July 1, 2010: Article of the Day

“True, the Pentagon does have perhaps the single largest public relations apparatus on earth – spending $4.7 billion on P.R. in 2009 alone and employing 27,000 people, a staff nearly as large as the 30,000-person State Department – but is that really enough to ensure positive coverage in a society with armed with a constitutionally-guaranteed free press?

And true, most of the major TV outlets are completely in the bag for the Pentagon, with two of them (NBC/GE and Logan’s own CBS, until recently owned by Westinghouse, one of the world’s largest nuclear weapons manufacturers) having operated for years as leaders in both the broadcast media and weapons-making businesses.

But is that enough to guarantee a level playing field? Can a general really feel safe that Americans will get the right message when the only tools he has at his disposal are a $5 billion P.R. budget and the near-total acquiescence of all the major media companies, some of whom happen to be the Pentagon’s biggest contractors?”

– Matt Tabibi, in Rolling Stone

 

Shamsher Mobin Chowdhury

Mr Shamsher Mobin Chowdhury is an injured freedom fighter, a wounded veteran of our war of independence. He fought our liberation war as an Army Captain and lost his leg. He was awarded second highest gallantry award for living war heroes, Bir Bikram. Mr. Chowdhury retired from active military duty January of 1975 and joined foreign services, where he climbed up the ladder by means of his efficiency as a diplomat. He served as Bangladesh ambassador to different countries including USA, Germany, Vietnam etc. He also served five years as Foreign Secretary of Bangladesh.

Mr. Shamsher M Chowdhury and the likes of him are welcome new face of BNP. This is sharp contrast to the faces of Nizami or Mujahid flanking BNP leader Khaleda.

 

BNP’s 27th June Hartal: Sheikh Hasina’s Halo Dims a Little Further

Update I: Shamsher Mobin Chowdhury granted bail and then again arrested as he was leaving the jail premises.

Awami League’s reaction to BNP’s June 27th hartal was an important event in our recent political history. Coming in the government’s eighteenth month of power, this hartal was not aimed at forcing the Awami League Government to resign or to call new elections; it was simply to protest the increase in public suffering caused by lack of gas, electricity, water, and some other issues. So far, BNP has been the most benign of oppositions. Had Awami League not resorted to violence and let this hartal go without incident, we would have seen an extended period of calm and stability in our politics. Unfortunately, Awami League chose to use the Police, Rapid Action Battalion and its own student wing, Bangladesh Chatra League, to suppress the peaceful pro-hartal protests. The results were as horrifying as they were decisive.

All around Dhaka, law enforcement officials and Awami League party-men swooped upon BNP supporters and assaulted them. This attack on Shahiduddin Chowdhury Annie, MP is extremely illustrative of what happened all over Dhaka that day. At the beginning, Annie is clearly leading a procession BNP supporters, all of whom are trying to protect Annie. Successive attacks peel away everyone around him, until Annie himself is left naked in front of Chatra League brutality. Such episodes were repeated all throughout the day; the only difference was that since Annie is a Member of Parliament, this news made it to the national media.

The attack on Mirza Abbas’s house, when his wife, teenage daughter, and octogenarian mother were all attacked by the police and RAB, and assaulted violently, was another low point for democracy in Bangladesh. All of us know that Bangladesh is the mirror-image of Clauswitz’s famous dictum: in our country, it is politics that is continuation of war by other means. Even accounting for that, and remembering that this is the same party in power who gave us BKSAL and Rakkhi Bahini the first time around and Joynal Hazari and Shamim Osman the second time around, this behavior will come back to haunt Awami League in the years to come.

 

16th June black day

On 16 June 1974, the Awami League government led fathers of PM and several other senior ministers and MPS of current government, decided to shut down all print media except two government run newspapers. In addition government took over the ownership of two leading but privately owned newspapers ( Daily Ittefaq and Daily Observer) and kept them running as government mouth pieces.

Since then 16th June used to be observed by journalists in Bangladesh as black day as thousands of jouralists lost their livelihood instantly. However as the years passed, younger generation jouranalists choose to forget 16th June evets and 16th June is no longer a black days. At least if yu scan the mainstream media in Bangladesh, you hardly seeany mention of it.

