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” .

1. Somalia 114.2
2. Sudan 113.0
3. Zimbabwe 112.5
4. Chad 110.9
5. Iraq 110.6
6. D. R. Congo 106.7
7. Afghanistan 105.4
8. Cote d’Ivoire 104.6
9. Pakistan 103.8
10. Central African Republic 103.7
11. Guinea 101.8
12. Bangladesh 100.3
13. Burma 100.3
14. Haiti 99.3
15. North Korea 97.7
16. Ethiopia 96.1

                                                                 [ Graph: The Fund For Peace, Washington, D.C.]

The above is the list of the worst performers in the The failed States Index 2008 recently published jointly by  US based Foreign Policy Magazine and The Fund For peace. According to this ranking, Bangladesh in the year 2007-2008 had the fastest decline towards a failed nationhood.  Bangladesh was 17th worst in 2005,  improved to 19th in 2006 but started to decline in 2007 when she ranked 16th and this year Bangladesh ranked 12th, a tie with Burma.  Countries who traditionally fared much worse than us, have improved and passed us in last two years. Notable among these are Haiti,  Rwanda or Sierra Leon.  The foreign policy magazines clearly identifies the states with significant improvement,

In 2007, several countries that have long served as the poster children for failed states managed to achieve some unlikely gains. The Ivory Coast, which unraveled in 2002 after a flawed election divided north and south, experienced a year of relative calm thanks to a new peace agreement. Liberia, the most improved country in last year’s index, continued to make gains due to a renewed anticorruption effort and the resettlement of nearly 100,000 refugees. And Haiti, long considered the basket case of the Western Hemisphere, stepped back from the edge, with moderate improvements in security in the capital’s violence-ravaged slums.

But the report was alarmed at the fast decline of Bangladesh as it points out,

Bangladesh took this year’s hardest fall, set off in part by postponed elections, a feuding, deadlocked government, and the imposition of emergency rule that has dragged on for more than 18 months…

A very interesting observation by the Foreign Policy magazine was the irony of our contribution to UN peacekeeping force. 

Ironically, Bangladesh and Pakistan are the world’s top two contributors of U.N. peacekeepers, often deploying troops to the very countries enjoying this year’s biggest advances. Pakistanis constitute the largest national U.N. contingent operating in Liberia. More than 9,000 Bangladeshi troops wear U.N. blue helmets around the world, a third of them in the Ivory Coast. It is a reminder that while helping to maintain peace abroad might be an attractive national project, keeping the peace at home can be even more elusive.

Foreign policy magazine emphasizes, very clearly, the need of a vibrant and independent Parliament and decries the role of customized rubber stamp parliament our de facto ruler in planning on imposing on our nation.

Every autocrat’s wish list probably includes having a country rich in resources, a public prone to hero worship, and a rubber-stamp parliament. But, when it comes to legislatures, dictators should be careful what they wish for: The world’s most vulnerable states are also home to the weakest parliaments, according to the Parliamentary Powers Index, a ranking of these bodies based on factors such as the power to declare war, impeach the executive, and establish veto-proof laws. Leaders most adept at legislative manipulation often simply extend their own rule; last year, Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev persuaded his pliant parliament to declare him president for life. Others, like Burma’s military junta, simply ban the legislature from convening altogether. But these results should send a clear message to the world’s autocrats: Sometimes, it can be a good thing if the House wins.

 

It is not a happy thing to blog about. This report does not make any Bangladeshi happy. But I post this, with a flicker of hope that, our fellow NRBs and Urban Bangladeshi’s will wake up from the dream and see the reality. The reality is that the current Army Chief controlled puppet government of Bangladesh is not the panacea and not even the better of two bad. Report after report is coming out with damning indictment of this government’s performance. And it is not a matter of whether this government was given adequate time or not. After the take over of 11 January, 2007, on most of the objective indicators of a nation’s well being, Bangladesh’s decade long development has taken a U turn.

And most most importantly this report clearly cites the failure of a designed democracy to suit a military General or an elite class. This report has clearly shown that a free, strong, vibrant and fairly elected parliament is vital to nations well being.
But with great apprehension I suspect that we are heading towards a direction away from a free, strong, vibrant and fairly elected parliament. At least these rhetoric’s of army chief General Moeen U Ahmed, “If they want to make trouble, let them” ; or “”You can judge the people of a nation by the type of leaders they select,” etc. make us fear that we may be heading towards a rubber stamp ‘Yes General’ Parliament.

