‘Political parties have weakened the government’
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Photo: Collected
Poet, social thinker and human rights activist Farhad Mazhar has commented that political parties have weakened the current interim government. He said, ‘They (political parties) say that this or that cannot be done without an elected government. I say that Dr. Yunus’ government is elected. Our sons have elected him by becoming martyrs.’
Farhad Mazhar said these things in an exclusive interview given to Prothom Alo. In the interview, this thinker also spoke openly about various contemporary contexts. Selected parts of the interview have been published for the readers of Barta24.com:
In Bangladesh, no government has respected the agreement with the people regarding the state. They have occupied and subjugated the state. You have made a good constitution. Where can we get the guarantee that future governments will not violate it?
Farhad Mazhar: What I call a constitution cannot be imposed from above. The constitution I am thinking of is just a few pages long , short, simple, understandable to the people but with a wide scope. No law can be made that takes away the freedom, dignity and rights of any person or destroys life, nature and environment. Apart from this, how will the division of power in the state be, whether we want a presidential or prime ministerial system of government, whether the legislature will be bicameral or unicameral, if unicameral, will there be decentralized districts, without whose permission no economic policy can be adopted, what will the character of the local government be, what should we say to the divisions if it is decentralized—this is how the constitution should be made. You will have to listen to the people whose rivers, haors and water bodies have been encroached upon, by holding councils in villages and unions. A suitable local government system will be needed to ensure the management of these resources by keeping them under the control of the people. Yet the government is once again imposing the constitution from above. I have no complaints against Ali Riaz, he at least talked about rewriting the constitution. Badiul Alam Majumdar may also have some good ideas. But everything is being imposed from above. A white paper on corruption has been prepared. A very good work. But when you read it, it seems that it has been done for the ACC. They are still in the market and demand of the old neo-classical economy. That is my problem. Due to the control of the state by multinational companies of the international market, we are not able to develop our economy; we are not able to increase our wealth. We are not able to collect taxes. We have to present a different kind of economic plan. This white paper is very beautiful, but it will not be of any use in building a state. However, it is necessary to propose policies and strategies for national economic development based on the concept of popular sovereignty, standing against the free market system.
Let me ask the question differently. No matter what state system we build through restructuring or reform, it will be run by political parties. How can we prevent them from becoming arbitrary? They talk about reforming the state, but they do not talk about reforming themselves.
Farhad Mazhar: Political parties should not fully recognize the mass uprising. Do not give full power to the interim government under the mass uprising. Only then will you see how political parties have to deal with it. Political parties have weakened the government. They said that this or that cannot be done without an elected government. I say that Dr. Yunus' government is elected. Our sons were martyred and elected him. We will definitely criticize this government. He is running the government, not an institution like Grameen. Maybe there is weakness there, but we are not willing to listen to political parties saying that he is not elected. He was elected with blood. We did not give him full power. If he was given full power, he could have broken the syndicate. Jalmahal, rivers, canals could have been rescued. It would have taken less time to punish the BNP's encroachment in the areas. The main task now is to form a fully-fledged interim government. If we can do that, the rest of the problems will be easier to solve. We will decide whether the political parties you are talking about are actually political parties or not through the new constitution. The law that has been enacted in the People's Representation Ordinance, that law itself says who is a political party and who is not? So the new constitution will determine who is a political party and who is not. Then talk. Apart from that, should the Awami League be allowed to do politics as a fascist party? Or should the party that took a stand against the entire population in 1971 be allowed to do politics in this name? Islam is important because it is part of my history. But how it will remain is a matter of discussion. Islam will not be established if an Islamic state is created. Islam can play a role in my daily reality, morality, culture, etc. I have to internalize that. That is why I use the word constitution.
The reality of the time of the mass uprising is no longer there. How feasible are the proposals you are making now? Should I call you a dreamer?
Farhad Mazhar: Mass Uprising and Formation: I wrote the book on the development of mass political trends in Bangladesh in 2023. That is when I hinted at a mass uprising. I created a human rights platform to convince all political parties that a mass uprising must be done. The mass uprising has happened. After doing this, I have a lot of confidence. Bangladesh will be the center for restructuring the entire subcontinent. Our youth will have to take the leadership. I am sure that the words I am saying will be implemented.
Another Let's go with the government. Sheikh Hasina's government has justified all their injustices and corruption by presenting a narrow narrative of the Liberation War. As a result, after their fall, many are afraid that the Liberation War itself has come into question...
