by Anwar A Khan
Bangladesh
goes to the 11th national polls on December 30. This will be the
most important election in the history of Bangladesh. There is just no other
time at which voters’ decisions will determine the fate of the country and its
direction to such an extent … We are at a moment in which a conservative,
communal, reactionary and rightwing pro-fascist-type opposition political front
is chuting in front of us. I don’t even want to imagine what that is going to
be like if they win … It would be the beginning of the end of democracy,
secularism, and the remaining oddments of our glorified liberation war of 1971.
The
violence will get worse and become more visible as one can auspicate. We live
in a democracy and we want to continue living in a democracy. I am really
hesitant to make analogies with the 1930s – but similar things happened to
Germany. We know Hitler came to power through legitimate forces. If the opposition
political combine (Jatiya Okiya Front) succeeds in the polls, they have got to
give the core ideologies on which Bangladesh was founded in 1971– a kick up the
bum, but we can’t allow this to bechance in the approaching national elections.
It
has been 47 years since this country emerged from a dreadful bloody war.
Millions of people died. Many were tortured. There were parents who had not
been able to bury their children … and we have never been so close to what
happened back then. The time has come for us to pause, find our voices and say:
No vote to the anti-Bangladesh liberation force and their mango-twigs in a loud
applause.
Bangladesh
is now seen as an up-and-coming developing country, with strong economic growth
and a rising global profile. A change in leadership will likely mean a shift in
current policy. When voters head to the polls this month, they will elect not
only a new parliament but also a political party to power. The two major
political fronts in the election on December 30 will go that will ultimately
determine country’s next government.
Not
adhering to ethical or moral principles, National Unity Front (NUF) under the billet
of Dr. Kamal Hossain has a vague plan to return the people’s power to the hands
of people. The rise of NUF is not a just cause, but a symptom of deeper crisis
to bring in to punish our people with more ferocity. Given Bangladesh’s
fractured political landscape — where alliances among political figures and
parties are more often based on corruption and political expediency than on
actual principles — it will be difficult for any of the political fronts to
implement their domestic policy agendas when they take office.
The
forthcoming elections will also have a lot of influence over the way the
country interacts with its neighbours and the rest of the world. If the outcome
of the election is a Grand Alliance’s victory, it will refine efforts to
address further people’s welfare oriented development programmes in Bangladesh.
The Bangladesh’s state is a very big machine and very complicated to run and
people, regardless of their political preference, are very concerned about what
comes after the election, and where the country goes from there.
The
2018 election will have a big blackball impact on the country and its people if
the voters fail to pick out the right political party.
It
is reported in the news media that the obnoxious nexus of CIA and ISI in
collusion with their local cronies are very combat-ready to send off the
present political party in power by hook or by crook to fulfil their inauspicious
designs. We know the west and particularly the US have a long history of
rigging polls, supporting military coups, channelling funds and spreading
political propaganda in other countries.
According
to a research, there were 117 “partisan electoral interventions” between 1946
and 2000. That’s around one of every nine competitive elections held since
Second World War. The majority of these – almost 70 per cent – were cases of US
interference. And these are not all from
the Cold War era; 21 such interventions took place between 1990 and 2000, of
which 18 were by the US. 60 different independent countries have been the
targets of such interventions. The targets came from a large variety of sizes
and populations, ranging from small states such as Iceland and Grenada to major
powers such as West Germany, India, Bangladesh, Brazil and many more countries.
It’s important to note that these cases vary greatly – some simply involved
steps to publicly support one political and undermine another. But almost two
thirds of interventions were done in secret, with voters having no idea that
foreign powers were actively trying to influence the results.
Those
countries where secret tactics have been deployed by the US include: Guatemala,
Brazil, El Salvador, Haiti, Panama, Israel, Lebanon, Iran, Greece, Italy,
Malta, Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria, Albania, Sri Lanka, the Philippines, South
Vietnam and Japan.
Historically,
election meddling has actually been far more common than other methods of
political intervention, like military invasions and coups. Covert interventions
have been done by many countries over the years and – because they are shrouded
in secrecy – it’s impossible to get a comprehensive picture of every instance
across the world.
Part
of the reason why we know about lots of US operations is that its government is
relatively transparent when compared to some others. ‘Relatively’ is the key
word here: there is much we may never know about its secret foreign plots, but
the release of many historical documents do allow us to shed some light –
albeit usually years later. One of the very earliest examples of covert US
interventions came with Italy’s 1948 election, when the CIA helped the
Christian Democrats beat the Communist Party.
Nearly
50 years later, a former secret agent admitted: “We had bags of money that we
delivered to selected politicians, to defray their political expenses, their
campaign expenses, for posters, for pamphlets.” The Washington Post has
reported the CIA’s operation also included “forging documents to besmirch
communist leaders via fabricated sex scandals,” and “spreading hysteria about a
Russian takeover and the undermining of the Catholic Church”.
Over
the years, many of America’s interventions have involved ploughing funds into
their preferred candidate’s campaign. For instance, throughout the 1950s and
60s, the US secretly financed the ruling Liberal Democratic Party in Japan,
despite denials from party leaders. Former intelligence officials have said
America’s aim was to undermine the Left and make Japan one of Asia’s most
strongly anti-communist countries. In the 1980s, an American official confirmed
to the New York Times that “about US$20,000” had been given to support Nicolas
Barletta presidential campaign in Panama.
And,
in 1990, US$400,000 was given to organisations Czechoslovakia, which were
leading the revolution against Communist rule, and which become political
parties for the country’s first free elections in decades.
