A Verdict in November

Take from the altar of the ancients, not the ashes, but the fire. – Gustav Mahler

The verdict of the Appellate Division regarding the murder of President Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and members of his family is an important milestone in our political and judicial history. The men accused of the murder went through our entire judicial system, from the District Court to the Appellate Division. Some of the individuals initially accused were acquitted. Those who were convicted had the chance to present all suitable defences, and were accorded all the rights which our state gives defendants in criminal prosecutions.

For all those individuals who were affected by the gruesome murders, one hopes that this comes as some salve to the personal wound that will undoubtedly haunt them the rest of their lives. The psychological trauma that comes from the assassination of loved ones, and the dislocation that comes from seeing our elders and guardians lying bloodied and lifeless, is unparalleled. We hope the pain that they carry around every day is a little lighter today.

As a result of the verdict today, at least five individuals will soon die. I hope their families will make peace with that, and be able to continue with normal and productive lives.

However, where justice ends, reflection begins.

Let’s think of sets, and Venn diagrams.

Think about the set of people who had responsibility for the 15th August massacre. Narrow that set to all individuals alive today. Are there only twelve people in that set?

Let’s narrow it still further. Let’s think about all the people against whom there exists tangible evidence regarding dereliction of duty or involvement in conspiracy. Are there only twelve people in that set?

Let’s narrow the set still further. Only include the people who were at Dhanmondi Road 32 that fateful night and morning, with weapons in their hand and murder in their heart. Have we gotten all of them?

Here’s the funny thing, just as there were people there that night and early morning who were not supposed to be there, there are a lot of people that morning who should have been there, but were not.

One think about police guards and the army units guarding the President. But where was the Rakkhi Bahini, the President’s hand-created paramilitary unit? Where were the leaders of Awami League? At least some of them had fought in the war four years past, they could have potentially held off the attackers until help arrived.

“Shafiullah, your units are attacking me.”

“Sir, I am seeing what to do. Can you leave your residence?”

A response worthy of all the commanders of the Army of Bengal who stood idle at Plassey.

“Tofael, send the Rakkhi Bahini.”

“We are under attack by Army tanks, sir.”

Only, it later turned out, the tank was disarmed, it did not have any shells in it.

In a sense, it is of lesser importance to pinpoint those who pumped all those bullets in Sheilh Mujib, Begum Mujib, and their family members. Army units started surrounding their home and taking positions to shell Dhanmondi from the evening of 14th August, at least twelve hours before the massacre. How could the entire machinery of the state remain inert for twelve hours? Consultation and conspiracy regarding this started at least months ago. Apparently Indian intelligence warned Sheikh Mujib of the attack. So did at least one civilian intelligence agency. Then Deputy Army Chief of Staff Maj. Gen. Ziaur Rahman visited the President and warned him regarding grumblings of unrest in the Army.

Who then, were the individuals who negated all these warnings? The individuals who said, “Mujib Bhai, nothing will happen?” 

Of course, whom would President Sheikh Mujib trust, a superseded officer such as Ziaur Rahman, who was never a part of the AL inner circle? Or Khandkar Mushtaque Ahmed, the “shoshur baba” in the marriages of both Sheikh Jamal and Sheikh Kamal?

Zia? Or Dalim, a close personal friend of the Sheikh family who could take personal grievances directly to the President?  

Bangladesh started rejecting the perpetrators of the massacre soon after, as evidenced by the flight of the guilty to various countries within two months of the massacre. Make no mistake about it, history would have been different today if they had all stayed in Bangladesh. It is no accident that the most prominent of those convicted to death is Lt. Col. Syed Faruq Rehman, a former Presidential candidate in 1988 and former chief of Freedom Party. It is not a coincidence that he never fled Bangladesh, but instead chose to stay and attempt to shape Bangladesh’s political climate in his favor.

Part of the reason Sheikh Shaheb never paid heed to any warnings about uprising because he blinded himself to the most egregious fault in our collective nature. We love to over-exult when the times are good. However, when the chips are down, and it is time for action: we are hesitant, doubtful, and faltering. Today, Dhaka is full of people claiming that they have borne a burden in their heart for 34 years. In addition to being a grievous insult to those who have actually borne a burden for 34 years, it is also a lie. It is easy for people to stand in Bangladesh in 2009, with a ten-month AL government with a nine-tenth majority in the Parliament and Sheikh Mujib’s daughter as Prime Minister and his close associate as President, and claim that this is the single greatest moment in their lives. It was, likewise, extremely easy to tell the President of Bangladesh, and the dictator of our state (not in the sense we understand it, but in the actual sense of the word), that there was no way that a couple of army punks would dare to against Sheikh Mujib. And boy, if they did, they would soon see “koto dhane koto chaal.”

Except, when it really matters, action trumps words. And there was only one side in 15th August 1975 that took action. Something our current Prime Minister, and all future prime ministers, would do well to remember and internalize.

It is our nation’s sincerest hope that such a circumstance as 15th August 1975 never occurs again. That force never substitutes political discourse again. Let us go forward to better times.

 

Remand Benodon

Remand benodon (Entertainment).

In the middle ages and in current age in some countries still in the middle age, one of the most popular entertainments was watching torture and execution of the bed elements of the society, the criminals, and the downtrodden. Citizen from all walk of like will gather in the arena to watch and enjoy the unforgettable entertainment of torture and execution of a bed soul. Elites used to get the courtside seats, the general mass in the back seats. Kids used to accompany the parents.

We think we have come a long way from those dark ages. Did we really? The electrifying spread of Saddam execution video, its popularity– does it ring some bell? What about Bangladesh? If we change the context a bit, I do not see much change in the instinct.
In Bangladesh we have a thing called remand. A man/ woman under any sort of suspicion can be taken to undisclosed place by unidentified law enforcement agency people and can be kept for days to months. IN recent years remand lasted from a day to 4 to five months. During this time, the person being held cease to have any kind of basic right. He/ she can’t access any lawyer/ family. He can’t make any communication with anybody. Nobody would know where the person is being taken. People who have been through remand say that during this time they were subjected to all form of torture literally non stop.

