This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 DHAKA 000338 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/23/2016 
TAGS: PHUM KDEM PTER BG BG BGD
SUBJECT: TILTING AT WINDMILLS 
 
Classified By: A/DCM D.C. McCullough, reasons para 1.4 b,d. 
 
 ¶1. (C) Kamal Hossain is the principal drafter of 
Bangladesh's constitution and the country's most prominent 
civil libertarian.  Foreign minister in Sheikh Mujib's 
government, he left the Awami League, he says, to protest the 
AL's embrace of black money and thugery in post-Ershad 
politics.  As chairman of the Gono Forum, he is now part of 
the AL-led 14-party opposition alliance.  He recently sat 
down with us for three hours to discuss topical issues. 
 
¶2. (C) Highlights follow: 
 
WHAT IS THE GONO FORUM? 
 
When I was with the AL, I felt they were falling into the 
prevailing pattern of money politics.  In the 1960s, there 
was a lot of idealism in politics.  As students, we worked 
for a higher cause than power and connected to the people 
with personal contact.  The AL expected to win the 1991 
election, and when it lost, it decided it had to adapt and 
turn to professional politicians.  Ershad's contribution to 
politics was the injection of mercenaries and the 
institutionalization of corruption and money politics.  He 
sent brigadiers to places like Indonesia who came back and 
set up the same kind of organizations they saw there to 
enrich themselves and control the opposition.  I wanted to 
rescue our politics from money and arms, and to get a 
parliament that works.  But people in the AL said this was 
old fashioned, that the BNP followed Ershad's approach, that 
it played the religion and anti-India cards to divide the 
people and that's why it won.  They concluded that the AL 
must fight fire with fire.  I finally left the AL in 1993 to 
avoid physical confrontation, and started the Gono (People's) 
Forum to promote reform politics, to fight for hearts and 
minds, house to house, neighborhood by neighborhood. 
 
WHAT ARE YOUR CURRENT POLITICAL ASPIRATIONS? 
 
The 14-party opposition alliance says it supports our 
principles, but we're severely handicapped by not having big 
money.  Anyone will tell you that to win in a big city like 
Dhaka, a candidate needs three to four crore taka (about USD 
500,000 to 650.000).  When I ran in Mirpur, and lost, in 
1991, the cost was less than five lakh taka.  Politicians say 
that Bangladesh is Third World, not London, and that our 
people are illiterate.  I say people were more illiterate in 
the 1960s and this kind of cynicism has institutionalized 
sick politics.  They call themselves professional 
politicians.  I call them criminals.  People yearn to be rid 
of this type of politics.  My goal is to get democratic 
alliances to create a new politics.  This time is far away, 
but I will not contest in the type of environment we have 
today. 
 
FORMER PRESIDENT B. CHOWDHURY'S BDP SEEMS TO BE OFF TO A SLOW 
START. 
 
It's hard to build a political party.  It takes time.  He 
expects there are dissidents in BNP who will join him.  Also, 
Tariq's strategy of building a party within a party is 
creating visible tensions that he hopes will benefit him, 
that people who don't get BNP tickets will turn to him.  Both 
the Al and the BNP have the same problem with people who 
don't get tickets going elsewhere.  There is a good 
possibility that the 14-party alliance and BDP will work out 
an understanding to let the good man win, especially in the 
marginal seats.  The situation should be clearer after one 
month. 
 
IS THE AL SERIOUS ABOUT BOYCOTTING THE ELECTION? 
 
I've been in close contact with Sheikh Hasina since July. 
I've told her to go back to parliament to give a voice to the 
14 parties and to get our message across at home and to our 
foreign friends, and that going back would not be a sign of 
weakness but a more effective means of protest.  I've always 
been a dissenter on hartals.  What worked for us before was 
personal contact with the people, to go to the grassroots. 
She is serious about boycotting, but many people in the party 
are against it. 
 
WHAT DOES THE AL HAVE TO DO TO WIN THE NEXT ELECTION? 
 
