Celebrating legal victory over the counter-revolution

Prime minister Sheikh Hasina marked the second anniversary of her present government with an address to the nation on January 6. It was a routine exercise highlighting her achievements in governance. Leader of the opposition Khaleda Zia joined issues with the PM and trashed the speech.

The performance evaluation of the government by all and sundry centre on the issue of good governance within the framework of a binary power struggle –– Hasina versus Khaleda or the Awami League versus the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP).

Deja vu 2007-08. Uncritical and self-serving elite and civil society luminaries championed the notorious minus-two formula of a quasi-military regime with the convenient popular slogan of cleansing politics and preparing the ground for good governance.

The current public debate on the universal issues of good governance and administrative efficiency, orchestrated by the political commentators, is also apparently innocuous. But the debate loses sight –– deliberately or otherwise –– of the most profound development of 2010. This development relates to the final defeat of the Islam-pasand counter-revolution of 1975 in the court.

If the government's legal victory over the counter-revolution of 1975 gets consolidated, constitutionally and politically, the political landscape will radically change, rendering all the conventional political discussions and calculations redundant. Interestingly, Hasina also did not highlight this subject in her address to the nation.

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On the election day in 2008, I wrote: "Hasina, if voted to power, will face her toughest challenge not in establishing 'good governance' but in redeeming her pledge of re-establishing the spirit of the liberation war and trying the war criminals. 'Good governance' is an ideology-neutral agenda but the re-establishment of 'our highest ideals' emanating from the spirit of the liberation war will involve a veritable polity change from the current post-'75 Islam-pasand polity to the pre-'75 secular-socialist polity, keeping in view the changed realities of politics, society and economy.

"Bangladesh at the moment stands on the fork of a road –– one leads to further consolidation of the Islam-pasand polity and the other towards a fresh tryst with "our highest ideals' which are consecrated by the blood of the martyrs of the war of independence and liberation." (Election as a tool of polity change: Harking back to our highest ideals, New Age, December 29, 2008)

In the election of 2008 the people did choose to make a fresh tryst with the spirit of '71 –– the Liberation War.

In February 2009, I wrote: "The government is poised to launch a three-pronged attack on the Islam-pasand faction of the polity: a) the trial of war criminals; b) the execution of the High Court judgment on the killing of Sheikh Mujib; and c) revisiting the constitution to restore in it the spirit of the Liberation War…

"The present government will make mistakes as all governments do. There will be much to criticise and oppose its activities and policy preferences. All the measures of the government will not be popular, nor will serve genuine public interest. There will be instances of inefficiency, abuse and misuse of power, political aggrandisement, miscarriage of justice, oppression and suppression, and corruption, big or small.

"The present juncture, however, presents a unique opportunity to cleanse the Bangladesh polity of the abuses of Islam-pasand conspirators and military adventurers. Seize the opportunity by balancing the urgency of the battle of polities with the need of public scrutiny of the government's activities." (A unique opportunity, New Age, February 4, 2009)

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In 2010, the battle of polities was diligently conducted in the court –– and to some extent in parliament.

The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court gave the final verdict in the Bangabandhu Murder Case and the execution of five of the twelve convicts, who were in government custody, was carried out. The events of August 15, 1975 were conclusively condemned as a murderous crime and the moral, legal and constitutional basis of the subsequent rise of the Islam-pasand polity lost all validity.

The Appellate Division gave the final verdict in the Fifth Amendment cases, pronouncing the amendment null and void, and directing the government to restore the original version of the Constitution with certain modifications. The Fifth Amendment was the fundamental basis of the post-'75 Islam-pasand polity. The Supreme Court upheld the pristine fundamental principles of state policy viz democracy, secularism, Bengali nationalism and socialism. The pre-'75 secular-socialist polity based on Bengali nationalism got a phoenix-like rebirth.

Parliament passed a unanimous resolution and made laws to restart the trial of war criminals which was stopped by General Ziaur Rahman. The International War Crimes Tribunal was constituted, some alleged war crimes perpetrators were arrested and the process of the trial was begun. The spirit of '71 triumphed and Islam-pasand polity faced a mortal peril.

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It is a historical truism that 'two forms of society based on totally different principles' cannot coexist peacefully. In fact, the Islam-pasand counter-revolutionaries have imposed a civil war on the country since August 15, 1975. The retreat of the Islam-pasand partisans began with the annulment of the barbarous Indemnity Ordinance and their rout has started with the hanging of the killers of Mujib, annulment of the Fifth Amendment and the restart of the war crimes trials.

No change in politics is irreversible. The political struggle for restructuring the polity is a continuous process. As for now, those who uphold the principles on the basis of which Bangladesh was created in 1971, may celebrate the legal victory over Islam-pasand counter-revolution.
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NM Harun is a retired journalist. He can be reached at e-mail: [e-mail]