Bangladesh: Entrapped by Imperialist design & Disguised Military Rule to Curb Workers' & Peasants' Growing Unrest
After her birth in 1971, Bangladesh has shown in the last 35-36 years how limited and curtailed its democracy is! Bangladesh has spent a large period under military rule. It is almost impossible to remember how many times 'state of emergency' was proclaimed. From last January another phase of 'emergency' was clamped. Though it may seem to be 'an internal affair' of that country, if we probe deeply we'll see that there is a long dark shadow of Imperialist led Globalisation behind this present state of affairs there, and so discussion on this subject is very important for the working class of India.
After almost 15 years of de facto military rule, Bangladesh held a parliamentary election in 1991. It was decided at that time that 'a caretaker govt (with the Chief Justice of Supreme Court as its adviser) will be installed after the end of the rule of the present got till the next election, and the election will be held under the caretaker govt'. Evidently such a step was designed so that any ruling party cannot take the advantage of its rule to influence the lection process. According to that tradition, in October 06, after the term of the BNP led govt of Prime Minister Khaleda Jia ended, a caretaker govt was to be created with the CJ of Supreme Court as the acting PM. But the main opposition party, Awami League, opposed that move alleging that the CJ is pro-BNP. And on the face of such an opposition, the CJ refused to take care of the interim govt. So the President of the Republic Yiazuddin Ahmed took the duty of Chief Adviser of the caretaker govt. Awami League, at first, didn't mention their objection regarding this, later they raised objection alleging bogus voter list, presence of so many pro-BNP men in important posts of administration, etc, and declared boycotting the ensuing election in January. In Jan 12, the president Yiazuddin Ahmed declared State of Emergency and appointed the ex governor of the Reserve Bank, Fakruddin Ahmed, the chief advisor. After that, all the remaining democratic rights were withdrawn! Public Meetings, Marches, Public Assemblies... etc were prohibited. Even Trade Union works were banned! The notorious 1974 Special Power, which can be used to detain anyone without trial, is back again. Assiduous monitoring is enforced there to see whether Internet or Newspapers are being used for any anti govt propaganda. Alongside, in the garb of 'making Bangladesh corruption-free' the govt started an aggressive drive against the two main parties of Bangladesh ? the Awami League and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party. The govt is so keen in its action against these two parties that once the govt was even mulling over putting top two leaders of both those parties to exile for life abroad.
Naturally the question arises: Who are pulling the threads behind the scene backing this caretaker govt and Why? The international media acknowledged that the power behind the caretaker govt is the Army. 'The Economist' ? the journal reflecting the interest of US imperialism and US bourgeoisie, didn't hesitate to call it a "Coup". Bangladesh has such a history that this cannot be overruled. But some other things also came up in some important media sources and those show that telling the whole thing a coup is not sufficient, the matter is not that simple.
Just a day ahead of declaring the State of Emergency in Bangladesh, on Jan 11 2007, the Election Watch Commission deputed by the European Election withdrew from Bangladesh declaring that in the backdrop of Awami League's boycott call, fair election cannot be held. The next day emergency was clamped. Is there any interconnection? Doubt increased when we see that the new chief advisor, de facto PM, appointed by the President was connected with the World Bank for 20 years in the past! Moreover, many imperialist agencies including the Asian Development Bank stood in support of the Caretaker Govt strongly. The ADB has published three reports on recent political developments in Bangladesh. All these show their deep interest in Bangladesh. One such report tells that: Some reform measures prescribed by the ADB and World Bank had been decided in the reign of the last BNP govt headed by Mrs Jia, but due to several 'political reasons' they didn't materialised those steps ? the present Caretaker govt has started taking those steps which include ? Privatisation of Container Terminal operations in the Chatragram Port (Done), Privatisation of Rupali Bank (Done), Privatisation of three more Banks turning them into Corporate entities (Started), Electricity Tariff increasing by 5 to10% (Effected on 1st March 07), Petro-product Price enhancement by 15 to 20% (Enforced from 1st April 07) ... ...Thus said the Progress Report of their obedient student ? the new Bangla govt!
