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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