Democracy in Bangladesh Was Annihilated Through 2014 Polls

 
The process of plunging democracy into an abysmal ditch in Bangladesh budded in 2009 when Awami League came to power through an election held under the oversight of a caretaker government's tenure known as 1/11 regime. However, the master plan to exterminate democracy in Bangladesh once for all came straight away into effect through the extensively rigged and brazenly manipulated election which was held on 5 January 2014. Almost all opposition parties including Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) abstained from participating in that election crossed, earmarked and besmirched with huge interrogative signs.

A flock of immoral bureaucrats, inhuman and sold out law enforcers, ethically hollow politicians and owners of some large business conglomerates catalyzed the virtual demise of democracy in Bangladesh through the January 2014 elections. In the wake of this infamous election, all institutions including financial system, banking turf, administrative units, judicial service, academia, electoral bodies, police department etcetera were knocked down and hacked to the bone marrow by the ruling authorities. Even a number of army officers were also explicitly associated with this annihilating orgy. Some of these officers were embargoed by the United States government in 2021 on fearsome charges of human rights violations, extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, capturing banks, abducting or tormenting journalists, gagging media agencies and whatnot!

It must be remembered autocrats are created when law and order forces come under unaccountable loyalty to the party in power. The same thing happened since 2009 to 2024 and to narrow it down, from 2014 to 2024. An enormous scale of reshuffles and reorientations has taken place since the interim government led by Nobel Prize winner Professor Dr. Muhammad Yunus assumed office on 8 August 2024. But a few things cannot be still equated and have been in a befuddled status. Several branded lawbreakers wearing benign camouflages are still very much in good shape. No action has been yet taken against them. Rather some of these violators have been promoted to higher ranks and rewarded with prize postings.

Let's cite a few examples. Brigadier General Tofayel Mustafa Sarwar was a vicious extrajudicial killer and a contract murderer. He was one of the masterminds of notorious Ayna Ghor (secret torture cells). Following the publication of a particular report in The Asian Age in 2017 borrowed from British magazine The Economist, Tofayel Mustafa Sarwar made attempts to abduct the founding Chairman of The Asian Age. Not just that, Tofayel Mustafa Sarwar forced newspapers and online news portals to publish or delete reports at his whims, abiding by orders that came from ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's office.

Brigadier General Tofayel Mustafa Sarwar is now enjoying a blissful time in Savar Cantonment holding the Station Commander post. A lot of high-ranking army officers fled away before or after 5 August 2024. Some were removed from service or reshuffled but nothing happened to Tofayel Mustafa Sarwar. Is US embargoed transgressor Brigadier General Tofayel Mustafa having a hand higher than that of the interim government? Curious mind wants to know!

Let's go for another example-Syed Shahed Reza of Bangladesh Olympic Association. Syed Shahed Reza is still far away from the reach of the Chief Adviser's office. Even nothing happened to Syed Shahed Reza after several reports on his drug addiction, nepotism, glaring discrimination, corruption and inadmissible nastiest activities were published by newspapers. Syed Shahed Reza is reportedly still intimidating his opponents citing names of influential intelligence forces. The country's sports arena was hammered and crippled by Syed Shahed Reza and his begrimed tricks and pranks are still going on. It appears to be the fact that the authorities concerned have become convinced that following Ostrich Policy would be the right thing to do. But sandstorms don't subside just because an ostrich plunges its head inside a dune.

Reports have surfaced that some retired top notch army officers have reached out to lobbyists to sneak into the interim government like a needle and then to become a dagger. These officers' corrupt activities, unauthorized money transfer from Bangladesh to foreign countries and illegally accumulated wealth were reported far and wide by international news agencies. Have the current rulers forgotten about all these things so fast?

It was witnessed with wonder and utter disbelief how some senior Bangladesh Bank officials were disgracefully forced to resign from their positions right after 5 August 2024. Indiscriminate evictions are taking place down from primary schools up to universities punching Vice Chancellors out of the ring. Banks are being robbed in broad daylight. Innocent students are getting killed for amusement inside residential halls of public universities which have already gone viral on social media sparking off shockwaves throughout Bangladesh. But the actions being executed against these perpetrators are much lower than the formidable magnitude of offences they have committed.

If felonious nexus and diabolical networks can manage to keep their collars high even after the Glorious July Revolution, the people who supported this Mass Upsurge will soon become disillusioned and the interim government will take no time to lose its foothold. The segregating line between revolutions and counter revolutions is thin but deadly. If discrimination and socio-economic injustice cannot be eliminated, what honour will we pay to over 1500 people who embraced martyrdom to make the July Revolution hit the streets to oust tyrant Sheikh Hasina from power? Is everything getting back to square one? Is the illusion people started hugging so warmly less than two months ago becoming a nightmare?

Leaders who had no noteworthy allegations tagged with their names are being arrested like former Planning Minister MA Mannan and former DUCSU Vice President Sultan Mansur. Sultan Mansur has been meanwhile taken into custody for remand. Former lady lawmaker Mahbub Ara Begum Gini has been arrested too on totally vague charges. A retired army chief made mammoth sums of money in all possible foul ways, built up private hospitals, owned a 500 megawatt power plant and a private university, but nobody is making the slightest innuendo about him except The Asian Age!

Good governance, integrity, accountability and socio-economic justice cannot prevail in the middle of disorder, anarchy, vengeance, disharmony and cross-ideological intolerance.

Professor Anu Muhammad of Jahangirnagar University said that the goal of the July Revolution can never be achieved if divides and discrepancies cannot be obliterated.

Professor Dr. Mainul Islam, Department of Economics, Chittagong University said that so far no significant steps have been implemented by financial regulators to pull banks out of the rubble of graft, anomalies and devastated plight.

The dream of rebuilding an equitable and well-ordered Bangladesh will remain a wild goose chase until and unless the interim government calls a spade a spade.