Mahfuz Alam is the Special Assistant to the Chief Adviser to the interim government after the student-led coup. After the coup, he was the coordinator of the Liaison Committee formed to maintain communication between students, citizens and the interim government. This law graduate of Dhaka University was in charge of political-intellectual collaborator in the movement. He is the organizer of a text cycle called 'Gurubar Adda' and the editor of Purvapaksha, Ranapa and Sineyog Patrika. In an interview given to Prothom Alo, Mahfuz Alam expressed his thoughts on the students' movement and social and political transformation. The interview has been published in full for Barta24.com readers:
Let's start with the movement. The students who led such a big movement, how did their front tie?
Mahfuz Alam: Before the 2018 elections, there were two big movements—safe roads and quota reforms. In both the movements, it was seen that a section of students and youths took to the streets to fill the political vacuum. In the 2018 elections, the people of the country, including the BNP, were cheated again like before. In the next two or three years, due to various crises, the students and youth could not stand up. The main crisis was the lack of political direction. The students and youths were divided into big spots in politics. They could not imagine anything beyond Awami League, BNP, Jamaat-e-Islami and the weak stream of leftist politics.
It was clear to us that Awami League can never be defeated by sustaining the narrative created by Awami League of the pro and anti forces of liberation war. Awami League's inability to reconcile nationally after the Liberation War is a major failure. We find that Bangladesh is divided along ideological and cultural fault lines. Various players are playing a role on this dividing line. So we thought about how to erase this dividing line, how to resolve it. It hasn't been resolved in the last 50 years, but we've tried.
What did you try?
Mahfuz Alam: We did some readings and cultural programs. I did film activism under the banner of Jonaki Goli factory. Naseeruddin Patwari, the current convener of the civic committee, stayed at Raju Bhaskar for 54 consecutive days demanding an end to border-killing. We have published pamphlets and magazines in support of that position. Again, I proposed the eight pillars regarding the murder of Abrar Fahad of Buet. Their idea was how Bangladesh can become strong as a state without being merely anti-India.
We studied, various people took various initiatives. I saw, this is not happening. In the month of October 2021, we started a lesson called 'Gurubar Adda'. At first there were four of us including Nahid Islam. Later, three others including Abu Baker Majumdar joined.
Gurubar means we used to hang out on Thursdays. We used to think about various questions—state, society, philosophy, history and theology, which many ignore. As we have read the writings of Kamruddin Ahmed, we have also discussed the reality of Lenin's or Islamic state philosophy. Discussed Rabindranath, Vivekananda, Iqbal. Thus we have tried to reduce the gap between thought and cultural politics as much as possible. We were in various student movements. If there is a big movement, I have tried to give its theoretical basis.
The movement started with quota reform. At one stage it reached a point of resignation of Sheikh Hasina as Prime Minister. The step by step movement that reached there, did he have a hidden goal in advance?
Mahfuz Alam: Our initial desire was to expand the student body across Bangladesh. If there is a quota reform movement on the campus, there will be an opportunity for student parliament elections in many universities. Some leadership can also be picked up. But the long-term goal was the fall of the government. We thought the student body would be stronger first. Then we will emerge politically. Cultural areas, factories, schools—we will be involved in all.
From June 5 to July 1, members of Chhatra Shakti organized the movement in Bangladesh. From July 1 to July 14 we did not get any political or even intellectual support in that sense. Everyone thought that there must be some tension in it. But day by day the strength of the movement in the campuses and in the urban areas was increasing due to the novel program. We were thinking whether it can be made into a big student-citizen movement or not. Our target was 2026, but if the opportunity arises why not now!
When did you think the opportunity came?
Mahfuz Alam: After announcing the Bangla blockade on 6 July. If you analyze the Bangla blockade program, you will see that there has been a lot of public involvement in it. We all wrote a concept paper of student power. In the beginning, we called this coup a student-citizen coup. At its core was the concept of student-civic solidarity of the student body. The Bangla Blockade program was arranged according to that solidarity plan. If you analyze the program, you will see that the students went to different places in Dhaka city. Citizens came and joined. But this has not been possible in the last 16 years.