Recently torture in the name of remand has become a household feared word. Remand has gained an added dimension by media’s usage of purported remand confessions to make entertaining news. Although torture in police custody is nothing new in Bangladesh, making that event a national entertainment is probably around three years old.
During the military regime of January 2007 to January 2009, almost all of the nation was drunk in a fiesta of entertainment coming out of so called torture confessions. There were two kinds of entertainment values. First the shear fun of knowing a leader of opposing political views is getting a great thrashing while in remand. And second was from all the earth shattering purported confessions being published in the print media. During last military regime, our print media (except the honorable exception of English Daily New Age), gleefully published all the dreadful crimes the political and business leaders committed. And later all the news headlines proved to be false. Not a single media apologized and retracted all the character assassinations they have committed.
During the days of the current elected government the fanfare of remand continued, but with an added spice. One person is picked to get some good thrashing; government’s judiciary provides a remand. Then thrashing starts. And newspapers, as expected, start publishing all the horror stories.

And if the person in remand happens to be a young woman, nothing can get better than that. Invariably erotically charged stories will come out how that women lived with many men, how she was violated, used-reused, how many people married her and divorced her etc. The stories however keep on changing. If one reads same newspaper on three consecutive days, there will be three conflicting version of the same story.

Remains buried under all these sadistic national entertainment— independent-passionate judiciary, responsible journalism and basic human rights.
Who cares.

 

Bangladesh 2009: Judiciary approved, state conducted torture

Ex state minister for Home affairs and expelled BNP leader Lutfuzzaman Babar has been taken into remand under a directive of Supreme Court chamber judge Mozammel Hossain. Earlier a two judge high court bench directed the government to interrogate Mr Babar in Dhaka Central Jail where Mr Babar is in custody now. This supreme court verdict, indirectly, marks a demarcation line between interrogation and remand. The Attorney General asked for something more than simple interrogation and the appellate divn chamber judge M Mozammel Hossain used his constitutional power to allow the state to do ’something more’ on Mr Babar. Even Attorney General Mahbubey Alam stated that “…the investigators are empowered to decide the place and mode of the interrogation,..”.

 It is an open secret that remand means torture. Every single person who have been through remand in recent past have termed their remand time as living in hell. A senior BNP leader today described remand as killing someone, by stripping him of his self esteem, hope and physical well being. Senior national leaders including current PM, deputy leader of the house, leader of the opposition, senior ministers, parliamentary standing committee chiefs have said, on numerous occassions and on record, that rermand equals torture.

We used to see a lot of remands during the immediate past military regime. People from both sides of political dichotomy in Bangladesh were tortured in the name of remand. And during that time, on many occasions, high court came to reprieve by blocking remand petitions. Many current ruling party leader benefited from such directives of high court. And that time the military government arm twisted Appellate division to overturn many of the high court blocked remand petitions. It is very unfortunate that a democratically elected government run by a party which claims to carry a liberal ideology will resort to the tactics of a cruel military regime. Today, two persons, Justice M Muzammel Hossain and Attorney general Mahbubey Alam paved way for the state to torture a person.  This report in a mainstream vernacular newspaper describes the cirmstances that led to the unprecedented verdict of the supreme court. It must be taken into heart that a supreme court judge and an attorney general are not merely persons. They are institutions. They represent the state and the constitution. Personal political bias, grudge and political calculations must not guide these sort of institutions to resort to unconstitutional activities like torture. Torture does not bring any good for anybody. Torture can not be a tool of a civilized society. Torture can only take the nation back into the dark middle ages.

 

It Was A Long Dark Plot: The Latest Fiction from Daily Star

Apparently, Daily Star has uncovered what neither the past Caretaker Government nor this Awami League Government could, that the August 21 grenade attack on the then-Leader of the Opposition and current Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was orchestrated by Lutfozzaman Babar and others in Hawa Bhaban, in presence of a Hawa Bhaban “bigwig.”

Of course, it is hard to imagine why Awami League would not gleefully trumpet any evidence linking senior BNP leaders to any crime, let alone something as horrible as murder, and leave it to Daily Star to break the news. If there was an iota, a trace, or a scintilla of truth to this accusation, this would have come out a long time ago. Awami League MPs have already asked for Khaleda Zia to be arrested for the bomb blast near Fazle Noor Taposh. If there existed any evidence at all linking BNP leaders to the August 21 blast, our brave Home Minister and Home State Minister, and our valiant Commerce Minister, would have flooded the airwaves with that information a long time ago.

Let’s parse the report and see the sources DS tries to attribute:

1. “A highly privileged document in which a top accused of the grenade carnage gave some descriptions about how the killing mission had been organised”

2. “This correspondent talked with investigators and intelligence officials involved with the probe over the last five years”

3. “Detained Salam Pintu”

4. “Huji sources”

5. “An influential Huji leader”

6. “number of officials involved with the investigations”

7. “Former CID inspector Munshi Atiqur Rahman”

8. “Bangla Bhai”

This news report goes against every rule of journalism. It bears the same relationship to journalism that the “chotis” on sale in front of New Market bear to literature. It’s sad that this hack, Julfikar Ali Manik, also writes in the New York Times about Bangladesh. And in Outlook India, about Moeen U. Ahmed’s steely resolve and his plan to build a hospital by auctioning the luxury cars that were seized during the anti-corruption drive.

Of the only two live human beings quoted as source, one of them is Abdul Salam Pintu. Let us see what the Awam League government has been doing with him the past six months. From New Age:

The High Court bench of Justice Syed Muhammad Dastagir Husain and Justice Md Raisuddin also ordered proper medical treatment of Pintu by specialist physicians.

The court passed the order reprimanding the government and attorney general Mahbubey Alam for remanding Pintu in custody in the case in which the government had sought time for preparation for the hearing .

‘We adjourned the hearing after you [attorney general] sought time. But the petitioner is being tortured in police custody on remand. It is very unfortunate,’ Justice Dastagir Husain told Mahbubey Alam.

Pintu’s counsel Khandker Mahbub Hossain drew the court’s attention to the matter saying Pintu had filed a petition seeking bail in the case. The High Court on October 8 adjourned the hearing in the bail petition as the government had sought time. But Pintu was remanded in custody on October 11 for three days for interrogation in the same case.

‘Pintu is being tortured in police custody to extract confessional statement from him,’ the defence counsel said adding that Pintu was taken to Rajarbagh police lines hospital for treatment.

The attorney general, however, tried to defend the government action and said, ‘The grenade attack, which killed 24 people and injured 200 others, including Sheikh Hasina, is very serious after the August 15, 1975 carnage in which Sheikh Mujibur Rahman along with his family was killed.’

‘You cannot do whatever you wish just because you have power… Today you have power, but tomorrow you may not have and who knows you won’t be tortured then,’ Justice Dastagir Husain said.

How did Daily Star cover the same story?

The High Court (HC) yesterday directed the authorities concerned to interrogate former BNP deputy minister Abdus Salam Pintu at the jail gate in the cases against him.

