Photo: Bangladesh Power development board (PDB) has been installed wind power project at Kutubdia near to Bay of Bengal with cost of TK. 9.5 crores. At least 1,000 consumers have been under taken this power supply project. Kutubdia, Bangladesh. June 09 2008.by: Mohammad Islam, Coxs Bazar.DrikEWS.

Episode-ONE:

Every year when August comes Bangabandhu is remembered, in Bangladesh and all over the world where ever Bangladeshi community lives, for his unparalleled contribution to the cause of Bangladesh. His contribution for Bangladesh liberation is unmatched and undisputed. He not only led a peace loving innocent Bangladeshi nation to the glory of Indepence but he was also the trend setter in almost all facets of national life. He started building castles in ruins. Do we all know or realize how he dreamt about the energy future of Bangladesh? What led him to acquire major Gas Fields from world reputed Shell BV? Have we realized his vision of Petrobangla? Or how he managed to inspire the country’s energy sector at its infancy preparing PSC and commencing offshore drilling in the Bay of Bengal?

Bangabandhu often used to say: “In the country of Shekh there has to be huge gas and petroleum resources. Brilliant Bangladeshis must learn the art of exploring and exploiting the resources. Bangladesh must go for rapid industrialization based on its own energy resources, cheap labor and abundant raw materials. Bangladesh needs golden Bangladeshis to create Golden Bengal”. He was aware that only professional exploitation of one’s own energy resources would create long term energy security of Bangladesh. The conspirators and cold blooded killers not only killed the greatest Bangladeshi of all times but they made Bangladesh’s energy sector orphan. Bangabandhu could be the same inspirator for Petrobangla what Mahathir was for PETRONAS. Just imagine the charisma, farsightedness and determination of the great man. What he achieved in a war ravaged country in three and a half years, the rest of us failed to achieve in 35 years.

Bangladesh cannot enter deep water to access its resources for maritime boundary disputes. Petrobangla and Gas sector management has been taken over by bureaucrats, its status has been decimated. Bangladesh managed to acquire 5 large discovered Gas Fields from a Major IOC almost at throw away price. Over the years we have allowed tiny IOCs like Scimitar, Occidental and Niko to grab our discovered gas resources. Like all other areas Bangladesh misses Bangabandhu in Energy Sector in confronting serious energy crisis.

Energy security of any country now is equally important as food security. It is long term energy security that created all confrontations, insurgency and terrorism in the world. Major Powers despite having enough resources, reserves and technology are constantly using or misusing their might to take over the energy resources of energy rich countries. The politics of countries like USA, UK and Australia is dominated by major Energy Companies.

In our opinion, energy security and food security complement each other. Many countries of the world like Japan and South Korea do not have any basic fuel resource to feed power generation. They exclusively depend on imported fuel .But they utilize it properly and are industrial super powers. Countries like Sudan, Nigeria and Angola have enormous fuel resources. But they do not have good governance and rely on foreign companies to explore and exploit their resources. Corruption and mismanagement of resources have resulted in poor economy and massive poverty.

Countries like Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and UAE have huge oil resources. They were once not much aware of its importance. But now utilizing the oil and gas resources these countries have developed massive infrastructures, set up good world class education institutions and have turned into leading economies. But absence of democracy in most of these countries has failed to provide the benefits of petroleum resources to all citizens. Countries like USA, UK and EU Countries have enough resources and technical and financial resources of their own. But they access overseas resources to ensure their own long term energy security; in some cases to preserve and protect their own resources for future use. The case of countries of former Soviet Union is different. They have huge unexploited resources which alone can feed the rest of the world for several decades. But oil diplomacy fails to make economic use of their resources. Countries like China and India have substantial resources. But their rapidly growing economies have created energy-hungry markets. Both of them are hunting for reliable energy resource all over the world.

Countries like Bangladesh where too many people live on a small piece of land, energy and food security go hand in hand. Bangladesh needs optimum production of food grains and vegetables from rapidly diminishing agricultural land. That is only possible if there is an ensured supply of fertilizers at affordable and subsidized price to farmers and uninterrupted power supply for irrigation. Bangladesh also needs rapid industrialization to employ is growing population for economic growth and poverty alleviation. Bangladesh would not have to bother so much about power for irrigation if hundreds of rivers and tributaries could retain water through the year as was the case even till a few decades back. Climate change causing infrequent draughts, unilateral withdrawal of water on the upstream of common rivers, massive siltation and pollutions of all rivers and streams, unauthorized occupations of rivers, canals and streams have made use of surface water for irrigation scanty. In irrigation season power and diesel demands are a burden on our energy system. Power requires to be diverted for irrigation load; fuel supply requires to be diverted to meet power generation demand.

Bangladesh has substantial unexplored petroleum resources both offshore and onshore. It has huge discovered but mostly unexploited coal resources. There is tremendous opportunity for expanding various forms of renewable energy .It has Energy Policy, Power System Master Plan, Gas System Master Plan, Mines and Minerals Acts and Policy, and Independent Energy Regulatory Commission. Petroleum industry in the region is more than 55 years old. There are many well groomed professionals. Yet its energy security is extremely vulnerable. The reasons are poor sectoral governance, lack of political will and commitment, bureaucratic legacy, poor energy pricing, unbridled corruption and lack of proper incentives in energy industry to attract and retain competent professionals. All these factors have, over the last 35 since the unfortunate killing of Bangabandhu in August 1975, have had a combined adverse impact on the energy scenario. Bangladesh is now suffering from the worst energy crisis of its history which beggars description.

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To be continued, Episode-TWO in 24 hrs, Keep an eye on e-bangladesh.org.

But in recent times the textile sector has seen some confrontation between the workers and their employers over wages related issues. Bangladesh’s competitive advantage had been skilled workers and low wages but due to inflation the old minimum wages has become an absurd figure now. The garments factory owners associations have long been able to halt the talks of raising of minimum wages claiming that if wages are raised they will not be able to maintain competitiveness and lose market especially during the global recession. Their bargaining point was that because most of the workers do overtime they actually earn one and half to twice the amount of the minimum wages. But this has also increased the unhealthy practice of exploiting more labor hours from the workers.

