If Hasina had tackled the crime issue earlier, perhaps the harsh new law would have met with only moderate resistance. But she fiddled, and now–just six weeks before President Bill Clinton makes his first visit to the country–government critics and human-rights activists are howling. Led by former prime minister Begum Khaleda Zia, Hasina’s bitter rival and head of the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), they say the anticrime law is politically motivated–designed to harass government opponents and to ensure Hasina’s re-election, rather than to improve public safety. The next national election is scheduled for June 2001. “This is a black law,” says Khaleda. “It must be withdrawn.”
Bangladesh has seen this drama before, only last time, the lead characters were in opposite roles. In 1992, Khaleda was prime minister, and she enacted a tough antiterrorism law. Hasina and her Awami League led a successful fight against it, using the same argument that Khaleda is using now. The law was repealed after two years. Might Khaleda be looking for a little payback? Anything’s possible between the dueling divas. Hasina and Khaleda are the country’s two most powerful politicians, but they agree on almost nothing. They sit across from each other in Parliament but never speak.
Khaleda has been trying to bring down Hasina’s government since it was formed three years ago. She says it is corrupt, incompetent and cruel, and has made her point by leading a series of crippling general strikes. (The country lost 30 working days to strikes last year, costing the economy more than $2 billion.) Last week another strike paralyzed the country for two days. Hasina dismisses those who question her motives. “We are duty-bound to protect lives and property,” she told the Parliament. “The existing laws have many loopholes that give criminals a chance of getting bail.” Finance Minister Shah A.M.S. Kibria also defended the law, calling the opposition strikes a “conspiracy to thwart economic growth.”
Many Bangladeshis believe a crime crackdown is overdue, but they worry that police will abuse the law. “The police will use it against innocent people,” says Abdur Rahman, a shop owner in Dhaka. Matiur Rahman Chowdhury, chief editor of Bangladesh’s largest tabloid newspaper, The Daily Manabzameen, calls the Public Safety Bill “worse than martial law.” But what is really hobbling Bangladesh, he adds, is the political stalemate. “The government must reach an understanding with the opposition. The nation is fed up with strikes and sieges.” Until Hasina and Khaleda find a way to get along, there seems little chance of solving the crime problem, or much of anything else in Bangladesh.