The court also asked the authorities to make arrangements for his treatment, if he (now in Dhaka Central Jail) is ill.

An HC bench comprised of Justice Syed Muhammad Dastagir Husain and Justice Md Rais Uddin came up with the order upon a petition filed by Pintu’s brother Shamsur Rahman Toha on behalf of him.

It was stated in the petition that Pintu was tortured in the name of interrogation while on remand, and he would be taken on further remand.

A Dhaka court on Sunday placed Pintu, accused in two criminal cases in the August 21 grenade attack, on a three-day fresh remand to trace suppliers of Arges grenades used in the carnage that left 23 people dead.

Contacted, Additional Attorney General AKM Zahirul Hoque said Pintu was not tortured while on remand, and the government provides him treatment if he is ill.

Pintu was arrested on January 17 last year in the grenade attack case.

Advocate Khandaker Mahbub Hossain appeared for Pintu.

I think the bias is self-evident.

Of course, Daily Star has had a long love affair with Hawa Bhaban.

The good news is that Daily Star’s readers know they are being lied to. Some of the reader comments, posted on the news report:

Your correspondent dishes out a story planted by CID without verification and providing any concrete evidence. Having a statement purported to have been made by a person under custody is not good enough. DS should be more circumspect with such news reports. Partisan politics should have no role in investigation of this nature.

Thanks for the report. The Daily Star advertises that they do journalism without favour or fear.
So keeping the above slogan in mind I have to ask a question.
Who is this Hawa bhaban bigwig? Why are you scared to print Tarique Rahman’s Name?

Thanks for the story.There is nothing new in this article.
Mr Manik, you just compiled reports which are allready known to the mass people like us. There is nothing new at all. Please, don’t make reports to increase the sale of your daily.
Have courage to speak the truth and give us something more authentic.

As the old saying goes: you can’t fool all the people, all the time.

 

Dear Prime Minister, Please Don’t Make It All About The Family

Chaired by Sheikh Hasina, the Cabinet recently passed a bill titled Father of the Nation’s Family Members Security Act 2009. It provided for lifetime security for Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, and her sister, Sheikh Rehana, by the Special Security Force, Bangladesh’s elite protection agency that normally guards the President and the Prime Minister (and occasionally outgoing Chief Advisers). Sheikh Hasina and Sheikh Rehana are also to be provided housing for life by the government. Even though Parliament is yet to ratify this draft, the government has announced it will start acting on the draft and treat it as law.

During her last administration, in 2001, Hasina’s AL government also passed a similar measure. Then, Gano Bhaban had been prepared as Hasina’s lifelong residence. However, the move provoked a hostile reaction from the general population. It was seen as a way to elicit lifelong benefits from the state. There were also concerns that the upcoming election, to take place in October 2001, would be improperly affected if one of the leaders, Sheikh Hasina, received protocol equivalent to a head of state, and the other, Khaleda Zia, did not.

After BNP won the 2001 election with a two-third supermajority, it scrapped the law. However, it did not, foolishly, enact a law that provided all past prime ministers with security covers, as is the case in India. In August 2004, grenades were hurled at Sheikh Hasina that injured her and killed Ivy Rahman, wife of President Zillur Rahman, and 23 others. This attack can be seen as the turning-point for the BNP government; things went inexorably downhill for them from there. The attack on a past prime minister, and the country-wide bomb blasts a year later, dealt a body-blow to the aspirations of a party that claimed that it could keep Bangladesh safe. Thus, BNP’s “Desh Bacha0″ campaign in 2008 was a resounding failure; the voters punished them, even after five years of unprecendented economic growth, by giving AL an even bigger supermajority.

The current draft law will probably not face significant opposition from anyone, since the 2004 attack is still fresh in everyone’s mind. Sheikh Hasina has a long history of alleging personal assassination attempts on her; during the early 90s, she famously showed a bullet casing as proof that someone had shot at her, even though the casing would normally be with the person who had shot the gun, and not the purported victim. Nevertheless, I think the commonly-held sentiment is that if lifelong protection makes those around Hasina any less paranoid, then it is probably well worth it.

However, I wonder why Hasina has to complicate things by bringing her family into it. Sheikh Hasina has earned her position in Bangladesh by her own efforts. She has had a fabulously rich life-story, led Awami League for close to two decades, championed the causes of one half of our mainstream politics, and helmed Bangladesh for five years previously, and will do so, at least, for five more years in the future, by the grace of the Almighty. She deserves lifelong head of state treatment on her own merits, not on the basis of her lineage.

(Speaking of fabulous life-stories, would someone please take down Sheikh Hasina’s official biography in the Awami League website? While I understand that the current American administration is quiet de rigueur in Dhaka, stealing the words of the inaugural speech by an American president is probably streching it a bit too far. The next thing you know, one of our intrepid web sleuths will be involved, and the story will emerge with an amusing, alliterative marque. Princess of plagarism, anyone?)

Including Sheikh Rehana, an expatriate who resides in London, in the same protective category only needlessly complicates things. If Sheikh Rehana has decided to permanently stay in Bangladesh, that would be welcome news, although we have not heard anything on that note. Barring that, will the Government of Bangladesh, with the taxpayer’s money, outfit a nice residence for her in Kensington? or Soho?

After the brutal death of their father, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Sheikh Hasina and Sheikh Rehana adopted, what must have seemed to them, the most sensible strategy for keeping their family safe. Hasina and Rehana had escaped the August 1975 massacre because they had been abroad. Very well, they would keep their family abroad from now on, out of the reach of any Bangladeshis with the wrong notions. Thus, Hasina’s son, Sajeeb Wazed Joy, currently graces the rolling hills of Virginia, US, while Hasina’s daughter, Saima Wajed Putul, lives in Toronto, Canada. Sheikh Rehana’s charming children: Radwan Siddiq Bobby, Azmina Siddiq Rupanti and Tulip Rizwana Siddiq, are also expatriates. Therefore, it is puzzling why Hasina would complicate something as simple as giving an ex-prime minister lifelong security coverage by involving her family into the matter. Surely, there are very few people in Bangladesh who think dynasties are the future of politics in Bangladesh.

The great mystery of succeeding in Bangladeshi politics is to keep things simple. There is no reason why the next five years should not be a period of growth and prosperity. It is only desired that Hasina, and her ministers, display a measure of empathy and moderation. History will take care of the rest.

 

In Other News: Bollywood is still making Hindi movies

Foreign Minister Dipu Moni yesterday said Indian High Commissioner Pinak Ranjan Chakravarty might have violated diplomatic norms through his comments on controversial Tipaimukh dam and Bangladeshi water experts.