They make your Tshirts. Image by Flickr User Niloy. CC BY

Around 3 million labors work in approximately 5000 garments factories across the country and almost 80% of the workforce are women. Mahfuzur Rahman Manik provides a background on the minimum wages issue:

সর্বশেষ ২০০৬ সালে বর্তমান বেতন কাঠামো নির্ধারণ করা হয়। সর্বনিম্ন বেতন স্কেলের জন্য তখন মজুরি বোর্ডের সুপারিশ ২৩০০ টাকা থাকলেও মালিক পক্ষের চাপাচাপিতে নির্ধারণ করা হয় ১৬৬২ টাকা। বর্তমান মূল্য ও মুদ্রা; দুইয়ের স্ফীতির এই বাজারে একজন শ্রমিকের নিজের পক্ষেই শহরতলীর বস্তিতেও দিনযাপন করা অসম্ভব। তিন বছর পার হলেও সে বেতনের আর পরিবর্তন হয় নাই।

The last pay scale was fixed in 2006. The wages board recommended an wage of Tk. 2300 per month (US$ 33) but after the hard bargaining from the employers Tk. 1662 per month (US$23) was fixed as the minimum wage. Due the inflation of currency and prices it has become difficult for the workers to live with this pay even in the slums of the towns. After three long years no change was made to the minimum wages scale.

Mohammad Golam Nabi advocates for the increase of wages:

বেতন বৃদ্ধির দাবীতে গার্মেন্টস ফ্যাক্টরিগুলোর উত্তাল হয়ে উঠার বিষয়টি বেশি করে শুরু হয়েছে ২০০৭ সালের শেষ ভাগে। [..]

আমাদের গার্মেন্টস শ্রমিকদের একদিনের বেতন ৫৫ টাকা থেকে শুরু। এই টাকায় খাবে, ঘর ভাড়া দেবে, সাবান কিনবে, গোসল করবে আমরা কি করে আশা করি। [..] প্রজনন স্বাস্থ্যের যত্নবিহীন এই নারীরা যে সন্তান জন্ম দেবে, সেই সন্তান এই দেশের আগামী প্রজন্ম মনে রাখুন।

The protests for raising wages started since the end of 2007. [..]

The wages of one day of any garments worker starts from Tk. 55. They will have to use this meager amount to pay their rents, meal, personal hygiene etc. [..] All these ladies will have to give birth to children without proper reproductive hygiene, these children will be the future generation – please beware.

Sharif Kafi writes that the reason for recent unrest in the garments industry is not because of wages issue but the exploitation of few of the employers:

এসব ঘটনা ঘটার মূল কারণ শ্রমিকদের অত্যন্ত কম বেতন দেয়া, গার্মেন্টস মালিক কর্তৃক বেতন বকেয়া রেখে পরে তা শোধ না করা, বকেয়া বেতন ও বকেয়া ওভার টাইম এবং বকেয়া ভাতাদি পরিশোধ না করে হঠাৎ করে ফ্যাক্টরি বন্ধ করে দেয়া এবং ঈদের আগে সময় মত বেতন-বোনাসের টাকা পরিশোধ না করা অথবা না করে ফ্যাক্টরী বন্ধ করে দেয়া। অথচ এক শ্রেনীর গামেন্টস মালিকরা এসব ঘটনাকে বিদেশী চক্রান্ত বলে সবার চোখে ধুলো দেয়ার চেষ্টা করছে।

The main reason for these unrest are underpaying the workers, defaulting on labor payments, shutting down the factory without paying their dues and not paying bonus during Eid festival. But a few garments factory owners are trying to fool people by blaming these incidents as politically motivated.

After long bargaining with the employers and the workers, the Government has finally decided to raise the minimum wages to Tk. 3000 per month ($44) which is approximately double of the current minimum wages. The wages structure will be formally announced tomorrow.

Arif Jebtik, blogger, writer and an entrepreneur provides a list of FAQs regarding the wages and garments industry from management’s perspective. Some excerpts from his post at Sachalayatan:

* নতুন বেতন যদি নূন্যতম বেতন ৩০০০ টাকা করা হয়, তাহলে এই সেক্টরে কী সমস্যা দেখা দিতে পারে ? গার্মেন্ট শিল্প কি বন্ধ হয়ে যাবে ?

: নাহ, আদতে তেমন কোনো ক্ষতি হবে না। কারন তখন সব গার্মেন্টই বেতন বাড়াতে বাধ্য হবে, সুতরাং তারা মূল্যও বেশি দাবি করবে। বায়ারদের হাতে এই মুহুর্তে কোনো বিকল্প নেই, তাই তারা বেশি দামেই কাপড় কিনতে বাধ্য হবে। মনে রাখতে হবে আমরা যে কাপড় সেলাই করি, সেটি খুবই বেসিক এবং কম দামের, সুতরাং এই কাপড়ের চাহিদা দুনিয়াতে থাকবেই।

* নতুন বেতন বৃদ্ধিতে গার্মেন্টের লাভ কমে যাবে বলে অনেকেই ধারণা করছেন। গার্মেন্ট শিল্পগুলো কিভাবে চলবে তখন ?

: আসলে বেতন বৃদ্ধি আমাদের জন্য এক ধরনের আশীর্বাদ হিসেবে আসবে বলে আমার ধারণা। এখন গার্মেন্টগুলো বাধ্য হবে নতুন প্রযুক্তির প্রচলন করতে এবং বৈজ্ঞানিক পদ্ধতিতে উৎপাদন ব্যবস্থাপনা করতে। এটি এই শিল্পের জন্য ভালো হবে। প্রোডাকশন ইঞ্জিনিয়ারিং চালু হবে, দক্ষ শ্রমিক ও মিড লেভেল ব্যবস্থাপনা তৈরীর জন্য প্রশিক্ষনের ব্যবস্থা করতে হবে।

* If the minimum wages is increased to Tk. 3000, what problems will this sector face? Will many factories be closed?

: No I don’t see the chance of incurring huge loss. Because every factory in the sector will have to increase wages, so the competitive prices will be at the same level. The buyers don’t really have many options, so they will have to accept the increase in price. You have to keep in mind that the cloths we manufacture are very basic in nature and of low cost, so worldwide they will continue to have demand.

* People say that the profit of the garments companies will decrease causing them to shut down. How will they survive with the increased costs?

