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The arrest of the bloggers/activists evokes the aphorism “One doth the scath and another hath the scorn.” They are paying for the crimes of the Jamaat-Shibir cadres. Thugs, who derailed rail lines, burned power station, public transportation, attacked religious minority, and killed police and civilians, remain unscathed. But, the bloggers/activists, who put up a non-violent protest demanding fair trial and justice for War Crimes, get muzzled and thrown in jail.

Why Awami League is in such a self-destructive mode, trying to appease the extremists who barely have any sweet paean for the secular values the AL claims to be the guardian of?

Au contraire, at every opportunity in the past, the extremists tried to kill the progressive voices in the party.  Just consider how many times over the past decades the Prime Minster herself had to escape attempts on her life.

Delving deeper, one would find a silent transformation, turning the Awami League into a party looking more like the right-wing BNP of the 1990s, behind such action.

To cite a few examples, in the mid-90s, it formed a political alliance with Jamaat-e-Islami aiming to oust its key nemesis, BNP, from the power. The strategy heftily paid off. The party got elected to the office after a long hiatus of 21 years. Then, in December 23, 2006, it signed a four point self-destructive electoral pledge with the Khelafat-e-Majlish, also a religious outfit often sides with the extremists.

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Since its impressive electoral victory in December 2008, the party seems to be tilting more to the right, manifested in its eagerness to forge alliance with the corporate and military interests. Newcomers lacking commitments to party’s core values and individuals accused of incompetence and corruption have been elevated to the party high-ups and ministerial portfolios.

While corruption allegations against the high-ups have been a regular phenomenon, more common has been the ways that such allegations would be swept under the rug. For example, not a single party official accused of skimming the stock market and scamming the financial institutions has yet been tried. Little to nothing has been done to prosecute the corruption in the power sector and in the Padma Bridge project.

Worse yet, it has entirely failed to build a national coalition on the War Crimes Trial and effectively deflect unfair criticisms aimed at the trial process.

In the process, the party evolves more like into an oligarchic platform, shunning grass-root level leaders and activists while embracing people with lack of commitment to the populist causes. Only the skeletal of populist sentiments remains on the surface and in rhetoric.

For all these, despite winning the two-third parliamentary majority, it has yet to earn the political legitimacy. In most recent polls, AL would either be losing or barely maintaining a lead without majority had the election were held during the time of the poll, an omen for any incumbent.

Then, the youth uprising at SHAHBAGH threw a lifeline to the government, giving it an opportunity to make things right. Initially, it seemed to be heeding to the people’s voice.

But, as the Jamaat-Shibir cadres started their reign of terror, aiming to save the convicts of the War Crimes and derail the trial process, THE AL’s susceptibility to such attack and separation from the core activists became apparent.

During the attacks, demoralized and dedicated grass-root level party activists practically abandoned the fortresses. District level government officials and members of the law enforcement agencies stood inactive probably fearing retribution if the opposition returns to power in the 2014 election. Beneficiaries of the party corruption and neophytes constituting the party’s power-base could not be seen anywhere.

Failing to contain the violence, the government simply sacrificed its traditional allies, opting for appeasement.

It has thrown the comrades under the bus, muzzling free speech and arresting youth activists falsely accused of being sacrilegious.

The Prime Minister may have chosen a strategy of frying fish in fish oil, But, compromise that sacrifices party’s core values would unlikely to bring a sustainable solution at the price of alienating traditional allies.

Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman also compromised, but at his own term. He never gave up Bengali identity and never abandoned allies. He embraced freedom of religion above religious identity. He stood up against the mighty and feared military junta. People trusted him, supported him, and backed him all the way to the national freedom. He prevailed and got a country for the Bengalese lost more than two-hundred years ago, in 1757.

The daughter of the great leader must act like her father: by embracing the core principles of Liberation War; by earning the trust of the allies; and, by freeing up the arrested bloggers.

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ABM Nasir is an Associate Professor of Economics at the North Carolina Central University, USA.

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When Charles Taylor was being handed down the verdict on 11 counts of war crimes and crime against humanity, Taylor’s defence attorney charged the prosecutors and the judges of the Special Court for Sierra Leon as saying:

“these convictions were obtained on tainted and corrupted evidenced effectively bought by the prosecution.” (see NPR, April 26, 2012).