One of the many very negative characteristics of BNP’s 2001-2006 government is ‘paranoia’. During the whole five years Khaleda Zia was captivated by an uncontrollable suspicion of an Awami League hatched, bureaucracy-NGO supported conspiracy against her government. She could never accept her 1996 street defeat in agreeing to CTG system and her election defeat which she always believed as engineered.

In fact Khaleda Zia’s mortal hatred or ‘possibly’ fear of conspiracy originates much before her 91-96 governance. Depriving her husband of the army chief position in 1972, attempts to send her husband out as ambassador to Czechoslovakia throughout 74-75, events of 75, numerous attempts to kill her husband between 75 and 81 have made Khaleda Zia very severely obsessed with conspiracy theories. En masse defection of top tier BNP leadership, multi-pronged attempts to dismantle BNP did only embolden that paranoia. Then throughout her anti autocracy movement through 1990, she had been struck several times by betrayals. Notable among those are BNP Secretary General Obaidur Rahman’s secret liaison with Ershad, Sheikh Hasina’s somersault to join 86 election. Even at the fag end of anti Ershad movement the jewel in Khaleda’s crown, some senior leadership of Chhatra Dal, decided to betray her by colluding with Ershad.

During her last government, she apparently lost her clear vision to the overwhelming cloud of this fear of conspiracy. Every single political step of her government was somehow meant to prevent conspiracy. Removal of B Chowdhury was first in a chain of events. Despite all her carefulness and all the paranoia, she could not prevent 1/11. And 1/11 came as the perfect epitome of what she always has feared.

Since 1/11, her party has been vandalized, she as well as both her sons have been arrested. Most of her long trusted colleagues have abandoned her. Both her son, whom she raised as single mother are morbidly sick as a result of severe torture inflicted on them by the people she herself chose to protect her. And while we all talk about the torture on Tareq or Arafat, the nation has easily forgotten that the most tortured person post 1/11 is Khaleda Zia herself. You tie a mother down and torture both her children in front of her—can there be a torture worse than this?

Her family is broken since March 2007. She knows how her daughter-in-laws are regularly being harassed and how her minor grandchildren are living in fear and confusion. And she is very acutely  aware of what her sons have been through. She was told, informed in graphic details of the torture inflicted on her son Tareq Rahman, day after day, remand after remand. She know how much force one need to apply for how long to break two strong thoracic vertebra of a young healthy man. She knew all these much before we learned all these. She knew all these and then she noticed attempts at more remand of Tareq Rahman which was snubbed by the high court. She was also informed of the alleged/rumored near death situation involving Arafat Rahman within hours after Arafat was taken to the torture chamber and hanged from the ceiling.

Khaleda Zia also knows why the police chief Nur Muhamamd in collusion of the military chief Moeen, puts a totally outsider, ex deputy Minister Abdus Salam Pintu in August 21 case. She knows it is a far fetched effort to falsely convict Tareq Rahman with August 21 event and threat a potential capital punishment.

We knew of all these torture only for a few days. And none of us like or love Tareq Rahman or Arafat Rahman. Still our heart dip a bit at the torture. Khaleda knew all these for at least six month to one year. And she is the mother. As a mother she could visualize what her sons were going through. She solely carried all these agony, pain, nightmare, fear, sorrow by herself. Alone in her jail room, she tried to figure out the pressure impact of the kicks and hits on Tareq’s back while Mannan Bhuiyan talked about a new BNP in his Gulshan flat. She shivers at her sons Arafat’s nervous breakdown while Daily Star -Prothom Alo write, for the 12 thousndth time to tells us how corrupt, inhuman, criminal Tareq/Arafat were. She had in fact none to share her feelings with, neither she cared for one. Her mother died in the meanwhile.

And yet, she remained hell-bent against a deal. For her a deal is a conspiracy. And conspiracy is something she despised and feared so much for the last 36 years. Reflexly and inherently she is unable to be part of a deal.

So in the future, remote or near, for those whoever may take interest in Khaleda’s Zia’s next move, especially those AL policy makers who always are afraid of an Army-BNP deal, please know it as a certainty. Please know it for sure that Khaleda Zia will rather break, but never bend. This lady does not understand the politics of a deal. Even if BNP changes its decision tomorrow and join the elections, please know it that it was a political decision, not a deal with anybody.

