Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
06DHAKA338
2006-01-23 08:13:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Dhaka
Cable title:  

TILTING AT WINDMILLS

Tags:  PHUM KDEM PTER BG BGD 
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This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 DHAKA 000338 

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/23/2016
TAGS: PHUM KDEM PTER BG BG BGD
SUBJECT: TILTING AT WINDMILLS

Classified By: A/DCM D.C. McCullough, reasons para 1.4 b,d.

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 DHAKA 000338

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/23/2016
TAGS: PHUM KDEM PTER BG BG BGD
SUBJECT: TILTING AT WINDMILLS

Classified By: A/DCM D.C. McCullough, reasons para 1.4 b,d.


1. (C) Kamal Hossain is the principal drafter of
Bangladesh's constitution and the country's most prominent
civil libertarian. Foreign minister in Sheikh Mujib's
government, he left the Awami League, he says, to protest the
AL's embrace of black money and thugery in post-Ershad
politics. As chairman of the Gono Forum, he is now part of
the AL-led 14-party opposition alliance. He recently sat
down with us for three hours to discuss topical issues.


2. (C) Highlights follow:

WHAT IS THE GONO FORUM?

When I was with the AL, I felt they were falling into the
prevailing pattern of money politics. In the 1960s, there
was a lot of idealism in politics. As students, we worked
for a higher cause than power and connected to the people
with personal contact. The AL expected to win the 1991
election, and when it lost, it decided it had to adapt and
turn to professional politicians. Ershad's contribution to
politics was the injection of mercenaries and the
institutionalization of corruption and money politics. He
sent brigadiers to places like Indonesia who came back and
set up the same kind of organizations they saw there to
enrich themselves and control the opposition. I wanted to
rescue our politics from money and arms, and to get a
parliament that works. But people in the AL said this was
old fashioned, that the BNP followed Ershad's approach, that
it played the religion and anti-India cards to divide the
people and that's why it won. They concluded that the AL
must fight fire with fire. I finally left the AL in 1993 to
avoid physical confrontation, and started the Gono (People's)
Forum to promote reform politics, to fight for hearts and
minds, house to house, neighborhood by neighborhood.

WHAT ARE YOUR CURRENT POLITICAL ASPIRATIONS?

The 14-party opposition alliance says it supports our
principles, but we're severely handicapped by not having big
money. Anyone will tell you that to win in a big city like
Dhaka, a candidate needs three to four crore taka (about USD
500,000 to 650.000). When I ran in Mirpur, and lost, in
1991, the cost was less than five lakh taka. Politicians say
that Bangladesh is Third World, not London, and that our

people are illiterate. I say people were more illiterate in
the 1960s and this kind of cynicism has institutionalized
sick politics. They call themselves professional
politicians. I call them criminals. People yearn to be rid
of this type of politics. My goal is to get democratic
alliances to create a new politics. This time is far away,
but I will not contest in the type of environment we have
today.

FORMER PRESIDENT B. CHOWDHURY'S BDP SEEMS TO BE OFF TO A SLOW
START.

It's hard to build a political party. It takes time. He
expects there are dissidents in BNP who will join him. Also,
Tariq's strategy of building a party within a party is
creating visible tensions that he hopes will benefit him,
that people who don't get BNP tickets will turn to him. Both
the Al and the BNP have the same problem with people who
don't get tickets going elsewhere. There is a good
possibility that the 14-party alliance and BDP will work out
an understanding to let the good man win, especially in the
marginal seats. The situation should be clearer after one
month.

IS THE AL SERIOUS ABOUT BOYCOTTING THE ELECTION?

I've been in close contact with Sheikh Hasina since July.
I've told her to go back to parliament to give a voice to the
14 parties and to get our message across at home and to our
foreign friends, and that going back would not be a sign of
weakness but a more effective means of protest. I've always
been a dissenter on hartals. What worked for us before was
personal contact with the people, to go to the grassroots.
She is serious about boycotting, but many people in the party
are against it.

