Palashi 2.0 at Dhaka, Dhanmondi | Kazi Tanvir Hosen

[This article was drafted on 20 July 2024. The government job quota reform movement in Bangladesh is over. According to the judgment of the Supreme Court at Dhaka dated July 21, the cause of the agitation has vanished. However, the struggle to form the government by the communal rioter underlings favored by multinational capital, is not yet over. Bargaining is going on between the transnational bosses and their local footmen. This text could not be published earlier due to internet isolation and non-availability of some willing and good publisher. Sheikh Hasina’s resignation has changed the context of the political affairs in Bangladesh. That is why some revisions have been inserted.]

05 August 2024

Bangladesh under attack: slogans of government job quota reform, private violence on the streets and a coup, aimed at looting the natural and social resources of Bangladesh and its surroundings

by Kazi Tanvir Hosen

The quota system in government jobs in Bangladesh has not been proven to be at fault, but the current events have exposed the real goals of the violent conspirators active in that society and that of the multinational capitalists behind them.

It was often mentioned in recent news that "the movement to reform the quota system of government jobs in Bangladesh is worrying the whole world", "some student organizations in India and Bengalis in different countries have also protested against the government, in solidarity with this movement", "several international organizations took a stand in favor of the agitators†.

In fact, there is no flaw in this quota system of recruitment in government jobs in our country, all that exists is the stupidity of the conspiratorial leaders of the violent movement against it. I am writing these lines because I want this matter to be discussed openly.

Some retrospection

By the end of the 19th century, the course of industrialization had produced so many goods in the commodity production system that by the late 1880s the commodities had finally become a pile of immobile labor. As the need to reproduce goods disappeared, factories began to lay off workers. The markets of the industrialized world entered a period of huge flyovers and skyscrapers, rusting production machines in factories, skilled and educated unemployed people at home, low wages becoming commonplace, women and child labor being recruited into the job market as cheap labour had increased to such an extent that It emerged as a serious problem throughout the industrialized world. Labor protests were frequent and were partially resolved through violent baton charges by the police. In the end the bourgeoisie, who owned capital, came into conflict and destroyed each other’s hoarded wealth to create a demand for goods in the market, thereby creating a way to start their own stalled machines. As a result, the problem of unemployment was solved to some extent. By killing workers as soldiers in the war, the job market balance was eventually almost completely but only temporarily preserved. We call this event World War I. A few years later the problem resurfaced periodically and the bourgeoisie waged World War II to confront that problem.

What, however, never seems to happen is the equitable distribution of produce. Equitable distribution of goods and services can stop world wars, create cooperative society instead of competition. The owner bourgeoisie is not willing to take appropriate decisions for this. There is conflict within the bourgeoisie, hence if a capitalist distributes his goods fairly, he will not get a society free of exploitation, but rather he will get a job in another capitalist’s establishment. So no capitalist, even those with good intentions, can decide in favour of an equitable distribution of goods. Due to the lack of equitable distribution of goods, the problem of utility crisis in commodity production systems has reached alarming proportions all over the world over the last two decades. In country after country, workers are burdened with problems, getting angry and looking for ways to protest. Common people, the working people cannot understand how all these problems can be solved. A number of groups of common ownership of property oriented thinkers dedicated to common property and capital ownership around the world have been working since the nineteenth century, failing time and time again, and trying again. The workers, however, often do not have the time to understand the discourse of these thinkers, and so these groups did not and do not have the opportunity to expand. Due to this limitation, these ideas could not become a decisive force anywhere and take effective action against the domination of capital. We follow several steps to bring the working class into the discourse of politics of science and intellectual practice. That is why we study science, humanities and literature from all over the world. We welcome non-communal political forces in the country for the sake of practicing our political style. Under the rule of communal rioters there is no opportunity to practice healthy, independent, creative thinking.

Our reach within social consciousness is very limited, and this limitation is exploited by the regulators of the current commodity production system. They control the state with the right wing of their subordinates and confuse the working class with its left wing.