For those decent civil society people in the government who are resorting to a very uncivil and nasty thing of resorting to bargaining with a mother for her sick sons, let it be known that this lady won’t budge. She did not budge last six month, she will not now.

Khaleda Zia lacks many political quality, including the shrewdness needed to survive in politics. Yet she survived all the bad days only with her steel strong will power. This uncompromising tenacity sure will help her sail through the rough seas ahead.

[New Age Photo]

SSC results are out. For the first time in history of Bangladesh, students could get their result via the cell phone interactive SMS. A whopping 70% test takers passed the exam this year.

This is significantly different from when I took my public exams in the mid 80s. During those days, the only way to get the results were either school notice board ( which will be torn and taken out as souvenir within hours after posting) or the fine print result sheets in the national newspapers. The pass rate is an improvement too. The pass rate used to be a lowly 30 something percent those days. A better pass rate is a remarkable and much needed leap forward. ‘Nearly 2/3rd of the students are flunking the first national public exams and majority of those failing are from the rural downtrodden communities’– It was indeed a lousy state of affairs.

There are other dramatic changes in associated social factors evolving on the SSC/HSC results. In the past the nation used to celebrate a select dozen, only those securing first place in different boards and different concentrations. Invariably, on the morning after the results, there would have been first page picture of the boy/girl who stood first flanked by the parents. There would have been a first page report, “ Shihab Boigganik Hoite Chay.” Or “ Dhiman er kono private tutor chhilo na”. This time more than 52 thousand students secured the highest score i.e. GPA 5. This is indeed a more justified approach as I do not feel our public exams are designed to identify one or twenty best students out of a pool of more than one million pupils. And rightfully we are now celebrating for 52 thousand rather than a select twenty. A better focus and some incentive for these 52 thousand capable students can turn out to be much more beneficial for the nation than idolizing 20 lucky nerds.

And then those screaming dancing girls, the ‘V’ signs, the ‘Girls Guide’ drum troops in full motion and the spontaneous expressions in front of TV cameras ! News TV footage from Dhaka this morning was amazing. Its definitely a changed Bangladesh and surely a change for good.

In early-mid 80s, with the news of the result, most boys would go to the school in the evening for the results and some urban cowboys will flock at the board office at Bakhshi Bazaar through late at night. And the girl? In some cases, would walk to the school behind the dad and stay back while the dad struggles with the young male students for a glimpse of the result sheet posted in school notice board. And even at homes, when the morning newspaper with the results would come, it will be the dad or the brother who will start searching for the ‘roll number’. In today’s TV news, looking at the girls dancing singing with boys and teachers, I thought that time has indeed changed.

And after many years boys overall did better than girl students in this public exam. Its definitely another sign of the changes. Traditionally boy students used to do better in public exam until the tide changed in the 80s. This was a result of the changed attitude of our society towards the girl child. In 60s and before boys used to get a preference in education i.e they would get a tutor and a place to study. For the girl in average middle class Bengali family, the full focus was on learning household things and then use additional time to study. After a decade following a changing attitude towards the girl child, the tide started to change. The result was clear starting 80s. Girls started doing better in all faculty of education. Science, arts, commerce, debate etc. Boys, more distracted by outside world, game, adda, the cute girl at the corner.. fell behind the girls. Girls had more time to focus on homework and study at home.

Time and generation has definitely played a role in further changes in the trend too. The cell phone revolution, the change of attitude of the society to the girl child etc. has definitely helped the girls come finally out of the indoor life. — the “onto:pur”. Girls are now equally attracted and distracted by the outside world. Hence their academic advantage is lost.

Instead of 20, we now have 52 thousands fresh brain to work with. Instead of boy only urban cowboys, we now have equal number of damn-care girls and boys joining hands together to make tremendously fierce storm to rattle the society.
This is the best harvest of our nation, the best thing we got this year. We must make ways for them to grow. We must not let them down.

In a court of law in Bangladesh, Mr. Tareq Rahman, a political leader, begged the judge not to send him back to interrogation cell anymore. He described, under oath, how he was hanged from the ceiling and beaten mercilessly for days and nights.