Media definitely has its bias towards Awami League and it is less to AL’s credit than to BNPs fault. BNP leadership or policy makers never made it a priority to take smart steps and befriend junior media personnel. Hence smaller acts of aggression on Media by BNP governments get much more media atention than bigger attacks by successive Awami League governments. Events like a police officers fist fight with a elderly photojournalist, or arrest of a stinger etc attarcts disproportionately more protests/ criticism from media than large scale crackdown by Awami League governments.

There is no dobt that if one looks deep into the facts, media suffered much more at the hands of Awami League than BNP. Even when Awami League was in opposition, media was not immune from acts of aggression by Awami League leadership.

Not taking lesson from 16th june events, when Awami came back to power next time, it decided to shut down four very popular governmet run weeklies and dailies. Although financial problems was shown by the government as the main reason, it was very clear that the closure was done simply out of vengence on the journalists working on those outlets. PM had to settle some score with Nirmal Sen for his famous headline, ‘Swavik Mrittur Guarantee Chai…’ or Shahadat Chowdhury for being supportive of popular President Ziaur Rahman. And during the time it was closed, both weekly Bichitra and Daily Doinik Bangla was very much financially viable sec to Bichitra’s popularity and government ad revenue to Doinik Bangla. After closing down veryu popular barnd Bichitra, PM sister Sheikh Rehana was given the ownership of the name and she ran an abysmal weekly on the same name before killing it.

When 3rd Awami League government came back to power, in addition to print media, it had to deal with electronic media. Keeping up its tradition, government imposed a harsh gag on all electronc media, preventing them from iviting guests critical of government’s acts. In quick succession it closed down two TV channels and one newspaper, arrested one editor and is currently torturing him under custody.

In 18 months of its rule, government also did not hesitate impose draconian rules like blocking Youtube, esnipe, facebbok.

 

We Protest the Crackdown on Free Speech in Bangladesh

 

Bangladesh government tortures dissident editor

Last week Police raided vernacular Daily Amar Desh, arrested its editor along with some senior journalists, locked up the office and the press that publishes the newspaper. Police cited some procedural flaws as reason for closing down the newspaper. Any reasonable reader will understand, if there was any procedural flaw it was government’s for not processing the application to change the publisher in reasonable time. Several media personnel and observers have stated that there was no flaw on Amardesh’s side and this was confirmed by summery dismissal of this government decision by the high court.

However although the newspaper is being republished now under high court order, there is fear among its journalists that government is trying to force a change of ownership and turn it into a meek pro government mouthpiece. As a part of the strategy, the editor and owner of the newspaper remains under police custody. District level judicial courts have allowed the government to take Mr Rahman away from Dhaka’s central Jail to undisclosed location for questioning. This kind of arrangement is known as ‘remand’ in Bangladesh. Political leaders belonging to all parties have confirmed in the past that remand means state conducted torture. It is very clear that if police has to ask Mr Rahman any question they can do it as much as they want to do it Dhaka central jail. The massive structure has facilities to conduct such interrogation. But the lower court judges, clearly under pressure, allowed the police to take him to an undisclosed location.

And Mr Rahman has confirmed the tortures on him while he was produced before court before a second phase of his total 12 days remand began. Mr Rahman, told the court under oath that he was taken to a place in Dhaka Military Garrison where he was first undressed. Then few unidentified person started beating him till he became unconscious. He told the court that no relevant question was ever asked to him. The partisan lawyer working on behalf of the government, when asked by media about the torture, replied that as Mr Rahman was able to walk and talk in the court, proving that it meant he was not tortured!

Mr Mahmudur Rahman’s plight confirms what the political observers in Bangladesh was fearing over the last year. Current Bangladesh government has a very intolerant attitude towards media. After several very bold reporting of corruption and double standard by this government was published in Daily Amardesh, most veteran political analysts in Bangladesh knew that this Awami League government will not tolerate this sort of reporting. Mr Shafiq Rehman is a legendary journalists, whose weekly, Jaijaidin, was banned twice by the military dictator Ershad in 80s, and who had to flee the country for fear of persecution by the dictator. He recently wrote, after the Amar Desh event, that he learnt that this government had two priorities; evicting opposition leader Khaleda Zia from her home and arresting editor Mr Mahmudur Rahman for daring to expose high level corruption in the government.

From the acts of shutting down TV channels for showing footage of rigging in bye election, closing down newspaper for publishing government documents accusing Prime Minister’s son of corruption and putting a tight gag on TV talk shows, it is clear that this elected government has decided to run a rule of fear and suppression. This is very worrisome. But more worrisome is the fact that the government started all this within only 18 months of its rule. That means worse days await Bangladesh in the upcoming 3 1/2 years.