Before World War I, a left-wing party within Russia’s Duma, or parliament, called the Bolshevik Party, distorted Marx’s understanding of and approaches to common ownership of property. As a result of their seizure of power, the working class there ultimately became subjects of the system of distribution of capital and other resources subordinated to the authoritarian state structure of the Bolsheviks. Earlier the owner of capital was private, and later it was owned by the state. In the name of equitable distribution, the Bolshevik Party of Russia created a state directed system of rule of capital. It was actually a part of the strategy of world capital at that time, which hindered the unity of the industrial working class. The main condition for the unity of the working class of the world on a platform for the social ownership of property is that the working class becomes aware of its own class interests. Those small political parties that play politics in the style of the Bolsheviks still create obstacles on the path of realization of this task. If the leaders of the Bolshevik Party had not inherited and adopted the political system of the Russian state and empire, then the united working class of the industrialized countries would have organized against the bourgeoisie in a class-conscious manner and distributed the resources in a balanced way, and the terrible problems of today’s world market might not have emerged, not at least in their present form.

Rabindranath Thakur wrote to his grandson (daughter’s son) Nitindranath Gangopadhyay, then residing as a student in Germany, in a letter dated 31 July 1931:

“…I am not comfortable with the ideological tendencies emerging from Bavaria in Germany. Just as an epidemic grows stronger in those places where the people are weak due to poverty, today the more famine spreads in Europe, the more Fascism and Bolshevism grow stronger. Both are signs of ill health. No sane person can imagine that people can benefit from the suppression of their independent thinking. When the pangs of hunger increase, stupidity devours people. There is a fear that Bolshevism will spread in India—because famine has increased so much—when death approaches then such tendencies arrive as messengers of the lord of death. The body shudders to see how terrible man is to man—today the people of the whole world have tightened their belts to watch who will surpass whom in this competition for killing others—man has become terrible only to escape from man—there is no end to it—the tornado of killing and counter-killing continues.

“Whatever else you do, beware and don’t socialize with the cabals of these maneaters. Today, Europe is forsaking its greatness in all directions.The people of our country—especially the Bengalees—can imitate others, even if they cannot do anything else—many of them are trying to imitate these European diseases of the day. Save yourself from any contact with this plague of imitation. Surely you have a lot of those Indians at your place who are possessed by these demons, don’t go anywhere near them, and concentrate on your own work.â€
[Rabindranath Thakur, চিঠিপতৠর [Letters], Fourth Volume (Poush1350/December-January 1944): 179-180; Kolkata: Visva-Bharati Granthalaya.]

In those days, the struggle of the workers all over the world was influenced by the so-called socialist revolution of the Bolsheviks, which was in fact nothing more than a military coup. Likewise during the struggle against the rule of capital in China, Vietnam, Cuba, Myanmar, and many other countries, the pro-Soviet parties and groups did agitate against the local governments, but they did that to perpetuate the system of political economy dominated by capital.

Something similar happened in the undivided state of Pakistan. The Pakistani state expanded exploitation to recoup the losses of World War II, leading to resentment against the Pakistani state, mainly among the country’s working class. The government of Pakistan wanted to crack the unity of the people to suppress public protests, so they encouraged Hindus and Muslims to riot against each other. The Pakistani government took the side of the Muslims in those riots, as Muslims were the majority in Pakistan. Awami League was then the main opposition party in Bangladesh and the popular leader of that party was Sheikh Mujibur Rahaman, the father of the former Prime Minister of Bangladesh. Influenced by the Soviet experience, Sheikh Mujib wanted to transform Bangladesh into a non-exploitative and non-communal society according to his own logic. He and his party led movements against communal riots, mass uprisings and the 1971 War of Liberation. Most of the workers of the country joined the non-communal movement of Awami League. Bangladesh emerged as a new secular state with the eventual partition of Pakistan. The basic principle of the constitution of Bangladesh was Nationalist Socialism i.e. State Capitalism and Non-Sectarian Democracy. State capitalism is also only a branch of capitalism, so the constitution of Bangladesh, like those of the USSR and PRC, could not overcome the rule of capital. Non-sectarian democracy is a process of decision-making about the affairs of the state based on majority opinion. That view does not go against secularism. That is why, the history of Awami League is the history of practice and development of secularism in Bangladesh.