Nobody cared, not a single soul spared a blink of an eye for that desperate appeal. Despite Tareq’s appeal, nobody talked about the torture. Even if some few novices dared refer to Tareq’s injuries, they were snubbed as lies. Days went by. The Tareq Rahman we used to see walk to the courts, can’t walk anymore. He even can not sit now. Last time he was seen in public, he was lying on a stretcher bed. Government assigned doctors are speaking, in TV camera that two bone of Tareq Rahman’s vertebral column are fractured. And still our conscientious world is busy enjoying the freak show of Tareq beating, the fun is not over yet, they are still not ready to complain at the torture (Or even call it a torture) Tareq Rahman endured under custody.

One of the suspected co-conspirators of 1/11 military takeover, the Daily Star published a shameful editorial today. In this editorial, meant to protest treatment on Tareq under custody, most of the space was used in playing the broken record to remind the readers how bad Tareq is. And the editors painstakingly chose words not to term Tareq a political prisoner, rather a prisoner for corruption. And not a single time, not for just one time, the word ‘torture’ has been mentioned in this mockery of the editorial. And look at daily Star’s sister newspaper, vernacular Prothom Alo. It published a first page report today. This report tries to downplay the torture allegations by stating that Tareq had back pain since 2005. It quotes a test (MRI) of 2005 that showed pinch nerve. What a corrupted journalism! How these editors are deceiving the people of Bangladesh for their petty interest! A huge proportion of adult has back pain or a pinch nerve. But Tareq’s test in 2005 did not show a fracture. A healthy young adult can not have a compression fracture of two thoracic vertebras without cancer or trauma. I do not know what this newspaper editor want to establish by printing this malicious news item it its first page. Does he want to say that torture did not happen? Or he is helping the government cover up a crime?

While we enjoy every moment, every aspect of extremely delicious Tareq beating, we fail to notice a black cloud looming at the horizon.

Good or bad, Tareq was no doubt an extremely powerful civil politician. Activists of one of the largest political parties of Bangladesh are behind him. Moreover, both of his parents were political leaders and democratically elected rulers of this country. Yet this man is picked up from his ex PM mother’s home, kept in undisclosed custody for unlimited days, hanged from the ceiling and is beaten mercilessly and is made crippled.

The power that has the audacity of perpetrating this crime, the power that enjoys the impunity of doing simply anything without accountability is a portion of Bangladesh armed forces. This is the same military (Not that it is a homogenous entity and all have the same mindset) which dared to raid the home of the founder of the nation, kill him and then chase and kill each and every single member of his family.

We may enjoy and clap at the torture on Tareq today. But let me warn those you who are so happy at the torture on Tareq. Today they may be crippling Tareq, but there is no guarantee they will not come after you tomorrow. A stretcher bound Tareq is a clear message for the country. Please try to listen to exactly what they are saying. They are saying that if they can do this to Tareq, they can do anything to anybody in Bangladesh at anytime. In this country we have two classes, one is the uncivilized corrupt, cluttered civilian class and the others are the blue blooded rulers and emancipators.

More than anybody else, the government is making the most noisy statements suggesting release of Khaleda Zia. It is very clear that after releasing Sheikh Hasina, government is no longer comfortable keeping Khaleda Zia alone in jail.

What Khaleda Zia should do now? She has already made it clear that she is not interested in leaving the country without her sons. It seems that she wants to send her sons abroad but she herself wants to stay back. She apparently is not showing much eagerness for her own freedom too.

Now the question is, would the government allow Tareq Rahman and Arafat Rahman to leave the country and let Khaleda Zia stay at home, free? If they let it happen, how a military -AL deal we are talking about will be successful? And more importantly what will remain of the so called ‘ 1/11 revolution”?

Next question, should Khaleda leave Bangladesh with her sons? What will be the implication of that? Wouldn’t this move make all her suffering go in vain?

So what should Khaleda do? I believe she needs a Hasina moment. Not a Hasina moment of secret deals with generals. But Hasina moment of a public apology for her governments failures. Before 1996 election, Sheikh Hasina, in a television speech, apologized to the nation for all mistakes done from 1972 to 1975. Khaleda Zia should do the same thing. She should publicly apologize for any act of her or her sons those may have offended the nation. This apology must however include categorical denial of corruption charges. Khaleda does not believe her sons did any corruption. Neither do I. Yes, Tareq, thinking himself the sole guardian of the party, and misguided that money is everything in winning an election, raised party fund carelessly. Khaleda Zia may be carefully candid about this in her apology address. She however should not push for Tareq Rahman’s release. I feel it should be wise to let Tareq Rahman fight the cases. With current physical status of Tareq Rahman, courts will have a difficult time running the cases. And the cases against him are very weak and quite disproportionate to the horror stories people heard about Tareq Rahman over the years. The more a stretcher bound Tareq seen in the the courts, the more people will realize what Moeen and his gong have done to the son of Ziaur Rahman and Khaleda Zia’. This is important for political atonement of BNP.

