Bangladesh's Quota System must go
By Habib Siddiqui
During the British rule of India, a famous politician in the
undivided Bengal province once said, ‘The
politics of Bengal is in reality the economics of Bengal.’ Looking at
Bangladesh’s history since 1947 when she was named East Pakistan, and esp.
since 1971 when she became an independent state after a bloody liberation war
of nine months, that reality has not changed an iota: economy continues to
drive politics. This perhaps explains today’s student unrest in Bangladesh.
In recent months, Bangladesh is seeing student protests in
many parts of the country, esp. in the Dhaka University – once touted as the
Oxford of the East. As hinted in an earlier article, some 56% of the government
sector jobs are reserved for the family members of freedom fighters of the
liberation war of 1971, minorities, handicaps, etc., thus, leaving only 44% of
the jobs to roughly 98% of the applicants who are not covered under the quota
system.
Suffice it to say that the so-called Quota System has been
viewed as highly flawed and unfair by the vast majority of the student
community who sees a bleak future for them after graduation. They have been
asking for a revision of the system. Initially, although Prime Minister Sheikh
Hasina seemed to be sympathetic to their genuine demands she has been
criticized by many as being either too slow and/or equivocating or changing her
mind, reflecting perhaps the pressure from the beneficiaries of the system – i.e.,
the student wing of her party, i.e., the Student League.
Many in Bangladesh see today’s Student League as nothing but
a semi-fascist organization that has disgraced its glorious past of being the conscience
of the nation. Truly, it is hard to imagine the emergence of Bangladesh from
the belly of Pakistan without the bold leadership and sacrifice of the members
and leaders of the Student (Chatra) League. It was founded by the country’s
founding father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman on January 4, 1948, soon after Pakistan
won independence from the British Rule. Its uncompromising stand on a plethora
of social, political, and economic issues, esp. the language movement of 1952
and regional autonomy rights issues (1966-71) eventually paved the path for the
emergence of the new nation. Many of its students participated against the
military rule of the then East Pakistan laying down their lives.
I remember how as a teenager, I was gravitated to the cause
of Bangladesh and how after joining the BUET as a freshman in 1973, I was
selected as the Student League’s General Secretary for the Sher-e-Bangla Hall
in 1974-75. I was even selected to be the student speaker in 1973 Student
Welcoming ceremony (Nabeen Boron) to speak on behalf of the new students in the
campus.
In those days, student politics was fairly civil, gentle,
unlethal and by any account, peaceful, in stark contrast to today’s politics. Students
affiliated with the rival student organizations lived side by side in the same
dormitory hall and room, and were respected despite ideological differences –
and there was no incident of any fight or unruly behavior (e.g., beatings of
students or teachers) and abuse, esp. within the BUET campus.
The ruling party Awami League and its student wing –
Bangladesh Chatra (Student) League belonged to what can be described as a centrist
party. Its radical offshoot – the JSD (Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal) and student
wing were far-left leaning. The socialists and communists were divided at
multiple levels, let alone being divided on their allegiance to either Moscow
or Beijing. The socialist-oriented National Awami Party (NAP) had been divided
into two rival camps since the early 1960s – one led by Professor Muzaffar
Ahmed leaning towards Moscow (M) and the other led by Mowlana Bhashani towards
Beijing (B). That division remained intact even after the liberation war of
1971. However, the NAP (M) was looked upon more as a B-team of the ruing Awami
League, a trend which is to continue till now.
And then there were the far-left leaning, misguided, radical
communists and Naxalites that opposed the liberation war. They were in the
business of killing and terrorizing the pro-liberation forces and anyone that
they considered ‘bourgeon’ or capitalist, creating a havoc in many parts of
northern Bangladesh. At the forefront of these nihilist groups was the
Sarbahara (literally, All Lost) Party of Siraj Sikdar, who was an alumnus of
BUET. Its ultra-leftist ideology of bringing communism at any cost (including
terrorism and anarchy - akin to today’s ISIS or Daesh methodology, if one
replaces Islam with Marxism) to the new state misguided some bright minds, esp.
within the campuses of BUET and the nearby Dhaka Medical College. The campus
walls, and for that matter, any wall, were a fair place for them to post their
radical messages.
While I subscribed in those days to the ideology of the Bangladesh
Student League, and revered Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib greatly whose hand I had
the privilege of shaking once, many of my close friends and classmates belonged
to the rival Chatra League (JSD) and Students Union. I would often have hours
of friendly ideological debates and discussions with Abul Kasem (then the
vice-president of Engineering University Central Students’ Union - EUCSU) and
A.F.M. Mahbubul Hoque (then one of the national leaders of the JSD-wing of the
Chatra League). Former student leaders like Hasanul Hoq Inu (now the
Information Minister), Sirajul Alam Khan (then the spiritual leader of the JSD)
would often be seen around the campus riding in the back of a motor bike driven
by Sharif Nurul Ambia (another JSD leader then who was also a BUET graduate),
and so would be Sheikh Kamal (the slain brother of the current Prime Minister).
[Some of the latter’s classmates from the Dhaka College days lived in our
hall.]
During student processions inside the BUET campus, mostly
held in the evenings, sometimes these outsiders or former student leaders would
be seen participating in the back of the procession rally with their respective
student groups. There were slogans, but there was no incident of fighting or
attack on or by rival student organizations in those student processions.
