DHAKA TRIBUNE

Interview

Monday, January 13, 2014

Fundamentalism flourishes when democracy slowly falls apart

Dr Nusrat Rabbee, daughter of Dr Fazle Rabbee, a biostatistician, and a key witness in the war crimes trial, talks about her vision of 1971, the recent political turmoil, and Jamaat-e-Islami

Udisa islam n
r Nusrat Rabbee is the daughter of martyred intellectual Dr Mohammed Fazle Rabbee and Dr Jahan Ara Rabbee. She is an expert working in biotechnology in the San Francisco Bay Area and is also a faculty member of the Department of Statistics, University of California, Berkeley. She holds a PhD in Biostatistics from Harvard University. Dr Rabbee has been writing, and demanding proper justice for the murder of her father, in the Bangladeshi media for over a decade. She was summoned and later served as the nations key witness in the trial for the assassination of the intellectuals in 1971 by Jamaat-e-Islami men and the Pakistan army. The accused for the intellectual extermination were Choudhury Mueenuddin and Ashrafuzzman Khan, both residing outside of Bangladesh. Do martyrs like shaheed Dr Mohammed Fazle Rabbee, Dr Alim Chowdhury, or Prof Munier Chowdhury belong to a political party? Can they be claimed by any political party? I think martyrs are national treasures. They belong to the glorious history of mankind. I can speak for my father, Dr Rabbee only. He is a martyred hero who believed in the freedom and the right to self-determination of Bengalis. He supported any and all political parties, activists or groups that believed in helping the cause. He was the personal physician of the Sheikh Mujib family. He respected Sheikh Shahib a lot and supported him strongly, but he never considered himself an Awami Leaguer exclusively. He was first and foremost a cardiologist who thought about the well-being of his country. He was a visionary with the skills needed to rebuild the country ravaged in 1971. That is why the Pakistanis killed him. My mother, the late Dr Jahan Ara Rabbee, never belonged to any political party either. She despised the idea. A well-known figure and a working physician, she earned the respect of all parties with the exception of notorious culprits of Jamaat who actually strategised my fathers killing. She was held in high regard both by Sheikh Mujib and President Zia. I am not the daughter of politicians only of two such illustrious, hard-working and historic citizens of Bangladesh. From them and my own scientific career, I have learned to think about the long-term well being of the country. I am always interested in being a good global citizen and understanding the role of ordinary citizens in strengthening constitutional democracy. What is the vision of 1971? There are many definitions. But the foremost is that we have a country where the ordinary man or woman is free free of poverty and oppression. Today I see Bangladesh divided between activists and Jamaat. It is the common people who are caught in the crossfire. Every day the newspaper reports atrocities from unchecked violence. A little girl whose wrist was blown up by a blast, or a schoolboy whose body was found drenched in blood these are common stories from the past year. We are becoming desensitised to this picture. Frankly I am outraged because I see no difference between this and the killings in 1971. The vision of 1971 has not been achieved. We cannot put the lives and livelihoods of common people at risk for political gains. It does not matter what the goal is. We cannot have a country where various interests are using common people out on the streets

A file photo of a demonstration against the Pakistani atrocities, staged in the United States by expatrate intellectuals in 1971

