Obviously, our leaders think we are idiots Political rhetoric becoming dangerously irresponsible Mahfuz Anam

Please see the Star commentarybelow.I do not find anything wrong in the statement of Begum Khaleda  Zia.Jamaat senior leaders are not against independence after Bangladesh was created. They are working for progress of Bangladesh after its independence.

 It is also true that there is no real charge against them of any crime except hearsay. There is nothing wrong if BNP seeks Jamaat support, it being a strong legal political party of the country. Awami League did the same thing in earlier periods.

Shah Abdul Hannan

http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=207392

 

Obviously, our leaders think we are idiots

Political rhetoric becoming dangerously irresponsible

Mahfuz Anam

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said that the Padma Bridge corruption is due to the activities of the last BNP government, and not due to hers. What a revelation! As if our people know nothing about the World Bank's findings. As if the World Bank has not already made its position public. As if we in the media have not printed the contents of the World Bank's letter to our government. As if her ministers have not already commented on the matter over the past few weeks. As if the Asian Development Bank, and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica) have not already made public their positions.

Not to be left behind, our opposition leader said on the same day that Jamaat Ameer Motiur Rahman Nizami, Moulana Sayedee, and Jamaat Secretary General Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed did not work against our Liberation War in 1971, and that they all had been arrested under false charges. What a revelation! As if all the freedom fighters who fought in 1971 are dead. As if those who are eyewitnesses to their activities during '71 have been harbouring an illusion for the last 40 years. As if newspaper, radio and TV reports of the period, which have been preserved in the archives of international media houses, are all lies. As if those of us who lived in occupied East Pakistan and saw the daily TV reportage of Pakistan Television in which these people appeared frequently were all fictitious. As if people's demand for a trial of war criminals is meaningless and delusional. As if Al Badr, Al Shams and other such killing machines created by the Pakistanis did not exist. As if our intellectuals were not killed by the Bangladeshi collaborators of Pakistani army.

How tragic that our two foremost leaders -- and both two-time prime ministers -- can so disregard history, can be so cavalier about facts and so fundamentally irresponsible about their public statements.

If our PM has genuine evidence linking the present Padma Bridge scandal to the former BNP regime, she should make it public. Now that she has publicly said so, providing supporting evidence has become obligatory. If she fails then her credibility will greatly suffer, and all her other claims will become justly suspect. The government press note issued yesterday does not make any mention of former BNP government's corruption in the PadmaBridge scandal.

Khaleda Zia's recent statements have increasingly revealed a desperation on her part to embrace the Jamaat. Obviously it is for political gain. But does political gain have to be earned by destroying what is unquestionably our greatest achievement -- our freedom struggle? We can try to understand her desperation. But what we cannot understand is her eagerness to bring into question the facts of our Liberation War just to gain the Jamaat's favour. Why does she have to equate the War Crimes Trial with the need to try the Rakkhi Bahini? We have argued earlier that equating war crimes with crimes committed afterwards amounts to trivialising our freedom struggle, and diminishing the glory of the sacrifice of our martyrs.

We will all accept that the present ruling party has made many mistakes (abolishing the caretaker government system being a major one), and that many of their leaders are now indulging in corruption and anti-people activities. But to call them the real "anti-liberation force" is nothing but to make a mockery of our Liberation War itself. It is nothing but an attempt to delegitimize the values of our freedom struggle. Why again this tendency to compare the AL's present day failings with its role in 1971? There are many examples of political parties that played a crucial role in a country's freedom struggle but later became corrupt and anti-national (the Muslim League being a good example). But their historic role was never questioned.

So when the BNP chief says that "Awami League calls Jamaat anti-liberation, but it is AL which is the real anti-liberation force", she is turning history on its head and exonerating the Jamaat for opposing the birth of Bangladesh and collaborating with the Pakistani army in killing and destroying those who were fighting for our independence.

Why do our leaders feel that they can say just about anything they like and we, the people, will believe them? Why do they say things that are not factual? Why do they twist events in ways that are totally false? Why do they never admit that they can make a mistake? Why is it always that the other side is in the wrong? Why cannot they ever see anything positive in their opponents? Why cannot they accept criticism with grace?

It is because our leaders think that we, the people, are all idiots. We cannot judge for ourselves, so whatever they say they expect us to believe. Our leaders think that we have no memory, so they say today the very opposite of what they stood for yesterday, and still expect us to follow them.

Maybe they are right -- maybe we are idiots. Otherwise how can we flock to their meetings in the hundreds of thousands just to have them insult our intelligence, which they do every single time?

When did we last hear a speech that we would recommend to our children to study and learn from, a speech that we would like to find in the history books?