Bangla Wrangling

It's not every day that you manage to see an ex-PM on an evening but that's what I ended up doing yesterday night. I know that John Major has been doing the rounds in a similar setting - his talk at the LSE the other week is reported here.

However yesterday was the turn of Bangladeshi leader of the opposition Sheikh Hasina at SOAS.

The lecture theatre was packed to the rafters with largely sympathetic people of largely Bangladeshi origin here to ogle an opposition leader who had arrived in London in exile but according to her words will be returning to Dhaka on the 6th May. The title was "Democracy and Human Rights in Bangladesh" and representatives from Amnesty, Human Rights Watch were also in attendance. The other two famous names on the platform were the two Jeremys - Seabrook and Corbyn.

Shiekh Hasina is a small fiery sari-clad bespectacled individual. She spoke about how her party the Awami League (AL) had been established in 1949 and was more than a party as the foundation on Bangladesh was broaght about by it. She explained how there had been 19 attempts on her life - most recently by hand-grenade in an incident where party workers forming a human-shield had saved her; some paying the ultimate price. It was moving stuff but strictly partisan in knocking the outgoing governing party the BNP (no, not that BNP, the Bangladesh National Party). The end should have had the disclaimer "That was a party political broadcast for the Awami League". At times it felt like being at an AL rally to be honest.

The other speakers stressed that human rights abuses occurred whatever government was in power. Currently things are being overseen by a caretaker government of retired judges pending "free and fair election" due to take place at an unspecified date. Nobody seemed to think this was a satisfactory sate of affairs. Jeremy Seabrook is primarily a writer and it showed with his literary style of allusions and allegory. He saw partition everywhere in Dhaka (palaces for garments vs hovels for people) and the way things go next (secular Bengali tradition vs Islamism).

I've never quite worked out what the political difference between the BNP and AL is really. I suspect the BNP are the more right-wing and they were most recenly ruling in coalition witha religious outfit called Jamat Islamia - all this despite the founding principle of Bangladesh as a secular state. The two leaders are both women interestingly enough - all this in a culture where people always assume the fairer sex are downtrodden. Many expat Bangladeshis I know seem to think "they're both as bad as each other" in a Tweedledum-Tweedledee way. After the floor was opened up one of the contributors said as much claiming "I'm not pro-Awami League or BNP I'm just pro-Bangladesh." That got the biggest clap of the night. The most memorable moment though was when a mobile phone went off for seemingly an eternity playing Scott Joplin's "The Entertainer".  Professor Minski in the chair froze everyone with a death-ray glare until Her Exellency piped up "It is mine".

An interesting use of a Wednesday night - sure beats EastEnders.

Comments

[Anally Retentive]

Sorry luv but East Enders is not on Wed nights. something you should know if your planning to stand in East London!

[Radwan]

It's important to avoid broad generalisations if one is to get more than a cursory understanding of Bangladeshi politics. For example, on the issue of human rights you failed to mention the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) Peace Treaty that was signed during the tenure of the AL government(I'll let you do some research to find out what it's about) and the deteorating condition of religious minorities and the rise of RAB and extra-judicial killings that took place during the last BNP-Jamaat government. So while there may have been human rights abuses during the tenure of both parties, it is difficult to get a meaningful analysis if one skirts around the details.
As for the difference between the parties, it's only natural to be a little bit confused; most of us have a hard time distinguishing between the Tories and Labour, let alone parties in far-flung Bangladesh :)

[Shafiiur]

Rupa, there is essentially no ideological difference between the two parties. The clientilist politics that they engage in has been eloquently discussed in a paper by Professor Mushtaq Khan of SOAS...as you know he was there at the meeting.

I have a pdf of it in my blog under the section on Docs. It is the most incisive analysis I know of concerning the two parties and recent times.

[MBI Munshi]

A different take on the LSE meet. I think a refreshing perspective that we in BD are not used to or rarely get to see. I particularly liked the part that the speech of Sk. Hasina was a party political broadcast of the AL. The AL tends to think they can dominate political debate in BD. A good observation by Rupa.