The Bangladesh Awami League (AL) (Bengali: বাংলাদেশ আওয়ামী লীগ; translated from FarsiBangladesh
People's League), commonly known as the Awami
League, is the mainstream center-left, secular political party in Bangladesh.
It is also currently the governing party after winning the 2008 Parliamentary elections in
Bangladesh.
The Awami League was founded in Dhaka, the former capital
of the Pakistani province ofEast Bengal, in 1949 by Bengali nationalists Maulana Abdul Hamid Khan Bhashani,Shamsul Huq,
and later Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy. The Awami
League was established as the Bengali alternative to the domination of the Muslim League in Pakistan. The party quickly gained
massive popular support in East Bengal,
later named East Pakistan,
and eventually led the forces of Bengali nationalism in the struggle against West Pakistan's
military and political establishment. The party under the leadership of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founding father
of Bangladesh, would lead the struggle for independence, first through massive
populist and civil disobedience movements, such as the Six Point Movement and 1971 Non-Cooperation Movement, and
then during the Bangladesh Liberation War. After the emergence
of independent Bangladesh, the Awami League would win the first general
elections in 1973 but was overthrown in 1975 after the assassination of Sheikh Mujibur
Rahman.The party was forced by subsequent military regimes into
political wilderness and many of its senior leaders and actvists were executed
and jailed. After the restoration of democracy in 1990, the Awami League emerged
as one of the principal players of Bangladeshi politics.
Amongst the leaders of the Awami
League, five have become the President of Bangladesh, four have become
the Prime Minister of Bangladesh and one became the Prime Minister of Pakistan. Since the
independence of Bangladesh, the party has been under the control of the family
of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. His daughter and also the incumbent Prime Minister of
Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina,
have been heading the party since 1981.
The
Bangladesh Awami League styles itself as the leader of the
"pro-liberation" forces in Bangladesh, pointing towards the secular
and social democratic sections of the political establishment in the country
which played the leading role during the Bangladesh
Liberation War in 1971. The party
constitution states, and in two cases defines the reason for, four fundamental
principles in guiding its philosophy and policies. They include-
The
four principles are similar to those of the original Four State Principles in
Bangladesh's constitution which
Prior
to the 2008 general elections in Bangladesh, the Awami League announced in its
manifesto, its "Vision 2021" and "Digital Bangladesh"
action plans to transform Bangladesh into a fast developing Middle Income
Country by 2021.[2] The
party also uses the term "Sonar Bangla", or golden Bengal, to
describe its vision for Bangladesh to become a modern developed nation. The
term is reminiscent of Bangladesh's national anthem and a utopian vision in
Bengali nationalism.
History
The
history of the Bangladesh Awami League falls into three distinct eras:
§ The Early Pakistan Era, when the party championed the rights
of the Bengali people in Pakistan;
§ The Movement for Independence, when the party led the forces
of Bengali nationalism in establishing the sovereign state of Bangladesh;
§ The Post Independence Era, when the party is a major player
in Bangladeshi politics and often suffered volatile experiences.
Early
Pakistan Era
On
14 August 1947, the partition of
British India saw the establishment of
the Muslim state
of Pakistan on
the basis of the Two-Nation Theory. The new country compromised of two wings, separated by
1000 miles of Indian Territory, in the Indian Subcontinent. The western wing
consisted of the provinces of Punjab, Sindh, North
West Frontier Province and Balochistan, while the province of East Bengal constituted the eastern wing. From the onset of
independence, Pakistan was led by its founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah and his Muslim
League party.
In
1948, there was rising agitation in East Bengal against the omission of Bengali script from coins, stamps and government exams. Thousands of
students, mainly from the University of Dhaka, protested in Dhaka and clashed
with security forces. Prominent student leaders including Shamsul Huq, Shawkat Ali, Kazi Golam Mahboob, Oli Ahad, Sheikh Mujibur
Rahman and Abdul Wahed were
arrested and the police were accused of excessive brutality while charging
protesters. In March, senior Bengali political leaders were attacked whilst
leading protests demanding that Bengali be
declared an official language in Pakistan. The leaders included the A. K. Fazlul Huq, the former Prime Minister of undivided Bengal. Amidst the
rising discontent in East Bengal, Jinnah visited Dhaka and announced that Urdu
would be sole state language of Pakistan given its significance to Islamic
nationalism in South Asia. The announcement caused uproar in East Bengal,
where the native Bengali population resented Jinnah for his attempts to impose
a language they hardly understood. The resentment was further fueled by rising
discrimination against Bengalis in government, industry, bureaucracy and the
armed forces and the dominance of the Muslim League. The Bengalis argued that
they were they constituted the ethnic majority of Pakistan's population and
Urdu was remote to the land of Bengal, located in the eastern Indian
Subcontinent. Moreover, the rich literary heritage of the Bengali language and
the deep rooted secular culture of Bengali society led to a strong sense of
linguistic and cultural nationalism amongst the people of East Bengal. Against
this backdrop, Bengali nationalism began to take root within the Muslim League
and the party's Bengali members began to rebel.
