Celebrity politicians: A diverse history
Political parties who have committed to participating in the upcoming 12th parliamentary election are preparing in full swing. The Awami League and Jatiya Party have announced their list of nominees, and interestingly, it includes a handful of celebrities.
Shakib Al Hasan, Ferdous Ahmed, Asaduzzaman Noor, Momotaz Begum, Mashrafe Mortaza, and Abdus Salam Murshedi are all famous for careers outside of politics.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel. 
While this election will be the first taste of politics for Shakib and Ferdous, the others have already served at least one term as a member of parliament.
So, have celebrities in the past been able to leverage their fame to enact positive change as lawmakers?
Out of the current crop of celebrity politicians, Asaduzzaman Noor is the most experienced parliamentarian. Having served four consecutive terms as an MP from Nilphamari-2, he will seek reelection for a fifth time in January, 2024.
In 2013, he suffered tragedy as his election convoy was attacked in the buildup to the national election, and five people were killed. Since then, Noor has had a steady career as a politician, with an appointment to the cabinet as minister for cultural affairs between 2014 and 2019.
Momtaz Begum is going to vie for a third consecutive term as an MP in the upcoming election. She served in a reserved women's seat in the 9th parliament, and after that, starting from 2014, she served two consecutive terms as an elected representative from Manikganj-2. Momtaz, possibly Bangladesh's most famous folk singer, has made headlines for singing songs in parliament at various times. This year, she sang two songs during the budget debate, and in 2014, the speaker even extended her time allotment so she could finish her two songs about the prime minister and the father of the nation.
In terms of contributing to her community, Momtaz has claimed that she took her constituency from 30 percent to 100 percent electricity coverage during her time as an MP.
Mashrafe Bin Mortaza, elected MP from Narail-2 in the 2018 election, is possibly the most celebrated cricket captain in Bangladesh. His election came in the build-up to the 2019 cricket world cup, where both the team and the captain suffered bad performances. Since then, his cricket career has faltered, but as an MP, he has taken on more important responsibilities. He is a member of the parliamentary standing committee on the Ministry of Youth and Sports.
Mashrafe has also been in the news for taking active roles in settling disputes between current cricketers.
After Tamim Iqbal's shock retirement before the world cup this year, Mashrafe Bin Mortaza was present in a meeting held between Tamim Iqbal and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. The meeting ended with Tamim being convinced by the PM to retract his retirement and continue his playing career.
Abdus Salam Murshedi is high in the list of the greatest football stars Bangladesh has ever produced, and since his retirement, he has tried his hand at various high profile roles. He has been involved with the Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF), is a noted figure in the readymade garment industry, and has also served as the president of BGMEA. He is also a director of a major private bank. In 2018, he ran for election from the Khulna-4 constituency.
In recent times, he made headlines when a probe committee of the Ministry of Housing and Public Works found that he had been occupying a house illegally in Gulshan.
Looking further into the past, more famous names show up. Legendary film actor Kabori Sarwar was the MP from Narayanganj-4 in the 9th parliamentary polls, and she only served one term. One of her contemporaries on the silver screen, Akbar Hossain Pathan Farooque, was elected from Dhaka-17 during the last election in 2018, but he passed away before completing his term. From the field of cricket, Naimur Rahman Durjoy has served two terms in the parliament from 2014 to 2023, but he has been unable to secure nomination from his party, Awami League, for a third term.
This trend of celebrities using their fame to excel in the field of politics is far from new. In nearby countries, celebrity politicians have scaled the pyramid of power to rise to the very top.
Consider Imran Khan, who, even after serving as the Prime Minister of Pakistan from 2018 to 2022, is probably still better known as the captain who won Pakistan its only cricket world cup. The star of his political career rose all throughout the 2000s, after he established his party, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, in 1996. He served as an MP, and then led massive protests against the status quo in Pakistani politics.
After the 2013 election in Pakistan, he became the leader of the opposition, and then finally became prime minister in 2018. However, he was ousted from power in 2022 following a vote of no confidence.
India, the world's largest democracy, understandably has a long list of celebrity politicians. The BJP government, in particular, includes celebrities from all corners of India as members of various legislatures, at national and state level. Sunny Deol, Hema Malini and Kirron Kher are three Bollywood stars who represent BJP and are current members of the Lok Sabha, the lower house of India's parliament. Gautam Gambhir, hero of two ICC final wins for the Indian cricket team, is also a member of the Lok Sabha from BJP.
Smriti Irani rose to fame playing Tulsi, the role of the ideal homemaker in the Indian soap opera, Kyun Ki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi. But her political career has been even more impressive, as she beat Rahul Gandhi to secure her seat as a member of the Lok Sabha in the last election. She's now serving as the minister for minority affairs in India's Union Cabinet.
Looking beyond BJP, it's West Bengal where a handful of movie stars have won their tickets to the parliament, mostly through the All India Trinamool Congress. Mimi Chakraborty, Dev, and Nusrat Jahan are three such actor-politicians.
In the upper house of the Indian parliament, Jaya Bachchan serves as an MP for India's Samajwadi party. Her megastar husband, Amitabh, served as an MP in the late 80s as well, for the Indian National Congress.
In Sri Lanka, famous cricketers Sanath Jayasuriya and Arjuna Ranatunga have both had long political careers. But the most interesting celebrity in Sri Lankan politics is their former president, Mahinda Rajapaksa. In 1994, he appeared in a Sinhalese movie titled Nomiyena Minisun.
Looking westward, the USA is the land where celebrities taking elected office have gone the whole distance, to remarkable effect. Donald Trump was mostly famous as a reality TV star, before he became the face of the Republican party, then the countries president from 2017 to 2021, and now continues to be one of the most influential political voices in American politics, even after his loss in the 2020 election.
And Trump is not even the only celebrity to become president of the USA. The other instance is of Ronald Reagan, who had a stint as a Hollywood star in his younger days, mostly starring in B films. He starred in over 50 films, including a handful of westerns during the end of his movie career.
Arnold Schwarzenegger, the man who was famous for playing a superhuman character in Conan the Barbarian and a non-human character in the Terminator movies, became the governor of California and held office for two terms.
Among famous politicians from across the world who were famous for other things, Idi Amin is a name that pops up. The infamous dictator of Uganda was apparently a boxing champion in the 1950s, and even tried his luck in swimming as well as rugby.
People the world over complain that politicians are often not the smartest or most talented individuals in their country. But in Russia, two of the smartest men ever, chess legends Anatoly Karpov and Gary Kasparov, have both tried their hands in politics. Gary Kasparov even contested the presidential election in 2008, but lost.
To end this long list of celebrities who have held elected office, let's talk about one famous man who was able to help his country achieve peace without holding office.
Didier Drogba, a footballer from Côte D'Ivoire, once played a world cup qualifier in his home country, won the game, and took the opportunity to address the nation. He pleaded with the fighters in his country's ongoing civil war to stop, and thus a ceasefire was reached after five years of fighting. An election eventually took place without any bloodshed.
Comments