Sheikh Hasina Sheikh Hasina has had a mercurial political career

Sheikh Hasina has had a mercurial political career

The Dynamic Women Leadership in South Asia: Sheikh Hasina    

The life of Bangladesh Awami League leader Sheikh Hasina, almost from her childhood, has been characterised by a series of highs and lows.

The highs included witnessing as a child her father's release from imprisonment in Pakistan to become Bangladesh's first president and her own stint as prime minister in which she was undisputed leader of her country and her Awami League.

On the other side, she had to bear the murder of her father and other members of her family during a coup in 1975, her own ignominious fall from power as prime minister and more recently her arrest and imprisonment on corruption charges.

Sheikh Hasina was born in September 1947 with politics in her blood.

She stepped into the limelight following the 1975 murders - she and her sister, Sheikh Rehana, are only believed to have escaped because they were in Germany at the time. Three of her brothers were killed in the attack.

Sheikh Hasina has always managed to garner support on the treet

The dynastical nature of South Asian politics - the Bhuttos in Pakistan, the Nehru-Gandhi family in India and the Bandaranaikes in Sri Lanka - meant it was almost inevitable that she would forge a similar career path, especially because she had already established a reputation as a student leader at Dhaka University in the run-up to independence in 1971.

Forced into exile following her father's murder, she retuned in 1981 to campaign against the military government of Gen Hossain Mohammad Ershad and spent much of that decade in and out of prison or under house arrest.

After the fall of Gen Ershad, Bangladesh's first elections were held in 1991. They were won by her rival, the leader of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), Khaleda Zia.

By that time the two women had little time for each other, principally because Ms Zia claimed that her husband, Ziaur Rahman, was Bangladesh's true independence hero - not Sheikh Mujib.

The animosity between the two women has if anything grown more bitter over the years as their respective parties alternated in and out power.

Critics say that before and after elections, neither leader was ever prepared to entertain the notion they might lose, and both have over the years shown no scruples about using dirty tactics to undermine their opponents.

'Rigged'

Sheikh Hasina's first taste of power came in June 1996, when she was elected prime minister. She earned credit for signing a water-sharing deal with India and a peace deal with tribal insurgents in the south-east of the country. But at the same time her government was criticised for numerous allegedly corrupt business deals and for being too subservient to India.

Sheikh Hasina was voted out of office in 2001, complaining of a rigged vote. In opposition for a second time, she escaped an assassination attempt in Dhaka which resulted in the deaths of 21 party supporters in 2004.

But her ability to get her supporters out on to the streets remained undiminished. She succeeded in delaying elections scheduled for January 2007 - precipitating a state of emergency - by complaining that they would have been rigged in favour of the BNP.

During nearly two years of military-backed interim government, Sheikh Hasina survived efforts to force her into exile and numerous court cases in which she was accused of corruption during her time in power. She spent about a year in detention and was only let out in late 2008 for medical treatment in the US.

But a combination of her support on the streets and her own iron determination meant that both initiatives came to nought. 

Sheikh Hasina

had to wait for three-and-a-half decades to see justice done in her father’s case. She can now concentrate on delivering on the issues that are on the front burner.

For Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, the Supreme Court verdict sentencing five former army officers, accused of assassinating her father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, to death is a delayed but sweet retribution. It has been a long road to justice for the daughter of the Father of the Nation. She has had to wait for three-and-a-half decades to see justice done. The architect of the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971 was assassinated on August 15, 1975.

Civil society, the media — both radio and television — and a majority of newspaper editorials were quick to welcome the final verdict.

Delivered amid high security by a five-member Bench of the Appellate division, there was consensus that the judgment was a step towards setting the nation’s history right.

Black hole

For the first 21 years after the killing, the case went into a black hole due to an indemnity ordinance promulgated by President Khondker Mushtaque Ahmed to shield the killers. It was only in 1996, when the Awami League was elected back to power, that Parliament disabled the Act and Mujibur’s personal secretary filed a first information report to press ahead with charges against his assassins.

The Bangabandhu case again took a back seat during the Bangladesh Nationalist Party regime of Khaleda Zia and the subsequent caretaker government. It is only after Sheikh Hasina romped home with a convincing victory in December 2008, did hopes of getting justice for the assassinated leader brighten up again. With the pronouncement of the verdict, Sheikh Hasina can now seek the political closure of her personal tragedy and concentrate on delivering on the issues that are on the front burner.

Violence and counter-violence have become a way of life in the subcontinent and Bangladesh is no exception. The mutiny on February 25 and 26 in the headquarters of Bangaldesh Rifles (BDR) in Dhaka by jawans resulted in a bloodbath. Disgruntled over low wages and alleged abuse and misuse by their superiors, the jawans went on a killing spree, gunning down the Director-General of BDR and his wife, and dozens of top army officials. The death toll is reported to be 148.