If the AL could reverse what happened to them in 2001, if the 
AL can get personnel transfers undone, if it can work around 
the Election Commission, then it can win.  Hasina won't admit 
this because she sees her government as a golden era, but 
there is a strong anti-incumbency factor in this country. 
But the BNP overdid it in trying to make the playing field 
more level.  In our politics, things that look like they are 
more procedural than substantive are still important because 
they can show that change is possible and that people won't 
be punished for opposing authoritarianism.  There is a real 
potential for revenge if AL wins the election and doesn't 
have partners to urge restraint on it.  Our strategy should 
be to win with a good coalition, not to go for a four-fifths 
majority. 
 
WHAT IS YOUR VIEW OF JMB? 
 
JMB has an ideology that does not care about democracy.  JI 
believes that sharia law overrides any constitution, and it 
knows that bombs won't produce this outcome.  Instead, it 
knows that JMB de-legitimizes them and is an obstacle to 
their goal of replacing the AL and BNP and to infiltrate 
educational and state institutions.  JI appears rational and 
is politically opportunistic.  My surmise is that JMB had 
interactions with the intelligence agencies until the suicide 
bomb attacks, but those attacks unified the country against 
this gross perversion of religion and politics.  They mystery 
about the attacks is the timing.  I don't think JI or BNP was 
behind the bombings. 
 
WHAT DOES HASINA THINK? 
 
She doesn't think JI or BNP was involved, but she thinks she 
has to say that as leader of the opposition and to create a 
climate that favors early elections. 
 
YOU REPRESENT THE KIBRIA FAMILY.  WHAT'S THE STATUS OF THAT 
CASE? 
 
The government wants to quickly close the case, to get some 
lower down people tried and convicted, and declare the matter 
solved.  Mrs. Quayyum came to see me to protest her husband's 
innocence.  She said he is not so foolish or reckless to do 
something like this, and she indicated that he would have 
something interesting to say if he were allowed to speak in 
court that would implicate a senior person at the PMO. 
 
INDICATED?  WHAT DID SHE ACTUALLY SAY? 
 
"He had wanted to say things but he couldn't."  The rest is 
inference, but everybody talks about Haris Chowdhury because 
he is from that area, he had been there shortly before the 
attack, and he had said that BNP would do whatever it took to 
get all the seats in that area.  That last part could be just 
political talk, but my point is that Quayyum should have been 
allowed to speak in court.  Now that three of his 
co-defendants have retracted their confessions, there's no 
case against Quayyum and the government knows it.  The timing 
is interesting:  Quayyum wants to talk in court, and suddenly 
the confessions get recanted.  Judges at this level are so 
politicized you never know what's going to happen next. 
 
YOUR CRITICS CHARGE YOU HAVE VERY CLOSE TIES TO THE INDIAN 
GOVERNMENT. 
 
Look at what I did when I was foreign minister.  Whether it 
was about land or maritime boundaries, Bangladesh either came 
out on top or held its own on some very sensitive issues. 
But after 1975, I was abroad for five years, and the Indian 
agent theme is the broad brush the BNP uses against the AL. 
We have to have good relations with our neighbors, but 
without sacrificing our interests and principles. 
 
HOW DO YOU VIEW THE RECENT ELECTION COMMISSION CONTROVERSY? 
 
It's so gross, the way the new commissioners vilified the 
court.  They must have a simple mandate to deliver the 
election for the BNP.  Zakaria (the former EC secretary and 
one of the new commissioners) is a criminal who worked with 
the PMO against the last Chief Election Commissioner.  The 
voter list has more than 70 million names and is on computer. 
 It just makes sense to update that list instead of creating 
a brand new one, especially if you have only 30 days to do 
the vetting.  To do something opposite to this raises 
suspicions, and erasing that database with the old list would 
be a sign of bad faith.  The BNP won with that list, but its 
idea is to go for overkill. 
 
¶3. (C) Comment: Kamal Hossain's seemingly quixotic campaign 
to return Bangladeshi politics to the real or imagined 
idealism of a lost generation accounts for both his stature 
as Bangladesh's pre-eminent, and perhaps only, elder 
statesman and his limited political influence. 
CHAMMAS