For most part, BUET campus was apolitical where burdened
with massive class work and assignments, its students did not have the luxury
of spending time in politics. [It was routine for most of us to go to sleep
after midnight and yet to get up early, after only 4 to 6 hours of sleep, so as
not to miss the morning class sessions. We would often make up our sleep deprivation
by taking afternoon naps in the dorm. Our undergrad classes were usually held between
8 am and 2 p.m.] Only during the student election times, the campus would get
slightly more vibrant with meetings and processions, and those too, held during
the evenings, way after the class hours and after dinner. In my four-year stay
within the dorm, I never saw or heard of a single incident of beatings of any
student or teacher. Teachers were respected and they lived by their high
morals, sincerity and honesty as model teachers and citizens.
This above account within BUET campus should not, however,
be taken as reflective of the student politics in college and university
campuses in entire Bangladesh.
Nine-months of guerilla war against the Pakistan Occupation
Forces by freedom fighters (comprised mostly of young students) in the then
East Pakistan had radicalized many youths and the new country was an open forum
for ideological debates and discussions. As already hinted, the ruling party’s
student wing had split up into multiple groups, each claiming to know the path
to achieving greater good for the citizens. Because of the freedom of press and
assembly, every day seemed full of excitement, gossips, rumors, rallies and
speeches by politicians – some of whom demanding violent overthrow of the Mujib
government. The far-left wing insurgents,
organized by JSD's armed wing Gonobahini fought against the government in order
to establish a Marxist government. The Sarbahara Party was doing its part to
terrorize the people, too.
The government
responded by forming an elite para-military force Jatiya Rakkhi Bahini on 8
February 1972, initially formed to curb the insurgency and maintain law and
order in the country. They were later accused by opposition parties of being
excessive in use of arms.
Despite such a messy situation, complicated further by Henry
Kissinger’s desire to topple the Mujib government by using food as a weapon of
war through diversion of food-carrying ships away from Bangladeshi ports (and
later using CIA to kill Mujib and his family members), overall, the student
politics was a healthy and vibrating one – full of excitement, energy and
possibilities. If I am not mistaken, there was not a single incident of
shootings inside college campuses except once when seven
students were gunned down in Mohsin Hall of Dhaka University on April 4, 1974.
Four years after the murders, a court sentenced Shafiul Alam Prodhan, then
general secretary of a split-unit of the Chatra League, and others to life in
prison. However, they all were released when Major General Ziaur Rahman came to
power after Sk. Mujib’s assassination. Since then, Mr. Pradhan and his newly
formed party - Jatiya Ganatrantik Party - have been allies of the Bangladesh
Nationalist Party (BNP) that was founded by General Zia. [Mr. Pradhan died last
year.]
The campus student politics came to a screeching halt after
the assassination of Bangabandhu Sk. Mujib on August 15, 1975, which was only
to be resurrected much later, after I and my batchmates had left the campus, by
the new ruler of the country, Major General Ziaur Rahman. Since then the
character of student politics has morphed into something so disgraceful that
offends everyone with any prior connection with student politics. I am not
aware of any election held for electing the members of the central student body
of the university campuses like DUCSU.
These days, the student leaders, affiliated mostly with the
ruling parties, are seen – and probably rightly so - as extortionists,
murderers, and all the bad and evil things one can imagine. Their priorities are
seemingly not education but making money and are, thus, involved in matters
like vending, tenders, seat allocations and all the illicit schemes that were
alien, unknown or detested to their counterparts just a generation ago. They
threaten teachers and assault them. Sadly, with the politicization of the
government institutions – including colleges and university administrations -
the administrators are not coming to the aid of those teachers that are
physically assaulted. By so doing these VCs and administrators are setting a
dangerous trend in which no one would feel safe.
It is obvious that student politics in Bangladesh has long
been hijacked by a self-aggrandizing few that is more interested in itself and
not the good of other students, and surely, not the country and its people. By
their nefarious acts, they are an anathema and unknown to me and my generation
of students or those that came earlier. It’s simply shameful and disgusting!
Fast forward to the quota issue, in recent days, many protesting
students of Dhaka University were beaten up by members of the Students’ League,
affiliated with the ruling Awami League. They even assaulted university
teachers and female students who had demanded a change of the problematic quota
system. Instead of bringing charges against the attackers, published reports
suggest that many of those students who demanded a change were booked by the
police. According to government reports, they had destroyed university
properties.
While all miscreants need to be punished for committing crimes,
justice demands that no innocent person should be punished for exercising
his/her rights to protest a system that he/she finds unfair in a peaceful
manner. After all, the quota system is in direct conflict with the “Equality of
Opportunity” provision of the Bangladesh Constitution, e.g., 19(1) and 19(2)
that demands equality of opportunity in job for all Bangladeshis, and not just
a vital few.
Unless the Hasina government tackles the quota issue
seriously, which goes into the heart of the economic issue disadvantageously
affecting millions of educated Bangladeshis who are deprived of the job
opportunity simply because of not being part of the quota while the system
unfairly benefits a selected 1 to 2 percent for 56% of the job openings, many
of whom are in all likelihood the children of fake freedom fighters (after all,
it is difficult to imagine too many children of freedom fighters that are in
their 20s, some 47 years after Bangladesh’s independence), it may lose the
vital support it requires to remain in power beyond 2018. The government simply
cannot afford to overlook a genuine issue that is the tied to the dal-bhat (i.e.,
bread and butter) economics of so many. It would be stupid to do so!
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