Sajeeb Wazed Joy
I think Sajeeb Wazed Joy; our Prime Minister's son is a reassuring voice in our politics. When communalism and ultra-religious fundamentalism are becoming dangerously strong day by day in our country, his voice raises hope in the minds of our democratic and secular minded people. Many people expected that this assuring voice should have come from Awami League leaders and minister, because secularism is one the four ideals which motivated our war of independence. We cannot disassociate ourselves from the ideals of secularism, without which democracy is unthinkable in a country.
The founding father of the nation, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and his party, Awami League that gave leadership to our war of independence always preach secularism. In our constitution of 72 secularism is one of the basic ideals of our state. If there is any attack on secularism and non-communalism Awami League should be first to stand against this to safeguard it. In this critical time Sajeeb Wazed Joy, advisor of information and technology to the PM has taken stand to assure his countrymen that secularism, the founding state policy of Bangladesh cannot be forgotten and we cannot give it up.
When he was speaking in the Joy Bangla Youth Award ceremony arranged by Young Bangla he said, 'We may belong to any religion our common identity is that we are Bengali'. The country was awaiting this assurance from some authoritative voice of the party in power. Instead Sajeeb Wazed Joy fulfilled that expectation. He may not be a leader of Awami League but he is the son of the Prime Minister and her advisor also.
So I presume that Sajeeb Joy must have had some approval from his mother for this declaration. If my assumption is true then we can expect that Awami League will not abandon secularism which was the core ideal of Bangabandhu. They might have retreated from it for some time but when this ideal is facing dangerous challenge from the communal and ultra-fundamentalist forces, Awami League would stand and fight to save it uniting the democratic forces of the country.
I personally know Sheikh Hasina from her young age. But I am not very much acquainted with her son. When Bangabandhu was murdered he was a toddler and for his safety he was raised in foreign countries, growing as a young man there. I know very little about him. That is why I had a wrong impression about the elder son of Sheikh Hasina. I thought due to his long absence from the country he lacked proper knowledge of his country and people. He will not be able to understand the trend of Bangladeshi politics. I got this impression from Indira Gandhi's son Sanjay Gandhi. Sanjay interfered in her administration and abused power. His activity was the main factor for the election defeat of Indira Gandhi in the late 70s.
I thought like Sanjay Sajeeb Joy, the son of the Prime Minister of Bangladesh may be infatuated with power and act like Sanjay. But my impression was totally wrong. During the three term premiership of Sheikh Hasina, Sajeeb Joy maintained a low profile and never took any advantage of his position as the PM's son. Rather he supported his mother in time of need. I became aware of his political wisdom in the time of the general election in 2008. Awami League won the election with a huge majority and Sajeeb Joy had a great contribution to this victory.
He created a new vision for the younger generation of Bangladesh, the vision of creating a digital Bangla. This vision captivated the whole young generation and Awami League endorsed it in their election manifesto and at the end achieved a great victory. I came to understand that Sajeeb Joy is not Sanjay Gandhi or Tareq Rahman and he has shown his political wisdom from time to time. His grandfather Bangabandhu achieved independence by creating a dream of Sonar Banlga in the minds of his people, his grandson created a vision of digital Bangla which put Awami League back in power.
Sajeeb Joy is not a newcomer in politics. He was born in a political family and witnessed the war of independence under his grandfather as a toddler. When his mother was a political exile he also suffered with her. He saw his mother in prison and as a Prime Minster also. He did not have to earn political experience, he learnt from his family. So in the future if the question arises that after Hasina who will take over her place the name of Sajeeb Joy may be considered, because he has shown the eagerness to take upon the mantle of his grandfather and mother.
Now let us come to the point of secularism. At present Bangladesh is the only secular country in the subcontinent. India may be a great democratic country but not a secular state, because like Pakistan India was created by division on the basis of religion. Only Bangladesh achieved independence with armed struggle by people of all religion and castes. After independence all communal political parties were banned in the country. Bangabandhu said that secularism is not against religion. It is the best safeguard of all religion. People's Republic of Bangladesh was established on the basic principle of secularism because it will protect the rights and privileges of people of all religion - Hindu, Muslim, Christian, and Buddhists etc. Democracy cannot survive without secularism. Otherwise, the dominance of one religion will make people from other religions become marginalized.
After killing Bangabandhu the conspirators under Khondaker Mostaq and General Zia captured power and first declared Bangladesh as an Islamic Republic, but fearing peoples' mood within a day they declared Bangladesh will remain a people's republic. But they followed communal policy to rule the country and encouraged the communal and ultra-fundamentalist parties to become strong in Bangladesh again. Under their patronage there were attempts to abolish secularism totally from Bangladesh and the political Islam (Wahabism) created by western imperialism became very influential in every sphere of Bangladeshi society. After fighting against military and dictatorial rules for 21 years Awami League and Sheikh Hasina came to power with this legacy.
It was hoped Awami League would come out of this legacy but it was found that they took a stand against communalism but not against ultra-fundamentalism. They fought against religious terrorists but showed compromising attitude to those who are the believers of the same fundamentalism in Bangladesh. Taking the advantage of Awami League Government's weakness some years ago they destroyed the Balaka sculpture accusing that it was anti-Islamic. With the same excuse they tried to destroy the Baul sculpture in Dhaka airport. They demanded the removal of the Greek style sculpture in the front of Supreme Court. Government bowed down to their demands.
Now they have the audacity to oppose the founding of the statue of the father of the nation in the city telling that it is anti-Islamic. Two veteran Aleems of the city declared that sculpture and statue are not the same. In almost all Muslim countries they have sculptures for the beautification of their cities. Islam only banned founding statues to be worshipped as gods. I hope Awami League is now aware of the danger of the rise of ultra-fundamentalism in Bangladesh like Egypt. Muslim brotherhood like Jamaat in Bangladesh destroyed Nasser's secular nationalism and took over power. Military had to intervene to remove them. I hope the history of Egypt will not be repeated in Bangladesh. At least Sajeeb Joy has given that assurance to us and made a clarion call to fight against ultra-fundamentalism. Like his grandfather he declared 'We cannot go away from secularism which is the founding basic principle of independent Bangladesh'. Three cheers for Sajeeb Joy.
The writer is a prominent journalist based in United Kingdom.
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