: I think the increase in wages will come as a blessing. The factories will have to embrace new technologies and deploy scientific production methods. this will be beneficial for the industry. The sectors like production engineering will be revitalized, skilled workers and mid level management will require more training.

We have some developments in the trial of war criminals in Bangladesh. According to reports, the formulation of rules of procedures for International Crimes Tribunal’s investigation agency and prosecution panel has been completed. The rules are flexible as the tribunal registrar said that the tribunal can revise, change, add to and deduct from the rules if it felt there was any need in future.

The Daily Star has some detailed analysis on the procedures of the tribunal:

The three-member tribunal, instituted under International Crimes (Tribunals) Act 1973, can try a person in his presence or absence.

The judges will take cognizance of an offense after examining the formal charge, investigation report, documents and evidence submitted by a prosecutor.

They may dismiss a case if they deem the evidence is not authentic or strong enough to warrant a trial.

The Rules Of Procedures 2010 were published in a government gazette on July 15, 2010. You can download it from here.

Whenever the issue of trial of war-crimes is raised, the killers and collaborators now turned politicians are seen to treat Bangabandhu with great respect. The Al-Badar leaders say, ‘it was he who resolved the issue by declaring general mercy, so it is meaningless to discuss this issue and give much importance now. Their political allies and intellectuals sing the same song, in addition to this more horrible and fabricated stories are added. Their absurdities know no bounds. Across generations they have spread rumors like: Bangabandhu enjoying a meal (Khichuri) with top-collaborator Shah Azizur Rahman at Comilla Cantonment, he went to the Jail with his own car and received Khan A Sabur at the Jail-gate. These are the stories which have been used to wash the brains of our generation. Common people treat these with their utmost ignorance and we are habituated to listen to them.

For my personal interest, I have studied the issue of the controversial General Mercy. To start with the only document I could find was a old paper-cutting of New York Times, where in a few sentences it was said that some 30 thousand collaborators had been freed including the imprisoned Governor Malik along with some of his helpers.

Such a big incidence, what an important decision! Would not there be an official document at least? After searching for it long, I could not recover anything from the known persons working on trial of war-crimes issue or from collectors, who have been documenting our freedom-fight. The general mercy was a Presidential order; so it should be included in the government Gazette. It must be in the Annual Lawyers’ guide. I could not find it in any of the records. The authorities do not archive many documents of 1973/74 anymore. Files and documents are vanished. A Lawyer of the Supreme Court accuses ex president Ziaur Rahman directly as he himself had built the Shishu Park (children’s park) to hide the memorial of surrender of Pakistan Forces. Similarly he himself had given the order of burning all the records of war-criminals into ashes. There is nothing in the Bar council Library now.

My only support was a few lines. Bangabandhu declared general mercy, this is right; but he did not forgive the killers, rapists and plunderers. the question now is where is my proof? Those who raise this question do not provide anything; even those accused as war-criminals exonerated by this general mercy do not provide any document too; then? On November 30 in 1973 Bangabandhu made this declaration. A press-note was supposed to be published in the newspapers on the following day. I started searching for those papers. And Jisan emerged as my rescuer.

I started working with some dedicated youths after I had joined Daily Adhinayak (yet to be published). These youths have the ability to play any serious role in the field of literature and cultural activism – Jisan is one of them. I gave the responsibility to two persons to collect the news in archived newspapers published after this declaration had been made. When Ajit Das entered the National Archive, he was deterred with a new requirement, an approval from Home Ministry to get to the documents. At Bangla Academy, Jisan faced the same sort of hindrance. Prior to this, he had failed to enter PIB archives too.

What follows here supersedes any Spy thriller-story. With an expired Library Card, Jisan entered the Underground Archive of Dhaka University. He found the expected newspapers with the help of some known staffs enduring the mosquito bites. However, some student leaders got interested in Jisan’s adventurous works. They even took his interview (read cross-examination). These student-leaders have only memorized their respected leaders’ names and lack knowledge about their leader’s history and deeds. So they became feeble before the smartness of Jisan. With trembling hands, he shot photos of the newspaper articles with his Samsung Mobile. He could take the required snaps just before the charge of the battery depleted. When he had handed me over the photos from his mobile via blue-tooth, he said: “Pial vai, give me another four days. I will transcribe each line and come back”.

I suppressed my utmost wish of hugging him in pleasure. With a subdued excitement I came back home. With the photos and clippings I started my works and could not bear waiting for another two days. I zoomed the photos in and out to understand what was written; and then transcribed that myself. The decision of uploading the clippings in You-tube was taken much earlier. I selected the photos finally, made AVI files using converter and then gave it a complete shape by making it a bit slow using the movie-maker and adjusting its brightness.

Achieving this would have been impossible if Jisan was not with me. In this age of free flow of Information, I will forever remember his active role in finding the historical data for a Bangla Blog with my gratitude. Let us see now what it was in the Declaration of General Mercy; what it was written in its coverage; who they released.

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Report on General Mercy Declaration: The Doinik Bangla, December 01, 1973

Heading: General Mercy Declaration on Punished Prisoners under Collaborator Act

Sub-heading: Bangabandhu’s urge to the persons received mercy for the engagement of Country’s Betterment: No Mercy for the Killers and Rapists.
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Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh has declared a general mercy for the convicted and punished prisoners under the Collaborator Act. Persons who have been imprisoned under the Collaborator Ordinance (Special Tribunal) 1972, against whom there is a warrant or those who are wanted and those who have been punished will be imposed this general mercy and soon they will be freed. Yet those who have killed people, raped and set fire or caused to damage people’s homestead with explosives or convicted for damaging water-transport whatsoever will not be considered under this act. A Governmental press-note issued on Friday night last says this General Mercy.

Prime Minister Shaikh Mujibur Rahman says, Government has declared this general mercy for the people arrested and convicted under Collaborator Act so that people from all corners can enjoy the Victory Day 16th December together indiscriminately and take oath to build our country. Bangabandhu has ordered the Home Ministry to take necessary steps so that these persons can get released from Jail soon and join the victory festival coming on 16th December. The persons freed are urged to be united with spirit of victory and are requested to take the responsibility of working as a safe-guard for our independence.

While speaking in the declaration ceremony, Bangabandhu says, all will forget their bitter past and leave their previous activity and start working in unison and establish an unequal instance of patriotism, he believes and hopes.

