There were 591 hartals between 1990 and 2011, according to the Banglapedia article on “hartal”.
WHERE ARE THE PICTURES?
Not a single newspaper published a single photo of a hartal.
The answer is not far to seek: After Ershad resigned under western donor pressure, the consensus was “Democracy at all costs, even human lives”.
This was what Western donors wanted, and our self-censoring editors went along.
Imagine a picture of a girl in flames - what would be the reaction? If not in Bangladesh, abroad the entire democratic experiment would have been discredited.
I’m thinking of Napalm girl, whose pictures brought home the horrors of the Vietnam war.
Of course, democracy would have been similarly discredited: a Daily Star editor, Modon Shahu, told me that “We know people want martial law, but we can’t print that.” He chuckled to conceal his embarrassment.
At Holiday, my article title, “Democracy, The Historical Accident”, was unacceptable, and it was revised.
An entire society stood hostage to western donors and their local ayatollahs - the intellectuals. If you weren’t a democrat, you were a hick from the sticks.
They lobby Washington, London, Brussels, New Delhi…for the ruling party. They pump us full of “ekattorer chetona”, “bawannor chetano”, Bengalism, dynasticism…They legitimise every crime committed by the government.
And, most crafty of all, they finger the traditional ayatollahs as the boogeyman.
Like the Napalm girl, our girls and boys were incinerated: 16-year-old Ripon took 11 days to die (The Daily Star, May 6 2001); 2-year old Meem, fortunately, died the next day; of two girls, one was incinerated beyond recognition - no one claimed her body. These are a few examples.
When Iranians girls die, we commiserate: the taking of a life is heinous.
But when our secular party disappears people (Haaretz), drills into people’s heads , hangs them upside down, pulls out their nails, beats their genitals…we remain silent. After all, the Awami League is not the mullahs. So, that’s OK.
And the mullahs alone, strangely enough, are the danger to society.
(Pictured: Napalm girl;
Screenshot of statement by Israeli human rights lawyer, Eitay Mack, from Haaretz, to halt the sale of Israeli spyware to the RAB due to its horrendous human rights record.)