We who work to expand the international communist movement, practice secularism and involve women in various social activities. As a result, it is necessary to continue the trend of secularism in the state system for our own development. However, during the liberation war of 1971, a large number of our educated and thoughtful freedom fighters were killed by the Pakistan Army and most of the remaining fighters migrated to different countries with the aim of acquiring education and skills to restructure the country’s economy. As a result, the practice of secularism in Bangladesh was severely hampered and the mainstream of the Awami League began to shrink and a wide range of communal and anarchist riotous political movements were allowed to expand. In this situation, many panislamist political sects tried to increase their sectarian organization in Bangladesh. They had earlier unsuccessfully helped the Pakistani army in its unrealized aim of continuing with the structures of an Islamic state during the liberation war. We call them Razakars. About them see:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Razakars_(Pakistan)

The situation now

At present, a lot of people in Bangladesh are being influenced by the ideals of the Razakars and they are practicing that style of politics in an organized manner. The activists of the Awami League and children of the secular fighters of 1971 were influenced by the ideals of secularism and we who join political activities motivated by intellectual concerns, join with them out of logical necessity. Former Prime Minister of Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina was influenced by the spirit of secularism through her organizational work and paternal legacy and worked towards building a non-sectarian Bangladesh.

We held a massive rally in our capital city Dhaka in 2013 demanding that the Razakars be punished. We hoped to restrain rabid communalism on ground. Prime Minister Hasina has been trying to raise awareness against communalism during the recent years. As a part of this, initiatives were taken to make the textbooks science-based and women were being encouraged to become more educated and fit for employment in the world beyond their domestic life, which had a profound effect on the madrasas as well. The non-sectarian policies of the Bangladesh government went against the Islamic rules and often the madrasa students went on the rampage chanting "Mani Na - Mani Na" ["We don’t accept - we don’t accept"]. A video went viral, showing a journalist asking some protesting students: "What do you really disagree with?" In response, the students of those madrasas said "We don’t know". The dozens of radical Islamist groups thus organized often join forces with Bangladesh’s main opposition political party, the BNP, to form a larger anti-government coalition. The language of their protest happens to be: setting fire to various government offices, burning of cars, throwing bombs, killing policemen with various indigenous weapons, etc. They are not very good at conversation, after around two minutes of conversation they start talking about irrelevant issues and personally attack their interlocutors.

What is “Awami-Fascism†?

Those of us who practice secularism are often in a state of panic. Many members of our forum were also stabbed and shot by them earlier. We were forced to forego our right to free expression for a while and secular democracy began to falter. Finally, the administration became active in dealing with the situation. This governmental activism is called “Awami-fascism†by communal groups. This term is now used by the media all over the world. The image of “Awami fascism†seen in and through the TV, newspapers and magazines around the world during the last few days is only a part of the situation in Bangladesh. On the other hand, the terrorist activities carried out by the people influenced by the ideology of the Razakars since the beginning of Bangladesh were and are absent in the mass media of the world. That is why, it is not easy for the people of the rest of the world to understand whether “Awami League’s fascism†is unjust or a just protest against mob violence instigated by the communal forces at the behest of their overseas masters located elsewhere. Pontificating after reading only the last four and a half lines about some unfolding social, historical and political reality, and supporting any one side in the internal affairs of a country by people from the rest of the world is an act of knee-jerk injustice. This gullibility is increasing and after the coup d’état of August 5 at Dhanmondi it is now being called a democratic revolution. The English and the anglophone historians still officially refer to the palace intrigues leading to the farce of a Battle at Palashi in 1757 as the Revolution in Bengal in their writings. Please see the entry on their famous encyclopedia, last updated on 09 August 2024:

https://www.britannica.com/place/India/Revolution-in-Bengal

Now the holier than thou fake wisemen of the West and those from among our homegrown ignorant chatterati who go high smoking the used Chillum doled out by their western masters are busy scripting and shooting their new gothic opera: Palashi 2.0 at Dhaka.

