Shahnoor Wahid is daily Star’s Senior Assistant Editor. For no reason this senior ornament always reminds me of Mr Tareq Rahman, who happened to be the Senior Joint Secretary of BNP. Shahnoor Wahid referred to Tareq Rahman’s ‘ailment; when he wrote this yesterday…
…Actually, there are various ploys that can land you in a cabin of a hospital with full-time AC, better food and toilet. But to earn all that, first and foremost, you will need to take a crash course on acting. No, you will not have to perform an act from A Midsummer Night’s Dream. That would be beyond the grasp of your 14 generation. It is lot simpler than any such dramatics. What you will have to do is, firstly, eat a sumptuous breakfast, and then take the makeup of a very sick looking man.
Then, right before the administration officials, give your best shot … bend a little, walk slowly, cough a lot, grimace every now and then, distort your face, clutch your chest, shake your knees violently, roll your eyes and gasp for breath. Meanwhile, arrange for your party supporters to shout outside for sending you abroad for treatment. After that Oscar winning performance, nothing will stop you from getting the sympathy of the officials. You will earn full points and be given lengra aam and rosogolla as reward. There is more. You will get that cabin with a better toilet…
Tareq Rahman was a bad politician no doubt and many of his acts during 2001 to 2006 were despicable. There are many allegations of his tacit approval of some police brutality on opposition political leaders and activities. And Daily Star was the news outlet which brought all the news of his misdeeds to us. Daily Star was extremely vocal against political repression by Tareq’s party. Numerous times Daily Star editorial policy dubbed this activities as “torture” and condemned them in the strongest possible means.
However, with the changes of 1/11, the word torture suddenly disappeared from the Daily Star’s vocabulary. All the tortures on politicians are now called ‘ailment’. After a recent editorial on Tareq Rahman’s ‘ailment’, in yesterday’s issue Shahnoor Wahid resorted to mocking the sufferings of a torture victim. Mr Wahids may dislike Tareq Rahman, that is fine but the moment the whole editorial team publicly start celebrating extreme form of physical torture on Tareq rahman, The Daily Star does not put itself at the level of Tareq Rahman, it put itself in a place that is much lower than Mr Rahman.
While The Daily Star increase the intensity of their relenless bootlicking, another newspaper shines bright in the sky. While Daily Star editorial pages fill up with the diatribes like that of Mr Shahnoor Wahid, another young jouno at the New Age, Mr Shameran Abed, dare write this;
Our current army chief is not the first general to have unsuccessfully tried to bring about a qualitative change in a nation’s politics by giving it, in characteristic military style, short-term shock therapy. But strengthening democracy requires more than a messiah…
In fact you do not need an enemy to destroy a previously reputed newspaper like the Daily Star.When we have “senior” assistant editors like Shanoor Wahid as well as Mr Mahfuz Anam at the helm, this entity is destined for a rapid disintigration. Probably thats why when the New Age points out that “EC misses deadlines for three roadmap tasks” the Daily Star prints in its banner headline, “Whopping success for EC” .
July 2, 2008 at 1:47 am
Rumi bhai
This is nothing but chotoloki on Daily Star’s part.
But the saddest thing is, officially, DS is still considered the highest circulating English daily and that is the root of their arrogance.
I’m waiting for someone to carry out a survey and prove me hypothesis right– DS and PA have both suffered losses in subscription over the past months.
Unless this happens, Newage will still be running at a loss, which is a real shame!
July 2, 2008 at 6:14 am
Shahnoor Wahid, the truth teller, the only and one of a kind. Entire medical team is in this acting. He knew about it all along, just needed lots of meetings and some time to express it. Finally, public knows the truth. Great Moin must send Tareq back to jail. Hang them all and let justice prevail. Hail to Shahnoor! Hail to great Moin!
July 2, 2008 at 10:35 am
Tareq rahman should get an oscar for his acting.
Just like the officials, all the X-ray and MRI results got confused with his daily star nominated possible oscar winning acting. Like the official, all the X-ray and MRI results were forced to show his broken bones due to his great acting.
What a propaganda war. Hopefully, this will as successful as the previous ones.
Tareq is such a great actor, no wonder, they are still failing to get back all the so called money Tareq had taken out of the country.
They have also failed to get the report on his money getting caught in Malaysia as reported by Hasina.
July 2, 2008 at 2:09 pm
It seems to me that Daily Star and New Age are conspicuously two opposite ends whenever it comes to the question of CTG. You have rightly presented that with some examples.
What Mr. Shahnoor Wahid tried to point out by allegorical character Rahim Mia is thought-provoking indeed – discrimination with regard to facility of treatment among the people living in jail. BUT I find the way he ridiculed the sufferings of Tarique whose back-bone had been severely hurt as reports on newspapers had it, quite repugnant.
Thank you for mooting such a topic.
July 2, 2008 at 3:30 pm
This is an outrage, an abomination of its absolute kind. I must register that I am personally ashamed of the fact once upon a time, I used have tea with this guy in DS canteen, once in a while.
Something is so rotten in the state of Bangladesh that Mr. Wahid, a senior assistant editor, writes these sentences and a newspaper prints this. I wonder how long these people will keep trampling on basic human decency and compete for becoming dalals of higher degrees.
Fariha: IMHO, as an English newspaper, for DS, what really matters is the level of influence it maintains on international opinion making re: Bangladesh. By that count, what one can do is take the latest reports from Amnesty, HRW or ICG and count and compare how many times DS was quoted as a source of information and how. As far as I can understand, gone are the days when DS used to be the “opinion leader” in Dhaka. Comparison to be drawn with Amader Shomoy that claims itself to be the fastest growing newspaper in Bangladesh, however, there is a basic difference between a newspaper and a roll of toilet paper, that lies with credibility and respect, not the actual number of subscribers. The way things are going, very soon we may end up browsing the DS website here: http://www.dailystar.co.uk
Rumi Bhai: Apologies for directing my sub-editing criticism at you, but, I must humbly point out that you should try getting the spelling right when you are writing about a person, any person. Though I am not that a big fan of this guy, it really kills me when I see Tarique Rahman’s name spelt as “Tareq Zia,” “Tareq Rahman” etc.
