E-Bangladesh

General Moeen U Ahmed, then chief of Bangladesh Army handed over formal papers to a poor man of the dairy firm project at Gaibandha Ansar Institute. Gaibandha, Bangladesh. November 27 2007

Image by: Quddus Alam, DRIK News.

By all means, after General Zia and General Ershad, General Moeen U Ahmed (MUA), the previous chief of Army, could be the third Chief Martial Law Administrator (CMLA) of Bangladesh. He started homework of a would-be CMLA much earlier than 1/11 and beyond public visual by intensifying inherent weakness of discordant partners of democracy to bring politics to stalemate. Our politicians nonchalantly responded to his lure and were naively gravitating towards the democracy-trap. Suddenly intellectual’s chorus started getting louder and unambiguous praising and prescribing the ‘silver bullet’ that would fix our entire national ailment. Read the rest of this entry »

Amader Shomoy reported this two days ago, but it was strangely absent from any other newspaper in Bangladesh. As a result, we were waiting for some confirmation before reporting it.

If you heard the audio of the Shenakunjo meeting, you know that some officers behave like rowdy school children. We have also heard eye-witness reports of young officers manhandling Gen. Moeen, ripping out his insignia and epulates (not just their own, as reported above). But the absolute last straw was the recordings made during the meeting, which were then uploaded to various Internet sites, including YouTube.

We now have confirmation that Gen. Moeen, on his last day of work, signed the order that expelled some of the officers involved from the Army. President Zillur Rahman, the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces, approved the dismissals the next day. While the exact number is unknown, one source puts the number of officers at under 15, with ranks ranging from captain to at least one full colonel. Read the rest of this entry »

Different news sources confirms that Shahidul Alam, internationally renowned photojournalist from Bangladesh, blogger, E-Bangladesh author and founder of the Drik picture network has been detained by the Indian border security.

According to David Brewer of Media Helping Media:

In a message to this site from Dhaka, Alam’s partner says he was working on a multimedia project about the Brahmaputra river with two colleagues when border guards took him away.

There are now fears for Alam’s safety and supporters are calling on the international community to push for his release.

Read the rest of this entry »

When we took the City Cat ride on Brisbane River, or had a view of the river from Sydney opera house or spent time in South Bank of Melbourne CBD we always thought what Dhaka could be if we could maintain the virginity of Buriganga, Sitalakhya, Turag and Balu rivers. Can fondly remember when we were in our childhood we used to come to Dhaka from Goalando, Faridpoor by Steamer Ostrich to Narayanganj and then by train to Dhaka in 1960s. Padma, Buriganga , Sitalakhya that we had to cross were of poetic beauty. Lush green villages around river banks were enchanting.

Due to unplanned growth of Dhaka in all dimensions over the last four decades we have indiscriminately misused our natural gift. That beauty of the rivers is gone. Rivers are polluted to such an extent that no aquatics can survive. . Grabbers and encroachers have grabbed major parts of the rivers. The rivers are dying. If people of Dhaka do not rise in one voice in another 10 years Dhaka will become inhabitable a barren city. Rivers around Dhaka will be the events of the past. Our future generation will curse us. Read the rest of this entry »

The Tipaimukh Hydroelectric Project is being constructed near the confluence of Barak and Tuivai rivers, in Manipur, India and within 100km of Bangladesh border. Costing Rs 6,351 crore ($1.35 billion) the 164 meter high dam will have a firm generation capacity of 401.25MW of electricity.

While Hydroelectric projects are typically considered greener than other power generation options in short term, it has significant long-term impact to the environment like changes in the ecosystem, destroying nearby settlements and changing habitat conditions of people, fish and wildlife. Especially in the densely populated countries like India and Bangladesh, where rivers are lifelines, projects like Tipaimukh will create adverse effect to a huge number of population and their habitats. Read the rest of this entry »

There has been a long walk from freedom for Bangladesh as she is approaching a rather mature age of forty. And talking about maturity, we always expect our people to be more mature politically and our political parties now showing far more maturity in terms of bureaucratic enterprises, to our greater benefit, to say the least. One of the key reasons for that is, we are surrounded by two nations which are two of the most controversial and internationally monitored nations. The other reason is, they both were actively associated with our war of independence, our walk to freedom.

But that bureaucratic flare seems to be a far fetched phenomenon and have been absent in the political leaders or parties, especially when dealing with the issue of demanding and attaining apologies from our very own adversary, Pakistan. After four decades of breaking the shackles off the grip of Pakistan, we are still only competent enough to request Pakistan to apologize for the massacre and hatred displayed by them in the 1971 war, as the recent reports suggests. Read the rest of this entry »

“Article 31 and Article 12 of the constitution of 1972 contained some provisions which strictly prohibited floating of political party based on religion and the use of religion for materisalising any political interest was banned. Unfortunately, these provisions were omitted from the constitution during the post 1975 period and the religion based politics started in the country” - Barrister Shafiq Ahmed

Passionate wave of progressive spirit appears to be hitting the bastions of religious parties. None other than the prime guard of constitution, honorable Law minister, seems to be leading the wave. We are yet to see his rhetoric turning into reality, but if that ever happens, only heaven knows who will stop the eventual chaos.

Banning of an ideology that is seen as a threat to civil norms is totally acceptable. It’s a much easier task when the idea is in its infancy. But when it has acquired enough support, a significant group of followers, and appeared to have gained enough “moderation” in its tune, banning and therefore a head on confrontation is no longer a good idea. Read the rest of this entry »

The investigation conducted by the Army is over, and a 311-page report has been submitted to General Moeen U. Ahmed. The civilian report is due any day now, probably tomorrow.

The Army report has one major revelation. The leaflets that were distributed were actually in circulation from February 23, and the BDR command staff were aware of the brewing unrest. But they did not want to cancel the Prime Minister’s visit, so additional guard was assigned to protect the arsenal. So without naming names, the report lays some responsibility on the Army officers. Read the rest of this entry »

Terror and militancy is a burning threat in all of the South Asian countries. Many terrorist outfits operate in this region and sometime their operations are cross border.

The four month old democratic Bangladesh government has been tough with the militants, but the efforts are not enough considering the lack of infrastructure and training of the security agencies. However a section of people are propagating that the government is over stressing the case of Islamic terrorism. Read the rest of this entry »

Dr. Wazed Miah, husband of the prime minister of Bangladesh, passed away earlier today. Our condolences to Sheikh Hasina, and their son and daughter.

But in his death, Dr. Miah contributed to one of the rarest things in Bangladeshi politics: a civil gesture by Khaleda Zia. Read the rest of this entry »