Ideals of liberation war and current politics in Bangladesh

The Manifesto of Independence was issued on 10 April 1971 by the Mujibnagar

government to empower the elected Constituent Assembly of the people of
Bangladesh. The most important aspect of the manifesto is the clear declaration of
the ideological basis of the state achieved through the war of liberation. The
Declaration of Independence stated, “To ensure equality, human dignity and social
justice for the people of Bangladesh, we declared the establishment of Bangladesh
as a sovereign people’s republic.” In other words, in the Declaration of
Independence of Bangladesh, ‘Equality, Human Dignity and Social Justice’ are the
three ideals of the state achieved through the war of liberation. The people of
Bangladesh wanted their freedom and basic rights but Pakistanis used to oppress
the people of Bangladesh in various ways and the people of Bengal used to raise
their voices against it. The state has been built based on the ideals of the
manifesto. And the martyrs have sacrificed their lives based on that idea. In the
current time, politics in our country is getting worse day by day. When a political
party wins the election and comes to power, they think more of themselves than
doing anything for the country. Most of the Politian’s ethics are very low. Now,
they are no freedom of expression. Recently we saw how vulnerable our health
sector is. Corona has destroyed many people but our health sector had no clue.
Many people had died because of our health sector's lack of planning. And there is
no strong opposition party to blame our government. That’s why the balance is not
there in our politics.

Methodology:
      
       In making the report primary data analysis has been used. We collected the
primary data from different members of our society and surroundings such as-
family members, relatives, friends, neighbors etc. we collected information from
everyone personally as well as through social media also. Some of them are
students, teacher, politician, service holder etc.
We did a survey on this topic and took data from 53 respondents from 5 different
professions of people. We have selected the respondents based on their political
perception and profession. We did this survey with different groups of people
because political point of view and people’s perception vary from people to people.

Facts and figure:

Question 1: The ideals of the political part which they possessed during our
liberation war, Has the political party been able to maintain that ideal now?

Profession Agree Neutral Disagree

Student 5 5 22
Teacher 1 2 9
Politician 1 0 2
Service-holder 1 1 2
Day labor 0 1 1

Question 2: What do you think current political condition in Bangladesh is similar

with the political condition of the liberation war?
Profession Agree Neutral Disagree
Student 7 0 27
Teacher 4 0 8
politician 2 0 1
Service-holder 1 0 3
Day labor 0 0 2
 Question 3: Do you think that the effects that political leader had on the people
during our liberation war and the effect that current political leader have over
people are similar?
Profession Agree Neutral Disagree
Student 15 0 17
Teacher 4 2 6
Politician 3 0 0
Service-holder 3 0 1
Day labor 1 1 0

Question 4: Do you think the faith that people had over the political parties of the
time of liberation war and the faith of the people of recent time over political
parties are of same type?
profession Agree neutral Disagree
Student 5 1 26
Teacher 4 0 8
Politician 1 0 2
Service-holder 0 0 4
Day labor 0 1 1

Analysis of the findings: We surveyed five different professional groups of 53

people. We asked them a few questions about the ideals of liberation war and
current politics. They had to answer those questions within three options- agree,
disagree, and neutral.