Quota Reforms for Jobs under the Government

As with all other terrorist activity by the sectarian groups in Bangladesh, the ongoing quota reform movement involved blocking roads and torching hundreds of government buildings. When the police tried to stop them, they attacked the police. These incidents are consistent with the prior planning of the BNP-Jamaat combine, articulated and implemented at various times.

About two months before this quota reform movement started I happened to attend a secret meeting in their camp where they clarified their plans. I learned that Tariq Rahman, the leader of the opposition party, will provide them with money and they will incite the students to protest all over the country. During this movement they planned to kill around two hundred policemen to frighten the government and eventually bring the power of the state under their control. It was not only the aim and objective of a single forum but the aim and objective of the whole organization. I left the meeting and went from one city to another by train. In the seat next to me sat a lawyer, who claimed to be the leader of the BNP. I had a political talk with him for the next three hours straight. At one point during the conversation he took my phone number and he requested me to join his team. He said that his daughter is a close associate of Tarek Zia in London and showed me a photo of that girl on the display screen of his phone together with Tarek Zia.

At one stage of the discussion, he said, “Sheikh Hasina will have to flee the country soon. We will come down with enough weapons and keep the students in front of us so that we are not questioned by the rest of the world. Our first target is to kill around two hundred policemen.†One day after that encounter at noon I was sitting in the waiting room of a hospital; there was also a Rohingya person. He asked me my name at the beginning. I said “__†. He enquired, “So-and-so __?†I said, “Yes†. Then he spread a large Gamcha [towel] for Namaz and asked me to pray as well. I had a long talk with him after the Zohr prayer. When I asked him about the genocide in Myanmar, he told me, “We are oppressed by the pagans and we want to take revenge. That’s why we who have fled to Bangladesh are progressing as per our plan. We wish to see Bangladesh as a land with 100% Islamic government, so that we can use this country to deliver a reply for the genocide in Myanmar. To this end many of our teams are already working in different sectors and supporting the Islamic organizations of this country. We can stop only after establishing Islam in each country, not before that.â€

Within fifteen hours of the resignation of the former Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina, we have witnessed a situation in Bangladesh that matches the plans of the BNP-Jamaat and the Rohingyas. Leader of the opposition Khaleda Zia, who was in jail on corruption charges, has been released along with her fellow accused and jailed communal militants. 13 policemen were beaten and drowned to death in a single police station. The exact count of how many policemen have been killed so far across the country is not known. It may be over several hundred. They are being killed and hanged on flyovers and from trees. Houses and temples of the Hindus and Bauls are being torched and vandalized across the country. Markets, hotels and police stations are being set on fire. The dead bodies of Awami League leaders and workers are being recovered every day.

In fact when the quota reform movement first started in 2018, I worked to organize the left wing of that movement. I got involved in the quota reform movement and was active first in Dhaka and later in Chittagong. But incidentally, a student of Dhaka University became the main leader of the movement; he was deeply involved with the opposition political party. Sensing the rise of communal forces within the mass movement, I withdrew from the platform organized for the rise of communal power called the Quota Reform Movement.

Much later the movement subsided. But what happened during the last few days in the name of the Quota Reform Movement, lost the character of a mass movement and turned into a front for terrorist activity. Today we know who is causing the mischief by looking at the pattern of their activities. BNP-Jamaat and Rohingyas have a tendency to do politics with fire and weapons. They don’t care about logic. The government of Bangladesh had confirmed its position in favor of the students from the beginning. But the issue of judgment was within the jurisdiction of the Court; That process progressed through several meetings. It needs some time. In the meantime, the Jamaat-BNP-Rajakar and Rohingyas got united and continued blocking roads, vandalizing various structures, houses and cars, setting fires, attacking police, defacing pictures of the Prime Minister, and abusing her.

