We should be intensely and sincerely worried about what is happening in the People’s Republic of Bangladesh. It is sickening and disquieting to know that there are individuals who can kill when ones opinion does not fall in line with theirs. It is scary when bloggers and social media influencers are worried about the safety of their lives and now need to move around with security details. I hope we do not get to that point. But then, ‘injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere, says Martin Luther King, Jr. In essence, injustice to a Bangladeshi blogger is a threat to bloggers all around the world. If bloggers are already been hacked to death in a country of about 157 million citizens then it is right to be worried about when the first blood will be drawn here even though one hopes it never happens.
Last week, the world’s media focused attention on the death of Ananta Bijoy Das, a 33-year-old banker and blogger who was hacked to death on his way to work by four masked men who are suspected to be Islamists militants. Das’ offence in retrospect was his choice to blog about religious fundamentalism in the country. He is the third in the country to be fell by individuals who expressed their rage with a blogger’s opinion by using cleavers and machetes. Before him were Avijit Roy, 27 and Washiqur Rahman. Both of them were also killed this year and while arrests have been made, conviction has not been secured. Das’ last post was titled ‘On Dereliction of Duty by the Police’. He put it up on 11th May, 2005 a day before his heartless murder. It reads in part like what a harsh critique of the security situation in Nigeria may have written. Originally written in Bengali, the country’s official language, it reads thus –
“When Avijit Roy was murdered, the police were standing nearby and watching the spectacle. The murderers left unscathed after their act. Later the police claimed there had apparently been no dereliction of duty. One would love to know what their duty was. When the murderers were escaping after killing Oyasiqur Rahman Babu, the police had been standing by then too, but unfortunately for them, they could not say that on this occasion too they had not abandoned their responsibilities. For a person of the third gender, named Labanya, captured the murderers, who were sent to jail.
The police were paper tigers when women were being molested one by one before an audience of thousands at the New Year celebrations. They were engaged primarily in not neglecting their duty. They were busy clearing the way for the sexual offenders to escape. So when Lyton Nandi and several others nabbed some of the sexual terrorists and handed them over to the police, the police released them after some time. When there was uproar in the media about this, the police categorically denied any such incident. No one had complained to them. When the molesters were spotted on CCTV footage, they fell silent. The old guitar began to be played again. No one had complained to them. The police are inactive even after several of the sexual terrorists have been identified. There’s no dereliction of duty. When a number of leftist organizations, including students’ unions, submitted a memorandum of protest to the police, demanding to know why the offenders were not being arrested, why not even attempts were being made, the police pounced on them, injuring university students with the butts of their guns and their boots. Here too I was told that the police had not abandoned its responsibility. But I’m very keen to know what the real responsibility of the police is.
Whips used to be wielded by Zamindars (feudal chiefs) once. They would skin their subjects alive on the slightest of transgressions. But no one protested against the Zamindars’ daylight robbery. We have to say we’re fortunate that the age of Zamindars no longer exists. But like the all but extinct organ, the appendix, a handful of leftover Zamindars remain. Will you let us know which clan of appendices you belong to, Janab Parliamentarian? To Sylhet fundamentalists, Sylhet is not a part of Bangladesh, it is a separate nation. So my suggestion is that you should make Sylhet secede from Bangladesh first and carve out an independent country, after which you can display as much love for Sylhet as you wish, and hunt for so-called Sylhet-haters. But you cannot live in Bangladesh, live off Bangladesh, be a citizen of Bangladesh, carry a passport of Bangladesh, be a member of the Bangladesh Parliament, and still practice shameless regionalism. You’d better shed your Bangladeshi identity first. No one with a free mind can be indoctrinated in regional fundamentalism or limit themselves within the walls of narrow-mindedness. The world is very large, but our well-behaved hypocrites are still quite primitive, it’s time for them to crawl out of the well and view our enormous universe from a new perspective. All of us are human, and all of us are Bangladeshi Bengalis—how long will it take the people of Sylhet to understand this simple truth?”
Das reportedly got a number of death threats which he brought to the attention of the Police but he was ignored and now he is dead. I struggle to find any insensitive expression(s) in this blog post and his death is a bad omen for the freedom that the internet offers. Das’ writing showed that he was chiefly interested in secularism and humanist ideals. It is good to note that Das’ death got a decent mention at the Nigerian Bloggers and Social Media Workshop which held in Port Harcourt last week. It was put together by the National Orientation Agency and the Nigeria Stability and Reconciliation Programme to share on the need for ethical and conflict sensitive communication in promoting peace building in the country using online platforms. It is time that the blogging community in Nigeria comes together to ensure that self-regulation prevails and prevent a repeat of Bangladesh’s rash deaths here. It is equally important that other groups continue to speak against any government attempt at regulating the internet space or intolerance against any blogger’s opinion without recourse to legal channels. Martin Niemoller, that outspoken critic of Adolf Hitler says it better, ‘First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Socialist. Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out— because I was not a Trade Unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out— because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.’ May the soul of Das and others continue to rest in peace.
@SolaFagro
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‘Sola Fagorusi is a social entrepreneur and a prized freelance writer with a bias for youth and rural development. He started off as a youth staff with Action Health Incorporated in 2001. The Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife alumnus currently manages the programmes ofOneLife Initiative, Nigeria. ‘Sola is a DESPLAY Africa (Africa’s foremost and most consistent annual youth democracy academy) fellow and has been on its faculty since 2011. Keenly interested in governance and pan-Africanism, he volunteers as online editor of YouthHub Africa; a cyber-community for young Africans involved in social change. He believes in the efficacy of oratory and writing as tools to drive developmental engagements. As a freelance writer, he spares time to pen thoughts on contemporary societal issues and is a weekly columnist with Nigeria’s most read daily ? Punch Newspaper. His training and capacity cuts across democracy and governance, leadership, micro-enterprise, ICT4D, SRH, value chains, development communication and policy issues. He tweets @SolaFagro and blogs at www.kadunaboy.com