This comes after Pinak Ranjan Chakravarty has said, over the last two years, as he has graced our humble land with his beatific presence:

• Tipaimukh Dam is being opposed by “so-called” Bangladeshi experts on water-management.
• Bangladesh will not be affected by the Tipaimukh Dam.
• India will exercise sole control over all water flowing through the Tipaimulh Dam.
• Most Bangladeshi expers opposing the Tipaimukh Dam are misinformed.
• No international law can stop India from constructing the Tipaimukh Dam.
• BNP is opposing the Tipaimukh Dam solely to get political mileage.
• Any accusation that India is depriving Bangladesh of its due share of water is just empty political solgan.
• Anyone who says that India has not consulted Bangladesh over Tipaimukh Dam is lying.
• Those opposing the Tipaimukh Dam are only trying to poison the minds of friendly people of Bangladesh against India.
• There would be no problems holding the December 2008 parliamentary election under Emergency Law.

And, my personal favorite:

• India will not starve its own citizens just to send help to Bangladesh.

 

Only If He Had Known…

Today, the Obama Administration formally announced that they will be detaining people, through Presidential decree, even after they have been acquitted by American courts.

Somewhere, Moeen U Ahmed is shaking his head and cussing out Dr. Kamal Hossain.

 

Awami League: Inner Contradictions Becoming Deafening

The recent exchange between Abdul Jalil, Awami League General Secretary, and Dr. Alaluddin Ahmed, Adviser to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, had laid bare some of the key rifts currently plaguing our ruling party. The Awami League (AL) currently has about four-fifths of the seats in our parliament; they also won about 49% of the vote in the last election held in December 29, 2008. Extrapolating back from this result, if elections would have been held on January 22, 2007, AL would have still had a similar majority. However, what has changed in the past two years are the individuals who would have been the key actors in an AL government.

In any government formed after AL won 2007 elections, Abdul Jalil, as General Secretary of AL, the most popular AL leader from North Bengal, and a key mastermind of the anti-BNP government tactics, would have been one of the senior ministers. The behemoth LGRD ministry, traditionally reserved for the number-twos of the party in power, would have become his personal fiefdom. He would have added his name to the illustrious list of former LGRD kingpins such as Barrister Abdus Salam Talukdar, (now President) Zillur Rahman, and Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan, with a large budget, infrastructure spanning the length of Bangladesh, and a gargantuan patronage network, at his disposal.

The 2007 cabinet would also include heavyweights such as Tofael Ahmed, Abdur Razzaq, and Amir Hossain Amu, leaders with long decades of service to AL, serving in their second or third cabinet, experienced in the ways of the bureaucracy, and capable of implementing their own agenda. Sheikh Hasina would come close to, as close to as possible in our current personality-driven politics, being the primus inter pares, the first among equals in her council of ministers.

Instead, the current AL cabinet, much like the current Zimbabwe under-19 team, wears a forlorn look. Motia Chowdhury, who in those fiery days of her youth reputedly used to desire her wish to flay Sheikh Mujibur Rahman alive in no uncertain terms, is the senior minister from AL. Two of the five-most senior ministers are imports from General Ershad’s Jatiyo Party, another, Barrister Shafique Ahmed, is here in his capacity as the Prime Minister’s personal lawyer during the last two years. Both the Home Minister and the Foreign Minister are first-time MPs. Most of the other ministers and state ministers have never served in any ministry previously. The cabinet also contains, alongside several former Communist leaders, possibly Bangladesh’s first serving Communist cabinet minister, making it a matter of time before the we start hearing about the Awami League-Communist government.

Missing are Jalil, Tofael, Razzaq, Amu, Suranjit Sengupta, Dr. Mohiuddin Khan Alamgir, Sheikh Selim, and the entire starting bench of AL leaders. When making this decision, Sheikh Hasina has also had to give up experience and government-savvy. As a result, the current cabinet’s newbies are still learning how to move files through their ministry’s bureaucracy, how to get project allocations for their desired projects, and how to keep DOs from dying in the bowels of their respective ministries.

As a counterweight, Hasina has hired six unelected advisers, with the rank of cabinet ministers, to shortcircuit the cabinet, report directly to her in the PMO, and keep the machinery running. As a result, this government is the most centralized administration ever to run our country. Most of the cabinet members do not have Hasina’s trust – when she had to go to Senakunjo to face down the distraught army officers, she only took Motia Chowdhury with her. The PM is having to do all the heavy-lifting by herself in quite a number of issues. While things go right, most of the cabinet will not mind going along this arrangement. But when things go wrong, as they did in February 25, PM will have to take on the blame solo. And she may find there are those within the party more than happy to point their fingers at her.

Jalil’s recent outburst, calling the current arrangement unconstitutional, is but the tip of the iceberg. The real strife between those six to eight individuals who would have been at the top of a 2007 AL cabinet, and the six to eight individuals who are at the top of the current cabinet, is just starting. Those who have been left out include those who were taken to the jail and tortured by the Caretaker Government after being identified as being personally loyal to Sheikh Hasina, and those who were used to try and oust Hasina from her party position. It will be interesting to see if they are able to make common cause, and how long it takes them to do so.

It is indeed ironic that the leader of a 230-plus member parliamentary party finds herself lonely in government. Hasina would do well to remember that strengh, at least in a democracy, lies in numbers. The alternative may not be to her liking.

 

Mr. Motiur Rahman, please explain yourself

On reading the special editorialwritten by Matiur Rahman, Prothom Alo editor, the day his masterMoeen U. Ahmed retired as Army Chief, a number of questions came up. Actually, what came up first was disgust at the incredible level of smugness that was on display as Matiur Rahman pretended that the change of government that took place on January 11, 2007 did not happen with his direct knowledge and collusion. But eventually, on a second and third reading, some questions did come up.

The intial point that struck me was the sheer disregard of journalistic ethos that Mr. Rahman puts on display here. If any of us bloggers had written this piece, our inboxes would be flooded by now with demands that we either back up what we wrote as facts or admit that they are baseless innuendo. I do not see why the standard should be any different for the editor of Bangladesh’s most widely-circulated Bangla newspaper. In his article, Matiur Rahman states:

• After last year’s election, a powerful portion of the Army wanted Moeen’s tenure as Army Chief extended by another year.
• Presumably the same part of the Army wanted Moeen to become either Defense Minister or the “Joint Chief of Staff.”
• After the Pilkhana massacre, Army officers openly criticized Moeen, inside and outside the Army, for not being able to save the lives of his men.
• The Government would still like to reward Moeen.
• Diplomatic sources say that Moeen may be made the Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York.