courtesy

as fodder. We need a government, an opposition party and a strong law enforcement system a total infrastructure committed to providing basic security, safety, and the right to go to work or school safely for all people. This is 2014. And we dont have it. If Jamaat is behind all the chaos today, what do you propose as a solution given the current situation? Bangladesh is not a place for radical, extremist, fundamentalist Islam. It never has been. Millions died for the birth of this country. We are rooted in secularism both before and after 1971. We are a country where each person is free to worship the god or deity of his choice. There are plenty of compassionate, respectful Muslims in Bangladesh and that is a good thing. Jamaat is not their voice. Jamaat needs to be outlawed for their heinous, evil role in 1971 aiding and abetting the genocide perpetrated by the Pakistani army against Bengalis. Just on this basis alone this organisation ought to be permanently dismantled and outlawed in Bangladesh. Our opposition party, BNP, is in alliance with Jamaat. So how will it work? It will work because no party can form an alliance with a heinous organisation that is illegal. For example in Germany no political parties (even conservative Christian ones) can form an alliance with Nazis. So BNP will forge alliances with other legal, existing parties. There are also strong freedom fighters within BNP, and they could come forward to assume active roles. Our country needs at least two main political parties for a stable democratic framework and we need a viable opposition party to Awami League, just to check and balance our constitution. What will happen if the current two parties cannot reach an agreement? We must learn from world history. Today we are connected by the Internet, and learning is quite easy. We the citizens should understand that fundamentalism flourishes when democracy slowly falls apart. We need only look at Iran and Afghanistan. So in the bitter fight between our two parties, we are giving way to a very dark force. That

is the price we are paying for all the mutual blame. It is quite serious. We need to hold the two parties accountable to come to an agreement on the basic premise of stopping the violence and outlawing Jamaat. In the US, Republicans, Democrats, and Independents alike stand against the attacks on 9/11. There is no cancer destroying the body from the inside in the US. Why should it be any different for Bangladesh? There is no excuse for any citizen of Bangladesh not to stand against the atrocities of 1971 or of today! Many have voiced the need for a third political party what do you think about that? There is always that potential. A third party, as long as it acknowledges and adopts the principles of the birth of Bangladesh, could be extremely good for the long-term sustainability of Bangladeshi national politics. We have many challenges to tackle ahead of us: The energy crisis, the opportunity to lead Bangladesh into a higher tier of economics, the improvement of health and population control policies, and strict enforcement of such policies. Wages for garment workers, for those working in the Middle East, must meet international standards. We should lobby for increase in wages. In addition, climate consciousness and continued improvements in education are high priorities. We need leaders who are busy making, approving and implementing plans for what we need to do today to have a vastly improved situation by 2030, 2050, 2075 or 3000. Do you think a third party would work? I dont know. When Muslim League came into power, nobody thought it would work. When Awami League came into power, nobody thought it would work. When BNP came into existence, none believed it would continue. Yet here we are. If there is a clear vision and agenda that separates a third party from the current two, I think many Bangladeshis would hail its emergence. Bangladesh is unique in the sub-continent in being a secular, Muslim country, in having made enormous gains despite many challenges, in having elected two powerful women

for the last two decades. Anything is possible. Many would welcome a positive change. So you dont think the current two-party political system will work? I am not a politician and never will be. If the current two parties, together with help from courts and the judicial system, can work out a way where they can actually come to governance and then leave gracefully when their respective term is up, then I think Bangladeshis will work with these two alliance parties. However if the current instability, violence and deadlock continue, then it will not work. It is not a matter of my opinion, it is a scientific law. Any system that is driving the country towards a shutdown is a failed system. Either the dark force of fundamentalism will eventually reign over this region or a better, more safe and a healthier system will take over the failing system. What should the ordinary citizen do? I think we should raise the expectation of where Bangladesh should be in the future. First, we have to take personal responsibility for this: Working creatively in our jobs, schools, homes and institutions and always be thinking about improving our collective status as a country. No improvement is insignificant or too small. For example, paying for the formal education of a domestic worker is a huge contribution in my opinion. Politicians will not solve all our problems. We need strong citizens and organisations working towards the betterment of Bangladesh. Second, we have to hold our governments, political leaders, courts, and bureaucracies to higher standards. This means we have to become sensitised to what is happening. Denial is not the answer change is. Do we care when we see so many buses being set on fire? Who will pay for this? Why dont the transportation companies sue the terrorists? We have to ask questions and then allow answers to emerge from society. Gonojagoron Moncho is an example of a spontaneous movement such as this. l Udisa Islam is a reporter working for Dhaka Tribune.

A third party, as long as it acknowledges and adopts the principles of the birth of Bangladesh, could be extremely good for the long-term sustainability of Bangladeshi national politics

Dr Nusrat Rabbee

Dhaka Tribune