Quota reform movement: For whom the bell tolls
Dr. Md. Sakawat Hossain :
The quota reform movement poses serious questions regarding the government’s ability to deliver good governance, professionalism and effectiveness of law-and-order forces, and acceptance of the ruling party and its student wing to the general people.
The quota reform movement was initially very peaceful and their activities were restricted only in demonstration. It all started to get out of control when a few responsible persons of the state began to give their irresponsible comments and offensive remarks without having a second thought.
When protesting students repeatedly asked for government intervention on the quota issue, the government did not pay any attention but pointed to the highest court. Responsible persons of the government do not even bother to sit with students for discussion.
Their activities suggested that they do not care about this kind of protest and they can well manage it by the law-and-order force and party’s student wing. Initially, the ruling party’s student wing was neutral and did not cause any problems for the protesting students.
By getting the message from the political top brass through their public comments and other means, the student wing has actively engaged in the process and showed their muscle power and started threatening general protesting students, given inciting speeches, and created obstacles to the peaceful demonstration.
At one stage, the ruling party’s student wing with the help of outsiders started to mercilessly attack general protesting students irrespective of their gender, force them to leave the hall, and spread mass panic among general students.
This is possibly the first time; we have seen such a violent atrocity of the outsiders within the campus. When the toleration limit of the general students was exceeded, they started to boldly face the ruling party’s student activists and outsiders, fought them back, and finally even forced them to leave the campus.
At one stage of stiff and vehement protest of general students, literally, all leaders of the ruling party’s student wing silently and secretly left the campuses. Sensible student leaders of the ruling party started to mass resign from the party post out of their self-conscience. These unbelievable incidents should send an obvious message to the government and ruling party leaders but that was not the case.
However, from the beginning, party leaders gave derogatory, provocative, and reckless speeches on the quota movement issue. Later when the situation started getting out of control, the Education Ministry shut down all schools, colleges, and other technical institutions of the country. This was a serious mistake and it allowed even more students to participate in the ongoing demonstration and they literally did so.
Things even got worse when UGC instructed all universities to stop their academic activities and asked students to leave the hall. Deplorably, we have witnessed that all four autonomous and other public universities have started to shut down their campuses and force students to leave the halls.
That was another dreadful mistake, which angered the protesting students even more, and incited fire not only in the campuses but all over the country.
(Our respected vice chancellors (VCs) did not show any sign of personality, wisdom, or dignity to uphold their responsibility and rather failed to convey the right message to the government’s highest level.
All VCs blindly obeyed the order of the government and did not think about the thousands of students’ safety and well-being. A dignified vice chancellor should immediately resign but that was not the case).
Rebelling students were forced to leave the hall by the law-and-order forces in such a dreadful situation. These students then left their respective campuses and spread all over the country fueled violent protests even more intensely, and extreme mayhem started to happen all over the country.
The violent and brutal force applied by the law-and-order forces reminds us of the cruelty of the once-occupied forces. In a sovereign and democratic country, the way police were shooting nonviolent and unarmed students and teachers, crosses all preceding instances.
Brilliant and courageous student Abu Sayed at Begum Rokeya University in Rangpur died in one such terrible incident. His self-sacrifice for the very justifiable demand for the rights of all students causes agony among all sensible citizens of this country. Even International human rights organizations and senior citizens of the country requested the government not use such brutal forces.
When I am writing this opinion, already more than 200 people died, among them majority were students of different ages. Thousands of students, teachers, and general people have been injured so far and admitted to different hospitals.
Government and private properties were damaged significantly and general people are suffering immensely. All activities in the country come to a standstill due to the total blockage of the internet connections, and the imposed curfew. The Supreme Court delivered a very prudent verdict regarding quota reform, but at too late stage.
General people including students’ love and respect for the Father of the Nation, to the brave freedom fighters are unquestionable. This love, respect, and legacy are supposed to be passed on from generation to generation as long as the country remains.
Unfortunately, in the last two tenures of the current government, few of the ministers, top bureaucrats, defense and police officers, and party-political leaders are getting highly corrupted and are not holding the true ideology of the ruling party.
Their illicit activities eroded the common people’s respect for the brave freedom fighters, the very party that made so many sacrifices for this country, the very prime minister who once inspired and motivated millions of people and changed their fate, and the state of democracy.
But why? Because, corrupted ministers, top bureaucrats, defense and police officers, and party-political leaders together form an evil dynasty, and are continuously lying, providing false information to the nation, cheating to common people, and building their own economic empire.
(The author is a Professor at the Department of Geological Sciences at Jahangirnagar University. Email: [email protected])