 

The Second Coming?

“Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;”

Prof. Khaliquzzaman Elias intoned as we sat listening to his lecture, mesmerized as always. He then gave his trademark gentle smile and explained: “The centre cannot hold – Khaleda Zia can not control her government.” This was 2002, and Dr. B. Chowdhury was still the President of Bangladesh.

This poem again flashed through my mind as I was reading the latest court proceedings regarding Mahmudur Rahman. First arrested on the pretext of a fraud case; he quickly got bail in that case the very next day. However, the government has quickly filed three other cases against him, all non-bailable in nature. One accuses him of assaulting a police officer, although it is probably common knowledge who assaults whom when the police arrest someone in Bangladesh. Another accuses him of plotting sedition against the Caretaker Government headed by Iajuddin Ahmed, by secretly organizing a meeting of bureaucrats at his business office. Does this mean that the Awami League government finally admits that the Iajuddin-backed first Caretaker government was not pro-BNP, as it routinely alleges? Are they now saying that the first Caretaker Government was so extremely anti-BNP that a group of supposed BNP sympathizers were meeting to plan seditious activities against it? The last charge is that he used the printing press of Amar Desh to print leaflets for Hizbut Tahrir, a banned fundamentalist organization. Suffice to say, in the years of propaganda against Mahmudur Rahman, this allegation has never previously been raised against him.

The closure of Amar Desh and the arrest of Mahmudur Rahman has seen almost universal condemnation across Bangladesh (with only the strong, patriotic voice of Mozammel Babu raised in its favor). Instead of taking some steps to rectify its errors, Sheikh Hasina has doubled down on her bet, filing additional cases against Mahmudur Rahman and taking him into twelve days (so far) of remand.

Remand, that most dreaded word in Bangladeshi discussion. Crossfire? Death awaits us all at the end; what matter if the black-garbed denizens hastening us towards it are oath-bound to be our protectors? But remand, with its attendant physical and mental torture, is arguably worse. If your spine is not broken, if you are not slapped and prodded with hot iron rods, if you do not have your most private indignities recorded and widely distributed the next day, you are left with the memories of those moments when one’s personal dignity being stripped away and discarded.

By plotting this attack on Mahmudur Rahman, Awami league is in uncharted waters, just as it was with the closure of a print newspaper, a phenomenon not witnessed in post-Ershad Bangladesh (how fitting then, that Ershad is a partner of the coalition currently in power). Abdus Salam Pintu was already in jail when this government came to power, and Lutfazzaman Babar has also been jailed in relation to charges filed by the last Caretaker Government (though in reality, Babar is paying the price for foiling Abdul Jalil’s April 30 trump card). However, Mahmudur Rahman is the first opposition figure of national stature whom Hasina has sought to have jailed by inventing charges against him. Whereas the BNP government introduced crossfire and the last Caretaker government made commonplace the practice of torture of dissenting individuals in custody, this Government has connected the dots and completed the triangle, with a fired-up cadre of lawyers ready to condemn suspects to torture, and a compliant judiciary that seems to have forgotten their vows to defend the Constitution. Meanwhile, let it be noted that not a single discussion notice about this arrest was allowed in Parliament; perhaps that will be remembered the next time someone chooses to lecture BNP about joining the Parliament.

The thing about these abuses of power is that they are just so tempting. Like mangos and chomchoms, it is difficult to stop after just one, no matter the initial resolve. If a troublesome editor can be silenced in this way, why not a lawyer who is vocal about the human rights of those languishing in jail under this Government? And why not that scary-looking bearded man, even though there is no evidence against him? I have no illusions about the deep reservoirs of tribalism and blood lust in our collective psyche (remember when crossfire made RAB national heros and little kids were dressing up in all black?); I merely hope that there are still left the sufficient number of good men and women, both inside and outside the Government, to prevent things from deteriorating to an irreversible stage. Meanwhile, all those cries about the return of BAKSAL do not strike a chord in the young, first-time voters who are popularly thought to have been the backbone of Awami league’s last electoral victory; I would surmise most in that group do not know what this dreaded acronym stands for. The hope is that they can continue in this blessed ignorance, and never have to find out.

