We are imprisoned in our own houses

-Ajoy Roy

 Published on February 07, 2009

Thy name is curfew - army guided Dr. Fakhruddin Ahmed-Government�s latest gift to the nation. The CA has imposed, after duly getting approval from the meeting of the battery of advisers, attended by Army Chief, Chief of the army staff, BDR chief, Police Chief and many top brasses and bureaucrats, a continuous curfew from 8 p.m. night to an indefinite period (!) on August 22, 2007 in all five divisional head quarters including the capital. This was imposed in order to deal with the undisciplined crowed, in the language of the Government statement, on the streets for �bringing back the normal life and save public properties�. Are these utterances sounded familiar to you? In what way these words were different from those of Begum Zia-Nizami, general Zia or general Ershad etc.   All educational institutions including Universities in Dhaka and other divisional head quarters were declared closed sine die by the government order. The government order asked the students to vacate their Hall of residences and hostels by 8 p.m. to be more precise. This order, not only inhumane but devoid of practical senses, put thousands of students, male and female, in a most difficult situation which can be appreciated only by the sufferers, none else, least by the order-issuers. May I ask very politely to our very smart CA, �what would be your reaction if in one fine morning our army chief appearing at the door steps of your residence with his pistol pointing to you sir, asked you to leave your residence within a couple of hours?� The worst part of the government action is it completely violated the autonomy of the university. In this regard Government of Dr. Fakhruddin Ahmed is no different from that of General Zia, Ershad or and Begum Khaleda.

 

Why the army camp inside the university campus? 

The basic question why army or the government felt it necessary to set up an army camp in the gymnasium of the university inside the campus. The University is not a fortress corruption or terrorism. The academic community, teachers as well as students have never welcomed the presence of police camp or any disciplined forces. The presence of such camps has always been looked upon as violation the sacred autonomy of the University. In our days we always criticized government and university authority if Police, army (in rare case) or BDR personnel entered the campus even with the permission the university authority. The trouble of all governments is that they never appreciated or respected University autonomy, a sacred creed of the Academic community that ensures our freedom and cultivation freethinking. We consider that presence of police or any other disciplined force is a threat to our academic freedom and liberal thinking. Each and every government must be aware of this sentiment of the academic community.   

 

I have seen many curfews in my life 

From the reign of Ayub Khan in Pakistani time to this day I witnessed variety of curfews imposed on the public by the governments issuing the same statements �in order to restore normal public life and protect public lives and properties�. The present crisis is the creation of the ill governance of the so called caretaker government fully backed by and guided by a set of army generals (sitting as well as retired) and civil bureaucrats. If the government could not control public reaction, in some cases may be of some violent nature, with all its might drawn from Army, BDR and Police forces, in a normal way then there must be some thing wrong in nature of governance.

Riots have spread from the capital to other towns in Bangladesh [AFP]
Riots have spread from the capital to other towns in Bangladesh

 

From simple event of beating a DU student on Monday, August 20, 2007 at the playground of the University by a member(s) of armed forces within the campus, the resentment among the students of spread like fire. The matter is not a skirmish between a member in uniform and the ill-fated student, but it is more than that and very deep rooted. The attitude of the soldiers was of masters, controlling and possession of power and authority. They are the masters of the time. Please notice that the wide spread demonstration against army and the government has not been an organized effort of the leading students organizations. It was almost a spontaneous reaction among the general students out bursting their resentments against the army and army-controlled government of Dr. Fakhruddin Ahmed. The government and its army advisers failed to read this aspect of the sentiments of the students. The Government and its friend & philosopher, the army generals must understand that whatever good works this government has done in dealing with anticorruption and other areas, the academic community of the country, particularly the teachers and students, by and large, cannot accept a government for a long time which came into existence through the imposition of emergency for whatever good reason it might be. If the government acts as a government of national character with its own agenda to fulfill, instead of acting as a caretaker and interim government for a specific period of time within which it must held a free, fair and neutral election on the basis of a fault free voters list updated from the last one. The EC is free to take up any means including preparation of picture-affixed voters list to ensure full proof casting of votes by all eligible voters. Beyond this if the present government have any agenda this would definitely be beyond their jurisdiction. No basic policy making decision(s) must be undertaken by the government instead it would concentrate on good governance on routine matters like law and order situation, keeping the price of daily commodities within limit, supply of manures to the farmers, effective measures to flood situations, supply of electricity and other amenities to the public. This would be time consuming, a deviation from its main goal holding of election in shortest and lead to indicate that this government has its own agenda for the future. Already Barrister Moinul Hosain has indicated that apart from routine governance his government is also a government of reformist. This would definitely create resentment and criticism among the common men, more particularly among the civil society, academic and intellectual communities. It is clear that present government has no jurisdiction to bring in major reform in the political, educational, industrial or economic field. It is not a people�s government, though it might enjoy some support from the mass for some of its good works.

 

The worst curfew I witnessed in the dreadful night of March 25, 1971, again imposed by the then Army in power in East Pakistan, which continued for three days, almost uninterrupted. Under the cover of day and night curfew the Pakistani men in uniform killed not less than 20 thousand civilians only in Dhaka city. Since then general Zia led and general Ershad led Governments killed many innocent peoples under the cover of curfews. I also remember the dreadful curfews imposed by then army authority when the Bangabandhu was killed on the dreadful morning of August 15, 1975 by a section of sitting army personnel. I don�t want to see those curfews anymore or any curfew whatever mild it may look like, particularly from the present government, which claimed it, is a people�s government. Please prove this claim by your deeds and show your concern for civil liberty, free press and fundamental rights. Yes, this is my urgent appeal to you Dr. Fakhruddin Ahmed, please restore my fundamental and civil rights and withdraw the indefinite curfew because it has causing harm to economic and commercial activities, worst than effect of hartals!                             

Prof. Ajoy K. Roy--a reputed scientist and human rights activist from Bangladesh--is the member of Mukto-Mona advisory board. He writes from Dhaka.