Ominous Signs: Abduction Attempts, Hate Calls, Even Death Threats to Intellectuals Committed To a Secular-Democratic Bangladesh

Editorial in New Age

October 14, 2013

THE abortive attempt at abduction of the editor of an online news portal in the capital Dhaka Thursday night, as reported in the media, is indeed disquieting but neither unprecedented nor isolated. A number of people, mostly public intellectuals, have reportedly received hate calls, and even death threats and threats to members of their family, from unnamed people in recent times. The recipients of the inhuman threats seem to have some commonalities. Mostly non-partisan and widely perceived to be not part of any vested interests, these individuals apparently have well-grounded philosophical convictions, are committed to secular-democratic ideals and values and, most importantly, have always been vociferous critics of the undemocratic actions and anti-people policies of the Awami League-led government, through their words and deeds, just as they had been of similar transgressions of the previous political and anti-political regimes.

As such, especially in view of the increasing intolerance displayed by the incumbents with any articulation of dissent and displeasure, criticism and condemnation of their actions and attitudes, it would not perhaps be far-fetched to conclude that such hate calls and death threats to these eminent individuals and their family may be the workings of people associated with, or beneficiaries of, the ruling camp. A conclusion like this appears all the more convincing if the apparent reluctance of the law enforcement agencies to even properly investigate the incidents in question, let alone arrest the perpetrators and put them in the dock, is taken into consideration. Suffice to say, such reluctance reeks of crafted indifference, if not indulgence or even complicity, on the part of the law enforcers and their political bosses, the government that is.

More than the absence of any effective law enforcement actions, the silence of the crony intellectuals of the ruling Awami League, although predictable, is pathetic and painful; they seem to have conveniently overlooked such a blatant violation of the constitutional rights to the freedom of speech and expression, of thought and conscience. Yet, these are the people who wax eloquent when talking on television talks-shows, seminars and symposia, and writing in the print media, about these ideals. Such duplicity is dangerous, to say the least, for it is entirely likely to embolden the ruling elite to go about trying to silence the voice of dissent and divergence with increased frequency and ferocity. Blinded by partisan intellectual parochialism, they are not even aware that they may also find themselves at the receiving end of such inhuman threats when the table is turned.

Constriction of space for democratic dissent and constructive criticism, in the political arena as well as society at large, could ultimately mean negation of democratic accountability of the ruler to the ruled, which is integral to a functioning democracy. The absence of such accountability, in turn, could give rise to autocracy, albeit in the garb of democracy. It is precisely why conscious sections of society, regardless of their ideological mooring and partisan loyalty, need to register their protests against the incidents in question and also work towards bringing the pressure of the public opinion to bear on the incumbents so that they refrain from employing such repressive tact in their bid to remain above democratic accountability.

Source: http://www.newagebd.com/detail.php?date=2013-10-14&nid=69142#.Ulu0eNK-rXA

URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-media/ominous-signs-abduction-attempts,-hate/d/13982