Let us take these points one by one. After Moeen toppled the caretaker government in 2007 and promoted himself to General, he spent a great deal of time and energy putting his men in as many key army positions as he could, and sending army officers who refused to countenance his authority into forced retirement. Thus, it is probably not a surprise that Moeen still has a constituency left in the Army, even though, ideally, the entire Army should be his constituency.

That there were ever any suggestions of Moeen being made Defense Minister or Joint Chief of Staff is quiet sensational news. If Motiur Rahman knew about this previously but did not inform us, his readers, he has done us a great disservice. As far as I know, Bangladesh has never had a Defense Minister, with the Prime Minister not being able to trust anyone else (unwisely, in my opinion) with this portfolio. For a very brief period of time, Khandoqar Mushtaq’s government did set up a Combined Chief of Staff, but that was more to keep Maj. Gen. Ziaur Rahman, as Army Chief, from having any real power, than anything else. Moeen has already permanently distorted our defense establishment by promoting himself to General rank, giving nations around the world one more reason to titter at us behind our back. Appointing the same man to one of the posts described above would have been a momentous step; one we deserved to hear about ahead of time.

The Pilkhana massacre laid bare the full extent of the damage that Moeen had done to the very institution he was supposed to protect and safeguard: the Bangladesh Army. Barely two years after he had stormed into Bongobhaban, the Presidential Palace, and forced President Iajuddin Ahmed to retire as Chief Advisor, a democratic government barely two months old could scarcely trust him to again lead an operation in the heart of Dhaka. And so it was they fifty-plus of our officers were tortured and killed, while the government sat and dithered before, first allowing enough armour units to enter Dhaka, and then letting them approach Pilkhana. Moeen has undone the work of thousands of honest and dedicated officers who obeyed the constitutional dictate that our armed forces stay subservient to the civilian government, through his coup in 2007 and the torture he inflicted on a broad swathe of politicians from all across the political spectrum the next two years. Going forward, it will take years to mend the damage he has wrought.

Therefore, we do not see how Matiur Rahman can now claim that Army officers have criticized and blamed Moeen for the loss of lives in Pilkhana. Why was Matiur Rahman silent when the government instituted an Army-probe into this massacre under the same person who was blamed for letting it happen? How could such a probe have any credibility with members of our armed forces, let alone the general public?

Even after making these incredible allegations, Matiur Rahman then turns around and claims that even after the Pilkhana massacre, the government would like to still reward Moeen. The question begs to be asked, what is the government rewarding Moeen for? Providing the incompetent leadership that allowed so many of his men to be killed? Indirectly causing the mutiny – by green-lighting the BDR into Operation DalBhaat? Or, as Matiur Rahman hints near the end, because of the election held in 29 December, 2008? Do we really want to become a nation that remains in thrall to its Army Chief for allowing elections to go through?

And do we really want our United Nations representative to be a wannabe military strongman? Asif Ali Zardari and Pervez Musharraf made a far more explicit pact after the Pakistani election. But even Musharraf did not have the gumption of trying to claim diplomatic immunity and representing our country in the world stage.

Of course, if Moeen ever leaves Bangladesh, we can rest assured he will never return again. His underling Brig. Fazlul Bari had the right idea when he decided he liked America too much. One can confidently expect Moeen to follow suit; he has already made his liking for the balmy climate of Florida well-known. Perhaps, once they are united there, advance accommodations could be arranged for Gen. Masud as well.

Fighting the rearguard battle to justify his own support for the overthrow of the CTG in 2007, Matiur Rahman claims that the new regime had “massive support” from the people. Yet, in the very next sentence, he is forced to acknowledge that Awami League only supported this move initially, until the true nature of the regime that followed became clear and Sheikh Hasina was herself thrown into jail after she spoke out against military intervention, through DGFI, in politics. BNP, of course, never supported the regime. Then how does Matiur Rahman find broad support for a regime which is not supported by BNP and AL, which together represent about 260 of the 300 seats in both the current as well as the former parliament?

The job of a newspaper editor is different from that of a gossip columnist. It is really different from that of a sycophant. Unfortunately, Mr. Matiur Rahman seems unclear about both these distinctions. The activities of our last regime left behind enough tar to cover most of its proponents and supporters. With this piece, Matiur Rahman just slapped some more tar firmly on his face.

 

President Ziaur Rahman (1936-1981): In Memoriam

I hear… of your recent saying that both the Army and the Government needed a Dictator. Only those generals who gain success can set up military dictatorships. What I now ask of you is military success, and I will risk the dictatorship.”

- Abraham Lincoln, message to General Joseph Hooker, Army of the Potomac

May 30 is the 28th anniversary of President Ziaur Rahman’s death. It came approximately 10 years and 2 months after he gave a radio announcement, from Chittagong, declaring the Independence of Bangladesh on behalf of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, then in the custody of the Pakistani Army.

During our Independence War, he was Sector Commander over much of today’s Chittagong Division, and commander of Bangladesh Army’s ‘Z” brigade. At the end of the war, with Pakistani forces crumbling before the assault of joint Indo-Bangladeshi forces and surrendering on 16 December 1971, he was awarded the Bir Uttom.

At the onset of independence, Zia became one of the senior-most officers of the Bangladesh Army. His performance during the nine-month war and his radio announcement at the onset of the war marked him as different from his fellow officers. He was made Brigade Commander of Comilla, close to where his force had done most of the fighting during the war.

The Government brought him to Dhaka in June 1972 and made him Deputy Chief of Staff, under Major General Shafiullah, who commanded the “S” Brigade during the Independence War. It is as Deputy CoS that he moved into the 6 Shahid Moinul Road residence, where he would live the rest of his life. It is from this post that he observed the imposition of one-party dictatorship in Bangladesh when Sheikh Mujib, by a constitutional amendment, made Bangladesh a one-party state, banned all other political parties, all but four newspapers, and named himself President.

After the brutal assassination of Sheikh Mujib and most of the members of his family by a group of army officers, Zia was elevated to Chief of Staff but placed under Major General Khalilur Rahman, who was made Chief of Defense Staff. The regime, after killing Mujib’s four most-trusted political lieutenants, heroes in their own right, planned to send Zia abroad, as it sent Shafiullah. However, before that could transpire, the murderers were toppled by a counter-coup led by Brig. Khaled Musharraf, Chief of General Staff, one the most valiant leaders in our Independence War. Zia was placed under house-arrest. He was then freed by a counter-counter-coup by Col. (rt) Abu Taher, fellow Sector Commander, and leader of the banned Jatiyo Samajtrantik Dal (National Socialist Party). The counter-coup also tragically resulted in Brig. Mosharraf’s death.