Funding
was also provided for parties in Albania. According to reports, one US diplomat
explained: “If Albania votes for socialism in this election, a lot of Western
investors and governments are going to direct their aid elsewhere.”
All
this is to say nothing of US-backed coups against democratically elected
leaders. For instance, in 2013 the CIA finally admitted it had been behind the
coup against Iran’s secular prime minister, Mohammad Mosaddeq, which took place
60 years earlier. Reports say that the UK persuaded President Eisenhower to
take action after Mosaddeq nationalised the British Anglo-Iranian Oil Company,
(later known as BP). The CIA duly planned to install a “pro-western government”
in Iran.
An
internal CIA document stated: “The military coup that overthrew Mosaddeq and
his National Front cabinet was carried out under CIA direction as an act of US
foreign policy, conceived and approved at the highest levels of government.” It
was a similar story in Guatemala, with the overthrow of President Jacobo Arbenz
in 1954. The New York Times has likened his personal politics to a
“European-style democratic socialist”, but Arbenz’s reforms angered the
American multi-national United Fruit Company, which had huge landholdings in
the Guatemala.
Declassified
CIA documents reveal how it launched a huge US$3m clandestine operation against
the government, including “attempts to subvert and or defect Army and political
leaders, broad scale psychological warfare and paramilitary actions”. They
trained military groups and set up a “clandestine broadcasting station” which
aired anti-communist propaganda designed to “intimidate” public officials.
Secret
agents also made up fake reports claiming that the Soviet Union was sending
submarines full of weapons to help arm the Arbenz regime. (Eventually a real
shipment did materialise). The CIA itself justified action citing Arbenz’s
“communist influence and a hardening anti-US policy”.
Reports
of American interference in other countries is not confined to Cold War
history. But with more recent cases, there is generally less evidence available
because secret documents have yet to be declassified. This means many of these
incidents broadly remain allegations, without the detail to tell the full
story.The Honduran coup of 2009 saw President Zelya being “seized and, still in
his pyjamas, hustled onto a plane to Costa Rica“. The US refused to join other
countries in declaring it as a “coup”, claiming that – if they did – “you
immediately have to shut off all aid including humanitarian aid”.
What’s
more, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, said there were “very strong
arguments” for the coup which had “followed the law”. And crucially – rather
than calling for the democratically elected president’s return – America pushed
for fresh elections. Clinton later admitted developing plans to ensure
“elections could be held quickly and legitimately, which would render the
question of Zelya moot”.
There
are also questions around America’s role in the Ukraine. After the country’s
government made a trade policy u-turn, towards Russia rather than the west,
Senator John McCain joined protesters in the capital. He said he was there “to
support your just cause” and supported “a grassroots revolution”. Later, a
leaked phone conversation between the US Ambassador to Ukraine and the US
Assistant Secretary of State hinted at extensive involvement. They spoke about
the need to “midwife this thing” and said Arseniy Yatsenyuk was “the guy”,
shortly before he became president.
The
true extent to which America was actually involved in these cases may not be
known for years. And Bangladesh is no exception from this trap-net to be used
by the obnoxious nexus of CIA and ISI.
Prof
Dr. Muntassir Mamamun Sir, do you hear me? A quite few years ago, having grossed
out, you wrote in an article that ‘everything is possible in Bangladesh.’ Yes, tout
de suite it has come out that you wrote it aright. A fraction of seasoned Bangladesh
liberation force has now melted down with the criminal outfit of
Anti-Bangladesh liberation force, the war criminals and their batrachians. They
have now taken sanctuary in their den before the 11th national polls
to bring the country back to the public slaughter house like 1971 and with a
primal design only to slice up power for their own interests in the forthcoming
parliamentary elections. These unblushing ring-leaders are no one else but Dr.
Kamal Hossain, ASM Abdur Rob, Kader Siddiqui, Dr. Zafrullah Chowdhury and their
compadres. On the one hand, they have encamped them with the anti-Bangladesh
liberation force which brutally murdered three million of our people including
the intellectuals and molested 3 hundred thousand of our mothers and sisters in
1971; on the other hand, they went to place the floral wreaths on the sanctified
graveyards of martyred intellectuals at Mirpur, Dhaka on December 14. Look at
their irremissible temerities! They have made them dunghill and can be thought of
as third rater highwaymen and these midgets deserve to be excoriated in the most
abrasive language. Policemen also should have ruthlessly stamped down the assaulters
on the motorcade of Dr. Kamal Hossain and his chums.
Bangladesh’s
political parties are in full campaign mode ahead of national elections and
unfortunately signs are emerging that election-related violence is a real
possibility. Every stake-holder to take steps to reduce the risks of coercion
and possibly even bloodshed. Since the demise of its military dictatorship in
the early 1990s, the country has made remarkable democratic progress and
development works to build the country as a modern Bangladesh. Still,
widespread corruption bedevils the country—which in many respects presents its
biggest policy challenge and its biggest threat to stability and development.
Political
parties or political fronts are targeting the youth, in particular and in the build
up to the election, the Bangladesh’s Grand Alliance is leaving nothing to
chance. Withal, we want to frontwards to vote down the anti-Bangladesh
liberation force and their confederates in the December 30 national elections;
must we defeat them; and upraise our glorious National Flag being triumphant.
-The
End –
The
writer is a senior citizen of Bangladesh, writes on politics, political and
human-centred figures, current and international affairs.
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