 

Reaction to Amar Desh Closure and Mahmudur Rahman’s Arrest

Daily Star does not mince words: Closure of Amar Desh is a Threat to Free Press. One can imagine Mahfuz Anam clenching his jaws while he wrote this; Mahmudur Rahman delighted in levelling personal attacks on him. However, to his credit, Anam does the right thing: “difficult at times to appreciate the brand of journalism that the Amar Desh was pursuing” … “[government] action is coarse manifestation of intolerance of unpalatable views” … “government must withdraw the cancellation of declaration and let Amar Desh resume publication.”

Information Minister Abul Kalam Azad said “country’s media is enjoying maximum freedom comparing to even the western media.”

After the tragic raid on the HR flotilla that left at least ten aid workers dead (a news that has been grossly under-reported in the Bangladeshi media), Haaretz headlined “Seven Idiots in the Cabinet.” Ours contains too many to fit into a headline.

Update I:

New Age: [Government’s] animosity towards the newspaper apparently peaked when the latter ran a report on the alleged involvement of the prime minister’s son in high-profile corruption.

Naya Diganta takes the long view and asks the state to be a better parent to us.

Update II:

Prothom Alo editorial correctly notes that the government has created the controversy about the identity of Amar Desh’s publisher through its own negligence of duty.

Mohammed Jahangir wonders why Awami League is so scared.

Update III:

Mahmudur Rahman’s last talk-show appearance on live television with Mohiuddin Khan Alamgir on RTV’s Road to Democracy.

Update IV:

James Moriarty drops by to see Sheikh Hasina. Hasina says press in the country is “enjoying highest freedom at present.”

Syed Abul Moqsud ruminates about the dreaded F-word (hint: think short German man with comic mustache). He also unequivocally calls for the release of Mahmudur Rahman as well as the resumption of Amar Desh’s Publication Declaration, something many others noted above did not do.

Zafar Sobhan is “decidedly uncomfortable.” Them’s fighting words, Mr. S. What’s next? Shahnoor Wahid will be “generally nonplussed?” Syed Bardul Ahsan will express “guarded dissent?” As a statistical analysis, Sobhan’s percentage of words criticizing Awami League to words expressing distate at BNP and Mahmudur Rahman are about 67% to 33%. Which is, you know, a significant change from his usual percentage of 0% to 100% in these matters.

Actually, Syed Badrul Ahsan does not dither: “What is a newspaper if it does not berate a government over its perceived flaws?” Thank you sir.

Who ya gonna call? Ghostbusters. Barrister Rafiqul Huq says the ghost of 1/11 is possessing the Awami League government.

Update V:

Shahdeen Malik talks about immigration lines, books, dams, and Baul Samrat Shah Abdul Karim. He also has a message for Awami League.

 

Government Picks Up Amar Desh Publisher; Shuts Down Amar Desh; Arrests Editor Mahmudur Rahman

Updated I: Amar Desh report on the plot.

Updated II: Case filed against Mahmudur Rahman, validating his prediction.

Updated III: Government shuts down Amar Desh and cancels its publication declaration.

Updated IV: Police surround Amar Desh building; Mahmudur Rahman’s arrest likely.

Updated V: Mahmudur Rahman arrested.

Updated VI: Mahmudur Rahman produced in Court.

Updated VII: Another case filed against Mahmudur Rahman, Amar Desh Deputy Editor and Chief Correspondent Syed Abdal Ahmed, four other staff and another one hundred unnamed individuals.

Updated VIII: A discerning reader, M. Amin, has commented below that the common thread running between the banning of Facebook and the closure of Amar Desh at this critical point may be the Government inquiry reports about the BDR massacre. These reports initially became available on Facebook, and Amar Desh has been publishing them on a daily basis.

Media reports are claiming that the government has picked up Hasmat Ali, the Publisher of Daily Amar Desh. Amar Desh Editor Mahmudur Rahman has claimed that the government has picked up Ali to pressurize him to file cases against Mahmudur Rahman. In true Bangladeshi fashion, the authorities are denying that they even have him in custody, and the family members are too terrified to speak out.

Why, so soon after the disastrous ban on Facebook, this crackdown on another media outlet? Mahmudur Rahman has long been a thorn on the side of this government; his paper broke the alleged corruption story between the Prime Minister’s son, Sajeeb Wazed Joy, and Chevron. Amar Desh also earned the ire of the First Family by detailing their internal squabbling about which of their relatives by marriage played the most anti-Bangladeshi role during the Liberation War of 1971.