Shafiullah, Zia, Mosharrah, and Taher were all awarded the Bir Uttom, the highest gallantry decoration awarded to living participants. Under normal circumstances, they should, by all right, have been able to look forward to long careers in our defense forces, promotions to command rank, and eventual retirement with the whole-hearted blessings of a grateful nation. Instead, Shafiullah was abroad, Mosharraf was dead, and Taher advoced a left-leaning revolutionary state. With the adoption of one-party statehood by the Parliament, the Awami League, until then Bangladesh’s pre-eminent political party, had also been disbanded. Zia found himself with no credible political establishment to hand over power to, a faction-ridden armed forces that was more dangerous to Bangladeshis than to foreign enemies, and an economy on the brink of collapse.

His subsequent actions, becoming Chief Martial Law Administrator, founding BNP (Bangladesh Nationalist Party), introducing multi-party democracy, allowing the publication of newspapers, holding parliamentary elections (in which Awami League became the largest opposition party in parliament), trying to revitalize the country’s industrial sector, and adopting a muscular foreign policy, were the attempts of an imperfect man to try and make the best of an imperfect situation. He survived eighteen coup attempts, before being killed by the nineteenth one, in his beloved Chittagong, the scene of his life’s greatest hour, where he had come to resolve inter-party factions in his young BNP. Bangladehis from all walks of life poured into his funeral prayer service, making it the single largest such gathering in Bangladesh’s history.

I can not know, but I imagine he must have been a little tired by the end of his life. If the last thought that flashed through his mind was his young widow and the two little boys he left behind; maybe, after death, he found the peace he had been denied in life. The generation which should have together led Bangladesh, together turn old and hale and watched their children grow up in a free country as free men and women, and in the twilight of their lives accepted our accolades as Bangladesh’s greatest generation, had together torn each other apart. His would be the last life to be lost in that decade-long bloodbath, but by the sacrifice of his own life, he would bring the killing to an end; all subsequent transfers of power in our country would be bloodless, if not voluntary.

Testimony is paid to Zia, throughout the year, by Awami League leaders who slander and villify him every chance they get. They try to tear down the man who allowed them to re-form, and graciously accepted their leader’s return from exile in India. His statues are broken down, and bridges leading to his memorial in Dhaka, beside the National Parliament, are mysteriously removed under the cover of night. All debates about the fate of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, his great predecessor, inevitably contain someone viciously belittling him.

Yet, the idea of Zia remains. Our only head of state to have actively fought the Pakistanis in a field of battle, today he sleeps the well-deserved sleep of those who have fought the good fight. It remains to us to do our best in the imperfect world he left for us.

 

Torture Debate Rocks United States

Barack Obama stood out in a crowded field of contenders by opposing the War in Iraq, and speaking out boldly and forcefully for rule of law. In a country that prides itself on being “a nation of laws, not men,” this was an effective way for a freshmen senator with little political organization to stand out in a contest that was supposed to be a cakewalk for Hillary Clinton. And while his victory in November seemed almost preordained, this rhetoric kept him afloat at a time when his candidacy seemed very much a long-shot, an exploratory run for 2012, or 2016.

Signaling his intent to change the way things were under George W. Bush, Obama gave the Justice Department the lead in the handling of those imprisoned by the United States in Guantanamo during the last eight years. The Department of Justice (DOJ) is America’s equivalent of the Home Ministry and Law Ministry put together; and under a good leader, it is enormously powerful. Particularly heartening was Attorney General Eric Holder’s straightforward acknowledgement that waterboarding, along with other techniques used by the Bush administration, were indeed torture.

The nation’s attention was wrenched back to torture when the Justice Department released a set of memos written by the Office of Legal Counsel in 2002 that made it legal for American officials to torture those held in American custody. The Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) an office in the DOJ that interprets the law for the rest of the executive branch; effectively, if the OLC says that something is legal, then it is legal. The memo was authored by Jay Bybee, then Assistant Attorney General at the OLC, and John Yoo, his deputy. The memos effectively make a host of torture legal; including attention grasp, walling, waterboarding, and being put in a coffin-like space with insects.

Ann Coulter reacted: “This is what Muslims do to each other on first dates.”

CIA and the FBI’s professional interrogators have long made clear their disdain of torture, maintaining that a person will make any confession under torture that will make the pain stop. One of the individuals tortured, Abu Zubaydah, was later revealed to be insane. Even though the Bush administration maintained that torture was only used to prevent an imminent terrorist attack on the United States, allegations have arisen that torture was used to get any information linking Saddam Hossein’s regime to Al Qaeda that could have been used to justify President Bush’s invasion of Iraq in 2003.

While releasing the memos, Obama made clear that he was neither going to prosecute Bybee and Yoo, the lawyers who authored the memo, nor the CIA personnel who actually carried out the torture. However, it was soon recognized that Obama had spoken prematurely, since in any matter involving potential criminal prosecution, the DOJ is able, independent of the more politicized White House, to press ahead on its own.

The question has now become, should torture be prosecuted and punished?

Torture is illegal in the United States. The Convention Against Torture was signed by President Ronald Reagan in 1988 and ratified by the US Senate in 1994. Under Article VI of the United States Constitution, it is the supreme law of the land, in par with laws passed by the Congress. Under this treaty, the United States is obligated to investigate any occurrences of torture. If it does not do so, another country has the authority to carry out these investigations. Spain has already indicted six individuals, including Bybee, Yoo, and Bush’s Attorney General, Alberto Gonzales, in its own investigation of torture. The prosecution of lawyers for their legal advice has impeccable precedents in law: lawyers and judges for Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Reich were tried and sentenced by the Allied Powers after World War Two.

Bybee was appointed to the Federal Appeals Court, essentially our High Court, by Bush; where he serves for life unless Congress impeaches him. Yoo is now a professor at the elite Boalt Hall School of Law at UC Berkeley. Prosecuting either will not be painless, just like the self-examination that the Democrats must go through now will not be painless. Just like any good Washington scandal, this trouble is bipartisan: key democratic leaders, including then House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, were briefed by the CIA regarding the torture. She knew about the torture, and chose to keep silent.