All Pakistan Awami Muslim League
Maulana Abdul Hamid Khan Bhasani, founding President of the Awami League
On
23 June 1949, Bengali nationalists from East Bengal broke away from the Muslim
League, Pakistan's dominant political party, and established the All Pakistan
Awami Muslim League. The party was founded at the Rose Garden mansion in the
old part of Dhaka. Maulana Abdul Hamid Khan Bhashani and Shamsul Huqwere elected the first President and General Secretary of
the party respectively, while Sheikh Mujibur
Rahman,Khondaker Mostaq
Ahmad and A. K. Rafiqul Hussain were
elected the party's first Joint Secretaries.[10] The party was formed to champion the rights of masses
in Pakistan against the powerful feudal establishment led by the Muslim League.
However, due to its strength stemming from the discriminated Bengali population
of Pakistan's eastern wing, the party eventually became associated and
identified with East Bengal.
Rose Garden in Old Dhaka, the
birthplace of the Awami League
In
1952, the Awami Muslim League and its student wing played an instrumental role
in the Bengali
Language Movement, during which Pakistani security
forces fired upon thousands of protesting students demanding Bengali be
declared an official language of Pakistan and famously killing a number of
students including Abdus Salam, Rafiq Uddin Ahmed, Abul Barkat and Abdul Jabbar. The events of 1952 is widely seen by historians today as a
turning point in the history of Pakistan and the Bengali people, as it was the
starting point of the Bengali nationalist struggle that eventually culminated
in the creation of Bangladesh in 1971. In 1953, the party's council meeting
voted to drop the word "Muslim" from its name in order to give it a
more secular outlook, owing to need of including the province's large Hindu population
in Pakistani politics.
United Front
In
the run up to the East Bengal Legislative Assembly Elections in 1954, the Awami
League took the lead in negotiations in forming a pan-Bengali political
alliance including the Krishak Praja Party, Nizam-e-Islam and Ganatantri Dal. The alliance was termed
the Jukta Front or United Front and formulated the Ekush Dafa, or
21-point Charter, to fight the Muslim
League. The party also took the historic
decision to adopt the traditional Bengali boat, which signified the attachment
to rural Bengal, as its election symbol.
The
election swept the United Front coalition into power in East Bengal with a
massive mandate of 223 seats out of 237 seats. The Awami League itself bagged
143 seats while the Muslim League won only 9 seats. A. K. Fazlul Huq assumed the office of Chief Minister of East Bengal
and drew up a cabinet containing many of the prominent student activists that
were leading movements against the Pakistani state. They included Sheikh Mujibur
Rahman from the Awami League, who
served as commerce minister.
Leaders
of the new provincial government demanded greater provincial autonomy for East
Bengal and eventually succeeded in pressuring Prime Minister Muhammad Ali Bogra, himself a Bengali,
to endorse the proposed constitutional recognition of Bengali as an official
language of Pakistan. The United Front also passed a landmark order for the
establishment of the Bangla Academy in Dhaka. As tensions
with the western wing grew due to the demands for greater provincial autonomy
in East Bengal, Governor-General Ghulam Muhammad dismissed the United Front government on 29 May 1954
under Article 92/A of the provisional constitution of Pakistan.
Tenure in Central Government
In
September 1956, the Awami League formed a coalition with the Republican
Party to secure a majority in the
new National
Assembly of Pakistan and took over the central
government. Awami League President Huseyn
Shaheed Suhrawardy became the Prime
Minister of Pakistan. Suhrawardy pursued a reform agenda
to reduce the long standing economic disparity between East and West Pakistan,
greater representation of Bengalis in the Pakistani civil and armed services
and he unsuccessfully attempted to alleviate the food shortage in the country. The
Awami League also began deepening relations with the United States. The
government moved to join the Southeast Asia Treaty Organisation (SEATO) and Central
Treaty Organisation (CENTO), the two strategic
defense alliances in Asia inspired by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Maulana Bhashani, one of the party's founders,
condemned the decision of the Suhrawardy government and called a conference in
February, 1957 at Kagmari in East Bengal. He protested the move and the support
lent by the Awami League leadership to the government. Bhashani broke away from
the Awami League and then formed the leftist National Awami Party (NAP).
