Hidebound by history

Photo: Star Archive

ON May 20, the High Court disclosed its full version of the verdict on the 1976 trial of Colonel Taher, which was already announced on March 22, 2011. The court ruled that the execution of the late colonel was "illegal and unconstitutional" and that it was masterminded by none other than the late president Ziaur Rahman. The court ruling further said that, henceforth, Taher would be treated as a martyr and a patriot instead of a traitor.

It's nothing new that history is shifted like goalposts while truth is dragged from port to port. There are many examples of how history is a mere tool by which the victors write their future agenda.

The Stalinists removed Leon Trotsky from historic photos of the Russian Revolution. The Chinese leader Mao Ze Dung purged his party colleagues one by one, his revolution looking shriveled like an aging face losing its teeth one after another. French revolutionary Maximilien de Robespierre imprecated the Reign of Terror because he believed it was necessary to discover and reveal the enemy within Paris, within France, the enemy that hid in the safety of apparent patriotism. He had his former revolutionary colleagues Danton, Desmoulins and many others arrested and guillotined before he also met their fate in less than four months.

Thirty-seven years ago, Ziaur Rahman had history on his side. He ordered the trial and execution of Taher and had him removed from the picture. The table has turned on Zia today and his enemies are now trying to toss him out of there. There are those amongst the political and military leaders of this country who believe Zia had to crush Taher and his Gono Bahini to restore discipline in the army. The Taher sympathisers take an opposite view. They contend that Zia betrayed the same man who had rescued him from house arrest on November 7, 1975. They also insist that Zia had Taher hanged after a sham trial to claw his way to power.

In Georg Buchner's Danton's Death, a controversial play about the French Revolution, Danton said, "Revolution is like Saturn, it devours its own children." In our case, whether we blame one side or another, we have got two decorated freedom fighters pitted against each other. They fought together, fought for each other, and then they also fought with each other. In the end, they both got consumed by the same power struggle that is still killing people in this country. Zia was gunned down roughly five years after Taher's hanging on July 21, 1976. Thirty-two years ago, renegade soldiers took his life at Chittagong Circuit House on the fateful night of May 30, 1981.

The country is divided on the issue of who is less heroic of these two heroes. If one court (a military tribunal) found Taher guilty of treason, another found enough reasons to convict Zia. It's said that in the corporate world, today's hero is tomorrow's zero. Heroes are those who get to bask in history's sunshine. Zeroes are when history dims out on them, leaving them in its damp and dark corners.

In a country where history is handled with the ease of changing pictures in a frame, we have to wait and see which picture will outlast the other. Another 37 years later, we might see yet another flip-flop, another tossing tournament that will give us a different picture. Are we never going to learn that hollowed history can't be hallowed?

There are only two options in politics. One resembles chess game, another card game. Chess is an endgame, which can last until the opponent is eliminated to the last piece. Card game is different because one can reshuffle the cards and start all over again.

Unless we collectively learn to forgive and forget, we shall never be able to logically end our pursuit of vengeance to its logical end. Zia had his moment in history. Taher has got his now. Has our history reached that equilibrium point when we can start thinking of a national reconciliation and move on?

The crocodiles have a chemical in their blood that heals the horrendous wounds they inflict on each other. Some nations have that capacity in their political system. They fight, forgive and forget in their abiding tradition of putting their country before everything else.

For us, the wound always festers. The power struggle that tore apart Zia and Taher decades ago, still continues to divide us. Proud nations make history, but why isn't that the case for this country? The answer is that we have been living in history more than history is living in us. Hidebound by history, we go on fighting over mistakes without learning anything from the past.

The writer is the Editor of weekly First News and an opinion writer for The Daily Star. Email: [email protected]