Bangabandhu says, through much blood, sorrows and sufferings, tears and tortures we have achieved our independence. At any cost we have to preserve this independence.’ He hopes that this Independence Day will open a new horizon of peace, happiness, prosperity and welfare.

Prime Minister says, some people, in association with invaded force, opposed against our freedom fight. They were arrested under the Collaborator Act. Among them many are familiar persons. As they were associated with Pakistani Force and helped them technically, people of Bangladesh suffered an indescribable miseries.

Bangabandhu says, these people have been arrested and imprisoned for long. He thinks that they are repented deeply. They are certainly remorseful for their pas activities. He hopes, after they have been freed, they will forget their past misdeeds, work with a new oath for building our nation and establish a new instance of patriotism. Yesterday the press-note issued from the Home Ministry is as follows:
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Press-note: Prior to this, Government has considered the matter of Mercy of those who have been arrested under Collaborator Ordinance 1972(Special Tribunal) PO No-8, 1972, or have been convicted and paid their sufferings; government is making the new declaration in this regard:

1. Except the fields of crimes and persons described in the article no: 2

a) The persons arrested and convicted under the Criminal Act Section 401 of 1898 are being given released and, if there is no complain under any rule or act, except this order, under the general mercy, they will be freed from jail soon.

b) According to this order all cases under trial in any special tribunal or in special magistrate will be withdrawn. If there are no other cases against them pending, they will be freed from jail under this general mercy.

c) According to this Act, all cases filed against any person and the inquiry will be withdrawn and if he is not convicted otherwise under any acts whatsoever will be freed from jail. According to this act all warrants, summons or any notice served against him to crock his assets will be withdrawn. In that case the persons have to be free from other cases. If any proceedings are completed in absence of the persons and if he remains still absent, he will be freed from jail only when he surrenders and beg mercy and declares his loyalty, only then this general mercy will be eligible for him.

2. Persons convicted under the section 302(Killing), section 304, 376(rape), 435(cause damage by using bullet or explosives), Section 436(Burn Homesteads), and Section 448(set fire in water transport or explosion), According to the Criminal Act will not be considered under this act.

Banglar Bani or Ittefaq are equally same at their reports which will be seen in the video footage. There is other surprising news in the Donik Bangla on the same issue: regarding of being set free of Shah Azizur Rahman who later would be the Prime Minister of Bangladesh in the hand of Zia and of Sarsina’s Peer Shaheb who would be given the Independence Medal during Ershad regime. It said: According to an especial order made by the Bangladesh government, PDP Leader Shah Azizur Rahman and Sarsina’s Peer Shaheb have been released. Due to the cause of collaborating with Pakistani invaded forces they were arrested. .

It has been cleared that high profile collaborator like Governor Malik and Shah Aziz were not handed outside the Dhaka Central Jail. After they had been arrested, they had been there before they were freed. So there is no way to believe this story that Bangabandhu called him from jail and together he ate khichuri with him. This is altogether false.

On December3, in the Daily Ittefaq came the follow-up of the news of the decision of General Mercy where all people welcomed the decision. There was an important news. Home Minister Advocate Abdul Malek Ukil clarified the about the persons had been arrested under Collaborator Act. Under the Heading: Total Number of People arrested under Collaborator Act were 37 thousand 4hundred and 71 seventy-one, it had been written that on the perspective of declaring the mercy,

Yesterday while conversing with journalists, Home Minister Mr. Malek Ukil says this. He says, after the list of the persons arrested under Collaborator act verified with the order of general mercy, he has given approval to free all persons arrested under its jurisdiction. He says, according to the Collaborator Act number of total convicted persons is 37 thousand 4 hundred and 71 among which. Among these people, cases against 2,848 persons have been settled of 752 persons have been convicted and 2096 have been released. He says, in a newspaper the number of arrestees under collaborator act is 86 thousand which is not true; rather it is exaggerated. Home Minister says, many student leaders arrested and convicted under this act will get released. He says, life-imprisonment awarded former Governor East Pakistan M A Malek will get released along with his cabinet members. The persons among others will get released are Dr. Kazi Din Mohammad, Dr. Hasan Jaman, Dr. Sazzad Hossain, Dr. Mohor Ali(All are Collaborators and University Teachers) and Khan A Sabur. Home Minister says, persons freed will get back their properties and enjoy all facilities given to a citizen. The story that Bangabandhu himself went to receive Khan A Sabur has been solved through this news.

Finally, I am quoting the speech given by Bangabandhu broadcast and telecast on Radio and Television on 15December: after the revolution we did not kill those who were arrested and convicted as the enemies of liberation; rather we have forgiven them. We do not believe in the policy of jealousy and revenge. Consequently, those who were arrested and convicted under the Collaborator act have been shown a general mercy. They have been given all sorts of civic facilities as they would have enjoyed before. I believe, if persons misguided by others and followed the path of jealousy are repented will also be given same opportunity to build this nation.

Many things have come in consequence of the perspective of general mercy declaration. Those issues have been discussed and published. But the main thing I have not gotten as reference in any winterers’ writing. If this writing meets up that deficiency, my endeavor will be fruitful. Mine personal notion is, after the General Mercy Declaration had been made, Collaborator Ordinance was a bit mended, which is called amendment. But even after this, why it is not present in the gazette will always be an illusion.

Source: Doinik Bangla, Doinik Ittefaq, Doinik Banglar Bani and Bangladesh Observer. News Clippings have been used in the footage.

Courtesy: Ikram Neoaz Faraji Jisan

Further Reading: 1. A blog post written in Bengali.

NOTE: The whole write-up is a translation of a blog post written in www.amarblog.com.

Translation: Mr Safaet Hossain and his team translated the content from the Bengali blog post into English (edited by Rezwan).

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Omi Rahman Pial [http://omipial.amarblog.com] is a well-known figure in Bengali Blogsphere.He is also an historian of Bangladesh Liberation War and an activist demanding the trial of war criminals.

In a recent report by Strategic Foresight Group, a Mumbai-based think tank, titled “The Himalayan Challenge – Water Security in Emerging Asia” some alarming statistics were presented. In the next two decades, the four countries in the Himalayan sub-region will face the depletion of almost 275 billion cubic meters (BCM) of annual renewable water, more than the total amount of water available in Nepal in present day.

