Mostafa Kamal Majumder
There had been a new dimension in the movement of the opposition and the government’s technique of tackling the same. While the programme for the ‘democracy killing day’ of the Bnp-led 20-party alliance had began with the Bnp chief Khaleda Zia being at her besieged Gulshan Party office, the blockade programme started on Tuesday with the Bnp acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir also remaining besieged at the National Press Club Dhaka since Monday morning.
As Bnp chairperson Khaleda Zia’s Gulshan party office where she was staying still remained under strong police siege till 11 am Tuesday, the blockade programme of the Bnp-led alliance was progressing with the movement of its two top leaders remaining totally curbed.
While in the case of Khaleda Zia the veritable captor law enforcers continued to say that they had been there around her party office just to give her increased security, those guarding the entrance and exit of the National Press Club were searching every vehicle that came out of there apparently to find if Mirza Fakhrul was leaving in anyone of those. They were not spelling out their plans to journalists. Those covering the dramatic developments at the National Press Club reported that law enforcers brought everything including prison vans there only increasing the apprehension that they are there to arrest the acting secretary general of the Bnp. Before the start of Monday’s ‘democracy killing day’ programme of the main opposition parties, law enforcers had raided the house of Mirza Fakhrul but did not find him there.
The Bnp acting secretary general had gone to the Press Club to attend a discussion meeting of the ‘Peshajibi Parishad’ on which the pro-AL journalist union made an issue as to why a political ‘outsiders’ should be inside the Press Club. Leaders of the pro-AL journalist union were on the day demonstrating against what they termed as ‘militancy and anarchy’ while those of the pro-Bnp journalist union against arrest and harassment of journalists.
At one stage on Monday the two factions confronted each other with slogans and counter slogans and there was tension in the arena. In no time some members of the ‘Muktijuddha Projanma League’, allifiliate of the AL who had earlier in the morning taken position outside the club’s main gate, stormed the club premise by scaling the gate and welding sticks in everybody’s hands. They beat up some journalists of the pro-Bnp union. Prime Minister’s press adviser, in the rank and status of a minister, Iqbal Sobhan Chowdhury, who was with the pro-AL journalist union leaders, was seen asking the Projanma League workers to go out of the club premise. A former journalist union leader and member of the National press club, Chowdhury then stated that the trouble was the outcome of the presence of ‘outsiders’ at the ‘Peshajibi Parishad’ discussion meeting at the club’s auditorium.
Notably, some pro-AL journalist union leaders have for sometime been raising objection to the holding of meetings of opposition political parties inside the Press Club. The opposition parties who do not get space in public places due to various restrictions have, as in the past, come to use the free space inside the club to air their views. With the head office of the Bnp locked up by the police and their leaders either under arrest or on the run for police chase, they have hardly any place to hold meetings and news conferences.
It is to be noted that in the early eighties when political meetings in open spaces were prohibited the leaders of the then Bnp-led 7-Party Combine and the AL-led 15-Party Alliance had started their anti-autocracy movement by holding consultation meetings with journalists at the National Press Club separately. Awami League chief Sheikh Hasina, now the Prime Minister of Bangladesh, and Bnp chief Khaleda Zia, former Prime Minister of the country were themselves present at the respective meetings.
The two alliances had continued their ‘simultaneous movement’- though with an interruption for two years from 1986 to 1988 when a major faction of the AL-led alliance had joined the 1986 election along with Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh under the military ruler HM Ershad – till the fall of the regime that both the alliances termed ‘autocracy’.
Military ruler HM Ershad sought to develop relations with the journalists and allocated fund to do extension works of the new press club building constructed at the inspiration and support of late president Ziaur Rahman. Under Zia’s administration the space allocated to the press club was also expanded. HM Ershad’s move to be friendly with journalists however did not crown with success as an initiative taken by some leaders of the National Press Club to welcome him ceremonially as a guest was vehemently opposed by a majority of members. Ershad lamented this very much when he was in power saying, ‘The gates of the Holy Ka’aba open when I go to Makkah, but there is one place in Dhaka where I am unwelcome. It is the Jatiya Press Club.’ Ershad was unlucky as all the political alliances were overtly, if not covertly, against his regime. But the Press Club has always been a safe place not only for voicing discontent and dissent against the administration, as has been mentioned above, but also for fomenting movement
This why after the fall of the Ershad regime in 1990, some leaders of the victorious political alliances wanted to name the Press Club ‘Democracy Square’. Press Club leaders were afraid that this might make the club too much politicised and refrained from entertaining the idea. Journalists fought during the nine years of rule of HM Ershad to offer opposition political leaders and activists a safe space, if not sanctuary. This was because those in the seat of power enjoyed all the freedoms guarded the law enforcing agencies. Unfortunately the people in the bastions of power can and actually did restrict the freedoms of those who are in the opposition, by utilising the services of the same law enforcers.
Journalists by their very nature are critical of establishments from where all important decisions that affect the live of citizens are made, and are more supportive of those who are out of power as they criticise the government for its wrongs and fight for safeguarding people’s rights. By so doing, journalists enlarge the democratic space and also ensure their own freedom which is impossible in the absence of democracy and without political pluralism. If eternal vigilance is the price of democracy a lion’s share of the price is paid by the journalists. The vigil is primarily about governmental decisions and actions that affect not only everyday life but also the future. Founders of the National Press Club had even fomented movement against injustice.
The free space of the National Press Club is invaluable for all. All sections of the people from the very powerful ones to those who are victims of abuse of power find this freedom useful to air their grievances. There is no logic to envy the maximum use of this free space by those who are in the opposition, because if there is democracy in the country opposition will not be the exclusive preserve of any individual, party or alliance. Like the government the opposition also changes and shall continue to change in a democracy. If power changes hands those who make maximum use of this space will also change. This has been the norm since the establishment of the Press Club. It can be no different now. As a national institution the Press Club should be allowed to uphold its character and tradition in the greater interest of all concerned.
