Two prime deshi cases in point are: Tareq Zia and Sajeeb Wajed Joy, the sons of Khaleda Zia and Sheikh Hasina respectively. Nepotism within the Jamaat is socially and institutionally apparent, it is essentially the same social stock we are talking about here.
Tareq Zia's misdeeds were rightly, if not always accurately, seized upon by the seculib press during the last-but-one BNP led government in Bangladesh. His back was physically broken by the caretaker government which was then ushered in with international support and he continues to mobilize the BNP B team from London, with comical effect.
Hasina's son is insidious on another level, including marshalling WarOnTerror bullshit for political advantage. There is no shortage of this individual opening his mouth in public, from cheering on his mothers killing machine to Indian TV audiences, farting out loud about Digital Bangladesh and proclaiming knowledge of the unseen regarding his family party's forthcoming victory.
His influence on the government needs investigation. His candidacy for the seat of Rangpur-6, where his late father hailed from, should be the focus of an electoral decapitation campaign aimed at encouraging debate, electoral scrutiny and challenging passive acceptance of moronarchy as status quo.
The Awami League won a mega landslide victory in Rangpur-6 in 2008, winning this north western constituency on the border with India from Noor Mohammed Mondol who won in 2001 on a Jatiya Party (Ershad) ticket but then tried to defend it as part of the BNP alliance. It will be interesting to see how far Ershad's shadow still stretches in this area. Local Bangladesh war scars and proximity to India make this natural terrain for the Awami League.
Pirganj literally means the The Storehouse of the Spiritual Leader and is 400 sp km in extent and covered in important wetlands. Just under 400 000 souls reside there, a quarter of a million of whom can vote. Joy, rather the Awami League engine, would need to convince about 100 000 people to vote for him.
Glancing at the news today the boy seems to have been summoned the the US. oo-er.
2 comments:
It seems to me that third world dynastic-nepotism dominated politics eg. in Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Indonesia and Philippines etc, where political parties are merely vehicles for the ascension of various family members, takes place in societies where the family is the central social unit and state institutions like parliaments, the judiciary and a welfare state are either not well developed or in existence. In such societies, the electorate may value the cult of personality and continuity provided by familial succession. In such societies there is overt importance placed on personalities and family history rather than policy differences, as in more mature first world polities. This actually militates against electoral support for purely ideologically based transnational movements eg. Islamists and Communists.
Although such a set up usually throws up venal, incompetent and power hungry leadership, it can often also be the only realistic alternative to chaos and failed state politics and should be seen as a step in a country’s political development in a particular period in its history.
To give an example, the AL and BNP in Bangladesh have proven at numerous elections that they have the support of tens of millions of the electorate across social classes (the leader of the Kansat struggle became an MP), professions, regions (Finance Ministers of both Party’s are always from Greater Sylhet), genders and minorities (both Awami League and BNP have fielded non-Muslim MP’s). Both parties draw their legitimacy (if it can be called that), from the Liberation struggle from Pakistan. The differences between them are personal rather than ideological.
However, without the relative stability of a two-party parliamentary system, it is almost certain that there would be more political violence and bloodshed in Bangladesh along the lines of Afghanistan and Somalia, which lack the centralising control of an effective nation state. The Bangladeshi government, of either AL or BNP may provide poor leadership, but it is infinitely better than the alternatives available in a poor, poorly literate, polarised and developing country like any ogf the countries listed above. Unlike Somalia, one does not have to pay bribes at several checkpoints controlled by different clans and get shot at when travelling from one district to another in Dhaka. Thank Allah (SWT) for small mercies.
These nations can always do better, and this will happen with time and social, political and above all economic development.
Btw, you distract from the discussion on political nepotism by taking sides on which side is worse. This is based merely on your own political prejudices and preferences.
I hear you, but ive been harassed quite a bit in desh in my time, with only the wise protection of friends relations to get me out of pickles. A lot of people are killed in the streets, like the lady from stepney last friday.
Its a very lawless place where your loyalty to tribes of gundas protects you.
Desh is violent in an every day sort of way and people are insecure. You see this best in areas whose social structure has been turned upside down recently.
Its funny you mention Somalia, listening to Knaan's depiction during my trundles around bangladesh I found much similarity, as i do in the industriousness of those amazing people running somaliland.
I find your status quo determinism pretty hopeless. Had there been more able people who tried different moves history and present could have been very different.
It didn't have to unfold this way, but it has. Decapitating Joy, and Tarek for that matter, is a valid method for unfurling a future politics.
There are ideological differences. Im not a beneficiary of the bnp family, but it is more accomodating of Islam, national autonomy and different races, whereas the awami league is more accomodating of socialism, India and conceives Islam like the bjp do, as a foreign invading culture.
I pray that Allah (SWT) guides the hearts of these two servants to better actions and truthfulness.
Salam
Post a Comment