[This is not my post. But I can't help repost this comment posted in another blog. And I also could not communicate with the author for his permission for this repost. RA]
The Moin/Fakhrudding govt has pulled a Bushie — they did the “shock and awe” bit with midnite arrests, etc alleging “WMD” (corruption) and then got stuck bcs they could not find it in many cases. This was implied with (General Hasan) Mashhud stating “.. we arrested them bcs YOU all in the media said they were corrupt…..”.
Now, desperately in search of an exit — a’la Bush — and digging a bigger hole in the process. They have resorted to framing ppl now — e.g. Giasuddin Mamun being convicted for not submitting his wealth statement, when he was already in custody, conveniently finding a gun whithin 10 min of him being taken to his house, etc, etc. Don’t get me wrong, I am not for exonerating these folks — but they must be considered innocent until proven guilty — we seem to believe everything the media tells us now! (And we all know the high integrity of our papers, no ? “Journalism without fear or favor” — yeah, right!) If there are so many “solid” cases, why these blatant sham charges and trials ?
Have it from first -person accounts that charges are being filed by ppl under duress. More alarmingly, defense attorneys are being intimidated via late nite threats not to take the cases. So the “surge” strategy here seems to be — file false cases, prove them by denying due process or defense, thereby disqualifying them from future elections/power — and thereby ensuring the stooges in power now are not held accountable in the future.
Its the “cross-fire” logic all over again — how many believe those stories (please contact me — I have a couple of bridges to sell) ? Kinda ridiculous, don’t you think, ( regarding Nazmul Huda case) that Uttara Motors would now complain of bribes when they were the sole beneficiary of the one-supplier policy, no ?
Whats really sad and disturbing is that this was the one chance we had. But what the CTG is pounding into everyone is that the only way to solve problems is thru violating all norms and laws under the pretext of “emergency”. This is the lessons they are leaving for the next regime… but wait… that is exactly what was happening before…!
Folks – wake up — the emperor is not wearing any clothes!
July 13, 2007 at 9:14 pm
Rumi bhai,
I thought of commenting here as I think this has a wider readership than Shafiur (no disrespect meant Shafiur).
I agree with the gist of the post. My comment is about this: ‘Whats really sad and disturbing is that this was the one chance we had.’
This was the one chance we had to do what? The one chance to create a perfect democracy? The one chance to eliminate all corruption? The one chance to attain economic prosperity? The one chance to wipe every tear from every eyes?
Our democracy was faltering, but it was still plodding along. A large section of our elite had been propagating a ’3rd force takeover’ for a long while. To them, the faltering democracy wasn’t enough. They wanted ‘limited intervention’ followed by ‘cleansing of leadership’ followed by ‘a decade of national government’. 1/11 was that 3rd force takeover. This was never the one chance for anything.
And what will happen in the future?
If the worst happens, we’ll get an arranged election, and then some people, possibly under one of the 2 netris, will form an opposition party that will challenge the ‘national government’, and five years down the track we’ll have what we had in the 1990s – a functioning, competitive political system in all its facets, positive and negative. And much like the 1990s, standard of living will improve even while some people will lose out, society and culture will evolve in all sort of unpredictable ways so that western social mores and Islamic traditionalism will co-exist in the same family, and Bangladesh will continue to upset the cricket world once every year.
So cheer up. All is not lost.
July 16, 2007 at 11:44 am
Jyoti bhai’s optimism comes as highly re-assuring to cynics like me on days like this.