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Ripe for a revolution
Rebellious officers move to end Indian hegemony in Bangladesh
(Global Review Special)
January 20, 2012
The vicissitudes of history and geopolitics have seasoned the Bangladeshis to be prone to occasional bloodbath, military coup and political instability. The last weeks alleged coup attempt, however, seems more like the birth pang of an unfinished revolution to rid the country of the insidious Indian hegemony.
It all started in a cold February morning three years ago when 19 Indian commandos garbed themselves in the uniform of the paramilitary Bangladesh Rifle (BDR) soldiers and entered the BDR headquarter compound in Dhaka at 8.11 AM on February 25, 2009.
In one of the most inhuman conspiracies the world has ever witnessed, the Indian commandos had their pre-scheduled rendezvous with the collaborators from within the BDR ranks and slaughtered 57 of the 155 military officers gathered to conduct the annual darbar (meeting with soldiers) in the ornate Darbar hall of a colonial era fortress at the heart of the nations capital.
The marauding attackers minced and mutilated bodies, raped women and children as young as 12 years old. Evidence unearthed in the investigations that followed showed how a cabal from the ruling Awami League (AL) connived with the mutineers and the intelligence apparatuses of India to destroy Bangladeshs armed forces as part of a grand design to settle what the strategists in Delhi fondly labeled the Eastern question.
All strategies are expected to be humane, but this was perhaps one of the rare conspiracies in human history by any government against its own armed forces, and, it embodied a grand design by Delhi to neutralize the Bangladeshi military in order to set Indian hands free to focus solely on China and Pakistan.
Amidst intense Indian meddling, the constitution of the nation was allowed to get tramped in 2007- deferring a scheduled election indifinitely- and the military's higher echelon was used to declare emergency rules in order to engineer an election mechanism to bring to power a pro-Indian regime. Economically, the game plan aimed at reaping windfall rewards by turning Bangladesh into an Indian hinterland.
Ever since, the young officers of the Bangladesh army kept reacting to a series of anti-national-interest policies of the Bangladesh government, with great risks. In October 2009, one Major and five Captains of the armys elite para- commando unit were framed into a faked grenade attack on a ruling party MP, Fazle Nur Taposh, who is also a cousin of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
Although an army-led investigation report discovered Taposhs involvement in the BDR mutiny, the fake attack did not carry any emblem of military artisanship; the drama having caused no injury to Taposh or his associates and proving an amateurish conduct aimed solely to create headlines and pretexts to nab the aggrieved army officers. At least 132 officers, their ranks ranging from Gentleman Cadet to General, were sacked under a host of pretexts since the 2009 mutiny while at least three Lt. Colonels and two Majors were arrested.
The third anniversary of that mutiny being only weeks away, the military is once again found fuming with anger over the indifference of the government to bringing to justice the political masterminds of that grisly crime.
The latest episode - which is yet another expression of anger displayed through internet/phone conversations among many of the aggrieved officers - led to the arrest last week of one Major General, one Brigadier General, two Lt. Colonels, four Majors and a Captain. Days ago, another Major was nabbed, but he managed to flee from custody and notified his colleagues how he was interrogated by an Indian officer on issues he termed as sensitive to Bangladeshs sovereignty and national security.
After prolonged silence, the government finally decided to leap into the public domain with the news of a failed coup attempt. A press briefing organized by the army on January 19 confirmed that two retired officers Lt. Col. Ehsan Yusuf and Maj. Zakir have been arrested and the authorities are looking for another fugitive serving officer, Maj. Ziaul Haq. Brig. Gen. Muhammad Masud Razzaq, who had conducted the press briefing, said the military has specific evidence that up to 16 current and former Bangladeshi military officers with extreme religious views were involved in a heinous conspiracy to overthrow the government.
Extreme religious views has been the famous epithet in the post 9/11 era for crying wolf, using the Islamic militancy bogey. In Bangladeshs context, it is not shared by experts who have spent times in researching the political indoctrination of the Bangladesh armed forces. Ataur Rahman, a political science professor at Dhaka University, categorically denies the existence of any reckonable political Islamist force within the Bangladesh military.
What then is causing so much of repulsion against the government within the armed forces, and, why so many officers dare to revolt? Part of the answer lies in the fact that they are goaded and framed to indulge in stupidity in order to facilitate their exit from the military, which is what the Indian grand design is about. As one commentator puts it, Bangladeshs military officer cadre is composed of the best students of the nation. India wants this institution destroyed.
One may also seek the right answer by asking any former or serving military officer of Bangladesh, or a businessman, who will invariably tell how India has strangulated this great nation of 160 million strong by orchestrating the bogey of Islamic fanaticism to secularize the nation. In reality, political Islamists in Bangladesh never even shot a bullet at police, let alone the military. Bangladesh is one of the most fanaticism-free nations in the world.