Farhad Mazhar: Look, what was our struggle in 1947? The landlord and moneylender class were exploiting us. The city of Kolkata has been built on the blood and sweat of our landless people. This is history. We did not want partition in 1947; we wanted a United Bengal Nation. If we can have a United States of India, why can't we have a United Bengal? Suhrawardy, Sarat Bose, and others wanted that, and Jinnah also agreed. We did not want partition. We have been taught that Muslims wanted partition. Now, as proven by historical research, this work was done by upper caste Babus. What happened after partition? We formed a religious state. India was also religious, which is now organized in the form of a Hindutva state. When our land issue was resolved, in 1952 we fought with culture and language. We became Bengalis with our blood. We are not just Indians, nor are we Indians from West Bengal. We had to be martyrs to become Bengalis. We had to give our blood to speak Bengali, to sing Rabindranath's songs. As a result, the liberation war is absolutely beyond any question. So if someone says that we are excluding 1971 with the mass uprising of 2024 that is absolutely nonsense. So what happened? We achieved an independent territory in 1971. But after that, we could not resolve many ideological issues. That is why we got a fascist government like Sheikh Hasina. The mass uprising of 2024 was held to resolve those ideological issues. Now it is the turn of forming a democratic Bangladesh state.
Through this, I established through the continuity of history from 1947 onwards that this country belongs not only to Bengalis, but to everyone, to all ethnicities, big and small, to all religions and beliefs, to all believers and atheists, etc. This Bangladesh will lead in the reconstruction of the entire subcontinent. For this, everyone will have to come out of the pre-colonial habitual thinking. Bengal will now come in different ways. Not in the form of Bakhtiar's horse, but Islam is an integral part of the history of the subcontinent. The history of the subcontinent is also the history of Islam. In other words, we are going through an intellectual-cultural revolution. The July mass uprising is proof of that. The mass uprising of 2024 will take us in that direction. In doing this, many of our weaknesses will be revealed. There will be many failures. But we will overcome them. We will be able to reach another level of history.
Our riverine Bengal has its own many religious views—Nath, Vaishnava, Shakta, Baul, Mareftan. They also have great demands.
Farhad Mazhar: Of course. These views are united among us. This has happened at the hands of Fakir Lalon Sai, Jalaluddin Khan, Radha Ballabh, Khalek Dewan, Abdul Halim or Fakir-Dervish-Bayati. Sufis have done it. Even before that, Buddhists have done it. Surprisingly, this has happened in East Bengal. Bengal has always dealt with religion through cultural movements. Prayers are performed; and next to it, songs are sung, ‘Manush Thuiya Khoda Bhaj, who gave this mantra?’
The contribution of the West is to present religion in the form of philosophy and law. In Islam, Allah always shows you some spiritual path or the other. No one can claim the truth because, man is limited by death. Bound by time and space. You are mortal. The Holy Prophet (PBUH) proved through the conquest of Mecca that there can be no identity centered on blood, tribe, or nation among people. People have only one identity, they are the children of Adam and Eve. They are basically one nation. In the anthropological sense, Allah created different nations and languages and said that they should try to recognize each other. They should all form a world society. What is the difference between communism and this? Marx did not call communism an ideology or religion, he explained it as a journey of human history in terms of forming a world society. Right?
This is the long road of our struggle, what future do you see for Bangladesh standing here?
Farhad Mazhar: I think we have done tremendously well as Bangladesh. Think of how many centuries the West had to go through to reach here! We have come this far in just 50 years. Now we are sitting in Dhaka and daring to confront the West. Rafiq and Jabbar were martyred in 1952. "The seeds of new consciousness that were sown through 'February ‘24, dyed with my brother's blood, can I forget it?' are the seeds that gave us Bangladesh through the Liberation War of 1971. We sowed another big seed in 2024. This will be a great victory. The next 50 years are nothing to them. The current young generation is thinking and dreaming strange things. This Bangladesh cannot be defeated. You can fight, you can stop the civil war, but Bangladesh will never become Syria. The Middle East has not developed such thoughts as our youth. I keep some track of what is happening in the Middle East. And Islam came to the Middle East 1500 years ago. We have been carrying a long history here for more than that. Various religions, ideologies, poetry, literature have enriched us in various ways. We have to stand with this whole mind. We want to create the political space that is needed for this in Bangladesh. India has lagged behind Bangladesh here. He will not be able to run with us because of Hindutva. The intellectual and cultural revolution will happen here within the Bengali language. The main seed of our consciousness has been planted. The foundation has been laid. I am not disappointed even a little.