This scandal has come at a time when Pelosi, now Speaker of the House, is at the height of her power. Commanding solid Democratic majorities in both chambers of the Congress, shepherding to passage a new President’s legislative agenda, and boosting impeccable liberal credentials, America’s first female Speaker was well-set to begin a reign of power unmatched since Sam Rayburn held the gavel, and his protégé, Lyndon Johnson, sat a heartbeat away from the Oval Office. An already-iconic figure amongst the liberals, she is despised by America’s conservatives. Her daughter Alexandra Pelosi, making a documentary for HBO, followed John McCain around the country during his presidential campaign. Describing Republican political rallies, she noted during an interview:

[T]he warm-up speakers that were criticizing the Democrats in Washington, would give these incredibly offensive speeches that all ended with the punch line of something really derogatory with the name Pelosi next to it. It really got the crowds worked up. And I had to call my father during the campaign and say to him, “Dad, did you know how hated you are in America? Did you know that your last name has become a symbol of just like every four-letter word?”

However, this scandal has already cast doubts on Pelosi’s political future. Her district, California-8, covers the liberal bastion of San Francisco; a seat held by Democrats since 1949, which has returned Pelosi eleven times with over 75% of the vote. Her constituents will not take easily to their own Member acting as an enabler for the Bush administration’s torture.

It would be unfair to characterize the outrage as coming only from the left. Fox News Host Shepard Smith, during a debate with his colleagues, responded to the argument made by many of his colleagues about the utility of torture in preventing future threats to America, when he banged his fist on his desk, and bawled out: “We are America! I don’t give a rat’s ass if it helps! We do not f****** torture! And the moment that is not the case, I want off the train.”

The current debate regarding torture prosecution have raised questions about ignoring violations of the law when it serves a purported greater good, and the extent to which former government officials should be prosecuted for breaking the law. Societies around the world have to grapple with these questions; and the answers they choose have grave consequences about their future trajectory.

 

Let this be a new beginning

After the ill-fated 1/11 coup, many cheerleaders of that misadventure engaged in a rather sexist and simplistic rhetoric to the effect that all our problems are due to two quarrelsome ladies. Like much else about the post-1/11 rhetoric, this allegation had a kernel of truth that was embellished to ridiculous proportion. The truth is that our political divisions have many complex causes, and replacing the two party chiefs with other individuals wouldn’t have solved them. And in any case, fortunately the coup has failed, so minus-2 1/11-styles is now a thing of the past.

However, it is also an unfortunate truth that the two party chiefs — Mrs Hasina Wajed and Mrs Khaleda Zia — did have a less than civil or cordial personal relationships, and that lack of civility has affected our politics over the past two decades.

This bitter relationship probably started with the AL chief’s infamous TV speech in February 1991, where she launched a vicious ad hominem attack on the husband of the BNP chief. It definitely increased when the BNP chief chose to celebrate her birthday on 15 August, a day of irreparable personal loss for her rival. It saw a new dimension when assassination attempts on the AL chief was ridiculed as ’stage managed’ by senior BNP leaders in the presence of their leader. This bitterness was visible on 21 Nov 2006, when the two leaders sat within yards of each other, and refused to make eye contacts. One cannot but help feel that had they been on speaking terms then, 1/11 might have been avoided.

One also hoped the election of Dec 2008 would have ended that bitterness. Sadly, that hasn’t been the case. No, this is not about the rhetorics of Paltan meetings — that kind of language ‘you presided over unprecedented corruption’ vs ‘you are a failure’ is part and parcel of politics. This is about the government’s attempt to force Mrs Zia out of her house, an attempt that started with a partisan intellectual suggesting it in a very uncivil language in the presence of the AL chief.

The AL chief suffered a personal tragedy on 9 May. Within hours, the BNP chief was by her side, embracing and consoling her. Perhaps the BNP chief remembered that Dr Wazed stood by her in a time of personal need years before either of the ladies joined politics. Perhaps it was a realisation on the BNP chief’s part that this personal bitterness doesn’t help anyone other than the enemies of democracy — after all, it was their joint action that foiled 1/11.

Whatever it is, let’s hope that this is a new beginning. Let’s hope that the AL chief reciprocates by stopping the eviction procedures against her rival. And independent of that, let’s hope that the BNP chief marks her birthday this August not with an outlandish cake, but with a milad mehfil where all our national tragedies, from the martyrs of various movements to the Sheikh family’s brutal assassination to the Pilkhana massacre, are mourned.

There is no shortage of things that the two leaders can throw at each other. High prices, corruption, misuse of power, militancy — failures of the last BNP government is huge. Law and order, electricity, Pilkhana — AL’s failures are already rising. The leaders can use these issues, they don’t need to be nasty to each other.

 

A War is declared. But whose war is this?

PM declares war on terror . This is how The daily Star highlights the opening remarks of the newly elected Prime minister of Bangladesh. This is definitely a move to please/ payback the benefactors of PM’s government that include neighborhood powerhouse India and global powerhouse USA. However in USA, per an AFP report, the newly elected President Obama ‘declared end’ to war on terror.

 

Eki kotha shuni aj monthorar mukhe…

Thu, Jan 29th, 2009 12:12 am BdST
bdnews24.com correspondent

Dhaka, Jan 28 (bdnews24.com) – The Election Commission has requested banks and other institutions not to make national identity cards mandatory for their services, as an estimated 15 million eligible citizens are yet to get their cards, an EC official said on Wednesday.

“The EC has already written to the Cabinet Division, Bangladesh Bank, secretary to the President’s office, all ministries, divisions and relevant organisations not to make the national ID card compulsory for opening bank accounts, getting credit and other services,” EC secretary Humayun Kabir told bdnews24.com.

“The Commission took the decision because ID cards have not reached all and a gazette notification by the government is also still awaited.

“Some 20-30 percent of eligible citizens, or 15 million people, have yet to receive their cards for reasons ranging from failing to register as voters or non-collection of cards issued.”

At least 20 percent of more than 80 million registered voters have not collected their cards, he said.

“Mistakes in the cards already issued are another problem,” he said.

“Moreover, the government hasn’t yet issued a gazette notification making the cards ‘mandatory’,” said Kabir.

The National Identity Authorities Ordinance 2008 requires the government to issue the gazette to make the ID cards compulsory.

Director of the National Identity Card Project, Brig Gen Shahadat Hossain Chowdhury, told bdnews24.com, “The project will start updating the voter list with photos and distributing the national ID cards afresh, if the government asks.”

“Pilot programmes will be undertaken before updating the voter list and national ID card project. The first such pilots will be done in places around Dhaka,” said Kabir.

According to the Voter List Ordinance, updating should be done annually during the month of January.

“But because of the national and Upazila polls, the Election Commission could not do the job within the timeframe this year,” said the EC secretary.

The fresh updating will start after the City Corporation elections in Dhaka and Chittagong and subsequent municipal elections, starting in April, he said.

