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4 February 2010, 18:00 PM
EDITORIAL
Zafar Sobhan
WHAT is the significance of the recent decision by the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court to uphold the judgement of the High Court, that the 5th amendment to the constitution was illegal and therefore null and void? I would like to suggest that, coming as it does on the heels of the execution of five killers of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib, the judgement could not be of greater political significance. Following the 1979 elections which swept the BNP to power, parliament passed the 5th amendment on April 6, 1979, ratifying and confirming all martial law proclamations, regulations and orders, and other laws made between August 15, 1975 and April 9, 1979. The Supreme Court verdict means that the governments of Khandker Mushtaque Ahmed, Abu Sadaat Mohammad Sayem, and Lt. Gen. Ziaur Rahman that were in office between August 15, 1975, and March 31, 1979 (parliament was convened April 1, 1979), were in power without constitutional legitimacy. Some might argue that the verdict means little. As the Appellate Division itself noted, history cannot be altered, and what has happened has happened. No one cares today whether these governments were constitutional or not. But I would suggest that the significance of the verdicts merits closer scrutiny, and that we are, in fact, witnessing the beginning of a tectonic shift in Bangladesh's political culture. In the first place, we need to look at the Supreme Court decision in conjunction with the executions of Bangabandhu's killers. Taken together, they represent the success of two long-standing goals of the ruling Awami League. The fact that the AL has been able to bring these two goals to fruition suggests that this time around they are more confident in their power and more secure in their authority. This makes sense. In 1996, the party barely squeaked into power, with a narrow majority courtesy of a shaky coalition. This time, they won in a landslide. In its first term in office for 21 years, the hand of the AL government was stayed by caution and the fear of triggering a backlash if it moved too decisively to redress the wrongs of the 1970s. There were worries about how the other side would react if they were backed into a corner or the government moved too boldly. What the killers' execution and the successful push to void the 5th amendment has shown is that this time around, Sheikh Hasina is willing to take the other side on. And if she is able to do so without much push-back, that tells us worlds about which way the wind is blowing in today's Bangladesh. More crucially, perhaps, the verdict represents a major strike in an ambitious offensive that the AL has decided to focus on this term. For too long, the AL feels, the nation has endured a long-standing propaganda campaign to denigrate the name of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib and glorify that of Gen. Zia. Indeed, for almost all of the time since 1975, it is true that the nation's historical narrative has been under the control of parties opposed to the AL, with a corresponding impact on the nation's political culture. Now, the time has come to reverse this. It has proved relatively easy to resuscitate Bangabandhu's reputation, as he remains incontrovertibly the father of the nation, who led us to independence. Trying to tell kids these days that he was anything other than the seminal figure of Bangladeshi history is like trying to tell Americans that George Washington was a chump. They ain't buying it. But this is not enough, the AL feels. It is also important to deligitimise Zia and to bring his wrongs to public attention, so that his carefully cultivated and sanitised public image, that remains a corner-stone of the BNP's electoral appeal, is called into question. It is this thinking that is behind the move to rename the airport. This may hurt the AL in the short run. Donors and foreign governments may be dismayed by this expression of politics as usual. Those of us who would prefer a politics of inclusiveness and compromise might dismiss the move as counter-productive and suggest that it makes the AL look petty and small-minded. They know this, but are willing to take the hit. They figure that people don't really care that much about issues that do not hit them in their pocket-book, such as renaming of airports, and so it won't hurt them with the public. The upside, however, as the AL sees it, is enormous. If they succeed, they will be able to finally correct the revisionist history that has clouded the national narrative for so long, and, as a result, completely reconfigure the political landscape. The stakes could not be higher. They are all in.
Zafar Sobhan is Editor, Editorial & Op-Ed, The Daily Star.

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