A political syllabus from the BNP

Photo: Paul Gilligan- Getty Images

The Bangla-desh Nationalist Party has just launched a political training programme for its leading figures as well as workers. That seems to be a good move, seeing that tens of thousands of politically oriented people in this country clearly do not know what they should be doing about politics even as they make themselves part of the process.
If you go back to the history of communist movements around the world, you will have cause to rekindle in yourselves all those realities of men and women driven by idealism willing and ready to indoctrinate themselves in Marxist principles, even in what later came to be known as Marxism-Leninism. But those days are gone, thanks to Mikhail Gorbachev's flawed politics of perestroika and glasnost. In these days of a surfeit of banalities, ideology is dead and idealism lies comatose. Politics is but a mere shadow of what it once used to be.
Perhaps the BNP, suddenly driven by a zeal for that gleaming past, is in the mood to let us in on thoughts of how enlightening politics can be as a vocation? No, we do not expect anything remotely of a socialist sort from the party. It would be naïve to entertain such thoughts in the first place. But we do expect it, after all the battering it has been through in the past, to turn away from the bad old days and actually persuade us into thinking that it finally means to come forth as a modern, knowledge-based organisation.
That, however, does not seem about to happen. You only need to cast a cold eye at the syllabus the party means to follow at its school of training. And why this training? You have the chairperson of the party answering your question. If one needs to tackle the Awami League, says Begum Khaleda Zia, one must be adequately armed with political education based on an understanding of contemporary issues. The issues, for the Begum, happen to be the substance of the syllabus. You could forgive yourself for supposing that you are going back to school. But do observe the contents of the syllabus these BNP people must master before they can go back home, each with a certificate in his or her hand.
Those who take part in the training programme (interestingly, on the opening day of the training, veteran BNP leaders were subjected to classroom lectures by some of the BNP's favourite intellectuals) must demonstrate a command over the following subjects if they mean to handle the Awami League: common rivers and treaties between India and Bangladesh; the fifteenth amendment to the constitution; globalisation and contemporary international politics; activities of Bangladesh's post-war (meaning Bangabandhu's) government; one-party rule as imposed in 1975 and "historic" November 7.
It all appears to be a pretty good set of themes for those identifying themselves with the BNP to work on. But, again, you do not spot any novelty here, for these are themes the BNP has been screaming from rooftops down the years. Perhaps one could help the party in adding a new dimension to its training programme by suggesting certain additions to the syllabus? Here's how it could be done. There could be a separate subject on how the rule of law can be kept at bay through an instrument called the indemnity act. Furthermore, the training could impart to participants lessons on how Bangladesh's history can be papered over through turning Bangabandhu and the Mujibnagar leaders into non-persons, through taking the term "Pakistani" out of "Pakistani occupation army" and simply have a harmless "occupation army" doing the rounds.
A rich addition to the syllabus could come through a chapter on how power can be seized by generals, who can then proceed to knifing some sacred fundamental principles out of the constitution. Ah, yes, a sub-chapter could be prepared on the matter of who declared independence in the name of which "great national leader" and how this lie can perpetuate itself into a false myth. And, lest we forget, a revealing chapter could deal with how dictators can preside over the executions as well as disappearances of hundreds of military officers and soldiers through so-called courts martial and feel no contrition at all.
So there are all the endless possibilities here. Apart from these additional chapters coming into the BNP syllabus, there could be some good, hard questions the training programme participants might answer, with good dollops of help from party leaders and their in-house intellectuals. How's this for an example: With reference to the Magura by-election rigging of 1994, how can a party create an unforeseen crisis for a nation and how can that crisis finally be resolved?
There could be more. Here's one: What are the ways and means by which an election commission headed by unscrupulous men can create fictitious voter rolls through enrolling people decomposing in their graves as voters? Another: under what conditions can a president of the republic commandeer the job of chief of a caretaker government and then turn that government into a bad joke? One more: Write an essay, in 300-400 words, explaining why political parties which lose elections have the right to stay away from parliament without forfeiting the salaries and other benefits of their legislators?
A compulsory question might go something like this: What are the means by which such irritatingly nationalist slogans as Joi Bangla may be replaced by such beautifully horrendous ideas as Bangladesh Zindabad? Perhaps the BNP could also have its pupils prepare for a viva on the question of how modern-day secularism could be supplanted by medieval communalism?
All syllabi are a pathway to education, ladies and gentlemen. And they must have meat in them.

The writer is Executive Editor, The Daily Star.
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