The whole affair turned into mob violence reminiscent of communal pogroms throughout the country. The hardworking people of the country had to suffer a lot. The country suffered financial loss of tens of millions of Takas. Finally the administration became active, tried to suppress these terrorist activities and the news of this activity reached the whole world. The mass media of the entire world condemned the actions of the Bangladeshi administration and encouraged the terrorist activities of the sectarian groups. This support from the media of the rest of the world worsened the internal situation of Bangladesh. In fact, the reason why these terrorists are agitating in Bangladesh is not clear to the outside world. Further, it is also unclear to a section of the agitators themselves. I am writing these lines to bring to light some of the raison d’être of this movement.

Quota

Since the inception of Bangladesh, as an employer, the government has followed several steps for recruitment in government jobs. First, the candidates have to apply for the job subject to fulfilment of the prescribed qualifications. They then have to pass a written test followed by an oral test. In this way eligible candidates are selected for various jobs; but if there are more than one qualified candidates for a vacancy, then the government recruits in a different manner. The concerned government officer first looks for the children of freedom fighters, who are expected to understand and abide by the secular norms of the government, as they are expected to be imbued with a secular spirit. Second, they try to find the women; the government feels that by making room for their participation in the important work of the state outside the domestic domain, they will be able to break out of the boundaries erected by religious bigotry. Then the looked for the disabled; these people are socially neglected and they cannot afford to do strenuous manual labor. This system of giving preference in jobs to freedom fighters, women and the disabled is called the quota system. Giving employment to the children of freedom fighters in this way is called “Jobs in Mukti Joddha Quota †. There are no defects in this method . However, the protestors complained, “Jobs are being given on the basis of quota, not on the basis of merit†. In fact the statement is false, as the quota holders and the non-quota holders must have the same educational qualifications for recruitment to the same post. The agitators also complained, “If the children of the freedom fighters occupy the job market, the rest of the country is deprived of the benefits of jobs†. In fact, this statement is misleading, since the children of the freedom fighters are also people of this country, so the people of this country are not deprived of benefits in the job market. Thus there is no limit to the quota system, what there is is an unfounded and bloated emphasis on it. In fact, as opposed to proving the limitations of the quota system, the campaigners against it have revealed the limitations of their own understanding. Basically, Bangladesh has become a country of blind lunatics under the influence of the propaganda of the Razakars.

At the forefront of this movement stands a group of blind and mad students, whose views and statements are out of touch with reality. They wanted to turn this movement into an anti-government movement to resist the practice of secularism and they have successfully done that. There is another section that wants to be part of the exploitation by capital in the name of Islam. The left parties are also on the streets supporting this movement. The Left’s argument for this movement is majoritarianism. What the majority wants, the left also wants. Leftists understand democracy, but not secularism. As a result, the struggle of the Left supported the communal power of BNP-Jamaat. Instead of becoming a decisive anti-capitalist force, they have transformed into an anti-Sheikh Hasina force. They say that they want Sheikh Hasina’s resignation instead of saying that they want the abolition of the rule of. Instead of saying that they want to abolish the wage-labour system, they are saying that they want wage-labourers in the market. They want a "socialist" government instead of the abolition of the system of government. Instead of saying they want the abolition of the state, they want a "socialist" state. These claims are unrealistic, sentimental claims looking toward the past. These demands have confused the movements of the working classes in the past, the aspirations of the workers have been frustrated and the workers have been discouraged about the communist movement in politics. Ultimately these activities perpetuate the commodity production system.

Majority is not a rational criterion for judging the rationality of some issue. For the past few days, lakhs of communal people have been blocking the entire Bangladesh pushing an unjust demand. The Bangladesh government of the day had first requested the countrymen not to create chaos. But the Bengal blockers did not pay heed to the request of the government. The Government of Bangladesh continued its struggle against great odds. The police fired teargas shells and bullets to bring the situation under control. However, encouraged by the enthusiasm of the communal groups, some students committed suicide facing the bullets. In fact, what happened to the victim students was the inevitable consequence of their own excessive emotions.

The agitators proudly chanted: “Who are you, who am I - Razakar, Razakar†. It is now clear to us who stoked the ongoing violence and why. Now it is more clear why the quota system is more important for us. It is now very clear to us that those who were defeated in their attempts at building a communal state in 1971 have not yet come out of the resultant grief. They are still working to turn Bangladesh into a new Afghanistan.

