Sachib Chakma
Member, Central Committee, UPDF
There is no need to restate how important a national parliamentary election is for the people of the Chittagong Hill Tracts. If genuinely responsible representatives of the people can be sent to parliament, the people’s movement can be expanded at the national level, and the people’s hopes, aspirations, and demands can be raised. Since independence, only Manabendra Narayan Larma and Upendra Lal Chakma were able to play this important role. After 1979, the people of the Chittagong Hill Tracts have not been able to send anyone to the national parliament as their representative—or, more accurately, they have not been allowed to do so.
The main reason for this lies in the opportunistic and flawed electoral strategy of the Parbatya Chattagram Jana Samhati Samiti (JSS). For the past 35 years, starting from the 1991 election, the JSS has adopted only one electoral strategy: forming alliances with so-called national political parties. As a result, over the past three and a half decades, they have repeatedly compelled the people to vote sometimes for the Awami League and sometimes for the BNP. However, they have never provided—nor have they been able to provide—any rational and convincing explanation as to why these two parties should be voted for. The consequences of this flawed strategy have never served the interests of the people; rather, its effects have been disastrous and far-reaching.
First, hill representatives elected under the banners of the Awami League and the BNP did not speak on behalf of the people in the national parliament, or were unable to do so due to party discipline. As MPs, they merely served their own personal interests. In many cases, their role was even anti-people. There is not a single example where Jumma MPs elected on Awami League or BNP tickets protested—inside or outside parliament—against brutal repression carried out against their own people, communal attacks, or land grabbing.
Second, the shortsighted electoral strategy of the JSS has encouraged hill people to join the Awami League and the BNP. The way hill people are now flocking like floodwaters to Wadud Bhuiyan’s election rallies is a direct outcome of this opportunistic strategy. Asking people to vote for Awami League or BNP candidates effectively popularizes opportunism among the people and pushes them toward these two parties. Those who are genuinely patriotic and committed to struggle can never do this.
Third, the JSS’s electoral strategy has benefited only the Awami League and the BNP and has strengthened Bengali nationalism and Bangladeshi nationalism in the Chittagong Hill Tracts. Instead, elections should have been used to strengthen our own nationalism—Jumma/Jummo nationalism. For a national liberation struggle like ours to succeed, there is no alternative but to expand nationalist consciousness and establish broader national unity. Yet the JSS leadership has adopted strategies that weaken their own nationalist strength and unity.
Fourth, adopting a strategy of voting for the Awami League or BNP suppresses the distinct issues of the hill peoples. The agendas and programs of the Awami League and BNP are not the same as ours. At a time when our core national issues—such as autonomy, land rights, military rule and repression, constitutional recognition, and sexual violence against Jumma women—should be brought to the forefront during elections, supporting the Awami League and BNP instead causes the issues of so-called national parties to dominate.
Fifth, the JSS’s flawed electoral strategy has helped establish Awami League and BNP politics in the Chittagong Hill Tracts. Thanks to this strategy, the influence of these two parties has now spread down to the grassroots. This is an extremely shortsighted act—like digging a canal to invite crocodiles. Intelligence agencies operating in the Chittagong Hill Tracts have recommended to the government that central leaders of so-called national political parties frequently visit the region. The purpose of this recommendation is to deepen the influence of political parties hostile to Jumma peoples’ interests through visits by “national leaders.” The JSS’s electoral strategy directly assists the objectives of these intelligence agencies.
The root of this self-destructive electoral strategy of the JSS lies in the party’s right-wing opportunism. Rather than advancing the people’s movement, this strategy pushes it far backward. Under the pressure of Awami League and BNP’s “Bengali” and “Bangladeshi” nationalism, Jumma/Jummo nationalism is currently in retreat. The JSS calls on people to vote for parties that carry out brutal repression against them and seek to erase their national existence. No leadership with a sound mind can adopt such a self-destructive and shortsighted strategy.
In the current 13th national parliamentary election as well, the JSS (Santu Group) is vigorously campaigning in favor of BNP candidates. Forgetting their own Jumma/Jummo nationalism, they have climbed onto the back of “Bangladeshi” nationalism. This strategy may help them retain control of the Regional Council, but it brings no benefit to the people or to the movement. In the past, the JSS leadership did manage to preserve its hold over the Regional Council using the same strategy, but the people gained nothing—only the military ruling establishment benefited. By keeping the JSS seated in a powerless Regional Council stripped of any real authority, the ruling elites were able to divide the people’s strength and block the movement.
In the past, Jumma MPs elected from the Awami League and BNP failed to work in the interests of the people. Sachinpru Jery, Dipen Dewan, and Samiran Dewan will be no exception. Those who did not utter a single word in protest against the horrific communal attacks in Rangamati, Khagrachari, Guimara, and Dighinala; who failed to voice even the slightest protest against brutal repression and genocide against the Bawm community in Bandarban; who for decades did not raise a finger against ongoing ethnic oppression—how will they speak for the people in the national parliament if elected? It is astonishing to consider with what audacity they come seeking votes from the people despite their past roles as collaborators and enablers of repression. Where they should be rejected with contempt—driven away like a diseased, decrepit, outcast dog—the JSS (Santu) is instead working relentlessly to establish them and, along with them, their opportunistic politics and ideology that run counter to Jumma national interests. It is because of the JSS’s flawed leadership that they now display such audacity and unchecked dominance.
The leadership of the JSS (Santu) should learn from past mistakes and, in the greater interest of the nation, abandon their self-destructive electoral strategy in favor of a correct, realistic approach that supports the movement and strengthens national unity.
(30 January 2026)
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