The nation is loathed to fall under Indias ambit for historic reasons. Britain divided Bengal in 1905 only to annul the division six years later. But the relic of historic divisiveness is all pervasive and predominantly Muslim Bangladesh chose to be part of Pakistan in 1947. This generational struggle for independence from Indian hegemony stands at the core of the ongoing struggle and the military as an institution feels it intensely.
One former army officer wrote in a recent email, At least 10,000 Indian covert operatives masquerade as businessmen in Bangladeshs air and sea ports, key point installations and other vantage places, to spy on the nation. Their prime target is serving and retired military officers whom they never trust. Such an assertion cannot be brushed aside off hand.
Since 2009, the economy of Bangladesh has been overtaken by India and major garment and textile outlets have given up competing with Indian companies. Three of the four main telecommunication companies have gone to Indian hands while a national icon, the Grameen phone, and its founder and Nobel Laureate, Dr. Mohammad Yunus, are being constantly ostracized and hounded by the Prime Minister and her staffers. As well, Bangladeshs export to India has barely reached $500 million although Indian export to Bangladesh has surged from $ 2 billion in 2009 to nearly $5 billion by 2011.
Surprisingly, even the Prime Minister herself behaves like one of the Chief Ministers of the many Indian states. Least bothered to adhering age-old international protocol, the Prime Minister has visited the Indian state of Tripura last week to receive an honorary D.Lit Accolade. Insisting on anonymity, a renowned Bangladeshi columnist lamented, This was the fifth such honorarium for an inconsiderate woman who had never qualified to attend any university at home or abroad.
Yet, the Prime Minister remains the main decision maker and since coming to power in 2009, she has allowed India to use Bangladesh as a corridor to ferry Indian goods and military hardware from the mainland to the landlocked, insurgency-infested, seven Indian provinces in the North East, abutting Bangladesh and China. The Hasina regime also allowed all Bangladeshi ports for uses by Indian ships while the telecommunication security of the nation, including submarine cables, are being jointly managed with India. Tiny Nepal has better national security mechanism than us, writes a blogger.
This is not the Bangladesh the AL regime had inherited in 2009. In 2008-2009, growth was nearly 7 per cent and garment exports totalled $12.3 billion in FY09 while the remittances from overseas Bangladeshis fetched another $11 billion in FY10. Combined, the two sectors accounted for almost 25% of GDP. Those rosy pictures have changed drastically, thanks to the ubiquitous Indian hegemony and the silence of a regime that seems helpless.
That helplessness is what Bangladesh needs to overcome before its too late. For months, the government has been living on borrowing and cumulative current account balance for the ongoing fiscal year (FY2011/12, July-June) has entered into a deficit for the first time since November 2008. The deficit is expected to reach $1.3b (1.1% of GDP) soon as the governments revenue inflows are shrinking phenomenally under a crony culture of selective opportunism. Export growth has substantially weakened, reduced by another 1.9% y-o-y in November 2011 (from 16.7% in the previous month) while remittances have plunged to an unprecedented -9.0% y-o-y in the same month.
Anger has exacerbated due to a whopping inflation far outpacing consumers ability to cope, tipping past the 10 per cent threshold and criminality becoming the popular culture among the youths, 60 per cent of whom are unemployed. In recent weeks, capital flight has turned so intensive that each US dollar is selling for Taka 90-95 in open market. According to the Heritage Foundation and the Wall Street Journal, Bangladesh trails behind Sri Lanka (58.3), Bhutan (56.6), Pakistan (54.7) and India (54.6) in business atmosphere ranking.
Corruption is too widespread and nothing can be done without assuring a hefty commission to one of the family members of the Prime Minister. In August 2011, the World Bank censored $2.2b funding for the construction of the Padma Bridge and the Canadian RCMP moved in to investigate a cobweb of corruptions involving underhand deals between a major Canadian company and the Canada-based family members of the Bangladeshi premier and the concerned minister in her cabinet.
The report of a foiled military coup comes at a time when the anger and repulsion among the Bangladeshis have reached the proverbial point of no return. Aminur Rahman, a businessman who had to close his textile industry in 2010 after Bangladesh government allowed Indian textile to flood the market, says, The army should do what it did in 1975." Rahman hinted to the August 1975 coup when a group of young army officers killed Sheikh Mujib, father of the current Prime Minister, and many members of the Mujib family to steer Bangladesh away from despotism within and pro-Indian-ism without.
As that generational struggle continues, many believe another major bloodbath await to plunge Bangladesh into utter chaos unless the puppet regime in Dhaka is replaced by a national government composed of patriotic forces from home and abroad.