Some of Amar Desh’s greatest hits from just the last two months:

Indian sky marshals to serve in Bangladesh.

Pro-Pakistan role of State Minister for Law Quamrul Islam’s family during 1971.

Marrying grandson of Rajakar is fine: Sajeda Chowdhury.

Details of the previously unpublish government report of the BDR massacre.

Sheikh Helal given unique treatment by the Court.

High Court Judge Iman Ali a British citizen; constitutionally barred from holding post.

Quamrul Islam sensitive about being removed as Public Prosecutor by the High Court during past Awami League government.

Mohiuddin Khan Alamgir blasts ACC, questions Latifur Rahman and Dr. Mozaffar Ahmed.

Corruption allegations against Rashed Khan Menon.

Battle of the in-laws: Nuru Mian v. Naila Musa (“Prince” Musa Bin Shamsher) (part 1) (part 2).

 

Our media’s stockholm syndrome

A few alarming events took place last few days. Let me list them,

1. A young men was arrested for doing cartoon caricature on our Prime Minister. Per newspaper reports, he did the same thing on PM’s son a little while ago. Law enforcement agency tells he also publish classified government report on BDR mutiny in facebook.

2. Same day, a few hours later, government banned facebook in Bangladesh on the pretext of it allowing materials hurting people’s religious sentiments.

3. Main media outlets which commands >90% readership reports those above stories with their mild spins. Through their spins, facebook ban is a temporary two day event and it was banned by BTRC. The news of the arrest was very successfully deprived of a headline by hiding it in the facebook ban news. In the news of the arrest the media told the nation that that young man was arrested for drawing cartoon on BOTH THE LEADERS, i.e. Sheikh Hasina and Khaleda Zia.

4. My friend emailed me, visibly alarmed at a Naya Diganta news when some Madrassa nuts brought out a rally demanding facebook ban. To me it read like that the whole facebook ban is an act of the right wing nuts, our government had no option but to comply with their demands. So lets be very wary about the those right wing nuts . [ And give the government a break. ]

**************

I replied to my friend that I am equally alarmed at all four above mentioned events. The right wings demands are concerning. Equally concerning to me are the efforts by our progressives who control our mainstream media to undermine this draconian act of the government and make it look like that our Prime Minister has nothing to with this.

I also wrote that when such things ( e.g. arrest cartoonist Arif arrest case) happened during 1/11 era, we never hesitated to make it a top down government crime and raise our voice by all the means we had. I also reminded my friend that if this kind of incident took place before 2006, what would have been our reaction? Would it have been an act of BTRC and RAB, would the arrest news got hidden in another news? It would have been a direct crime of Khaleda-Nizami cohort to make the country Afganistan.

It is ridiculous to assert that the ban was due to pressure on the government by the right wing Islamists. Just yesterday the number two person of the ruling party confirmed Law Minister’s previous announcement that government will change constitution to remove Islam as the state religion and other non secular amendments. In last ten months this government did not allow the main religious party Jamat e Islami to hold one single street rally anywhere. This has is nothing to do with a rally by Madrassa leaders like Amini or the publication of this news in Naya Diganta.

I would like to take this opportunity to challenge our friends in media, blogosphere to rise to this occasion. This is our opportunity to show the nation that our agenda is for a progressive cause, not for a partisan cause. I believe the cause is progressive, but it is our job to make the nation believe the same.

I am afraid, the whole facebook arrest and ban are ill advised actions of the government to contain some news which they either don’t want people to know or be used as false propaganda against government. This government banned youtube previously for publishing BDR mutiny related audios. Recently facebook was also used to publish some document purported to be classified government report of BDR mutiny. There may be great unease at this sort of activities. Religious sentiment may be an intelligent ploy this time to kill the bird and put the blame on the Islamic fundamentalists.

Facebook ban is a very dangerous precedent. We definitely reserve the right to ban materials that may hurt our feelings. But that could have been done in a more smart way. The specific page that contains any offensive material could be blocked. Whole facebook ban or arresting someone for caricaturing a political leader are not expected from a democratic government. If we ban facebook today, we will ban other outlets tomorrow and then whole internet will come under attack some day.

And we must see and say the spade a spade. It is equally dangerous to see some acts of bigotry are tolerated only because a friendly government is in power.