Six University profesors including a former VC is suspended and arrested
Six Profesors including a former VC of Rajshahi University has been sacked and four of them are in jail now while two are hiding. Their crime, as shown to be the cause of the suspension, is leading protests against military atrocities on the students in Dhaka university. In the meanwhile two other professors of nations leading Dhaka University remains in Jail for the same sort of crime.
Government decides to close down the only 24 hour news only TV channel in Bangladesh. CSB, a huge media business venture with a lot of foreign technological investment, has been shut down on the excuse of a silly irregularity during it’s approval process. A couple of weeks ago, CSB news, along with another channel, Ekushey, was warned by government of Bangladesh for showing news footage which the government of Bangladesh didn’t want the people to see. Also during a recent TV interview, the all powerful information and law advisor were speechless on the face of a question from a witty CSB journalist. Incidentally all other TV channels have recently refrained from broadcasting very popular political roundtables and interview program.
Bangladeshi American’s in New York have been threatened
Bangladeshi American’s in New York have been threatened with retribution if they participate in protest rallies against Government atrocities in Bangladesh. The rough English translation of this investigative report from Mahmud Khan Taser is as follows,
It has been learned that a list is being prepared of those who are protesting the arrest and demanding the release of those arrested in Bangladesh for corruption, nepotism and massive looting with abuse of state power. In addition effective measures have been taken to identify the source of funds, the financiers and patrons of these protest events. Three officials from a special law enforcement agency has alreday arrived in New York with a special mission. They are contacting all sorts of people and are collecting the name-address as well as the immigration status of the organizers of these protests. A reliable source in Bangladesh embassy in washington informs…..Full detail of those protesting will be sent to airports and respective police stations in Bnagladesh. The same source says that naturalized American citizens will also not be spared as their photo along with video footage will be sent to special law enforcement agencies in Bangladesh……
In the Middle of Nowhere 
September 6, 2007 at 8:39 pm
Wow. I say, if it speaks, acts, and talks like a military regime, let’s call it a military regime.
September 6, 2007 at 9:15 pm
Mr. Taser is on the case again. This is the guy that “broke” the story that the letter from 15 US senators was “fake”. I wonder how large the bucket is that he uses to carry all this water.
September 7, 2007 at 10:43 pm
No resolution will ever be effective, if justice system can not deliver a just transparent verdict on disputes. Recently they are being intimidated to a dangerous level. An absence of supreme courts involvement during these crucial time simply assures returning of another power flip flop in future. Silence of supreme court judges are bad signs.
September 8, 2007 at 6:14 pm
Prof. Taluqdar Moniruzzaman wrote an article in Naya Diganta today where he said Bangladesh presently was being run as a co-dictatorship of some retired civil bureaucrats, some retired military bureaucrats and three businessmen. I figure one is definitely Tapan Chowdhury, and one may be Latifur Rahman (owner of Daily Star and Prothom Alo). Who do you think the third one is?
September 8, 2007 at 6:41 pm
[…] Ever since it dismantled democracy in Bangladesh earlier this year, intimidation and threats by the military regime have not been limited to within the borders of Bangladesh. Last week an article in the Bengali language newspaper Ittefaq, owned by the military government’s Information Advisor Mainul Hosein, reported that Bangladeshi intelligence agents had been dispatched to the United States to collect information on pro-democracy protesters.The article declared: It has been learned that a list is being prepared of those who are protesting the arrest and demanding the release of those arrested in Bangladesh for corruption, nepotism and massive looting with abuse of state power. In addition effective measures have been taken to identify the source of funds, the financiers and patrons of these protest events. Three officials from a special law enforcement agency of Bangladesh have already arrived in New York on a special mission. These intelligence agents are contacting professional, political and community leaders and are collecting from various sources the names-addresses as well as the immigration status of the organizers of these protests. According to a reliable source in the Bangladesh embassy in Washington, it will not be at all difficult for the intelligence agents to track a handful of expatriate Bangladeshis. Full details of these protesters will be sent to airports and respective police stations in Bangladesh. The same source also informs us that naturalized American citizens will also not be spared as their photo along with video footage will be sent to special law enforcement agencies in Bangladesh. In addition, those expatriates who under the banner of news agencies, and without any basis and with ill motive, write in our local newspapers inflammatory and negative stories that damage the image of our country will also be tracked. [translation based on Rumi Ahmed] […]
September 8, 2007 at 6:55 pm
Geetiara/Nazim Kamran Chowdhury, with a lot of Indian business.
