Justice has been served
Ghulam Azam, the mastermind behind heinous crimes committed in 1971 has been found guilty and sentenced to 90 years imprisonment. Justice has been served.
That should be the end of this man’s life story. It is that simple. For those demanding a harsher punishment, I ask you, what possible difference will it make if you hang a 90 year old man with the noose, or let him rot to death within one of the most grim and primitive prison systems in the world? Why are you not satisfied with the verdict? Why are our social networks abuzz with such hate?
I can understand when those directly or indirectly affected by the man such as the generation from the 70’s, wish him hate. They are entitled to it. Most of those in the social networking sites I see today are not.
My generation must learn to accept and respect the justice system. I have seen comments in my Facebook timeline that range from, “A mockery of the system” to “This judgment makes no sense”; I find myself musing, “of course it doesn’t make sense because it doesn’t satiate your deep seeded need to see a guilty old man hang.” I find the surrounding judgmental streak within people profoundly disturbing, especially since they have not usually given much thought to what led to this decision.
The culture of revenge and cognitive bias that is being fueled is a result of other problems and frustrations we face in life and is beginning to affect our collective judgment. Setting aside for a moment the irony of how all this hatred is spewing out in the month of Ramadan, it surprises me how in the minority I feel when I say “Life Imprisonment” in a modern, civilized society is the harshest punishment that a man can face.
I urge you to take a moment and step back to see the bigger picture here. When you are not directly the aggrieved party to injustice and you join in the hype to demand the death of a fellow human being, sometimes in the most obscene way by dancing and singing in a mob with children at your side, no matter how big the monster we advocate the slaying of, then you and we are actively devaluing the sanctity of life.
This does bigger, irreparable damage to the fabric of our society than any single act that was committed during the dark days of 1971 because we can’t seek justice against such destruction. That is a fact. You can’t make a counter argument to that, because it is not a devaluation of the value of life when a man is convicted and punished for his alleged crimes. When it is only the degree of punishment that you are disagreeing with, then that may be informed by the degree to which your notion of justice is medieval.
The only argument you can make against this is if you give into your fears and say that by not killing the man now, the tribunal is in essence setting him free because the next Government, if not Awami League, will probably end up doing just that. If such an unfortunate day were indeed to grace our society, would not the youth of Shahbagh that we anointed gatekeepers for protecting us from instances of “miscarriage,” fight the establishment to ensure Ghulam Azam never sets a foot outside of the prison. where he has duly been sentenced to live the rest of his days? Our insecurity regarding this type of scenario is telling indeed. It shows little confidence for how our society will react were any subsequent government to make such a brazen move.
For now though justice has been served. It is in the best interest of civility that we do not ask anything further of the system lest we be judged by future generations as a blood lusting society.
Originally published at www.dhakatribune.com on July 16, 2013.