GLOBAL REVIEW
Rebellious officers move to end Indian hegemony in Bangladesh
(Global Review Special)
January 20, 2012
The vicissitudes of history and geopolitics have seasoned the Bangladeshis to be prone to occasional bloodbath, military coup and political instability. The last weeks alleged coup attempt, however, seems more like the birth pang of an unfinished revolution to rid the country of the insidious Indian hegemony.
It all started in a cold February morning three years ago when 19 Indian commandos garbed themselves in the uniform of the paramilitary Bangladesh Rifle (BDR) soldiers and entered the BDR headquarter compound in Dhaka at 8.11 AM on February 25, 2009.
In one of the most inhuman conspiracies the world has ever witnessed, the Indian commandos had their pre-scheduled rendezvous with the collaborators from within the BDR ranks and slaughtered 57 of the 155 military officers gathered to conduct the annual darbar (meeting with soldiers) in the ornate Darbar hall of a colonial era fortress at the heart of the nations capital.
The marauding attackers minced and mutilated bodies, raped women and children as young as 12 years old. Evidence unearthed in the investigations that followed showed how a cabal from the ruling Awami League (AL) connived with the mutineers and the intelligence apparatuses of India to destroy Bangladeshs armed forces as part of a grand design to settle what the strategists in Delhi fondly labeled the Eastern question.
All strategies are expected to be humane, but this was perhaps one of the rare conspiracies in human history by any government against its own armed forces, and, it embodied a grand design by Delhi to neutralize the Bangladeshi military in order to set Indian hands free to focus solely on China and Pakistan.
Amidst intense Indian meddling, the constitution of the nation was allowed to get tramped in 2007- deferring a scheduled election indifinitely- and the military's higher echelon was used to declare emergency rules in order to engineer an election mechanism to bring to power a pro-Indian regime. Economically, the game plan aimed at reaping windfall rewards by turning Bangladesh into an Indian hinterland.
Ever since, the young officers of the Bangladesh army kept reacting to a series of anti-national-interest policies of the Bangladesh government, with great risks. In October 2009, one Major and five Captains of the armys elite para- commando unit were framed into a faked grenade attack on a ruling party MP, Fazle Nur Taposh, who is also a cousin of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
Although an army-led investigation report discovered Taposhs involvement in the BDR mutiny, the fake attack did not carry any emblem of military artisanship; the drama having caused no injury to Taposh or his associates and proving an amateurish conduct aimed solely to create headlines and pretexts to nab the aggrieved army officers. At least 132 officers, their ranks ranging from Gentleman Cadet to General, were sacked under a host of pretexts since the 2009 mutiny while at least three Lt. Colonels and two Majors were arrested.
The third anniversary of that mutiny being only weeks away, the military is once again found fuming with anger over the indifference of the government to bringing to justice the political masterminds of that grisly crime.
The latest episode - which is yet another expression of anger displayed through internet/phone conversations among many of the aggrieved officers - led to the arrest last week of one Major General, one Brigadier General, two Lt. Colonels, four Majors and a Captain. Days ago, another Major was nabbed, but he managed to flee from custody and notified his colleagues how he was interrogated by an Indian officer on issues he termed as sensitive to Bangladeshs sovereignty and national security.
After prolonged silence, the government finally decided to leap into the public domain with the news of a failed coup attempt. A press briefing organized by the army on January 19 confirmed that two retired officers Lt. Col. Ehsan Yusuf and Maj. Zakir have been arrested and the authorities are looking for another fugitive serving officer, Maj. Ziaul Haq. Brig. Gen. Muhammad Masud Razzaq, who had conducted the press briefing, said the military has specific evidence that up to 16 current and former Bangladeshi military officers with extreme religious views were involved in a heinous conspiracy to overthrow the government.
Extreme religious views has been the famous epithet in the post 9/11 era for crying wolf, using the Islamic militancy bogey. In Bangladeshs context, it is not shared by experts who have spent times in researching the political indoctrination of the Bangladesh armed forces. Ataur Rahman, a political science professor at Dhaka University, categorically denies the existence of any reckonable political Islamist force within the Bangladesh military.
What then is causing so much of repulsion against the government within the armed forces, and, why so many officers dare to revolt? Part of the answer lies in the fact that they are goaded and framed to indulge in stupidity in order to facilitate their exit from the military, which is what the Indian grand design is about. As one commentator puts it, Bangladeshs military officer cadre is composed of the best students of the nation. India wants this institution destroyed.
One may also seek the right answer by asking any former or serving military officer of Bangladesh, or a businessman, who will invariably tell how India has strangulated this great nation of 160 million strong by orchestrating the bogey of Islamic fanaticism to secularize the nation. In reality, political Islamists in Bangladesh never even shot a bullet at police, let alone the military. Bangladesh is one of the most fanaticism-free nations in the world.