September 8, 2007 at 7:03 pm
Is this the same Nazim Kamran Chowdhury who wrote in the Daily Star before the 2001 and the 2006 election to try and predict the results?
September 8, 2007 at 8:02 pm
Yes.
September 8, 2007 at 8:07 pm
[…] It has been learned that a list is being prepared of those who are protesting the arrest and demanding the release of those arrested in Bangladesh for corruption, nepotism and massive looting with abuse of state power. In addition effective measures have been taken to identify the source of funds, the financiers and patrons of these protest events. Three officials from a special law enforcement agency of Bangladesh have already arrived in New York on a special mission. These intelligence agents are contacting professional, political and community leaders and are collecting from various sources the names-addresses as well as the immigration status of the organizers of these protests. According to a reliable source in the Bangladesh embassy in Washington, it will not be at all difficult for the intelligence agents to track a handful of expatriate Bangladeshis. Full details of these protesters will be sent to airports and respective police stations in Bangladesh. The same source also informs us that naturalized American citizens will also not be spared as their photo along with video footage will be sent to special law enforcement agencies in Bangladesh. In addition, those expatriates who under the banner of news agencies, and without any basis and with ill motive, write in our local newspapers inflammatory and negative stories that damage the image of our country will also be tracked. [translation based on Rumi Ahmed] […]
September 8, 2007 at 9:37 pm
And which side of the triangular power network does Naya Diganta fall into?
September 8, 2007 at 10:34 pm
Naya Diganta is part of the Jamaati magic circle, seemingly untouchable and sacrosant in today’s Bangladesh.
September 8, 2007 at 11:25 pm
And not too surprisingly Naya Diganta leads the media-intellectual front of Right of center, not secular, conservative religio-nationalistic side of the national divide.
Naya Diganta responds to Rehman Sobhan, Dr Kamal Hossain, Debapriya Bhattacharya, Abdul Gaffar Chy, Syed Badrul Ahsan, Dr Zafar Iqbal etc with the names like Al Mahmud, Farhad Mozhar, Prof Kazi Zakir hossain, Talukder Moniruzzaman, Mahmudur Rahman, Dr Rezwan Siddiqui etc.
It is an alarming developement when the voices of mainstream religio-nationalistic part of the society has to piggyback on a radical Islamic groups’ media outlet.
Thats what happens when you weakens the mainstream political forces.
September 9, 2007 at 1:33 am
But Rumi bhai, we also have to ask, why is it that the mainstream right-of-centre couldn’t form an intellectual outlet for the likes of Al Mahmud, Farhad Mazhar, Talukder Moniruzzaman, Mahmudur Rahman and Rezwan Siddiqui.
It’s not like there was any lack of political patronage. Before the 8 months of weakening of the mainstream right-of-centre, that political force was in power for 10.5 of the 16 years of elected governments, and 15 years before that under the army, 5.5 years of which under one of the ablest president in modern South Asia.
And it’s not like there was any lack of money. How many business tycoons were among the ruling alliances 200+ MPs in the last parliament?
And it’s not like there was any lack of intellectual fire power. Whether we agree with their views or not, none of the guys in your list are dunces.
So why is it that they have to rely on an Islam-pasand outlet?
September 9, 2007 at 2:29 am
Anthony said [Geetiara/Nazim Kamran Chowdhury, with a lot of Indian business.]
Nazim Kamran Chowdhury has any relation to Nazim Farhan Chowdhury?
September 9, 2007 at 3:25 am
Ok, so what does the article by Prof. Maniruzzaman mean in terms of support for/against the CTG?