Our first question for them was, “The ideals of the political party which they
possessed during our liberation war, have current political parties been able to
maintain that ideal now?" There were a total 32 number of students. Among them
5 students agreed, 5 student was neutral and 22 students disagreed with this
statement. Here we can see most of the students replied they don’t think today’s
political parties have been able to maintain the ideals that possessed during the
liberation war. When we ask them what are the reasons during the interview most
of them said political parties during the liberation war were organized well with
discipline and each politician had respect for each other but in current politics,
most of the political parties have failed to organize their party with proper
discipline. Some politician doesn’t respect other politicians and their opinions. So,
the ideals of liberation losing day by day. On the contrary, the students who had
agreed that current political parties maintain the ideals of liberation war according
to them today’s political parties are based on the ideals of the liberation war. The
students who responded as neutral according to them some political parties able to
maintain the ideal of liberation war and some parties are not. Then there was 12
teacher in total. Among them only 1 agreed, 2 were neutral and 9 teachers
disagreed. The teachers who disagreed according to the political parties at the time
of the liberation war works to protect citizen’s basic rights and interests of our
country. But nowadays some political parties do not work for people. They just try
to protect their self-interest and expand their power within the country. The
teachers who agreed according to them, most of the political parties had some
senior politicians who were present in the liberation war and they are playing an
important role to maintain the ideals of liberation war with their experience. Then
we asked this question to 3 politicians. Among them, one is from the government
party and two others are from different opponent parties. The politician from the
government party agreed that their political party always working for the people
and protect the ideals of the liberation war. The other two politicians claimed that
the government party failed to protect citizens’ basic rights and ideal of liberation.
And there was a total of 4 service-holder. Among them 1 agreed with the context, 1
was neutral and 2 people disagreed. Among them who agreed according to him
current political parties always looking to build a democratic society that reflects
the ideal of the liberation war. Among them who disagreed according to them,
today political parties are failed to build a democratic society and they failed to
fulfill citizens’ expectations. When we interview the day laborers, among them
one-day labor disagreed. According to them, today’s political parties are not very
much conscious about the poor worker in society. Every poor worker has some
expectation from the government and other government institutions. But they
didn’t fulfill those expectations. Other day labor replied with a neutral statement.
According to him every political party looking to help poor people in a society like
they are doing during the pandemic by giving relief to poor people. At the same
time, they claimed political parties used them for their self-interest.
Our second question was “what do you think the current political condition in
Bangladesh is similar to the political condition of the liberation war?” When we
asked this question in our interview 27 students out of 32 didn’t agree with the
statement. According to them at the time of liberation, there were not so many
completive political parties. Every political party had a good relationship with
other political parties. They worked together to protect the freedom of our country.
But now things are changed.
According to them, they don’t see too many paradigms of a political party to work
in an integrated manner to solve any issue. On the contrary, some students replied
that they don’t find too many differences between current and past political
conditions during the liberation war. According to them today’s government also
looking to work in the spirit of the war of independence. Among the teachers, 8
teachers have disagreed with the statement. According to them at the time of
liberation political parties’ members were experienced with good knowledge of
politics. But in today’s politics, political parties give membership to the
businessman and other aristocrat people, most of them are not familiar with
political knowledge. As a result, the political situation is getting worse day by day.
Among the teachers, 5 teachers agree with the statement. According to the current
political procedure and political perception is quite similar to the politics in the
liberation war. Among the politicians, two politicians agreed with the statement.
According to them their party always looking to protect citizen and their basic right
and individual liberty as they did in the liberation war. Where other politicians
didn’t agree. According to him, today's political condition is far different from the
politics that he observed in the liberation war. Among the service holder, three
people disagreed with the statement. Their reasons for disagreeing are quite similar
to the reasons that we analyze from teachers. They also claim today’s political
party is organized with many inexperienced aristocrat people such as businessmen,
celebrity actors, cricket players, etc., and their main focus is to expand their power
and popularity within the country. One service holder agreed with the statement.
According to him today’s political party also working for people and their rights
and playing an important role to protect our country’s sovereignty. Among the day
laborers, both of them disagree with the statement. According to them today
politics is not for common and lower-class people. They claimed today politics
work for the convenience of higher-class people in our society.
Our third question for them was “Do you think that the effects that political leaders
had on the people during our liberation war and the effect that current political
leaders have over people are similar”? Among the students, 17 students said they
didn’t agree with the statement. According to them at the time of the liberation
war, the role played by many political leaders to protect our liberty today’s
political leader doesn’t play such kind of role at any issue. 15 students agreed with
the statement during our survey. According to the many political leaders are being
formed from educational institutions such as universities, medical colleges, etc.
They can play an important role to solve any serious national issue of our country
in the future. According to the teachers, 6 teachers disagreed with the statement.
Acceding to them the political leader that we saw in the liberation war are
unreplaceable. No one can play their role. On the contrary 4 teaches agree with the
statement. According to them, there are many eligible political leaders in current
politics, who can play the role played by many political leaders during the
liberation war. When we asked politicians, all of them agree with the statement.
Everyone claimed their political party always looking for the buildup of eligible
political leaders who can work as a worthy representative of a citizen. Among the
service holders, 3 of them agreed with the statement and one of them disagreed
with the statement. Among the day laborers, one of them agrees with the statement.
Other day labor replied with a neutral statement. According to him, there is some
eligible political leader in today politics, at the same time, the claimed number of
such political leaders are very few.