WHAT DOES THE AL HAVE TO DO TO WIN THE NEXT ELECTION?

If the AL could reverse what happened to them in 2001, if the
AL can get personnel transfers undone, if it can work around
the Election Commission, then it can win. Hasina won't admit
this because she sees her government as a golden era, but
there is a strong anti-incumbency factor in this country.
But the BNP overdid it in trying to make the playing field
more level. In our politics, things that look like they are
more procedural than substantive are still important because
they can show that change is possible and that people won't
be punished for opposing authoritarianism. There is a real
potential for revenge if AL wins the election and doesn't
have partners to urge restraint on it. Our strategy should
be to win with a good coalition, not to go for a four-fifths
majority.

WHAT IS YOUR VIEW OF JMB?

JMB has an ideology that does not care about democracy. JI
believes that sharia law overrides any constitution, and it
knows that bombs won't produce this outcome. Instead, it
knows that JMB de-legitimizes them and is an obstacle to
their goal of replacing the AL and BNP and to infiltrate
educational and state institutions. JI appears rational and
is politically opportunistic. My surmise is that JMB had
interactions with the intelligence agencies until the suicide
bomb attacks, but those attacks unified the country against
this gross perversion of religion and politics. They mystery
about the attacks is the timing. I don't think JI or BNP was
behind the bombings.

WHAT DOES HASINA THINK?

She doesn't think JI or BNP was involved, but she thinks she
has to say that as leader of the opposition and to create a
climate that favors early elections.

YOU REPRESENT THE KIBRIA FAMILY. WHAT'S THE STATUS OF THAT
CASE?

The government wants to quickly close the case, to get some
lower down people tried and convicted, and declare the matter
solved. Mrs. Quayyum came to see me to protest her husband's
innocence. She said he is not so foolish or reckless to do
something like this, and she indicated that he would have
something interesting to say if he were allowed to speak in
court that would implicate a senior person at the PMO.

INDICATED? WHAT DID SHE ACTUALLY SAY?

"He had wanted to say things but he couldn't." The rest is
inference, but everybody talks about Haris Chowdhury because
he is from that area, he had been there shortly before the
attack, and he had said that BNP would do whatever it took to
get all the seats in that area. That last part could be just
political talk, but my point is that Quayyum should have been
allowed to speak in court. Now that three of his
co-defendants have retracted their confessions, there's no
case against Quayyum and the government knows it. The timing
is interesting: Quayyum wants to talk in court, and suddenly
the confessions get recanted. Judges at this level are so
politicized you never know what's going to happen next.

YOUR CRITICS CHARGE YOU HAVE VERY CLOSE TIES TO THE INDIAN
GOVERNMENT.

Look at what I did when I was foreign minister. Whether it
was about land or maritime boundaries, Bangladesh either came
out on top or held its own on some very sensitive issues.
But after 1975, I was abroad for five years, and the Indian
agent theme is the broad brush the BNP uses against the AL.
We have to have good relations with our neighbors, but
without sacrificing our interests and principles.

HOW DO YOU VIEW THE RECENT ELECTION COMMISSION CONTROVERSY?

It's so gross, the way the new commissioners vilified the
court. They must have a simple mandate to deliver the
election for the BNP. Zakaria (the former EC secretary and
one of the new commissioners) is a criminal who worked with
the PMO against the last Chief Election Commissioner. The
voter list has more than 70 million names and is on computer.
It just makes sense to update that list instead of creating
a brand new one, especially if you have only 30 days to do
the vetting. To do something opposite to this raises
suspicions, and erasing that database with the old list would
be a sign of bad faith. The BNP won with that list, but its
idea is to go for overkill.


3. (C) Comment: Kamal Hossain's seemingly quixotic campaign
to return Bangladeshi politics to the real or imagined
idealism of a lost generation accounts for both his stature
as Bangladesh's pre-eminent, and perhaps only, elder
statesman and his limited political influence.
CHAMMAS