Arafat Rahman should however be released. He has never been a public or political figure. Nobody ever saw even a picture of him until his arrest after 1/11. Arafat also is a very soft hearted person in real life and is not emotionally strong enough to take the pressure of imprisonment. Arafat Rahman should be out of all the political animosity between Khaleda Zia and Awami league or Moeen and Tareq.

And Tareq should retire from politics. He has shown enough immaturity and stupidity in his political career and Khaleda must keep Tareq out of politics in the near future. Instead Khaleda should reach out to her ex comrades like B Chowdhury, Col Oli Ahmed, Sheikh Razzaq Ali etc. She also should remember that the only senior leader and standing committee member who was a member of parliament but did not get a ministerial portfolio was Khondokar Delwar Hossain. She also should remember that she ignored the sons of Dr R A Gani and justice T H Khan when they sought nomination in 2001 and 2007 election. Instead her party gave nomination to two persons who were the first to ditch her and her family. And Both T H Khan and R A Gani stood beside her in her worst times in the recent .
I really wish Khaleda Zia learns from her mistakes. She must not continue the indecisiveness that gripped BNP last six years. She must be merciless against those who betrayed the party in its bad time. Its time to bury the politics of turncoatism. There must not be any reconciliation. Rather, there must be deep cleansing of the party. Failing to do so will be disastrous for BNP and the Zia family.

Déjà Vu?

23rd or 24th March 1986. Sheikh Hasina, thanks to a deal with military dictator general Ershad, declared that Awami League would participate in the election. Exactly 24 hours earlier she declared in a meeting in Chittagong Lal Dighi maidan that those who would participate in election would be the national traitor ( Jatiyo Baiman). Some creative student (Belonging to JSD Chhatra league) of my medical College drew a cartoon and put it as a poster in the college lobby on 25th March evening. That cartoon drew a donkey like creature drinking water and the caption said, “Gadha jol ghola kore khay, Sheikh Hasina vote Chay (Donkey drinks after muddying the water, Sheikh Hasina participates in election in a similar fashion). The cartoon was offensive enough to start a clash between the activists of AL supporting students and JSD supporting students. On 25th March night, the clash-counter clash caused several dozen dorm rooms to be burnt into ashes. My room was one of those. All my brand new belongings were totally gutted. I was only in the sixth week of my first year as a medical student. That night I discovered that the dorm room I got through a friend of mine in fact ‘belonged’ to one of the battling student groups.

22 years 3 months later we are probably again back to a ‘drinking muddy water’ situation. This time it is not Sheikh Hasina alone drinking the muddy water. Her counter parts, in this case army chief Moeen and his cohorts, are also seen doing the same thing.

Who is the donkey this time?

On January 11, 2007, when a new government was formed, whatever our civil society and newspapers tried to tell the general masses, it must have been crystal clear to Awami league leadership that a military coup just took place. AL leadership including Sheikh Hasina, despite knowing that a general has just uprooted a civilian government, decided to throw their full support against the military general’s government. And the shrewd general also reciprocated the support with counter gestures. For some unclear reason, this friendship did not last too long, Moeen decided to expel Sheikh Hasina from Bangladesh politics, Sheikh Hasina retorted with a barrage of verbal cluster bombs and as a result she got arrested.

Today, nearly one year later, the friendship apparently has been re-ignited. But in the meantime Moeen and his cronies lost all the credibility and popularity. It is not clear if Moeen and his men has to compromise with the political leaders why they did all these circus over the last one year. It is indeed Moeen’s drinking of Muddy water.

Whether Sheikh Hasina repeated her 86 move or not, it will become clear in next several weeks. If she decides to befriend the general now, she should not have wasted one year in jail. BNP and Khaleda Zia were much less of an issue at that time. General was much popular at that time. .

A stronger common enemy

But today Khaleda Zia, undoubtedly the common enemy of Moeen and Hasina, is much stronger. Her sons are much less hated. Her party BNP is much more stabilized and cleansed. Last year when Khaleda was in undeclared house arrest and Sheikh Hasina was talking day and night like a bajuka, nobody cared or even pretended to not even noticing it. Today, immediately with the release of Sheikh Hasina, government finds itself under tremendous pressure to extend the same gesture to Khaleda and her sons. Hence it preemptively releases a press statement promising similar treatment for Khaleda. At this time a deal between Hasina and Moeen will only strengthen Khaleda.

