Bangladesh’s murky politics throw up new issues for people to brood over from time to time. Western journalists find it intriguing and at times funny because such debates on political issues have little to do with the country’s people.
Over the past weeks, the topic has been Khaleda Zia’s release from jail. Other than her supporters, who else is bothered in the world about her being freed or not. The opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) had expected a world of condemnation on her being sent to jail by a court, but there was none. Even Pakistan, its best friend, decided to stay silent.
The reality is Khaleda Zia, whom I have known since childhood as the wife of my father’s colleague in the army, did make a name in history. I respect her personally as a family friend of one time, but since the independence of our country they were people in power and my widowed mother was too small to be noticed. Rather she was punished after 1975 which is a different matter altogether.
Khaleda will be in history books for becoming the first female premier of this Muslim-majority country and again the first premier to be jailed. What a fall from grace! She lived like a ‘queen’ almost all her life and it is not easy to adjust to the rigours of jail life although she is the most privileged prisoner.
The BNP is howling about her being denied bail. They must realise the courts are denying her bail appeals because of the nature of the crimes she committed. The world community keeps a close watch on how the government is dealing with her court cases and thus screaming foul just makes them fools. What they can ask for is mercy from the government which Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina might or might not give her.
Indeed the latest crimes dominating the latest political debates are so ugly in nature that I had condemned her many times in the past for resorting to such acts brutally injuring my family’s soul.
The first was her observing her birthday on 15 August, the date on which Bangladesh lost its Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and his most of his family. Why does she need to do this? Why such a tasteless act? Isn’t there any other way to do politics? Why deny Bangabandhu as even if the world turns around the reality that he is this nation’s founder cannot be changed. Totally out of touch with reality! Respect brings respect which is among the basics we were taught by my parents.
The other issue is giving our national flag to war criminals who had not only opposed the very birth of Bangladesh but killed our brightest sons to maim the new nation which was fighting for its birth.
Murderers like executed Matiur Rahman Nizami and Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid were named as new ministers in the beautiful Darbar Hall of the presidential palace. I was present there as a journalist covering the oath taking of Khaleda Zia as prime minister in 2001. I was angry and furious. Then came tears, which I tried to hide. It was like stabbing me and my heart started bleeding. My father and martyrs like him have been insulted to a depth that cannot be forgiven.
Khaleda Zia will never be forgiven for these two tasteless and cruel acts as long as Bangladesh lives.

Nadeem Qadir is the Roving Editor at The Asian Age and a UN Dag Hammarskjöld fellow.