The quota reform movement was basically just an attempt to bring the BNP to power. We don’t want the Rajakars to put into practice their out-of-the-mainstream thinking about the important affairs of the state. We do not want BNP-Jamaat to revive their ideals and values ​​by stoking misguided emotions around an ordinary issue in this country. We don’t want secular Bangladesh to turn into an Afghanistan. In the end, the anti-quota movement turned out to be nothing more than an irrational disturbance for the government. We can now legally and morally demand compensation for damages done across the country from the opposition. I would also like to say to the world outside Bangladesh, it is not fair to consider the justification of a movement on the basis of majority. The Awami League has been strict about eradicating an ideological trend that is most harmful to the development of civilization, “communalism†; but before this could take roots the obscurantist militants killed our freethinkers indiscriminately. They express their anger against the inclusion of the theory of evolution in textbooks. They often attack the country’s minority communities. The houses of the Hindus were burnt. They tore down the huts of the Bauls. Time had come for a stern reply to the communal groups. When Salafi militancy becomes normal, it becomes rational to prevent it. If the government did not stop the unjust activities of the communal groups then it would have had the worst effect on the people of this country. That is why, the deterrent activities of the Bangladesh government and administration have been entirely in the public interest. I would like to say to those who think that Awami League was unjust, "Awami League was not unjust, it tried to curb injustice".

No one is saying that Awami League is filled to the brim with selfless Sufi-saints and Aul-Bauls. Such people never run governments anywhere in the world. But there is an example right next door, about what happens when we dethrone our secular rulers in a fit of rage and enthrone some bigoted communal kings and viziers. Our leftists could not become a decisive force as an alternative to our government. So their anti-government moves support the BNP-Jamaat. For those who consider the now dominant political alliance of BNP-Jamaat to be an alternative to the Awami League, my question is: "Who gave the certificate of saintliness to the BNP?" After the August 5th coup, the answer is loud and clear: multinational capital.

Multinational capital aims to loot the natural and social resources of Bangladesh and its surroundings

It was a mystery to me, for a while, as to why Al-Jazeera often wanted to paint the Bangladesh government in a bad light by fabricating false stories. A few days ago I discussed the ongoing political problems of Bangladesh with some people who are curious about Marx studies and South Asian societies. That discussion gave me some new insight, about the Mukhda of the Bandish, and the fast tempo of the Aalap, of the Quota Reform Movement, before the Jhaalaa of our latest coup d’état. With the support of Al-Jazeera and without any rationale for the movement, some Bangladeshi evil-intellectuals got an opportunity to serve US imperialism and mislead the outside world about the events of Bangladesh. Their evil-chatterati brothers and friends in the neighbouring countries also jumped into the already muddied waters of this manufactured public opinion, hoping to get an opportunity to please their Western masters. The last mob frenzy in Bangladesh may be the result of a long-term effort by multinational capital, which grabbed world media headlines even before it started; and many media outlets such as Al-Jazeera added to the chaos in Bangladesh by airing interviews with some Bangladeshi evil-intellectuals. After that, many in the outside world made statements in favor of the Quota Reform Movement and criticized the then government of Bangladesh. To get some bearing about why today’s capital-driven media was so obsessed with the Quota Reform Movement and Bangladesh, it is essential to take stock of the natural and social resources of the Bay of Bengal and its surrounding areas.

It is common ground that there exists a long-term effort by multinational capital associated with America, Saudi Arabia and the states around the Persian Gulf to occupy and control the waters, petroleum, precious ores and human resources of the Bay of Bengal, Bangladesh, Northeast India and Myanmar. The study of this topic can begin with the book Super-Imperialism: The Economic Strategy of the American Empire written by Michael Hudson and published in 1972, barely a year after the birth of Bangladesh.

(Author: Kazi Tanveer Hosen (2004-), opinion columnist and organizer of reconstruction of the communist movement)
(Translation and editing: Pradip Baksi (1948-), translator and editor of some works of Karl Marx)