From the reports of ADB it can also be shown that the imperialist agencies had lots of headache days due to the political instability resulting from constant quarrel between the two main ruling class parties of Bangladesh, Awami League and BNP. Both these ruling class parties acted in accordance to the prescription of Globalisation, but due to their compulsions of electoral arithmetic, they were a bit hesitant in enforcing some steps suggested by the World Bank. In 2006, the imperialist agencies had been pressurising for raising petro-product prices. But the then govt, fearing fallouts like public unrest, was not taking that step. Getting much annoyed by continuous pressurising by the imperialist agencies, the then Finance Minister Saifur Rahman in a meeting in Feb 06 commented ? "when the point of raising fuel prices come up", the IMF and World Bank "don't think the Bangladesh Finance Minister anything more than a common clerk"!
There is no reason to think, however, that the ruling class parties have such differences with imperialism that they are reluctant to enforce imperialist globalisation. All through the post-independence years there, control and interference of the imperialists only increased. The imperialist directed 'reform' steps started operation since early 1990s. Both BNP and Awami League took active and main roles in implementing those steps. Like in other countries, here too the state owned companies were privatised. Price rise of food and other essential articles are taking place due to withdrawal of state subsidies. Five export commercial complexes were established where workers don't have minimum rights.... The imperialist agencies take an active part in policymaking, so entrenched their domination is! Not for nothing the Finance Minister sorrowfully said that those agencies take him for a common clerk! So deep-rooted is their power over Bangladesh now that in 2005 an act was made by which no legal steps can be taken against any work of these agencies!! But due to the squabbling between two main contending parties, imperialists couldn't take their ride as smoothly as they want. From the ADB reports it also came clear that at first the imperialist agencies tried their best so that these two parties come to an agreement and take part in election, paving way for an elected govt from the back of which the imperialists will steer the country. But they failed, and so they shrugged off those two parties and put a military backed caretaker govt.
Besides this squabbling of two rival parties, from another side the imperialists got a headache. That's from the peoples' side. During the whole year 2006, there were many incidents of workers' unrests, protests, etc. As a result of imperialist globalisation, Bangladesh has now a throbbing business, their readymade garment industries. Mainly for exporting to the European Union countries more than 4000 readymade garment industries were set up, and a majority of them are in direct foreign ownership. More than 70% of export earnings of Bangladesh comes from this sector. About 2 to 2.5 Millions of workers toil in these industries under severe exploitation-oppression. Their wage is paltry, far less than $1 a day (in Indian currency ? Rs 30-35), and that too becomes overdue for months! There is no 8-hour working day, no payment for overtime work! There are no safety measures, no paid holidays, and they have to work in very small spaced rooms. Accidents are of common occurrence.
Huge worker unrest started in May 06. In a factory in Sripur the workers rebelled. Very quickly the fight spread over to different corners of the country. The next day thousands and thousands of workers assembled in the Capital city Dhaka. The rebel workers started fighting with the military. The agitated workers put several factories into fires. Workers' fight continued in May and June 06. The govt had to bow down to the workers and promised to take some steps, meet some demands, etc. But the govt later sat mum. So the workers came back in the arena again in October 06. Not only in the readymade garment sector, labour unrest there in other sectors too. In Oct 06, the Railway workers did a strike against privatisation. The Jute workers too fought on several occasions in this period. Other sections of the society, the peasantry too came to battles. Govt planned land acquisition for mining in Phulbari, but due to peasants' great fight the govt had to retrace steps!
The inception of fights of workers and peasants is also a reason behind enactment of Emergency. After two months of emergency, the Bangla Army Chief Moinuddin Ahmed said, "After Emergency was clamped, I told the Police Inspector General that I don't want to see any damage in a single garment factory. See, after this order, no one dared to do any destructive activity in any garment factory!"
Taking all these in account it is evident that in the pretence of making Bangladesh corruption-free the by declaring Emergency, actually what happened is an imperialist programme. The continuous squabbling between ruling class parties were making difficult for imperialists to clamp down their globalisation programmes. And they were frightened by the prospect that a rising struggle of workers and peasants may take an explosive turn in the backdrop of political unrest created by quarrelling of the ruling class parties, and then it will be a difficult thing to control that. So, in the pretext of making corruption-free Bangladesh the imperialists and their native stooges rushed for a state of emergency by a caretaker govt backed by the army. This episode of Bangladesh again tells us the rising imperialist penetration, control and domination on the 3rd world countries including Bangladesh.
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