Bangladesh Awami League's Diamond Jubilee
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Daily Star, Dhaka, Bangladesh
Friday, June 26, 2009
EDITORIAL
Awami League At 60
The Awami League observed the 60th anniversary of its founding on June
23 with enthusiasm as people's expectations of its maturity and
experience to deliver grow. It has traversed a tortuous path through
the decades and played a significant role in shaping the destiny of
the country. Indeed, the Awami League, as a truly mass-based political
organization, can legitimately lay claim to glory, given that it has
itself been instrumental in the making of history.
Any deliberation on the Awami League necessarily brings to mind the
pioneering role played in its formation and initial growth by such
stalwarts as Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy and Moulana Abdul Hamid Khan
Bhashani. Sher-e-Bangla AK Fazlul Huq became part of the Jukta Front
that won the historic election of 1954. And with them came the younger
crop of leaders, such as Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Tajuddin Ahmed, Syed
Nazrul Islam, et al, who would in subsequent years leave a
historically lasting imprint on not only the party but also the people
of Bangladesh. But such a recapitulation of the Awami League's past
cannot be complete without recalling the repression it was subjected
to in the days of Pakistan right up to the genocide of 1971.
The best years for the party were surely the period between 1966 and
1971, when its seminal Six Point plan for regional autonomy in
Pakistan gradually but surely broadened out into a wider struggle for
Bengali freedom once its triumph at the general elections of 1970 was
subverted by Pakistan's ruling military junta. The party, made the
target of a vicious assault by the army, proved itself equal to the
task of forging mass resistance through forming the Mujibnagar
government in April 1971 in conjunction with its allies and initiating
war of liberation against Pakistan.
Yet there have been the moments when it veered away from its
democratic ideals. Such a tragic turn in its political course occurred
in January 1975, when the party, being in government, swiftly moved to
replace multi-party democracy with one-party Baksal rule, in the
process banning all but four newspapers and placing those in the
control of the government
That said, however, in the years since 1975, when its entire top
leadership was eliminated through assassination, the Awami League has
come a long way, enough to have gained public support (in 1996 and
2008) in order to become once more the party of government. The credit
for the achievement goes to its leaders and its workers across the
country.
In the times ahead, popular expectations of the Awami League will
expand and diversify. The party can satisfy those expectations through
ensuring a continued growth and expansion of internal party democracy.
Happily, at the last elections, such a trend was noticeable when it
was the party grassroots which played a leading role in selecting
candidates for parliament. Such transparency must be reflected at all
tiers of the party. At the same time, the party must remember that its
overwhelming victory at the December 2008 elections has devolved upon
it a huge responsibility in that it will be expected to implement its
promises and policies. It must carefully guard against even any hint
of arrogance of power that political parties with overwhelming
electoral majorities have often been susceptible to. Again, the Awami
League can bring about a wholesale transformation within itself
through utilizing the abilities of its senior politicians and at the
same time going for an infusion of new, young blood in the
organisation.
Finally, now that it is in government, its leaders must be able to
distinguish between the party and the government -- in the interest of
democratic politics.