Water availability is estimated to decline in 2030 comparing to present level by 13.50% in case of China, by 28% in case of India, by 22% in case of Bangladesh and by 35% in case of Nepal. The factors contributing to this decline are:

1. About 10% to 20% of the Himalayan Rivers are fed by Himalayan Glaciers and studies say 70% of these glaciers will be melted by the next century as a result of accelerating global climate change.
2. Glacial melting will eventually reduce river flow in the low season and increase in temperature in some areas leading to deforestation.
3. Disappearance of thousands of lakes.
4. Depletion of water resources due to pollution and natural reasons
5. The reduced riverflow induces more deposit of silt in river bed narrows the depth of river thus causing flooding.

The implications of depletion of water resources are:

1. The agricultural sector is the major consumer of fresh water. However this sector will be using less water due to non-availability of water leading to less productivity.
2. The cumulative effect of water scarcity, glacial melting, disruptive precipitation patterns, flooding, desertification, pollution, and soil erosion will be a massive reduction in the production of rice, wheat, maize and fish.

The consequences of the scarcity of water has prompted many countries to train rivers and manage water flow by building dams. But dams effect the river basins downstream. So it has become an issue for regional disputes. China alone has developed plans to build over 200 dams which will effect the downstream flows of the river in several countries.

India vs. China:

The 2,900 km long Brahmaputra River flows through China, India, and Bangladesh, and its watershed includes Nepal, Bhutan, and Burma as well. In 2000, India accused China of not sharing flood data of the flows of Brahmaputra River through the Chinese territory. This resulted in widespread devastation and floods in India killing many people. In 2002 a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between the countries to coordinate water related data sharing.

In early 2003, China conducted a feasibility study for a major hydropower project along the China section of the Brahmaputra River. This project was supposed to divert 200 billion cubic meters of water annually to the Yellow River. This would result in 60% reduction of water flow downstream in India and Bangladesh. In 2006, the Chinese government denied the existence of the plan however this remained a reason for the strained relationship between the two countries. However it was found later that China was building a dam on Brahmaputra.

In April 2010, China assured that the dam on river Brahmaputra will have no impact on the downstream flow of the river into India Bangladesh.

India vs. Bangladesh:

The Indian government has plans to get India’s 37 major river interlinked by 2016 implementing its interlinking of rivers (ILR) project. 25 new dams are planned for the Ganges and Brahmaputra rivers. According to experts the impacts of the ILR on Bangladesh will be the function of many variables, including the alteration of hydrology, river dynamics, ecosystem changes, agricultural productivity, intrusion of salinity and public health. The reason for dispute between both the countries is that Bangladesh have not been officially notified of plans for the ILR project.

India vs. Pakistan:

Pakistan is worried about six rivers (Indus, Chenab, Jhelum, Sutlej, Beas, and Ravi) that flow into Pakistan through northern India, including the disputed state of Jammu & Kashmir and the state of Punjab. Their disagreements lead to the 1960 Indus Water Treaty, which has come under an increasing strain in recent days. India completed a hydroelectric power project on the Chenab River in the Doda district of Jammu & Kashmir by building a dam on 2008. Pakistan is wary of facts that the shortage of flow of water in rivers could cause rapid desertification.

Water issues are not only raising the political temperature between countries but also between states within a country like the river Kaveri is the reason for serious contention between Tamil Nadu and neighbouring Karnataka states.

The Solution:

One thing is for sure if India and China race for building dams to control flow of river within their boundaries without consulting their downstream neighbors then the situation will be volatile leading to unnecessary confrontation and war. The threats cannot be addressed by the unilateral efforts of nations, only regional cooperation can mitigate such tensions.

The Dhaka Declaration on Water Security has proposed an expert committee to prepare a road map for data-sharing and scientific exchange and to prepare guidelines for introducing transparency regarding relevant data.The declaration urges “greater political commitment and data exchange among Himalaya basin countries for collective approaches to the region’s water challenges”.

Dialogues between the citizens of the countries concerned are needed so that unnecessary escalations can be avoided.The region has to commit to agreements like the Dhaka declaration so that a Regional Information Sharing Network on water resources can be achieved.

(Also published in Future Challenges)

England was riding high after winning T20 world cup and beating Australia. They plotted to win three matches ODI against Bangladesh comfortably to boost their morale after beating Australia in hard fought 5 matches ODI series 3-2. They were so confident that they rested key bowler Swann for the series. The first ODI they won relatively comfortably .Before the start of play at Bristol complacent David Gower and David Lloyd in prematch preview was discussing about batting form of English captain Andrew Starus. England won the toss and put Bangladesh into bat on a greenish wicket under cloudy sky. England had Anderson. Broad, Shezad to exploit the situation. We all know sub continental teams struggle on such wicket , in such situation. Gower thought Bangladesh can not put up competitive score; Staruss will not get opportunity to post a century. Bangladesh made Gower eat his words.

Bangladesh not only put up a competitive score but also won the match playing all-round good cricket. Tigers out gunned vaunted England in all departments. Top order Tamim ,Kayes, Junaid and Jahurul batted with resolve , Tail Enders Mashrafee and Mahmudullah made valuable contributions. All bowlers bowled with great heart, fielding was sharp and agile. Bangladeshis even kept their cool in tight situation and won the match.

Tamim started in usual flamboyant style .But after his brief stay Kayes anchored the innings and Junaid stepped into Tamim shoe. He too left after scoring a brisk 21. The foundation of the innings was laid by a 83 run third wicket solid partnership of Kayes and Young Jahurul .But like recent matches main stay Saquib and Ashraful failed to make substantive contribution. Kayes was still there .Mashrafee and Mahmudullah made useful contributions. Yet the final score of 236 appeared at least 40 short of a formidable target on a smallish ground. But tigers looked resolved and determined. It did not matter that regular keeper Mushfiqur was injured. It did not matter the batting hero of the previous match Roquibul Hasan was unavailable through injury. Masharfee and his men had spring in their legs. Once they withered early storm of Staruss Tigers were always on the hunt. Once openers and Kieswetter were undone by bustling Rubel Hussiain Bangladesh never looked back. Collingwood and Morgan were removed by Razzak. Bell twisted and fractured his ankle while fielding and was stretchered to hospital in ambulance. Heavily strapped Bell was not fit to bat.