Our fourth question for them was “Do you think the faith that people had over the
political parties of the time of liberation war and the faith of the people of recent
time over political parties are of the same type”? Among the students, 27 students
disagreed with the statement. According to the people believe on the political party
is losing day by day. According to them in today’s politics, political party
sometimes misuse their power for their political interest, which affects badly on the
citizen. As a result, people are losing their trust in political parties. Where 5
students agreed with the statement. According to them, in today’s politics, every
political party's main aim is to work for people and their expectations. So, people
have strong faith in political parties. Among the students, one student responds
with a neutral statement. According to him some people always depend on political
parties for a better and securable life but some people don’t have trust in political
parties. Among the teachers, 8 teachers disagree with the statement. Their reasons
were quite similar to the reasons we got from the students. They also think now
day’s political party works for their interest and expand their power. They don’t
think today's political party give focuses on citizens’ facilities. On the other hand, 4
teachers agreed with the statement. According to the people always have trust in
political parties because political parties play an important role for citizens’ basic
rights. Among the politicians, the politician who belongs to the government party
agreed with the statement. According to him present government always working
for citizens and development. He also mentioned that people have trust in their
political party that’s why they elected his party leader as their representative.
Where other two politicians from two different opponent parties disagreed with the
statement. They said present government activity is against the constitution and
most of the people have no trust in their political party. Among the service holders,
everyone disagrees with the statement. According to them, today's political
condition is quite complicated and most people have negative perceptions of
politics. Among the day labor one had disagreed with the stamen. According to
him, in current politics, people have no trust in politics. And the other one
responded neutrally.

Concluding Remarks: In the liberation war of 1971, we fought against the

Pakistani military and achieved our independence after a 9-month long guerilla war
which resulted in the deaths of 3 million people. That was a very long, harsh, and
tough journey for which many lives and dreams of a lot of people were sacrificed.
Through the whole process of achieving independence, our political parties played
a very crucial role. Mainly our Political Parties and political leaders of that time set
the images of the ideals of our liberation war. The importance of upholding the
ideals of liberation war is often stressed in the speeches and remarks by politicians
and intellectuals and even ordinary people. But as we are in the 50 years of our
independence, anyone can think how many people today understand what
constitutes the idea of liberation war or what it means to respect them. If people
understand and believe in those ideals, then how could there still be such
prevalence of problems such as corruption, brazen display of power, repression of
women, religious intolerance etc. For all these factors and more, most people
nowadays are thinking and telling that the current political situation of Bangladesh
is not on the track of the ideals of its liberation war. And the goal, motive, system,
influence, identity, views, and many other factors of the political parties of that
time and the political parties of recent times are quite different.
Recommendations: In the liberation war period, politics are much different than
today’s politics. At that time politicians were more ethical and they only work for
the development of our country and its people. They used to do politics for the
people. But today’s most of the politicians are greedy and mainly they do politics
just for themselves. Their ethics is very low. If we want a good politician for our
country then we have to find those people who have care for the country. We have
to teach our students the true meaning of politics and proper ethics. Nowadays no
one wants to become a politician from a good family. so We need to create the
environment. We have to take strong steps against corruption and we should
develop our children’s ethics from their childhood. So that they can understand
what is right or wrong. In today’s politics, we don’t have a strong opposition party.
A strong opposition is needed who can expose the mistakes of the government. If
the government becomes too much power, then no one has to be held accountable.
There are some good politicians who can be role models and because of those good
people our country is stable and developing day by day. Lastly, our politician has
to develop their morals and serve the country properly.