Rehabilitating a tainted prince, forgetting a bold journalist

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Syed Badrul Ahsan
Published : 16:42, Feb 25, 2019 | Updated : 17:07, Feb 25, 2019

Syed Badrul AhsanNothing of Jamal Khashoggi was remembered when Mohammad bin Salman flew into Pakistan last week. Judging by the celebratory manner of his reception in Islamabad, it was clear that the visit was a well-orchestrated programme of the attempts by the Saudi authorities to undo the damage done by his clear links with the murder of the reputed journalist inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in October last year.
Despite patent evidence of the Saudi crown prince’s involvement in the gruesome assassination of Khashoggi, the administration of United States President Donald Trump has continued to defend him. Turkish President Recep Tayyep Erdogan and a host of leaders around the world remain mystified at Washington’s reluctance to draw Mohammad into the net. Chances now are that the world will soon forget Khashoggi and business will go on as usual.
One ought not to be surprised, for there are the precedents which we can look back on in trying to understand why the world often ends up, after a brief spell of bitter condemnation of an individual responsible for a crime, turning its back upon the entire sordid episode. When we are informed that Jamal Khashoggi had his body parts dissolved in liquid, the aim being not to have anyone discover the spot where his remains have been dumped, we cannot but recall — and recoil at the remembrance — the terrible death brought on Patrice Lumumba in the Congo in 1961.
The first prime minister of a newly independent Congo, reputed for his strident opposition to Belgian colonialism, did not have much of a chance of survival after taking over as the country’s leader. He was soon overthrown and captured by soldiers loyal to the murderous Moise Tshombe of Katanga. Within days he was murdered and his body was with alacrity dissolved in acid.
Khashoggi and Lumumba were not fortunate enough to be buried in graves. But Bahadur Shah Zafar did find a grave in Rangoon, where the newly risen British colonial power exiled him and tightened their grip on India. It was a farce of a trial the last of the Mughals was subjected to by the political heirs of Clive.
Supreme irony was in the air. Here was a monarch forced from his throne by foreigners come from a distant island, tried by those interlopers and placed in a grave they thought would remain obscure to the world. As soon as the emperor’s remains were placed inside the grave, acid was sprayed all over them in order for the corpse to dissolve briskly. The colonial power was not leaving anything to chance. No one could steal the body, or its bony remnants, in future and place it in a proper setting for people to pay homage. Bahadur Shah Zafar’s grave exists. Inside it is emptiness.
Combination of file photos show Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman and slain journalist slain Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. PHOTOS/REUTERS and Khashoggi`s Twitter handleDoing away with Khashoggi appears to be a leaf the likes of Saudi crown prince Mohammad have taken out of the books of those who caused Lumumba and Zafar to vanish into nothingness. It may also be that the Saudis who conspired to murder the journalist had the story of the left-wing Moroccan politician Mehdi Ben Barka in mind.
Barka, whose opposition to the oppressive rule of King Hassan II aroused the ire of the monarch and his courtiers, travelled to Paris in October 1965. He was there abducted by agents of the king and the French police and was never seen or heard of again. In an era where investigative journalism was yet to take roots and where governmental accountability was rather stillborn, nothing much was done to probe the disappearance of Barka. Life in Morocco went on as usual and people, both in Rabat and around the world, forgot the man who, had he lived, would have made a difference in his country and in the Third World.
And that is hardly any end of the story of disappearances. DN Aidit was a dedicated communist who headed the Partai Komunis Indonesia when the Indonesian army, on the pretext that he and his followers had attempted to seize power in September 1965, hunted down real and suspected PKI leaders and activists. Anywhere between one and two million Indonesians were murdered by General Suharto and the army in the period from autumn 1965 up to well into 1967.
Aidit was abducted by the soldiers in the early hours of the so-called communist coup and shot. To this day, no one knows where his remains were dumped by his killers. And those of us who saw Libyans rise in fury against Muammar Gaddafi not many years ago are not aware of his final resting place. His killers ensured that burying him in an unmarked spot in the desert was the safest way of guaranteeing his obliteration from the minds of his people and from history.
All these disappearances are reflective of the barbarian instincts in people who have caused these men to die. Saudi crown prince Mohammad is symbolic of medieval power which, armed with hubris fortified by wealth or wile, can weather storms and scandals over a period of time.
In Pakistan, Imran Khan acted as his happy chauffeur. In India, Narendra Modi dispensed with protocol to welcome him at the airport with a hug that was as obsequious as it was embarrassing. The man the world suspects, with good reason, as the arch conspirator in the slicing of Jamal Khashoggi into pieces and the disappearance of the pieces is well on his way to rehabilitation.
It is a shame which leaves us all diminished.

Syed Badrul Ahsan is Editor-in-Charge, The Asian Age.

/zmi/
***The opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the opinions and views of Bangla Tribune.
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