[If interested in joining the formal protest demanding immediate release
of Farhad Mazhar on grounds of free speech, please send e-mail to this
address. There is a formal letter drafted by Salimullah Khan which I will
then forward to all who are interested. If you wish to send a separate
letter, here are some relevant contact addresses:
Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Dhaka (fax) 880-2-813244 OR 811490
Ambassador of Bangladesh, Washington, DC (fax) 202-333-4971
Consul General of Bangladesh, New York (fax) 212-682-9211
Bangladesh Permanent Mission to UN (fax) 212-972-4038]
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THE ANSAR REVOLT AND THE URBAN MIDDLE CLASS' FACADE OF DEMOCRACY AND HUMAN
RIGHTS
-Farhad Mazhar
[CHINTA]
On the 1st of December, 1994 the Ansars [government paramilitary force]
led a rebellion. The Ansars are marginalized, economically deprived and
they have no job security. On the one hand they face extreme economic
ruin, on the other there is not even the slightest promise of solving
their problems forthcoming from the government or the bureaucracy-- there
is no one in this cruel society to listen to the Ansars. In this
intolerable environment, this uprising was inevitable. At the same time,
we want to say with emphasis that the rebellion was also completely legal.
Khaleda Zia's government put down the revolt after massive bloodshed. At
the last count, even the most neutral news sources put the number of Ansar
dead at thirty.
Earlier, in CHINTA, we wrote, 'Because there is a complete absence of
progressive politics in Bangladesh, this rebellion by the poor and
opressed Ansars will not be able to progress beyond being a tragic protest
by the subaltern class. At the same time, it is difficult to say this
with certainty. When poor people from the same class awake, they will
discover their own pride in this Ansar revolt.'
In this issue, we have gathered more information to prepare a very
important report on this for our readers. In writing this report, Altaf
Parvez has said, 'Ansars are sons of farmers dressed in uniforms.' Now we
know that he was not the first to say this. The state, in its attempts to
preserve law and order, gathers manpower from the opressed subaltern
class. The armed forces built with these very people are then used to
further the rule of the opressing and ruling classes over poor farmers,
laborers and the working class. Their revolts are supressed. Killings
are carried out. The BDR soldiers that shot and killed the Ansars are
also the same "farmers in uniforms". And yet, the BDR soldier did not
realize that he had just killed his own brother.
The words "farmers in uniforms" also bring us to another realization.
Was this really an Ansar revolt? Or was it a revolt by farmers? A few
days ago, farmers demanding fertilizer gave their lives in the face of
gunfire-- is there a link between the two incidents? The recent labor
movement was put down using the same cruel tactics-- that laborer also has
one foot in the factory and the other in the fields. The struggle of the
laborers and the working class are coming forward repeatedly in the form
of various demands and movements. We need now to consider the
connectivity between these movements.
Why should we think about it? We need to rip the mask off the faces of
those people who keep using high-flown words like "human rights" and
"democracy". The middle class in the cities has done a lot of acting
while wearing the mask of democracy and human rights. No more. It is
time to smash up these vehicles of society's frauds and farces, who are
having a fine time playing games with people. We do not deny that there
is a need to debate whether the revolts by Ansars, farmers and laborers
were right or not. But how is it possible that the government, bureacracy
and state is cruelly shooting to death workers and farmers in front of our
eyes, and we are doing nothing? Today, if the son of a middle class or
rich family dies, even if it is a rich man's terrorist son who died in
some inter-gang rivalry, grief descends on the whole city. The newspapers
print front-page news complete with pictures. And yet, Ansars, farmers
and laborers are being shot to death like animals, and still we do not
wake up!
The same people who love to throw around words like "democracy" and
"human rights", are now rushing to criticize the children of the opressed
in all the newspapers. In this regards, the role of mass media in
Bangladesh is shameful. In one sense, the media is an active ally in the
state's wholesale killings. They are accomplishing this both by
distorting news reports, and by remaining ignorant or silent on the
suppression of people's democratic and human rights. French philosopher
Louis Althusser, in his analysis of the state, pointed out that the
educational institutions and prevailing ideologies have to be viewed as
the state's instruments of persecution. The mass media also need to be
judged similarly. The suppression of the Ansar revolt, killing of
laborers, or the massacre of farmers desparate for fertilizer-- how is it
that none of these became the focus of discussions on democracy and human
rights in Bangladesh? Or, look at it another way, why are they not being
able to become a topic of discussion? The prevailing ideology, skewed
bias towards a certain class interest, and the naked role of the media as
an extended organ of the oppressive state-- all of these things call for
our close attention. We are not saying that all journalists and
intellectuals are actively engaged in this. But, if our unconscious role
cannot stand inspection in the court of history, it foreshadows danger for
our entire society. Ansars, workers and farmers also have to realize
that, unless they link together the progressive and democratic forces in
this society, their movement and struggle will aimply end as a tragic
protest.
In an earlier issue of CHINTA, we raised the demand to Khaleda Zia's
government that, instead of showing further cruelty to the rebel Ansars in
the name of justice, they should be released unconditionally. As the
people's elected Prime Minister, bearing in mind the approaching
elections, Khaleda Zia should investigate the matter herself, and instead
of trying to identify culprits, should try to discover the socio-economic
nature of the present crisis. We hope that this demand will not be too
much to ask of Khaleda Zia. If, instead of considering the Ansar revolt
with empathy, they are unjustly judged and punished, we hope that the
democratic and progressive forces of society will come forward to protest
this injustice.
___________________________________________
[Translated by Naeem Mohaiemen. Uneven translation due to poor quality of
fax received from Bangladesh.]
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