An episode comes to a closure

I interviewed former President Hussain Muhammad Ershad in The Asian Age office in December 2016. I talked to him for around one hour. During the interview he told me about his political career and the development works which were implemented while he was President.

Hussain Muhammad Ershad came to power in 1982 while I was a kid. I did not have categorical ideas about political games and gimmicks at that time. However, as I grew up I came to learn that most of the intellectuals and political analysts of Bangladesh regard Ershad as an autocratic ruler.

Hussain Muhammad Ershad laid a lot of emphasis on rural development. "Bangladesh will survive if sixty eight thousand villages can be sustained" was one of the most propagated watchwords of Ershad.

Ershad wrote some poems and songs and these things were published in newspapers and transmitted on Bangladesh Television (BTV) while he was President. His poems and lyrics are not beyond questions as there are hearsays that someone else wrote these things for him.

Hussain Muhammad Ershad passed away on 14 July 2019 morning at 7:45 am in the capital's Combined Military Hospital (CMH).

He had been critically ill for last few weeks with old age complications including problems with his lungs and kidneys. His death comes as an end of an episode in the history of Bangladesh.

Hussain Muhammad Ershad was born in 1930 in Dinhata city, Coochbihar under West Bengal. His parents migrated to East Bengal (now Bangladesh) after the partition of 1947. Ershad studied in Carmichael College in Rangpur.

He later graduated from University of Dhaka in 1950 and was commissioned into the Pakistan Army in 1952 from Officers Training School in Kohat.

He was an adjutant in the East Bengal regimental depot in Chittagong. He completed advanced courses from the Command and Staff College in Quetta in 1966. After serving with a brigade in Sialkot, Ershad was given command of the 3rd East Bengal Regiment in 1969 and the 7th East Bengal Regiment in 1971.

He was in Pakistan while the Liberation War of 1971 was going on. He came back to Bangladesh in 1973. Former President Ziaur Rahman appointed Hussain Muhammad Ershad for the post of Army Chief promoting him to the rank of Lieutenant General in 1976.

Hussain Mohammad Ershad is noted in Bangladesh's political history for a number of reasons. He got hold of state power in 1982 by means of a coup against former President Abdus Sattar. Ershad held the presidential post till 1990. He founded his own political front Jatiya Party while he was in power.

Ershad announced Islam as the state religion while he was President. Secular politicians denigrated Ershad for his move. He introduced upazila system to decentralize administration.

He also excluded mandatory English medium education from higher secondary level for which he was criticized by some academic scholars. Ershad's regime came to an end through the anti-autocratic uprising of 1990.

Later on he spent some years in prison when Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) came to power winning the election of 1991.

He faced controversy for allowing Freedom Party to enter Bangladesh Parliament. It should be noted that Freedom Party was launched by the assassins of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

During the reign of Hussain Muhammad Ershad, police opened fire on a rally of Awami League at Laldighi in Chittagong on 24 January 1988. Sheikh Hasina was present over there at that time. Around 30 people got killed in that shooting by police personnel.

Hussain Muhammad Ershad came into discussions and gossips over and over again for his affairs with different women including Mary, Jinat Mosharraf and Bidisha Ershad. He married Bidisha in 2000 but broke off with her in 2005. It was often said that Ershad got into amorous relationships with many pretty women who were celebrities during his regime. His relationship with his first wife Rawshan Ershad worsened for this reason.

After the election of 2014, Jatiya Party became the main opposition front in the country as Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) did not participate in those polls. Ershad was made Special Envoy of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in 2014. However, he was removed from this post in January 2019.

As the chairman of Jatiya Party, Ershad frequently changed his decisions which led to much theatrics in the political arena. Critics sometimes compare Hussain Muhammad Ershad to dictators like Augusto Pinochet and Saddam Hussein. However, Ershad had a natural death. He did not have to face the trials and tribulations that Augusto Pinochet and Saddam Hussein had to go through.

The anti-autocratic uprising against Hussain Muhammad Ershad was expedited by the killing of Nur Hossain on the street of Dhaka on 10 November 1987.

At the same time a sketch by artist Quamrul Hasan added more fuel to the movement. The sketch was titled "the country is today gripped by the world's most shameless chap". This sketch highly encouraged the people during that time who were demonstrating against Ershad.

The words "Down with autocracy, let democracy get liberated" were written in Bengali on Nur Hossain's back when he was shot to death by police. The memory of Nur Hossain and the sketch by Quamrul Hasan came back into discussions following Hussain Muhammad Ershad's death on 14 July 2019.

Quamrul Hasan drew the sketch on 2 February 1988 at Teachers and Students Center (TSC) in Dhaka University. National poetry festival was going on at that time. Poet Mohan Rayhan spread the sketch all over the country next day in the form of posters. Painter Quamrul Hasan died right after making the sketch.

Most of the poets, authors, intellectuals, artists and cultural activists of that time participated in the agitations against Hussain Muhammad Ershad. Mohan Rayhan was arrested a few days later.

Mohan Rayhan recalled after Ershad's death that the sketch by Quamrul Hasan emboldened the spirit of the demonstrators so much that it played a significant role behind the fall of Ershad from power on 6 December 1990. It was one of the creative works that shook Ershad's regime.

Death is not the end of everything. Our virtuous deeds can keep us alive in the minds of people even after we die. To borrow a few lines from Mark Twain, "The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time."


The writer is a columnist for
The Asian Age