When did you realize the common people's solidarity with you?
Mahfuz Alam: During the week following the Bangla blockade. In the previous 15 years, we have not been able to connect the political parties with people. I was able to get the public support of Dhaka city through the Bangla blockade. Those who could not protest for so long started protesting. The government is still could not directly interfere with the students. We took that opportunity. In the movement, the student organization members came out of their political identity and started joining us as coordinators and workers. We also wanted everyone to stay, mass movement. If this movement fails, how will the students survive! As a result, we were making the slogans through the movement. Our plan was to make the slogans acceptable at the national level. Otherwise, we will not be able to survive by doing politics in the future.
People from all walks of life—students, workers, hill women—were involved in the student movement. What did you learn from there?
Mahfuz Alam: I saw this mass uprising as a solution to many things. Settlement of cultural questions, settlement of ideological questions. The solutions may have been scattered in various directions, causing a big explosion. But the coup itself was a major compromise.
Let me ask the question differently. There are two sides to any revolution—one is the fall, the other is the foundation. The first one is achieved. What is the unwritten manifesto of the various desires of the citizens in this movement in the sense of foundation?
Mahfuz Alam: Many people want to see many things in the new Bangladesh. Young people primarily want representation. Not only in elections, but everywhere. They want independence. Democratic artists and writers want to speak. Day laborers want their daily wages. Hill communities also have their own aspirations. Although they did not come down in the beginning, the scholars came down later on. As a group they have been oppressed in the last 15 years. When the complete shutdown was going on in the movement, we saw a large section of the workers. They have been oppressed as a class for 15 years. Everyone was seeking release from a final deadlock. Otherwise, does anyone let the bullet in front of the chest to die?
The involvement of women in this movement was great. Now many people forget but it is true that without girls this movement would not have succeeded in any way. Despite the 10 percent quota, the girls came and said, we don't want a quota. Why? Because they felt self-respect. This fight was also about self-esteem. Sheikh Hasina broke the self-esteem of the country's immense people. The agitators who chanted themselves as 'Razakar', but it is because their sense of self-respect has been hurt by saying 'Razakar'. So you can see this movement as a restoration project of a sense of dignity and an expression of various class aspirations and representations.
There are rumors of a new political settlement. What kind of state do citizens want to see after the coup?
Mahfuz Alam: The state has one upper side and another lower side. Fixing the surface without fixing the sub-floor means putting a new sheet over the old dirt. People are not only asking for a change in power, but a change in power-structure. They want self-respect and equality. They want a solution to the politics of division on cultural and ideological grounds. It wants a space where everyone can speak; everyone's voice can be heard. They will enjoy basic human rights and civil rights without any ifs and buts. Ideological, political, cultural and economic - these four arrangements of the previous government should be thrown away completely and move towards a new arrangement.
You are saying that if the old system is retained and the elections are held, even if other parties come, they will take an undemocratic form. In this situation, what do you see the position of political parties?
Mahfuz Alam: BNP and Jamaat have suffered a lot of persecution in the last 15 years. It is natural that they will want to take power now. It is also natural that those who have made a mass uprising in the desire of new politics in Bangladesh will also want inter-party reforms. Some come and claim that they were the only ones in this movement. But no one was the only one. The movement was like a flowing river. Various currents have come and mixed in it. Now the streams of Jamuna and Meghna are getting separated. But there is a unity in this too. Political parties will want to maintain their old habits and culture. But our declared goal was to change the political culture and political leadership of Bangladesh, to increase the representation of youth in the parties. Young people don't want club politics which is common in Bangladesh. What they want is visionary politics. They are thinking about how to bring the larger population together in the political arena. If our well-wishers and comrades-in-arms form political parties, we can call on every political party, including them, to leave the mere competition for power and come up with the vision of state formation. It will not be done only by reforming the state. Reforms are also needed within the parties. The process of how political leadership is elected should be reformed. They also need economic reforms. Social pressure must be created for the purification of parties. So many people did not give their lives to sustain the old political culture and vices.
Courtesy of Prothom Alo