By the way, we don’t have any media watchdog like FAIR in Bangladesh, but the way you, Dhaka Shohor and Tacit are taking off the fabric every week, the mask has come off. Kudos!
July 2, 2008 at 11:13 pm
TK:
Agreed. But what bothers me is that the ‘ad givers’ still give DS more preference because of DS’s subscription. My hypothesis that with it’s credibility (or rather consequently) it’s readership has also taken a fall. They might be leaders of opinion (once upon a time), but that’s not their main source of revenue.
When they give S.Wahid free rein to write with such flair and drama– they clearly have crossed that mile between newspaper and toilet paper.
July 3, 2008 at 7:54 am
Thanks Tasneem for speaking up on this issue. You voice gives much needed credibility to the concerns we few lowly bloggers have been shouting about every now and then.
And I take your point about Tarique Rahman. Yes I noted that during BNP rule and wanted to follow a single spelling. But, with general apathy about the issue, my resolve went quickly down the drain.
July 3, 2008 at 10:45 am
Zia family became part (not all) of test cases for BNP’s popularity and depth of its political strength. Yes, BNP supporter would love to see Zia family released, but if compared with early days, it did fairly good. All allegations and public relation of TZ went through a test itself. He survived among his supporters. All allegations and decided verdict of being ‘jail for life’ for all ‘heinous crime’ failed to peruse BNP supporters that he is not worth to peruse. ‘Koko’s life sentence’ for his crimes is not gonna help. As for prime prize of sentencing for life of KZ for her alleged ‘crime’, simply embolden BNP supporters to a tighter group.
BNP succeed not being breaking up. Succeed not to loose its objective & direction. Succeeded among its supporter to a guaranteed draw of huge votes if they get chance to play in voter politics. House is cleaner having MV, Saifur, Hafiz, Hannan, Goyeshor, Khoka being out of the main stream. New blood of leadership was able to maneuver team without having major inner fight. Mostly, they remain independent and owe nothing to present power thugs about their future path. These are by no means small achievements for a major political party.
Future is surely uncertain, but I hope BNP remains head strong even if Zia family remains in jail.
July 4, 2008 at 2:04 pm
Rumi bhai,
You should highlight something else the people in Bangladesh have been discussing for some time.
Grameenphone stole thousands of crores of taka through VoIP. The result? A fine. No torture, jails, jailing family members, jailing everyone in your household.
Someone did not ‘mention’ only Taka 10,000. Result? 10 years in jail for him and his entire family. This is after months of being held without any charge.
July 7, 2008 at 5:02 pm
Today’s Op-ed
“It’s easy to pick on the flaws of the West. But we, as a nation and a people, would gladly trade our politicians and systems for theirs. The majority of their politicians do meet minimum standards of intelligence and competence. And their politicians and systems do generally serve their citizens. We can hardly say the same.
The West and donors have no choice but to think that Bangladesh is incapable of finding the best path for itself and that they have an inherent right to dictate the right direction towards democracy. It is their moral right to do so when faced with a nation like ours.”
http://www.thedailystar.net/story.php?nid=44657
West er bole “moral right” amader k dictate kora! Koi jai Rumi bhai? Amio ekhon Seleucas k khujbo!
July 8, 2008 at 6:34 am
Dudok has charged its own people for corruption. How do we know there are only 28 of them? Should we have another dudok of dudok? Corrupt people of dudok filed cases against other about corruption. How in court of law dudok charges remains valid? How insane and illogical!
July 8, 2008 at 8:18 am
http://www.thedailystar.net/story.php?nid=43869
July 8, 2008 at 3:37 pm
#10
Thanks to Fariha. Right after 1/11, Mahfuz Anam in presence of other newspaper editors said, this interim entity was fruit of their (DS and PA) work. DS had been tool of western interference. TIB had been using DS, PA report to generate concocted index. Now DS just admitted its position and role on western interference in Bangladesh.
There is nothing to be surprise with such collaborators but it should be kept as record.
September 19, 2008 at 10:35 pm
We’ve seen the beating marks of Chailesh all over his body; we have seen the beefy red strap-like marks of lashing on the torso of Barrister Rezwan; and we have seen how Tarique was brutlized breaking his vertebrae making physically disbabled to barely able him sit and stand up.
The guy like Wahid describes it as ailment and acting. Too disgusting to think about them as humans. I see, God has adulterated his best creation humans with some mean macabre obnoxous heartless fellows, perhaps with sub-animal instinct.
For them perhaps, Allah says,”..Saawaun Aaliheem Aanjartahum waa amlaamtumjeerhum Laa Yumeenun; Khatamallahu Aala Kulubeehim Waa Aala Samyeehim Waa Aala Absareehim Geshawaatun, Walahum Aadabun Aadeem”…it’s the same to them whether you warn them or not, they won’t believe in; their heart and ears have been sealed off and their eyes, covered up; and for them, there is severe punishment.
Thanks.
September 29, 2008 at 5:40 am
While I enjoy your blog a lot, Can someone tell me what has silenced the dailystar editor Mahfuz Anam ?Also what exact rank was held by Fakhruddin whle he was in World bank ?
December 22, 2010 at 5:05 pm
[...] times PM and one of the two major political leaders of the country. That torture was totally endorsed by our leading Dailies who tried their best to undermine the fractured back caused by the torture as ailment of pinched [...]