My theory regarding the right of centre people is that they are inherently top-down favouring people, rather than bottom-up favouring. Thus they don’t feel the need to communicate with the masses. Although I must say that from the little I’ve read/heard of Farhad Mazhar, it comes as a shock to me that he’s centre-right and even talked of as a Jamaati. My understanding was that he was a staunch nationalist in 1971 and beyond. Unless of course I’m mixing him up with someone else. As Jyoti bhai can testify, I tend to do that a lot!
September 9, 2007 at 4:17 am
Farhad Mazhar is no Jamaati at all. And Nayadiganta is not a Jamaat outfit either. But Nayadiganta is very much an Islamist outfit.
Farhad Mazhar is a rare Marxist-Leninist who tries to base his politics on Bangladeshi realities. He is opposed to the current regime because he believes that the regime enjoys Indo-US backing. He used to be a regular at Prothom Alo not that long ago, before that outfit decided to push for the civil society backed coup. He’d write for a mainstream right-of-centre paper if there was one.
And that’s the point. None of the people in Rumi bhai’s list are even Islamists, let alone Jamaati. But where can they write? Where is the right-wing equivalent of PA/DS? In 2000-2001 Shafiq Rehman produced a lot of hoopla, but anyone who knew his track record wouldn’t have been surprised about the way he ended.
Maybe whatever reason stops BNP-supporters from producing quality blog also stopped their older friends from producing quality newspapers.
September 9, 2007 at 12:03 pm
Well, if we look at the media situation in the US, all the Right has are Fox and Wall Street Journal. Not to discount the value of The New Republican, National Review, and the Weekly Standard, but I’d say that the first two are the two mainstream outlets that get the most exposure, the others are niche publications. So I don’t know how fair it is to point at the dearth of centre-of-right publications as a failure of Bangladeshi mainstream centre-of-right parties. My personal view is that it takes greater political maturity to ably articulate conservative view-points, just because left-of-centre messages tend to be more populist in nature anyways. I think that this maturity will come in time. We see some of it in the New Age, but it’ll be a gradual process.
September 9, 2007 at 8:07 pm
The New Republican is very much a Democrat magazine. In 2008, they are championing a Gor-Obama ticket, and failing that, a Clinton ticket.
Back to the substantive point about the lack of a quality centre-right newspaper (or good pro-BNP blogs) in Bangladesh – I think that the lack of such outlets do point a major problem with the BNP brand of politics. They show that this brand of politics is failing to win the ‘battle of ideas’.
It wasn’t always this way. People remember Zia as an able president. While he surely was that, his regime was also notable for generating a range of ideas – Bangladeshi nationalism, effectively resolving Bengali Muslims’ national identity issues; SAARC and economic integration with our neighbours; the importance of the market economy etc. Whether one thinks these were good or bad ideas depend on one’s own ideology, but when you look at what the mainstream Bangladeshi thoughts on these issues are, they are based on ideas formed in Zia’s era.
The Awami brand of politics have moved to these ideas over the past decades. Market economy and Bangladeshi nationalism are not contested ideas any more – even Sajib Wajed describes himself as Bangladeshi, and CPD talks about how to improve our markets. Except for a few relics like Gaffar Chowdhury, most on the centre-left has appropriated Zia’s ideas (even if they seldom acknowledge Zia’s contribution). But Zia’s own political heirs have failed to build on his ideas.
And this loss of the ‘ideas ground’ is a major reason why the last BNP government was the failure that it was.
September 9, 2007 at 8:18 pm
A very good off topic discussion.
Well, Jyoti, I am not very certain why center right Bangladesh is so poorly represented in the intellectual outlets.
However I can guess that one main reason is the fact that BNP was in power for too long a time since its conception. Five years out of power, BNP young generation totally outmenauvered, if not crushed, the media, PR wing of Awami League before 2001 election. Those TV documentaries made by AL and BNP were textbooks to study effects of generatoion gap and intellectual backwardness.
BNP top brass has a policy failure in not promoting Zia’s 75-81 role or even promoting Zia as a whole.
You don’t get a bood BNP blogger is probably the direct result of that policy failure.
Its not that BNP does not have capable personalities to promote the ideology. Talk to Dr Asaduzzaman Ripon for ten minutes and believe me he will convince you beyond doubt to support every thing Zia did.