So did Klaus Barbie alias the ‘Butcher of Lyon’, Slobodan Milosevic, Abdur Quader Mollah alias the ‘Butcher of Mipur’ and many others convicted of crimes against humanity. All claimed innocence while blaming the prosecution of resorting to witch hunt.

During the trial, it was reported that Abdul Quader Mollah waving the holy Quran cursed the judges with eternal damnation. The reaction of the other convict, absconding Abul Kalam Azad alias “Bachchu Razakar” is yet to be known. But, he surely would not have had amusing things to say to the judges and prosecutors.

Now coming back to the trial of the war crimes, even though two perpetrators of genocide of 1971 have already been hauled to the grinding bowls of justice, many still doubt whether the convicts would ultimately serve their punishment. They grumble that convicts may well walk free with presidential pardon with the change in political power.

Their scepticisms are not without justification. The reason is that conviction in Bangladesh, regrettably, does not always guarantee punishment. Even, when upheld in the highest court, a presidential pardon can simply allow a convict to walk free. According to the section 49 (PART IV) of Bangladesh constitution:
“The President shall have power to grant pardons, reprieves and respites and to remit, suspend or commute any sentence passed by any court, tribunal or other authority or commute any sentence passed by any court, tribunal or other authority.”

Therefore, to repeat, application of such authority can allow a convict to escape, even, the worst of all punishments, the gallows. I am not opposed to the presidential authority to grant pardons. My main concern with the pardon is the arbitrary ways with which such authority was used in the past. Besides, one must ask who shall qualify to receive presidential pardon.

Pardons ought to be granted to individuals who (1) show remorse for their past misdeeds, (2) show willingness to contribute to the society, and (3) are never convicted of Genocide/crime against humanity.

Does any of these criteria apply to the two convicts and the detained leaders of Jamaat-e-Islami and Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury? Have they ever apologized to the victims of their atrocious crimes and to the nation for their complicity with the Pakistan Army? Or have they shown any remorse?

They did not, although they had ample opportunities do so when there were granted impunity through the repeal of the Collaborators Order (proviso of Article 8 of 1972) on December 31, 1975 by a Martial Law Proclamation later ratified through the 5^th amendment.

Let aside showing any remorse or apology for their crimes and complicity with the Pakistani Army in 1971, they continued their reign of terror on the pro-liberation progressive forces.

Over the last three decades, the leaders of Jamaat-e-Islami have embraced ideologies, denouncing all basic tenets of the War of Liberation. They reject democracy, capitalism and socialism as being godless materialism. They repeatedly warn that such materialism would not be tolerated in a Muslim country. They hold and preach views similar to those of Mussolini and Hitler, reflected, for example, in a statement in an article by Jamaat-e-Islami’s former Amir, Abbas Ali Khan, which reads “the psychology of the defense forces in Bangladesh must be anti-Indian”, a clear threat to the regional peace and stability of South Asia.

Worst of all, since rebirth in 1979, they have constantly advocated discriminatory views on political participation as expressed in an article titled “An Introduction to the Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh.” A phrase from the article reads:

“Any sane and adult person can become a Member of the Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh if he or she accepts the basic creed of the Jamaat-e-Islami as his or her own creed, accepts the aims and objects of the Jamaat-e-Islami as his or her own aims and objects, pledges to fulfil the demands of the constitution of the Jamaat-e-Islami, performs the obligatory duties ordained by Islam.”⁵ –clearly indicating that any non-Muslim aspiring to hold political office under JI’s hegemony must convert to Islam, which is discriminatory, anti-democratic, and defies the country’s constitution.

All these show that the mindset and the beliefs of the convicts and the detained perpetrators have remained the same as they were in 1971. Accordingly, any presidential pardon to anyone convicted of crime against humanity would be a great injustice to the victims and to the nation yet to recover from the horrendous memories of the genocide of 1971.

Today, spontaneous uprising of hundreds of thousands of youths demanding justice for war crimes rekindles hope of justice. The uprising has legitimized the ongoing trial process. It smacks the probity of the human rights merchants as well as the friends of convicts and alleged war criminals. Now, it is the right time to say ‘no’ to the culture of impunity and ‘no’ to presidential pardon of the war crimes convicts.

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ABM Nasir is an Associate Professor of Economics at the North Carolina Central University, USA.