At this stage only Jonathon Trott was the thorn for Bangladesh. But he hardly looked convincing.Saquib; Shafiul bowled tight and got the rewards. Ground fielding was sharp and bowling was professional. England still rallied around Trott and with Broad playing some strokes 43 valuable runs were scored at 8th wicket.Pendulam for once swung in England’s favour. But Lion hearted never say die Mashrafee returned and accounted for Broad at a critical stage. Yet Trott fought. Mashrafee removed Anderson and was about to go for victory lap. But an injured Ian Bell with Morgan to run for him limped to saty with Trott to saviour the grace of English lion. The last over of the tense match.Trott was at the strikers end. Six runs were pinched of the first three deliveries with one wide. Young Shafiul did not panic.He let out a well disguised slower delivery. Trott nicked to the keeper .Tigers wrote the history at Bristol in red letters.

In 2010 Bangladesh did not win any cricket match at international level but went tantalisingly close to winning a few. Just the killer instinct was not there. With Mashrafee back at the leadership let us hope that Bangladesh grows winning habit,Congrats Mashrafee and his men for making Bangladeshis proud yet again.

Gandhi had to live through the Spanish tragedies of trains to India and Pakistan.- But he had by then become irrelevant or irritating to the power structure. Hindu militants especially could not take Bapu’s wailings for Muslim kids and Nathuram Godsey killed him in anguish. Bangabandhu’s murmurs for Hindu kids earned the wrath of a few western-educated Pakistan trained army officers. They didn’t just dare to kill the mountain, rather sent militant Muslims to burn down the mountain altogether.

The British left and Americans filled the vacuum. Jinnah wasn’t even buried before our colonial cousins once again started their divide and rule machinations. One by one Ayub, Yahia, Zia-P, Zia-B, Ershad, Musharraf and Moyeen all carried out the role of James Bonds with pre-scripted precision.

A group of nihilistic academicians, wrote the Machiavellian screenplay for South Asia. But now it’s our turn to tune back the clock by offering two Socratic chairs, for Gandhi Ji and Bangabandhu.

Despite all odds Nehru pushed India onto the ride to globalization. Alas, his nemesis, Jinnah, didn’t get the chance to enter that race. When Pakistan was shining with Army stars, Nehru ignited candles in the huts of India. Armed with the same light Jyoti Basu maintained the mantle of leftism, yet died with yearnings for his sweet home in Bangladesh. On the eastern flank, Bangabandhu tried to use the Cuban model for a Dream Bangladesh, but lacked efficient comrades who could hold that dream.

The British Raj had already shown us what shortcuts to success could feel like, by awarding the Rai and Khan Bahadurs, so we chose to undermine Gandhi’s Dream India or Bangabandhu’s Dream Bangladesh. We could neither draw inspiration from Quran nor from Das Capital and so South Asia became Las Vegas for the corrupt, the powerful and the Freudians of politics, business, showbiz: all in a rat race for a dog’s death.

We have been left at the mercy of Islamic militants acting as mercenaries of death. Pakistan is burning in extremism; some would say it’s paying the price for the ‘71 genocide which cost Bangladesh three million human lives. Unless Pakistan tries the war criminals of 1971 and pays indemnity for war losses, it can never develop with a clean conscience. We have the Germans as an example: they tried the Nazis, brought closure to the affectees of WW-2 and are now living a happy civilized life. The citizens of Bangladesh also want closure.

We have tried the traitors who killed our Father of the Nation and his family, including a pregnant daughter-in-law and a 6-year-old son, in cold blood. But we are still far from bringing to justice those who collaborated with the enemies of humanity during 1971.

Judiciary in Bangladesh is free to try the Golam Azam-led Jamaat trio of Nijami, Mujahid, and Sayeedi , as well as other war criminals of ’71, who tried to buy freedom through the age-old politics of matrimonial alliances at different geometrical corners. There is not a sliver of remorse on their faces or in their words for destroying Muslim-Hindu harmony in Bangladesh or for their misdeeds as masterminds of rapes, kills and pillage. In my chance interviews of German war criminals, I recorded both regret and reconciliation. But, alas, I saw none in Bangladesh traitors. I only saw them smiling with cannibalistic pleasure on showbiz screens.

Emboldened by our cowardice, this very Jamaat trio recently went so far as to compare their petty political hazards with that of the glorious peace struggle of Prophet Muhammad. They also had the audacity to proclaim that Bangla Bhai was nothing but a media creation, thereby siding with the militants.

They have taken their operational successes of 1971 and the freedom to float religious shares through public offices as a carte blanche for selling profit-based jihad, with their counterparts in Pakistan managing the funds, weapons, training, Afghan joints and the dream of 70 virgins.

American and Russian egos over Vodka-Cognac conflicts resulted in tearing apart the harmonic soul of South Asia. Muslim and Hindu militants then divided the spoils amongst themselves. Under the guise of creating religious harmony their top guns hold meetings in Dhaka, Mumbai, Peshawar or Kandahar. These war mafias-for-hire can be identified by their religio-political masks and their reverence for darkness. They are born collaborators of evil, be it in any country. By selling fire and tears, they buy 10-year-old boys for sacrifice at the altar of their gods.

What we are going through is a clash of homogeneous civilizations. This is the time for our religious thinkers and scholars to break their oath of silence. The vicious cycle of arms- politics-media-war-reconstruction-money-power-prostitution can only be broken by minimizing the gap between state leaders and citizens through dialogue and roaring debate. An eye for an eye will only cost us another useful life.

For starters we would like to see justice served for ’71, to pave a peaceful future for our friends and children.

Photo: Lord Avebury in the seminar. Courtesy: Tanvir Ahmed.

Dear Lord Avebury,

A little while ago we received a copy of the press statement issued by you. The statement is in direct reference to the All Parliamentary Human Rights Group Seminar held on the 23rd June Wednesday (see here).