The nation is loathed to fall under Indias ambit for historic reasons. Britain divided Bengal in 1905 only to annul the division six years later. But the relic of historic divisiveness is all pervasive and predominantly Muslim Bangladesh chose to be part of Pakistan in 1947. This generational struggle for independence from Indian hegemony stands at the core of the ongoing struggle and the military as an institution feels it intensely.
One former army officer wrote in a recent email, At least 10,000 Indian covert operatives masquerade as businessmen in Bangladeshs air and sea ports, key point installations and other vantage places, to spy on the nation. Their prime target is serving and retired military officers whom they never trust. Such an assertion cannot be brushed aside off hand.
Since 2009, the economy of Bangladesh has been overtaken by India and major garment and textile outlets have given up competing with Indian companies. Three of the four main telecommunication companies have gone to Indian hands while a national icon, the Grameen phone, and its founder and Nobel Laureate, Dr. Mohammad Yunus, are being constantly ostracized and hounded by the Prime Minister and her staffers. As well, Bangladeshs export to India has barely reached $500 million although Indian export to Bangladesh has surged from $ 2 billion in 2009 to nearly $5 billion by 2011.
Surprisingly, even the Prime Minister herself behaves like one of the Chief Ministers of the many Indian states. Least bothered to adhering age-old international protocol, the Prime Minister has visited the Indian state of Tripura last week to receive an honorary D.Lit Accolade. Insisting on anonymity, a renowned Bangladeshi columnist lamented, This was the fifth such honorarium for an inconsiderate woman who had never qualified to attend any university at home or abroad.
Yet, the Prime Minister remains the main decision maker and since coming to power in 2009, she has allowed India to use Bangladesh as a corridor to ferry Indian goods and military hardware from the mainland to the landlocked, insurgency-infested, seven Indian provinces in the North East, abutting Bangladesh and China. The Hasina regime also allowed all Bangladeshi ports for uses by Indian ships while the telecommunication security of the nation, including submarine cables, are being jointly managed with India. Tiny Nepal has better national security mechanism than us, writes a blogger.
This is not the Bangladesh the AL regime had inherited in 2009. In 2008-2009, growth was nearly 7 per cent and garment exports totalled $12.3 billion in FY09 while the remittances from overseas Bangladeshis fetched another $11 billion in FY10. Combined, the two sectors accounted for almost 25% of GDP. Those rosy pictures have changed drastically, thanks to the ubiquitous Indian hegemony and the silence of a regime that seems helpless.
That helplessness is what Bangladesh needs to overcome before its too late. For months, the government has been living on borrowing and cumulative current account balance for the ongoing fiscal year (FY2011/12, July-June) has entered into a deficit for the first time since November 2008. The deficit is expected to reach $1.3b (1.1% of GDP) soon as the governments revenue inflows are shrinking phenomenally under a crony culture of selective opportunism. Export growth has substantially weakened, reduced by another 1.9% y-o-y in November 2011 (from 16.7% in the previous month) while remittances have plunged to an unprecedented -9.0% y-o-y in the same month.
Anger has exacerbated due to a whopping inflation far outpacing consumers ability to cope, tipping past the 10 per cent threshold and criminality becoming the popular culture among the youths, 60 per cent of whom are unemployed. In recent weeks, capital flight has turned so intensive that each US dollar is selling for Taka 90-95 in open market. According to the Heritage Foundation and the Wall Street Journal, Bangladesh trails behind Sri Lanka (58.3), Bhutan (56.6), Pakistan (54.7) and India (54.6) in business atmosphere ranking.
Corruption is too widespread and nothing can be done without assuring a hefty commission to one of the family members of the Prime Minister. In August 2011, the World Bank censored $2.2b funding for the construction of the Padma Bridge and the Canadian RCMP moved in to investigate a cobweb of corruptions involving underhand deals between a major Canadian company and the Canada-based family members of the Bangladeshi premier and the concerned minister in her cabinet.
The report of a foiled military coup comes at a time when the anger and repulsion among the Bangladeshis have reached the proverbial point of no return. Aminur Rahman, a businessman who had to close his textile industry in 2010 after Bangladesh government allowed Indian textile to flood the market, says, The army should do what it did in 1975." Rahman hinted to the August 1975 coup when a group of young army officers killed Sheikh Mujib, father of the current Prime Minister, and many members of the Mujib family to steer Bangladesh away from despotism within and pro-Indian-ism without.
As that generational struggle continues, many believe another major bloodbath await to plunge Bangladesh into utter chaos unless the puppet regime in Dhaka is replaced by a national government composed of patriotic forces from home and abroad.
GLOBAL REVIEW
