perhaps triggered by it. We always like the spectacle of heads rolling on the
tarmac, especially of the members of the high and mighty. So the heat simmered
down, even though the price of rice didn’t fall substantially. Prices need not
fall as fast as the heads in our society, apparently. Anyway, rice had quickly
been downgraded a notch by the good editors of the national papers. The raging
topic was now the student-teacher internment issue. How dare you touch these
noble creatures of upper stratosphere with your dirty arms of law? That seemed
to be the prevailing tone everywhere. At least that is the impression I kept
getting from the impassioned statements and demonstrations of the learned
luminaries of the academic world of Bangladesh. From my outsider’s
vantage point I saw a few unfortunate individuals, mostly university students,
as well as some professors, who were arrested, rightly or wrongly, by the
lawmen sometime last year, and had just seen the end of their trials in the
courts. Having been an academic all my life (including the first four at the University of Dhaka), I cannot deny a natural empathy
for my fellow academics in Bangladesh.
Freedom of mind, thought and expression is the most essential ingredient for
healthy growth of academic life in schools and universities, and a modern
society would be well advised not to interfere with their pursuit of knowledge
by raiding their premises with a show of brute force. However, with my
understanding of the ‘due process of law’, conditioned by a long stay in a
modern western country I cannot help an uneasy feeling that the courts in Dhaka
had perhaps been pressured into submitting, a bit overtly for my taste, to the
will of a loud and determined academic ‘mob’ , even before the honourable men
and women of the bench had a chance to examine the merits of the cases. My
secret hope throughout the process had been that these gentlemen were found not
guilty and they would go back peacefully to their classes, where they really
belonged. But I’d never imagine doing or saying anything that would be
tantamount to interfering with the due process of law, whatever reservations I
might personally have about the law itself. If we, the academics, claiming to
be the uncompromising defenders of the moral standards of the society, are unable
to demonstrate a token respect for the law of the land, for the courts and the
judiciary, then how can we expect the institution of law to stand firm on its
feet in a land where almost every other institution seems to be under continual
pressure from interest groups of all kinds, political or otherwise. Rule of law
is the final line of defense for the ordinary citizens of a civilized society.
Those who foolishly try to weaken its foundation for their selfish interests
are destined to be its ultimate victims. Unfortunately, years of erosion has
already pushed our legal system to point of near collapse. Today, ‘justice’ by
the courts has an object of ridicule and criticism by almost everyone who has a
mouth to speak and a pen to write.
The last news I heard
from boarding my flight out of Bangladesh
was that these charged individuals had been released. Even the handful of
convicted ones had been pardoned by His Excellency the President of the
Republic. The released professors have been promptly garlanded by a jubilant
crowd of students and academics at the prison gates, and paraded in some sort
of a victory march along the streets of the capital. A very joyous moment
indeed. But isn’t it also a moment of serious concern and grave reflection for the good of the
country? Who is the winner in this whole episode? The students and teachers?
The courts? The people? Or is there a winner at all?
Ottawa, Canada,
Feb.
14, 2008.
Mizan Rahman, মীজান রহমান