AL politics
Abu Sufiyan, Lalmatia, Dhaka
The Awami League succeeded in deceiving the middle class for long that it believed in secularism, non-communal politics and sustains the ideals of liberal humanism. Nothing is far from truth. Actually it is a communal party like the BNP-Jamaat alliance. The talk of secularism, non-communalism and opposition to religion in politics were just demagoguery and crafted to draw Hindu votes and earn respectability in the eyes of liberal humanist intellectuals of the country and in the west. It's really surprising that it managed to appear in such a garb before the liberal humanist intellectuals who in their mistaken belief supported the party. But now the Awami League has the honesty to come out in its true colours. We must thank Hasina for this decision. The liberal humanists, however disappointed, shouldn't lose heart. They must organise a party of their own and stand on their feet instead of blindly supporting the Awami League. Those who are protesting such misdemeanour by the Awami League should recall 1996 when it took the Jamaat in its wings. The Awami League never assisted Jahanara Imam and kept distance from Ekatturer GDNC. Neither it sympathised with Taslima Nasreen in 1994 when Mulla Habibur Rahman of Sylhet was demanding her head for blasphemy. Now Hasina has nominated this Bengali Mulla Omar for the Parliament! The BNP was far more judicious than Awami League in treating Taslima. Nor did the BNP agreed to Jamaat's demand to enact the blasphemy law. The first Awami League government had the opportunity to scrap the Enemy Properties Act, but it did not. In persecuting Hindus the AL is not far behind the BNP-Jamaat. It appears that the Awami League has frittered away whatever sympathy it had drawn to it in the last five years BNP-Jamaat misrule by this single act of siding with Fatwawallahs. However it cannot expect to win in the election under the existing set-up.
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