A must see for Kamal Hossain

Self proclaimed constitution expert Kamal Hossain always tries to promote him as the real politician, well deserving the job to rule the country. He definitely needed to see the spontaneous outpouring of public emotion at the release of Sheikh Hasina. Hundreds of people waited patiently, for days for this moment and celebrated every second of their leader’s freedom. He must see what it needs to be a real political leader. He must stop trying to be what he is not.

Deal or no deal

I do not understand the affinity of Awami League leadership for cutting deals with generals. If Sheikh HAsina;’s release was a result of a deal, it is not the first time AL resorted to this sort of deal. 82 coup of Ershad was welcomed by Awami League, a deal was brokered in 86 and again in 1996. We are again back to another military - AL deal that has started since late 2006 which continued till today. I do not understand why AL tend to forget their political theme so frequently. AL is a democratic party and its grassroot are fiercely anti autocracy and anti-militarycracy. Awami League does not need a general to be able to rule the country. It has the capability to win any free and fair election with participation by all party. AL leadership should never forget it.

A little more than 12 years ago I started my American life as a graduate student. First few years, my life was a monotonous repetition of long cold nights in my attic den, day long lab and class and daily lunchtime walk to the student center for the 99c taco with a plastic glass of water. This lunchtime break with that taco was my window to the campus life and also indulgence into thinking of the far-away homeland and the left behind life.

One of my first observations of the student life in my campus was the ethnic segregation of the students in the students’ center cafeteria. Young white men and women are crowding around one table. Blacks have their own corner. First generation desi students are flocking together, so are the first generation Chinese or the second generation desis.

This picture of the US life was in sharp contrast to the description of US I got from the booklets I received from USIS. I almost memorized the salad bowl versus melting pot concept. I saw all the glossy pictures of smiling blacks, whites, asians are chatting together in a green turf under a tree in the covers of college brochures.

And almost on a daily basis, while walking in cold Michigan or seating in a lonely corner table with the taco, my mind used to revolt. Just an uncontrollable feeling of escaping this self exile, simply running back to home sweet home, back to wild unbound youth. It is a dream of running barefoot, with other boys of the vicinity, crossing rice paddy and tiny streams, through people’s backyard, climbing the imposing wall of the mosque; only to catch the un-tethered kite flying aimlessly in the open sky.

Very recently, I discovered another person who had a stunningly similar urge to revolt. The same uncontrollable desire to throw everything away and running with the tethered kite. Exactly in the same fashion, bare foot, with bunch of bare body boys, through rice paddy, across people’s backyards.

The man with this same dream is Barack Obama. The day he received his acceptance letter from Harvard law school, he suddenly felt like revolting and going back to his boyhood days in Indonesia and start running, barefoot, after the tethered kite, across the rice paddy. [Source: Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance. Author: Barack Obama].

Mr. Obama has just won a very hard-fought battle for Democratic Party presidential nomination. I support and wish all the best for Mr. Obama. How can I not support Mr. Obama when our spur of a moment dream, although so unlikely for someone living in USA, are so much similar.

I wish a Barack Obama presidency not only because we shared a dream, but also because I see Mr. Obama as a revolutionary. He is a revolutionary who has already stepped, very boldly, the first steps in alleviating the disgusting ethnic segregation in American society I watched with horror during my initial days in USA.

Mr. Obama is the presumptive nominee today because those white young men and women has finally joined hands with those black youth of the next table for one goal. This is a strong statement from young America to leave behind the racial distrust some in the older generation still nurtures deep inside them.

Godspeed, Barack.

So its dialogue season again. ‘Dialogue’ is the talk of the town now a days.
This dialogue is in fact a formal face-to-face meeting of leaders of a political party and representatives of the government, which, under order of the military generals, is ruling Bangladesh since 1/11/07.