Before we go into the anomalies in your statement, let us clarify a few things first on our part. For the record, we are still of the position that discussions that can improve the trial process in any manner is essential and should be welcome. Because, our collective goal is not only to facilitate this long overdue justice process, but also to ensure that it takes place in a credible and sustainable manner, for the sake of justice. Therefore, we feel that this All Party Parliamentary Group’s seminar presented an opportunity which could have been used to bring on board all the parties who are sincere about the trial. Unfortunately, dear Lord Avebury, your decision – to go ahead with the Seminar with a dubious entity disregarding the concerns expressed, and even as far as opting to take this entity’s aid in organising the event – demonstrates poor judgement on your part at the least, if not anything diabolical. It has now become a missed opportunity, and perhaps, made these discussions much more difficult to take place in future, since IBA (ie, International Bar Association – War Crimes Committee) too is now considered to have compromised its independence by attending this dubious seminar organised by a political lobby that represents the war criminals. We, who care about 1971 and the victims of war crimes, hold you personally responsible for harming the possibility of dialogue.

Some of the highlights of your statement include:

1. At the request of the All-Party Parliamentary Human Rights Group (PHRG), the War Crimes Committee of the International Bar Association (IBA) is examining/evaluating the legislations under which the government of Bangladesh intends to hold trials of persons accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity in the war of independence in 1971

2. Which does not necessarily undermine or downplay the severity of the war crimes committed in Bangladesh. Rather the evaluation merely tries to ascertain the fact that no objection to the proceedings would be likely to arise on the grounds that the 1973 Act was not in conformity with developments in the legal standards developed over the last 37 years.

3. At the end of 2009 the War Crimes Committee reported its findings to the PHRG, and after internal consideration, the report was sent to the Bangladesh High Commissioner under cover of a letter from the Chair of the PHRG, Ms Ann Clwyd, requesting that it be transmitted to relevant Ministers in Bangladesh, and asking for their comments.

4. A seminar was held on June 24 in Committee Room 3 of the House of Lords to discuss the IBA report, and the High Commissioner of Bangladesh to the UK sent his government’s comments on June 21 (see here for details). He was unable to attend the seminar or send a representative.

5. Among the main speakers of the seminar was Khandker Mahbub Hossain, President of Supreme Court Bar Association of Bangladesh.

6. The representatives of the IBA reiterated that they would be ready to give detailed advice to the government of Bangladesh on how the legislation could be amended so as to comply with recent norms of international law, in line with models such as the Rome Statute on the International Criminal Court, the International Criminal Tribunal on the former Yugoslavia, the International Criminal Tribunal on Rwanda, and national tribunals such as those in East Timor and Sierra Leone.

7. Lord Avebury undertook to convey this offer of a dialogue to the authorities in Bangladesh

Now, dear Lord Avebury, please read and listen carefully what we have to say:

1. This is not the first time Bangladesh is preparing to try its war criminals. In 1972, the newly independent nation initiated proceedings to try the alleged war criminals of 1971. These proceedings were held under the “Collaborators Act”. There was no question about the standard of that particular legislation. The other piece of legislation was the International Crimes (Tribunal) Act of 1973, aimed at trying the Pakistani soldiers and the members of different auxiliary forces who were involved in the commission of ‘international crimes’. None of the legislations were criticised at the time. Rather, it was the 1973 Act which was lauded internationally because of its high standards. The military coup of 15 August, 1975 brought over a new government abruptly ending all the pending proceedings and releasing even the convicted ones. Although Collaborators Act and the tribunals under it had been cancelled, the International Crimes Tribunal Act 1973 remained effective. The forces who intended to revert the history of independence through that military coup of 1975, and their followers who later claimed power in Bangladesh, never tried to amend the legislation, neither did they raise any objection about its ‘standards’. Interestingly, they have begun to raise these objections only recently, realising that there may after all be a prosecution. If you follow the ways in which politics in Bangladesh worked you would see that the people who are now lobbying internationally to discredit the trial-initiatives, are the very same people who had put an end to the earlier proceedings back in the days. Perhaps they didn’t account for the fact that someday, the Bangladeshi people would be vocal about these crimes against humanity. Had they known this day is ahead of them, they would have found a way to repeal that legislation themselves. That would have saved you the trouble of arranging this farcical pretention of a seminar.

2. However, those of us who are working hard to get the perpetrators of the crimes get a proper trial are not opposed to discussing this legislation, or improving it, if that can be done within a realistic time frame prioritising the trial. We believe the government of Bangladesh expressed similar interest and even went as far as to amend the legislation in 2009. The government has also ratified the Rome Statute, a feat unmatched by many other “democratic” countries. If there indeed are legitimate doubts about the legislation, then Bangladesh has a proper democratic environment to facilitate those claims. However, this very process becomes a farce when indiduals representing certain quarters (namely, the war criminal lobbies) manipulate the process by getting involved under false pretenses. It must be noted, the people who are using the 1973 Tribunal Act as a shield to postpone or even derail the proceedings have their own representatives in the parliament. Interestingly, they never raised these concerns inside the Parliament. And not once, during all these years! We cannot help ask you one question: who do you think have the bonafide standing to evaluate (or re-evaluate) the law that, for example, is aimed at prosecuting the perpetrators of crimes against humankind in Rwanda? Those who themselves were the perpetrators and their collaborators? Or, it should be those who were actually the victims of these crimes? What would have been your response if some neo-Nazi groups demanded evaluation of the trial of the Nazis?

3. Your statement notes – the Bangladesh Cigh Commissioner in the UK has handed over a reasoned opinion from the government of Bangladesh with regard to the legislative review of IBA. However, we still do not know your exact position on that. Until you disclose that precisely, we are at the fence about your promise to help ‘amend the legislation’.

4. The facts present in your statement imply that it was PHRG who arranged the seminar to discuss IBA’s findings. The facts, however, suggest something else (see here and here). An organization in the name of Justice Concern was behind arranging this seminar and later amid protests from different organizations like War Crimes Strategy Forum and London Lawyers’ Forum removed their name out of the equation. At least that is what they tried to claim. Interestingly, none of these crucial facts made their way into your statement. There were clear indications that some of the speakers and attendees in the seminar were individuals who are directly affiliated with Jamaat-e-Islami/BNP politics, the political lobby that has always been reluctant and even resistant to the war crime trial issue. You had been duly notified about that by WCSF and London Lawyers’ Forum, not once, twice. Let us remind you, this Jamat e-Islami is the very same political party which in 1971 encouraged its leaders and followers to participate, commit and assist in war-crimes alongside the invading Pakistani army. It should not surprise anyone that they are now trying to find faults with the legislation or the trial process, at times even equipped by well-meaning legislative reviews conducted by bodies like IBA. Their objectives are obvious – to delay, discredit, and if possible to prevent the trial from happening and let the perpetrators get away in the name of ‘due process’ and ‘human rights’. We are aware that a journalist present in the event inquired about these concerns while the seminar was in session, and you tried to downplay the participation of Justice Concern, and also failed to provide a satisfactory reply as to who actually sponsored/funded the event. This surprised us and we are yet to receive a satisfactory response from you on the matter, which we believe, you owe to the people of Bangladesh who have been seeking justice for 39 long years.