The
controversy over One Unit (the division of Pakistan into only two
provinces, east and west)
and the appropriate electoral system for Pakistan, whether joint or separate,
also revived as soon as Suhrawardy became Prime Minster. In West Pakistan,
there was strong opposition to the joint electorate by the Muslim League and
the religious parties. The Awami League however, strongly supported the joint
electorate. These differences over One Unit and the appropriate electorate
caused problems for the government.
By
early 1957, the movement for the dismemberment of the One Unit had started.
Suhrawardy was at the mercy of central bureaucracy fighting to save the One
Unit. Many in the business elite in Karachi were lobbying against Suhrawardy's
decision to distribute millions of dollars of American aid to East Pakistan and
to set up a national shipping corporation. Supported by these lobbyists,
President Iskander Mirza demanded the Prime Minister's resignation. Suhrawardy
requested to seek a vote of confidence in the National Assembly, but this
request was turned down. Suhrawardy resigned under threat of dismissal on
October 10, 1957.
Ayub Khan coup and martial law
On
7 October 1958, President Iskander Mirza declared martial law and appointed
army chief General Ayub Khan as Chief Martial Law Administrator. Ayub Khan eventually deposed Mirza in a bloodless coup. By
promulgating the Political Parties Elected Bodies Disqualified Ordinance, Ayub
banned all major political parties in Pakistan. Senior politicians, including
the entire top leadership of the Awami League, were arrested and most were kept
under detention till 1963.
In
1962, Ayub Khan drafted a new constitution, modeled on indirect election,
through an electoral college, and termed it 'Basic Democracy'. Huseyn Shaheed
Suhrawardy joined Nurul Amin, Khwaja Nazimuddin, Maulvi Farid Ahmed and Hamidul Haq Chowdhury in forming
National Democratic Front against Ayub Khan's military-backed rule and to
restore elective democracy. However the alliance failed to obtain any
concessions. Instead the electoral colleges appointed a new parliament and the
President exercised executive authority.
Wide
spread discrimination prevailed in Pakistan against Bengalis during the regime
of Ayub Khan. Harsh restrictions were imposed on major Bengali cultural symbols,
including a ban on the airing of Rabindra Sangeet public. The University of Dhaka became a hotbed for student activism advocating
greater rights for Bengalis and the restoration of democracy in Pakistan.
On
5 December 1963, Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy was found dead in his hotel room
in Beirut, Lebanon.
His sudden death under mysterious circumstances gave rise to speculation within
the Awami League and the general population in East Pakistan that he had been
poisoned.
1966
to 1971
he 6-point demands, proposed by Mujib, were widely accepted by the East
Pakistani populace, as they proposed greater autonomy for the provinces of
Pakistan. After the so-called Agartala Conspiracy Case, and subsequent end of
the Ayub Khan regime in Pakistan, the Awami League and its leader
Sheikh Mujib reached the peak of their popularity among the East Pakistani
Bengali population. In the elections of 1970, the Awami League won 167 of 169
East Pakistan seats in the National Assembly but none of West Pakistan's 138 seats. It also won 288 of the 300 provincial assembly
seats in East Pakistan.[14][15] This win gave the Awami League a healthy majority in
the 313-seat National Assembly and placed it in a position to establish a
national government without a coalition partner. This was not acceptable to the
political leaders of West Pakistan and led directly to the events of the Bangladesh
Liberation War. The AL leaders, taking refuge in
India, successfully led the war against the Pakistani Army throughout 1971.
1975 to 1996
These
negative developments led to a widespread dissatisfaction among the people and
even inside the Army. On 15 August 1975 some junior members of the armed forces
in Dhaka,
led by Major Faruk Rahman and Major Rashid, assassinated Sheikh Mujibur Rahman
and all his family members. Within months, on November 3, 1975, four more of
its top leaders, Syed Nazrul Islam, Tajuddin Ahmed, CaptainMuhammad Mansur Ali and A. H. M.
Qamaruzzaman were killed inside the Dhaka Central Jail. Only Sheikh Hasina and Sheikh Rehana, two daughters of Mujib, survived the massacre as they were
in West Germany as a part of a cultural exchange program. They later claimed
political asylum in the United Kingdom. Sheikh Rehana, the younger sister,
chose to remain in the UK permanently, while Sheikh Hasina moved to India and
lived in self imposed exile. Her stays abroad helped her gain important
political friends in the West and in India that proved to be a valuable asset
for the party in the future.
After
1975, the party remained split into several rival factions, and fared poorly in
the 1979 parliamentary elections held under a military government. In 1981
Sheikh Hasina returned after the largest party faction, the "Bangladesh
Awami League", elected her its president, and she proceeded to take over
the party leadership and unite the factions. As she was under age at the time
she could not take part in the 1981 presidential elections that followed the
assassination of then President Ziaur Rahman.