Coming as it did just two months after she took charge as Prime Minister, the mutiny left Sheikh Hasina, the Awami League, and the people of Bangladesh stunned. Sheikh Hasina showed great courage in personally going to the BDR headquarters and facing the enraged army officers who were baying for the jawans’ blood. She took them on at a free-for-all post-mortem meeting (all captured on YouTube and beamed to millions) and assured them that justice would be done, but only after a proper inquiry was conducted.

During a visit to Bangladesh in May, I spoke to several journalists and members of civil society who praised the courage that a shocked and shaken Sheikh Hasina showed following the mutiny.

Bangladesh is impatient to move on. It wants the Awami League to deliver on its promises after getting a resounding verdict in the last election. Neither the last caretaker government nor the graft-ridden regime of Khaleda Zia delivered on its promises. There are huge expectations from Mujib’s daughter.

Heavy price

Sheikh Hasina is aware of the price she has had to pay for being out of power. Last summer, on her way back from London, she was suddenly informed at the airport that the caretaker government had barred her from returning to Bangladesh. For the next few days, she stayed in a rented flat in London with her sister and lobbied tirelessly with the media, the British and American MPs, and the Bangladeshi community in Britain. Finally, the caretaker government relented and she boarded the flight to Dhaka like a heroine.

A woman whose father fought for the liberation of her country could not be deterred by political rivals. The entire episode turned out to be bad publicity for the caretaker government and a great boost for Sheikh Hasina, who was headed for an election. She won handsomely a few months later.

The trial of war criminals is one of the issues that is occupying mind space in Bangladesh. Civil society is keen that it be conducted in a transparent and just manner. Several Jamaat leaders are in the list of accused and this has led to further polarisation of opposing camps. There is a new effort at retelling the sacrifices of the martyrs of the liberation struggle, in which three million lives were lost. Efforts such as building Liberation War Museums are on.

Sheikh Hasina has a huge stake in reviving the liberation patriotism to counter the anti-liberation forces. After all, it is the elements of patriotism that remember the sacrifices her father made for the country.

A background paper distributed during a meeting to plan a new Liberation Museum in Dhaka which I attended this year read: “It is an effort at connecting our present with our past. An effort at telling ourselves that it was indeed a war to uphold a distinctly different culture that this nation has, as opposed to the so-called two-nation theory on which the theocratic state of Pakistan was based. A nation cannot be born for the sake of a particular religion alone.”

Rabindranath Tagore’s 147th birth anniversary celebrations peaked in public spaces and on the many Bengali television channels in Bangladesh. In comparison, the media coverage on Tagore in India pales into insignificance.

But apart from attempting a Bengali cultural and social revival, there is pressing business to be attended to. The problem inherited by all of South Asia ails Bangladesh too — of home-grown terrorists. So in this very crucial term of office, Sheikh Hasina is a Prime Minister with a mission. She has made it very clear that she will move against forces — referred to as Jongis (terrorists) in Bengali — that support terrorism on Bangladeshi soil.

‘Fight or perish’

Supported by an experienced Home Minister Sahara Khatun and a young, hands-on and media savvy Minister of State for Home Tanjim Ahmed Sohel Taj, Sheikh Hasina has put the fight against counter terrorism on top of her government’s agenda. The popular saying in Bangladesh these days is: “Fight terrorism or perish like Pakistan.”

Tracing the missing grenades and weaponry after the BDR mutiny remains a major area of concern for the Awami League, lest they fall into the wrong hands within Bangladesh or across the border in India or Pakistan.

The arrest of ULFA mastermind Arabinda Rajkhowa in the country last week and his handover to India this week demonstrate that the Hasina government is determined not to allow Bangladeshi soil to be used as a safe haven for terrorists.

The global recession too has fuelled social problems. It has meant the huge migrant workforce of Bangladeshis abroad being shown the door and repatriated back home. It is estimated that by year-end, one lakh workers may be forced to return to their country.

Sheikh Hasina’s new slogan is the dream of a “Digital Bangladesh.” The Prime Minister is keen on shoring up Information Technology and knowledge-based industries in Bangladesh to address joblessness, and is reported to have channelled 4,900 crore Bangladeshi takas to establish such industries.

The slogan may be ridiculed by frustrated cabbies trying to negotiate the car through thousands of rickshaws on Dhaka’s mindboggling streets. But for millions of middle-class students passing out of the country’s universities, it offers a ray of hope for a safe, self-reliant and modern Bangladesh 38 years after it gained independence.