Speaking the truth

Universities ought to be places where envelope of thought, ideas is stretched rather than channelled down narrow path

The conflict in 1971 that brought Bangladesh into being is long over, but the bitterness and very real divisions remain, surfacing from time to time in both Bangladesh and Pakistan. A British journalist, David Bergman who lives in Dhaka and writes for the Dhaka-based New Age, has been found guilty of contempt of court for questioning the official death toll resulting from the war. He is an investigative journalist, and has examined the evidence behind the official government figure on his blog. He had questioned the official figures and asked if there was evidence to support them. The sentence he received amounted to around a $65 fine or a week in prison. The Bangladesh government did not dispute the veracity of his findings during the contempt proceedings, and his conviction was for “hurting the feelings of the nation”. The case has been seen as something of a test for freedom of speech in Bangladesh, and Mr Bergman subsequently commented that it was likely to be increasingly difficult for people to comment on judicial proceedings and judgments in Bangladesh even when those proceedings are completed.

Bangladesh, however, is not alone in its intolerance for freedom of speech. The Karachi University (KU) recently blocked a visit by a Bangladeshi scholar who was to have participated in a conference on December 3. Pressure to block the visit by Dr Imtiaz Ahmed seemingly came from a student union, which was said to be angered by the way Jamaat-e-Islami leaders have been treated by the Bangladesh government. There is perhaps an irony in that the conference Dr Ahmed had been due to address was titled “Challenges of Transition in social Sciences” — a seemingly innocuous title for a veritable minefield of semantic and cultural issues. The matter raises a number of issues related to both academic and student freedoms. Our universities ought to be places where the envelope of thought and ideas is stretched rather than channelled down a narrow path. The conflicts of the subcontinent since 1947 are subjects of academic debate and any attempts to stifle such debates deserve to be condemned.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 7^th, 2014.

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