 
Although some insignificant political entities are attending these time-limited, agenda-obscured formal chit chats with great pride, the mainstream political parties seem to be shunning the dialogue.
Now the question, should the mainstream political parties boycott the dialogue or attend it in an open mind while their main leader remains in custody, still without any sentencing by a court of law.
Before discussing the merits of this dialogue, let me do a little time travel. Let’s get a snapshot of ‘Dialogues’ in our political history. There have been many instances of ‘dialogue’, ’round table’ or ‘Hurriyat’ in our immediate political history spanning the last century. I won’t lengthen this post by telling about all of them, but in the eye of history, almost none of those dialogues had a significantly successful outcome. We all recall the dialogue/round table Bangabandhu was having with west Pakistani/military leadership during the days leading to March 25 genocide. Most of the time the dialogue has been used to buy some time for a certain goal. In March 71, Yahya was buying time for operation search light preparation. And if we look at very recent times, our short-term memory is filled with despair about the dialogue between Mr. Mannan Bhuiyan and Mr. Jalil and the dialogue between political parties with the immediate past and current Election Commission. The Mannan-Jalil dialogue was aimed (From both parties) at taking the situation to a point of no return. Even if we decide to ignore the first two, the last one, a dialogue between current ‘SH’ Election commission and the political parties can be termed as a mere formality as EC has decided to do what they were instructed from a different quarter.

What this current dialogue will do? And is it a convincing effort by the government to break the stalemate?
First, the representatives on government side are two junior most members of the government, both having no clue of the whole 1/11 phenomenon. And it has been visible that these two/three do not have any decision-making capacity. They are carrying messages from a hidden entity. It would have been more important if the dialogue was held between (Informally though) between the main parties and the hidden entity, which I guess would be the military intelligence agency (DGFI).
Second, The messages that are being delivered to the parties during the dialogue are nothing new. These are very nonspecific and generic and have already been presented to the nation by the CA. Dialogue could have been more specific with more clear future directions and commitments.
Third, the government is playing dialogue game in the day and in the night arresting senior politicians with ridiculous charges. This sort of gesture casts serious doubt about government’s real intentions.
Fourth, this government has actively pursued political engineering but has failed miserably so far. Attending dialogue would be humiliating for the parties unless the government gives clear and verifiable indication that they have abandoned their political maneuvering goal.
Fifth, this government seems to be heading smoothly with their plan to politically purge two popular political leaders. While they failed in all other aspects, thanks to a ‘yes minister’ judiciary, the legal plans are working quite as planned. There is no doubt that these cases are overwhelmingly more political persecution than something of a real anti-corruption case. I expect the dialogue to be continued until a guilty verdict on both of them can be delivered via a spineless judiciary. Then the government stand would be that law has taken its own course and let them appeal etc.
Sixth, in principle, who is Fakhruddin to talk to about national reform? CTG’s role is limited to conducting an election and nations approval of their ‘extra-constitutional’ venture will only encourage another future takeover to ‘correct’ all the wrongdoings of the ‘bloody civilians’.
Seventh, by now, “the fear of a ‘full takeover’ ” is a used up strategy and nobody should be coerced into a dialogue.

At the end of the day, for AL-BNP, attending the dialogue or boycotting it, it is lose lose situation. Nobody can blame Awami League for not cooperating with this CTG. AL went beyond limits to cooperate and Sheikh Hasina even publicly announced that if elected, AL will endorse all the acts of the Fakhruddin government. If government decides to do the right thing, they don’t need a dialogue. They simply can go back to their role of a election conductor and leave. If they have a different agenda, dialogue would not make them change their plan.
Although, AL-BNP boycotted dialogue, there are high chances they will participate in election if they are allowed to do so. In its history Every time AL won an election from opposition, it did it at the climax of a street movement. It is true in 1970 and it is also true in 1996. AL wants to repeat that in 2008. Without BNP, an AL victory will be useless and hence AL, will like the weakened BNP to participate in this election under an administration (1996 syndrome) very fearful of a BNP comeback. BNP will participate as long as it is minimally re-organized. In both parties, there is heavy grassroots interest in election. AL feels it will be a slam-dunk election for them with a weakened BNP and a very friendly administration. BNP feels a fair election with Khaleda as leader and sheaf if paddy as symbol will be win win situation for them.

Government must make use of this opportunity. The right move from this government would be to hold a fair, all party participating election and do all that is needed to bring all back to the election. Once election date is announced, Hasina/Khaleda is released; the focus will shift towards election preparation. Rest of the tenure of the government will be easy as, with an election looming, the political establishment will be busy hitting at each other.
If government thinks that they will do otherwise and put the blame on political parties, they will be gravely mistaken. At this time the right way is the best way. Any alternate plan is destined for failure.

Courtesy: New Age