September 9, 2007 at 9:10 pm
Continuing to your question Jyoti,
You will see the pitiful failure of BNP is energizing the educated youth towards its cause. Look at the blogs like Somewhereinblog or Drishtiat. You will not see a single, even a single person to come out on record and try to defend BNP and its policy. I believe BNP will pay for it dearly in the coming years.
However, if you look somewhereinblog, you will see that despite Jamaat was in power last five years, its supporters were very passionately active in Bangla blogopshere and guarded the fort quite effectively.
Now a days non-jamaati columninsts are lining up with Naya Diganta as they do not have much of an alternative media platform. Dinkal is a trash, Jaijaidin, Amardesh all are struggling for their own existence and they are not ready to be the intellectual front of center right.
Similarly now when the same thing will happen in national politics, A passionate BNP leader, out of fear and hate towards AL and fear of retribution, will line up with the jamaatis as they will be only remaining trustworthy platform.
September 9, 2007 at 9:53 pm
Continuing on your question Jyoti,
The clout of BNP on the educated youth, media activists and bloggers can simply be put as pitiful. This is the direct result of a faulty policy of not promoting Zia more smartly.
Now see, the all these non-Jamaati columnists have lined up with Daily NayaDiganta as they failed to find an alternative media outlet. Daily Dinkal is a trash. Both Jaijhaidin or Amardesh are struggling for their own existence and safety, they are not in a position to be the media platform to lauch war on both center left and the CTG.
Similarly in case of national politics, when a center right leader search for a platform to combat his center left opponent, if BNP fail to provide the needed platform, he will use the islamist platform to launch his attack.
And this part is alarming.
September 9, 2007 at 11:31 pm
Rumi bhai,
Kichu money koiren na, but I’m going to continue for a bit with the off-topic because frankly, where else are we going to discuss this? Jyoti bhai’s complaint of a lack of quality pro-BNP blogs does not apply to this one at all:). No offence meant with the pro-BNP tag!!
“BNP top brass has a policy failure in not promoting Zia’s 75-81 role or even promoting Zia as a whole.”
Very accurate. However, promoting Zia is tricky.
It’s tricky because Zia/BNP is nationalist, but allied with anti-nationalist forces during that era, and again in its parliamentary phase. That is a fundamental paradox at the heart of this party and at the heart of 75-81, which no one wants to touch.
Now students of politics know that Zia had little choice but to ally himself with them. To most people however, that rationale does not do his image any good. That is the key point that AL leaning intellectuals like to harp on.
Then there is the other reason why it’s tricky: in many ways his legacy is still fresh, a lot fresher and palpable than Mujib’s. This might sound like heresy to some people, and I don’t believe I have to prove my genuine respect for Mujib to anyone.
And herein lies Zia’s greatness which right-leaning intellectuals have not amplified to any great degree. He instituted a territorial definition for our nationalism and he made the shift from a control to a market economy. These two things are still with us, as relevant as ever to everyday life.
So why then the failure?
Part of it lies in a refusal to apologise/shift away from past mistakes. The AL does this well by distancing itself from past failed policies such as socialism and (unfortunately) by making deals with Khelafat/ having its leader wear a hijab. To this day BNP has not tried to shift away from the negatives that stick to it, although TZ’s photo-op at Durga Puja was something: too little too late if you ask me.
Apologies for the long comment. Discussion here has got me thinking.
September 10, 2007 at 3:01 am
This is a good point that Rumi bhai has raised here. Last 5 years a growing centre-right folks were disenchanted with BNP for their catering to extreme right (aka jamat). This is the group now which is the biggest backer of CTG. They are anti-AL, pro-establishment and believes in conservation nationalism promoted by ZIA. This is where I think Kings party is smelling its chances.
