By: Ali Ismail

0778-842 5262 (United Kingdom)

aliismail_uk@yahoo.co.uk

The goal – Bradford City Hall



THE BNP SELECTS ITS "ETHNIC MINORITY" CANDIDATE


We should beware of persons who try to make us despise each other




Over the weekend, while attempting to recover from a severe sore throat which has delayed considerably this, my weekly feature article, I noticed on the floor of my local grocer’s shop a newspaper headline to the effect that the British National Party (BNP) has decided to field an ethnic candidate and that there was outrage from various quarters relating thereto. There was also a large colour photograph of the man in question, which proclaimed him to be not particularly “ethnic” by most standards of the word.

As you are most probably aware by now, the once in four years local elections are about to descend upon us with Thursday, 4th May as the day of decision. This is not exactly as great in import as a general election but, in purely domestic terms, it is important.

In this country a great deal of what goes on is decided at local level – at borough council level, in fact. Although the United Kingdom’s land area is less than 200,000 square miles it is not so small that central government plays an absolutely commanding role.

While central government controls the civil service, the armed forces and the country’s relations with the outside world, the near at hand matters relating to the office, the home and the shop are handled, competently or otherwise, by local government. Refuse collection and street lighting are typical examples of what gets done by your local council.

Furthermore, for those seeking political careers it is the usual case that he (or she) cuts his teeth as a borough councillor before being selected as a parliamentary candidate by whichever party he is affiliated to. There are many exceptions but that is the general rule.

My argument is that the selection of an ethnic candidate by the BNP is of potential sea changing importance for that organisation and for the future of the nationalist cause in the United Kingdom and that the implications are fraught for most of the readers of this Bangladeshi community newspaper.

These appear to be the basic facts:

There was turmoil among the rank and file of the BNP on Saturday after a Greek Armenian man was selected as a BNP candidate for the local elections.

The party, which is preparing for its biggest-ever election campaign, has chosen Sharif Abdel Gawad to fight the Bowling and Bakerend ward in Bradford.

It describes Mr Gawad as a “totally assimilated Greek Armenian” whose grandfather, an Armenian Christian, had claimed asylum in Britain.

But the posting of his name among the party’s list of candidates has caused uproar among members who believe that the party must field all-white representatives.

Workers at the party’s headquarters spent Saturday fielding angry calls from members who refused to accept Mr Gawad’s candidacy on race grounds, “even when it was explained that he was not a Pakistani or a Muslim.” There were calls for the regional organiser responsible for Mr Gawad’s selection to resign, and anger at party bosses.

In 2004 Nick Griffin, the BNP’s leader, tried to force through rule changes allowing non-whites to join the BNP. He backed down after widespread opposition. Last night a spokesman said that members who refused to accept Mr Gawad’s candidacy had no place in the party.

But on white nationalist websites members were incredulous. “Is this some kind of wind-up?” demanded one poster on the bulletin board Stormfront.

Another wrote: “I’m going to have a tough time explaining this on people’s doorsteps when I’m canvassing.”

Many were convinced that, despite assurances, Mr Gawad was of Asian descent. One wrote: “I don’t give a stuff if he had ancestors that built the Taj Mahal. He ain’t British.”

Although a few thought the selection was a “smart move” to improve the party’s image, members threatening to resign outnumbered them.

One read: “The BNP is the last bastion of hope for our people; they too have been let down if just anyone is allowed to join. Ethnics have every single opportunity afforded them and now they even get to join the BNP. Just like immigration into this country, we were not consulted. When an ethnic wants to join I should go for a membership vote. We’re the ones who do all the work; we should have a say.”

Another read: “No one is listening and the worst calls I’ve had today are demanding a leadership challenge.”

The BNP will field 357 candidates on 4th May.

One person who had studied nazism deeply and by implication the various forms of neo-nazism and disguised offshoots posing as nationalist movements all over the world came to the conclusion that the roots of nazism were (very) deep, in fact as deep as Dracula. What she thinks is that all these ways of thinking are based on ancient and archaic tribal feelings which we all have at an unconscious level which were useful is the long ago past but which have no place in the present day world and no place at all in the future ages to come. I am inclined to agree.

When one goes through the many and varied offerings of white supremacist/separatist/exclusivist writers many of which clamour for attention on the Internet, one discovers that there is a tremendous emphasis on the “volk” (“people”) who must by definition be all of one stock with shared ancestry and a shared culture and social values. The people of Iceland are often cited as examples of such a “volk” because they are all of North-Western European descent and have a solid shared culture and identity.

Nor is this in any way limited to ideological descendants of Adolph Hitler. In our own Asian homelands we find that political leaders who want to take over control of whichever country they are in will openly and explicitly pander to ethnic loyalties. In Bangladesh the non-Bengali non-Muslim minority populations have a hard time. They have full rights on paper but in practice they are affronted frequently and regularly. The ethnic problems of India are so well known that they do not need an introduction.

Another matter that has a bearing on Mr Gawad’s candidacy is that by and large only countries with European majority populations allow immigration in significant amounts. Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka do not allow immigration. Usually, the only way to go to those countries without tourist visas is to set up businesses in such a way that foreign capital is brought into the country initially and the business itself earns more foreign exchange as it goes on. The only exceptions that I can think of are well to do retirees wanting to spend their sunset years in “tropical paradises” and bringing in foreign income to for pay their living expenses and celebrities who are above the rules anyway such as the science fiction writer Sir Arthur C Clarke of Sri Lanka.

In other words, in our homelands there is no question of nationalist movements springing up to address the social impacts of mass immigration because mass immigration is forbidden in the first place. One only has to read the “district & local” news stories of Bangladeshi newspapers to know that both the Bangladeshi Rifles and the Indian Border Security Force are extremely fierce when dealing with those who cross the international borders without permission and that when the culprit runs away, they shoot to kill.

The best example of South Asian attitudes to non-legal immigration was presented by the Malaysia of Dr Mahatir Mohammed when a boatload of Vietnamese boat people was approaching Malaysia’s shores. They were towed away from the land and told that if they returned guns would be turned on them.

Therefore, I am tentatively submitting that the ethnic minorities of the United Kingdom are asking for treatment which their local politicians back home will not allow in their original environments.

Also, I think it is appropriate to point out that in every kind of warfare and in every kind of conflict between opposed groups one of the major tactics is to break up the cohesion of the enemy party. This is most easily and explicitly seen on the chessboard (originally an Indian game) where, other things equal, it is the player with the most unified and mutually protective pieces who wins the game.

When the BNP confronts multiple millions of non-European persons on British soil the last thing they want or need is unity among them. The fractionation of the opposition is called for.
The usual method is to do what the schools do: appoint prefects. No school management wants its pupils to be a solidly united force which can rebel as a big lump against the teachers and the board of governors. The solution is to appoint some pupils, prefects, as watchdogs against the others in return for which services they receive privileges.

At this time therefore, I think it is important to watch out for indications that the BNP and/or other anti-ethnic minority groups are selecting some of our number to be presented as “good” or “decent” persons while the others are, by implication, not to be so described. With our experiences of colonisation so recent in our histories we should not need to be reminded of the potent effects of differential treatment of us by powerful foreign interests.

And to cap it all, Mr Gawad is arguably an East European anyway.

THE END

This article was published in the 13th April 2006 issue of the Bangla Mirror newspaper, the first English language weekly for the United Kingdom's Bangladeshis - read all over the world from the Arctic to the Antarctic