Zafar Sobhan

Another year, another December 14. Once again, we mourn the loss of the intellectuals butchered on that day as well as the hundreds of others who were hunted down, tortured, and killed during the course of the none months long liberation war. And once again, once December 14 is safely behind us, we conveniently forget the martyred intellectuals for another year, and go back to our everyday lives.

December 16 will be no different, though the mood will be more festive and celebratory than somber and solemn. We will all fly Bangladeshi flags and lay wreaths and attend functions and watch television programs extolling the bravery of all those who fought and gave their lives for our freedom.

We will honour their memory and patriotism and pride will stir in our hearts, and then we will return to the actual living reality that is Bangladesh today. The living, breathing reality, which neither honours nor respects our martyrs or our heroes or anyone or anything else that should be precious and sacred to our hearts.

It has been written before, by writers far better than I could ever hope to be, but it bears repeating again and again, that so much we have done and continue to do, from our failure to try the war criminals and collaborators, to their rehabilitation, to permitting them to enter politics, to actually tolerating them in our government — is an insult to the memory all those who fought and died in 1971.

Enough ink has been spilled and enough tears have been shed over this travesty. Perhaps it is simply time to accept the awful truth about ourselves: that we are a country that doesn’t respect our past or honour our history. It is a shame, and I do not want to believe it, but perhaps the time has come to look into the mirror and admit that this is who we are.

Or perhaps it is who we have been for the past thirty-six years. But that doesn’t mean it is who we have to be forever. Though if we do not act now, I fear that we will be, and that our failure here will continue to be what defines us and our destinies.

But there are glimmers of hope on the horizon. Of late, at long last, there has been much talk of finally, once and for all, trying the war criminals and collaborators, to ban anti-liberation elements from politics. The Liberation War sector commanders have united behind this demand, and the people are with them. For whatever reason, no political government ever did what needed to be done, but maybe, just maybe, the current interim government will.

The interim government has had a mixed record in the eleven months it has been in power. It has done some things well, others not so well. It has presided over incredibly difficult times, flood, cyclone, global rice in food prices, global rise in oil prices, and the times are not going to get any better any time soon.

As such, the government needs all the support that it can get.

One of the reasons it has not had as much support as it might have has been due to some of the actions it has taken (or not taken), and the consequent perception that it is showing partiality, and, most importantly, that it remains soft on the pseudo-Islamic elements within the polity.

The problem is not simply, for instance, its heavy-handed treatment of the DU and RU teachers and students, which met with almost universal criticism. That would be bad enough for the government.

But this is compounded by the fact that the government has seemingly given pseudo-Islamic protestors a free pass when they have taken to the streets in violation of the state of emergency. Eminent DU Professor Anisuzzaman was absolutely right when he stated earlier this week: “We have seen the protestors against the daily Prothom Alo. None of them was arrested or convicted.”

The current government will continue to have problems. It will continue to face difficult situations which would test any government. It will continue to face opposition from AL and BNP hard-liners. It will continue to face opposition from the left. It will continue to face opposition from civil libertarians and democrats of every shade and stripe, and not all of them will be merely opportunistic shills: honest, conscientious, thoughtful, committed men and women will also oppose them.

The government thus needs all the help it can get. It needs to shore up its support, and, more importantly, it needs to shore up its credibility.

The best way, as I have been arguing myself blue in the face for the past 11 months, is to show that it is on the side of the people. Pro-people polices will go a long way to easing public anxiety.

The government should also ease up on civil liberties and understand that to do so will help it, not hurt it. Loosening up on the media and permitting at least some level of political activity will actually do far more good for the government’s image than any possible damage it might suffer as a consequence.

But another important thing for this government to do, which is past overdue, would be to demonstrate boldly and forthrightly that it is not a front for reactionary forces. This means not giving the Jamaat a pass when it comes to the anti-corruption crackdown. This means not giving Hizbut Tahrir a pass when it holds street demonstrations in open defiance of the emergency. This means taking a strong stand against war criminals and anti-liberation elements.

When the government refuses to pursue the Jamaat with the vigour that it has gone after the other parties, people begin to wonder.

When the government permits pseudo-Islamics to protest in the streets and threaten violence with impunity, people begin to wonder.

When the government high-handedly dismisses the possibility of action against war criminals, people begin to wonder.

The government does not need to make any more people wonder about it or to doubt its good intentions. Taking concrete measures to bring war criminals to book and to ban them from politics would be a superb way to show to all the doubters that the government is on the side of the people.

With a single stroke, the government has a golden opportunity to renew the people’s faith in its good intentions. With a single stroke, by doing something no elected government ever did, the government could fully justify its continued tenure and demonstrate its commitment to the Bangladeshi people.

If this government does it, then the men and women who comprise it will go down in history and will be honoured forevermore. Of everything else they do or do not do, this will be remembered and this will be appreciated by generations of Bangladeshis to come.

And the credibility the government will gain thereby will help it immeasurably in achieving all its other goals. I simply do not understand why it would not take this single step. It is the right thing to do — and it is the smart thing to do.

So this is my plea to the interim government on this December 14: show the nation that that you are on our side. Silence the doubters and the nay-sayers. The time has come. Demonstrate to the people that you are true patriots and that you mean business. Cometh the hour, cometh the man.

Zafar Sobhan is Assistant Editor, The Daily Star.