September 10, 2007 at 5:25 am
Just to add to on what Rumi bhai is saying that BNP always remaineded a club rather than being a political party. Its biggest growth came during the time it was on the street. As it was mostly in power since 91, it became an interest group of people united under the common ideology of making money. As a result, whenever army govt sticks out its moolah, BNP is always the first party to split. From BNP(Huda, Matin, Obaid, Bhuiyan) etc all happened because these people where not united under a common politcal philosophy. The intellectual element of the conservative nationalists is now effectively echoed by the likes of Farhad Mazhar. I bet if he starts a blog, it will instantly be a huge hit with a huge following. You may not like what he is saying but you won’t be able to ignore him for too long.
September 10, 2007 at 5:45 am
Asif S, you’ve said exactly what I’ve been thinking about. I don’t agree with most of what Farhad Mazhar says, but I think very highly of his intellectual abilities. If he started a blog tomorrow then I’d definitely be a regular. Talukder Moniruzzaman is more my kind of conservative nationalist, and he too is a great read.
But this still doesn’t answer why these people got disconnected from BNP? You say that BNP became a club of people whose only ideology became making money. I’d say that this happened BECAUSE no other ideology was allowed to grow.
Rumi bhai says that BNP failed to project Zia. I’d add to that by saying that BNP failed to even recognise the power of ideas. And when there is no other idea left, making money becomes the only reason to be in politics.
Incidentally, BNP’s PR wing remained pretty effective. Even in January, I saw video clips of October riots that would have put off many swing voters from voting AL. Too bad that the marketing wing had no good product to sell.
September 11, 2007 at 12:56 am
Rumi bhai,
Sorry to keep this “off topic” discussion going, but it’s really interesting to me and involves something we’ve been discussing on my blog too. Namely the reason behind BNP’s lack of popularity among intellectual and blogger circles. As Jyoti bhai has noted, BNP’s grassroots/activisty PR campaigns were superb, but the thinking behind them has stagnated.
I already left a comment on this, but thankfully your blog ate it up:). Gave me time to think about it a bit more.
The biggest problem has been as you point out BNP’s leadership’s ineffectiveness at selling two of Zia’s amazing achievements that permeate every facet of life in modern Bangladesh: a territorial sense of identity and the market economy.
The success of these two Zia moves is partly the reason why they are so hard to sell. There really is no use debating this: even AL has pretty much given up on socialism, and it never really figured out the full implications of “Bengali nationalism” vs. Bangladeshi nationalism. Instead, the marginal points could be won over arguing over petty things like “who declared our independence” and “who conspired to do what to whom”. BNP wholeheartedly embraced this, as did AL. Except AL still had their early 70s legacy of Tajuddin-Mujib-young Kamal Hossain to fall back on and make some empty noises about secularism now and then while doing Khelafat deal.
BUT the bigger reason (and this is just my opinion based on my limited experiences) by far is apparent from your blog: it is absolutely unlike the usual BNP intelligentsia tactics. I feel that AL intelligentsia operates on a 10% doctrine: if you have 10% in common with them, that’s enough. Tacit said on my blog that AL is a lot of things to a lot of people.
BNP intelligentsia runs on a different 10% doctrine: if you’re 10% out of line, you’re an outsider, constantly suspected of actually playing for the opposition be it AL/India. As a result, coalition building becomes hard within BNP intellectual circle as everyone is suspected of being in the opposition if they deviate even 10% from pre-approved lines. Too much “you’re with us or you’re against us” I’m afraid.
If BNP party elites and intellectuals were a bit more like your blog with its social liberalism and the “unmoderated”/”uncensored” stance with its inherent tolerance for dissenting views, then BNP might have attracted more young/intelligent people. For instance, I personally have disagreed with you many times here, on UV and elsewhere. That doesn’t mean you’ve banned me from your blog:)!!
Unfortunately, the BNP intellectual circles is a lot more like commenters here with their “Lets find India’s hand behind all our critics” or “Conspiracy against nationalist forces” at every turn, and not your writings based as they are on verifiable information, or your stance that you will take on all your critics. Your way promotes soul-searching. Cries of conspiracy promotes shelving responsibility.
My two cents… based strictly on my experiences with bloggers and middle-class AL-ers and BNP-ites who might not be representative. I haven’t seen any evidence that intra-party politics is more open to dissenting voices within AL than in BNP. But I have seen that it is among its educated classes, with notable exception such as yourself of course.