**********************************************
That what about the claim that this Godsent voter list prevented 15 million fake voters?

 

Who is this Khatib?

Come friday, come the ugly TV footage of fist fight, kicking, shoe fight between two groups of people during the friday sermon at the national mosque. This has now become a regular feature of Friday. Even TV news this friday was dominated by one group of people mercileslsy beating another group of people with heavy wooden box meant to keep shoes, shoes or simply with impure kicking, slapping, beardpulling or boxing.

If you watch the videos and listen to the news carefully, the group of Mullahs at the receiving end of all these deshi martial arts are the skinny bearded protesters against the new Khatib. The new Khatib shehib must have some very physically strong supporters and definitely a jehadi force to protect him. ( Of note, during todays sermon, he relied more on his personal force of bodyguards than police).

Looking at the video carefully and reading at different news, it is learnt that a portion of those chasing those skinny protesting mullahs are undercover policemen. This part is clearly understood. But who are the rest of people, described as ‘Khatib supporting Musallis’ in newspapers who will resort to merciless beating, shoebox banging on human heads and violent contact sports with these protesting mullahs? When those protesting mullahs were resorting to a non-violence and rather civilized protest ( recite Innalillah… at the commencement of Khutba and leave the mosque), Khatib’s supporters, locking the gate from all sides, came on them with brutest force.

Exactly who is this Khatib? And what is going on in national Mosque?

 

Ziaur Rahman 101

[ Today is 73rd Birth Anniversary of Late President Ziaur Rahman. When he took over the helm of Bangladesh, he was only 39 years old. This post commemorates President Zia.]

What is Ziaur Rahman’s biggest contribution to Bangladesh?

Ziaur Rahman gave our nation a clear identity. After independence, our national identity was declared as ‘Bangali’ and expectedly this created a lot of confusion. This identity ignored the non-Bangali citizens including the indigenous people of different part of Bangladesh as well as the urdu speaking citizens. Ziaur Rahman first coined the word ‘Bangladeshi’ as our national identity and successive government since then has maintained this identity. He also presented his vision of Bangladeshi nationalism and sutured together the geographic, historic, religious, cultural and political components of our nationhood. He based his politics on nationalism at a time when nationalism has not yet become a pan-global craze. In this context he can be called the father of Bangladeshi nationalism or father of our current national identity.

 

1/11-An Obituary and a failing grade

This is not intended to be an anniversary piece on the events those took place in Bangladesh on 11 January 2007. This is why it has not been posted on the anniversary day. This is intended to be an obituary of ‘thing’ called 1/11. And unfortunately this obituary does not have much good to say about 1/11.

As it is clear from the two lines written above, 1/11, as a political-national event has not been clearly defined yet. There has not been any consensus in what to call the events of 11 January 2007 or the ‘thing’ called 1/11. It was definitely not a popular mass uprising as the nation has experienced in 1969 or in 1990. It could be an offshoot of a failed or ineffective violent street agitation. Is it a military coup? May be it was a military coup. But then it would be the first of its kind in this planet with undisguised sponsorship of the United Nations and not so tacit instigation of the western diplomats as well as diplomats from a neighboring country. And it would be those new kinds of relatively soft military coups, as being seen in Thailand, Pakistan etc. In this kind of coup, some senior military leadership work in close liaison with business community, civil society leaders and the media to bring in a government that will be more sympathetic towards the needs of the urban, educated citizenry. 1/11 may indeed be an attempt in that route. Especially initial minus-two formula, nation building speeches by the army chief, en-masse persecution of the politicians etc were copycat events of a typical military-civil society takeover.

 

Madam, Please accept the result

Please accept the results, Madam Khaleda Zia.

It is a really a bad time for your party and your family, no doubt. And it is extremely difficult to view anything positive out of these results, we know. And it also nearly impossible to give a positive spin to this whole debacle.

Still you have the chance to score a major victory out of these devastation. You would have been the ultimate victorious if you accepted the results and congratulate the winner. People of Bangladesh don’t forget, unless you let them forget (Exactly the way you let them forget great Zia and culprit Ershad and remember Syed Iskander, Shameem Iskander, Shahrin Islam Tuhin, your sons and all the sycophants). If you would have come out graciously this time, they would have remembered this five years later.

And if you complain of election irregularity, please come up with some credible data and fact. Someone has lost from a seat where from he never lost, can not be the proof of massive rigging. Even if there were engineering, would it change the results in 250 seats? Even if BNP was deprived of win in 70 seats, AL still gets a very comfortable majority. And even if AL-CTG-Military axis manages to engineer massive rigging and falsely win in 262 seats, where were your organization? Your party was supposed to be the largest in the country, how come the other side gets by doing all these major rigging? Where were your polling agents? Why did not your party protested early on in the day. Or why we did not hear of any massive scale rigging until after the result came out? How come your party becomes such a fool to manipulate?

If you have some proof of election engineering, let us know. No engineering can cause such a massive loss. But let us know to authenticate your rhetoric. You definitely need to ask question about Election Commission’s reluctance in announcing Noakhali 3 constituency where the brother of army chief was losing. You need ask question on results from hill tracts. But nothing should preclude you from accepting the verdict of peoples’ rejection of your party’s rule. No engineering can cause such major defeat.

So please accept the results, congratulate Mrs. Hasina and start soul searching. Weed out the opportunists and re-unite the party. You threw a big challenge by nominating Nasir Uddin Pintu etc. You have lost in your challenge. Now accept the defeat and clean the party of those who are not liked by people. You forced Dr B Chowdhury out of party, bring him back. Bring back Col Oli- Sheikh Razzaque Ali, Major Mannan et el. Start working on new leadership from selected student leaders of the 80s.

And definitely bring back late president Ziaur Rahman.

Accept the results, Madam. Accept the result. Don’t follow the hated destructive path of the politics of rejection and exclusion.

Please accept the result. And bring back Ziaur Rahman

 

A different Election: Why Not and Why.

The Parliamentary election of 2008 will be recorded as the ushering of a new age in Bangladesh democracy; it will definitely be a new and different kind of election.

Let’s discuss why this will not be a different election and why this will be.

 

The Unsung Heroes

Do any of you happen to know any schoolteacher, specifically a primary school teacher in Bangladesh? If you happen to meet them you will know how busy they have been lately. Teaching jobs in government schools esp. in rural schools are high-pressure jobs these days. The teachers are now constantly and meticulously supervised by donor agencies as well as the government, and in addition to teaching responsibilities they are now burdened with a plethora of housekeeping jobs including data entry, chart making, reporting etc.