The
Awami League emerged as the largest opposition party in parliament in the
elections in 1991, following the uprising against Ershad. It made major
electoral gains in 1994 as its candidates won mayoral elections in the two
largest cities of the country: the capital Dhaka and the commercial
capital Chittagong. Demanding electoral reforms the party resigned from the
parliament in 1995, boycotted the February 1996 parliamentary polls, and
subsequently won 146 out of 300 seats in June 1996 parliamentary polls.
Supported by a few smaller parties, the Awami League formed a "Government
of National Unity," and elected a non-partisan head of state, retired
Chief Justice Shahabuddin Ahmed.
1996 to 2001
AL's
second term in office had mixed achievements. Apart from sustaining economic
stability during the Asian economic
crisis, the government successfully
settled Bangladesh's long standing dispute with India over sharing the water of
the river Ganga (also known as Padma) in late
1996, and signed a peace treaty with tribal rebels in 1997. In 1998, Bangladesh
faced one of the worst floods ever, and the government handled the crisis
satisfactorily. It also had significant achievements in containing inflation,
and peacefully neutralising a long-running leftist insurgency in south-western
districts dating back to the first AL government's time. However, rampant
corruption allegations against party office bearers and ministers as well as a
deteriorating law and order situation troubled the government. Its pro poor
policies achieved wide microeconomic development but that left the country's
wealthy business class dissatisfied. The AL's last months in office were marred
by sporadic bombing by alleged Islamist militants. Hasina herself escaped
several attempts on her life, in one of which two anti-tank mines were planted under her helipad in Gopalganj district.
In July 2001, the second AL government stepped down, becoming the first elected
government in Bangladesh to serve a full term in office.
The
party won only 62 out of 300 parliamentary seats in the elections held in
October 2001, despite bagging 40% of the votes, up from 36% in 1996 and 33% in
1991. The BNP and its allies won a two thirds majority in parliament with 46%
of the votes cast, with BNP alone winning 41% up from 33% in 1996 and 30% in
1991.
2001 to 2008
In
its second term in opposition since 1991, the party suffered the assassination of several key members. Popular young leader Ahsanullah Master,
a Member of Parliament from Gazipur, was killed in 2004. This was followed by
a grenade
attack on Hasina during a public meeting on
August 21, 2004, resulting in the death of 22 party supporters, including party
women's secretary Ivy Rahman, though Hasina lived. Finally, the party's electoral
secretary, ex finance minister, and veteran diplomat Shah M S Kibria, a Member of Parliament from Habiganj,
was killed in a grenade attack in Sylhet later
that year.
In
June 2005, the Awami League won an important victory when the AL nominated
incumbent mayor A.B.M.
Mohiuddin Chowdhury won the important mayoral election
in Chittagong, by a huge margin, against BNP nominee State Minister of
Aviation Mir Mohammad Nasiruddin.
This election was seen as a showdown between the Awami League and the BNP.
However, the killing of party leaders continued. In December 2005, the AL
supported Mayor of Sylhet narrowly escaped the third attempt on his life as a
grenade thrown at him failed to explode.
In
September 2006, several of the party's top leaders, including Saber Hossain Choudhury MP
and Asaduzzaman Nur MP, were hospitalized after being critically injured
by police beatings while they demonstrated in support of electoral-law reforms.
Starting in late October 2006, the Awami League led alliance carried out a
series of nationwide demonstrations and blockades centering on the selection of
the leader of the interim caretaker administration to oversee the 2007
elections. Although an election was scheduled to take place on January 22, 2007
that the Awami League decided to boycott, the country's military intervened on
January 11, 2007 and installed an interim government composed of retired
bureaucrats and military officers.
Throughout
2007 and 2008, the military backed government tried to root out corruption and
get rid of the two dynastic leaders of the AL and BNP. While these efforts
largely failed, they succeeded in producing a credible voter list that was used
in the December 29, 2008 national election.
National election 2008
The
Awami league participated in the national election on December 29, 2008 as part
of a larger electoral alliance that also included theJatiya Party led by former military ruler General Ershad as
well as some leftist parties. According to the Official Results of the 2008
National Elections posted by the Election Commission, Bangladesh Awami League
has won 230 out of 299 constituencies, and together with its allies, have a
total of 262 seats. The Awami League and its allies received 57% of the
total votes cast. The AL alone got 48%, compared to 36% of the other major
alliance led by the BNP which by itself got 33% of the votes. Ex-Prime
Minister Sheikh Hasina, as party head, is the Prime Minister-Elect. Her term of
office is likely to begin on January 10, 2009. She is expected to head a
30-35 member government that will include cabinet members from the Awami
League's electoral allies.
Wings
of Bangladesh Awami League
§ Bangladesh Krishak League
§ Bangladesh Sromik League
§ Bangladesh Swechchasebak League
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