5. The speakers of the seminar include Khandker Mahbub Hossain, President of Supreme Court Bar Association of Bangladesh. In his usual media statements, he often tries to give the impression that – he is not against the war crimes tribunal and all he wants is that the legislation be of international standard. Let us inform you – incidentally, Mr. Hossain was in New York a while ago and there he had tried to gather support against trying the war-criminals and even went as far as boldly asserting that “there are no war-criminals in Bangladesh”. So, please forgive us when we consider this entire seminar a farcical nonsense when luminary speakers of such devious stance on this matter are invited as experts to evaluate the legislation aimed (according to Mr Mahbub Hossain) apparently to try some “non-existent war-criminals”. We really do not have the time to entertain such nonsense and we believe, neither do you, dear Sir.

6. Another piece of information about the current President of Supreme Court Bar Association of Bangladesh may interest you given that he is an active member of BNP. You should know that in December 2009, BNP (ie, the major ally of Jamat e-Islami) has amended its Party Constitution altering one of its founding principles. The aim of this amendment was to remove the existing membership bar that prevented suspected/alleged war criminals from joining the party. Therefore, by association, Khandakar Mahbub Hossain is not someone who can be trusted and his motive is questionable at the very least.

7. The way in which you are trying to protect Justice Concern despite wide scale protests and concerns by many involved, forces us to rethink your neutrality in this situation.

When there is so little transparency in what you say or do, can you really blame us for being suspicious of the manner in which you have handled the issue of discussion on the 1973 Act? The ball is now in your court, Mr Avebury. We would vigilantly observe how you explain yourself.
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Cross-posted from WCSF-BLOG

(Translated by WCSF member Nazia Manzoor from the original Bengali version of the Post at Muktangon blog (dated 25 June), a member organisation of WCSF coalition).

After three years of respite Hartal, a South Asian form of strike action is back in Bangladesh. Bangladesh’s opposition alliance has called for a hartal on Sunday (27th of June, 2010) to press for its 11-point demand including solution of the utility crisis, tender manipulation, persecution of opposition leaders and workers etc.

Things have heated up as on the eve of the Hartal day there are news reports of cars and buses being torched in different areas of the capital Dhaka with passengers suffering serious burns.

Nazmul Hasan Babu at Prothom Alo blog provides some background of the Hartal culture in the country:

গুজরাটী শব্দ “হরতাল” কে বাংলাদেশের রাজনৈতিক দলগুলো যেভাবে ব্যবহার করেছেন তা বোধ হয় বিশ্বের কোন দেশই করতে পারেন নি। [..] আর হরতালের আভিধানিক অর্থ যা ই থাকুক না কেন বাংলাদেশের প্রেক্ষাপটে হরতালের সংজ্ঞা হচ্ছে- এদেশ আমার বাপ-দাদার, চাইলেই বন্ধ করে দেব সবকিছু।

বাংলাদেশের মানুষেরও আত্মার সাথে মিশে গেছে হরতাল। হরতাল আমাদের সংস্কৃতির ও একটা অংশ। হরতালের তারিখ নির্ধারণ মানেই হচ্ছে- আজকে আমার দোকানটা বন্ধ থাকবে, না হয় লুট হবে। আজকে আমার কষ্টার্জিত উপার্জনে কেনা সখের গাড়িটা ভেঙ্গে টুকরো টুকরো হবে। হরতাল মানেই হচ্ছে আজকে আমার কাজে যাওয়া হবে না। বড় কর্তার বকুনি। নয়তো ছেলেমেয়ে নিয়ে না খেয়ে থাকা।

এসবই পুরনো কথা। দীর্ঘ প্রায় আড়াই তিন বছর পর আবার শুরু হচ্ছে হরতাল। এ আড়াই তিন বছরে বাংলাদেশের জনগন বোধহয় ভুলেই গিয়েছিলেন হরতাল শব্দটি। এরই ফলে তারা হয়তো আর হরতাল চায় না। কিন্তু তারা না চাইলেই কি হবে, নেতারা তো চান! [..]

মাননীয় বিরোধী দলীয় নেত্রী কি ভেবে দেখেছেন, হরতাল হলে দেশের একদিনে ক্ষতি কত হবে? কত মানুষের ভোগান্তি হবে? অবশ্য এসব আপনাদের ভাববার কথা নয়, কারণ আপনারা জনগন দিয়ে রাজনীতি করেন জনগণের জন্য নয়। তাই জনগনের কি ক্ষতি হলো তা ভাববার মতো সময় আপনার কোথায়?

The political parties of Bangladesh are using the Gujrati term Hartal in a way which was never achieved by any other country of the world. [..] Forget how Hartal is defined universally, in Bangladesh perspective it means the country is our inherited property and we can close everything on our will.

Hartal has been engraved in the spirit of Bangladeshis. It has been part of our culture. The declaration of a Hartal date means that my shop will either be closed or be looted. On that day my beloved car will be broken by picketers. Hartal means that I will not be able to go to work and will be scolded by my supervisor. The consequence will be that I will not get my pay and will starve with my children.

These all are known facts. After a long break of almost three years Hartal has come back in Bangladesh. Many Bangladeshis may have forgotten about this nightmare. So they probably don’t want it to come back. But it does not matter what they want, because the leaders want it.

Respected leader of opposition, have you thought how much the country will lose in one day because of the strike? How many lives will be disrupted? Of course you don’t have to think about it, because your politics is driven by people, not for people. So you don’t have time to think about the problems and losses of the citizens.

Habib at Amar blog writes:

হরতাল বল্লেই প্রথমে তা সম্পর্কে মনে আসে যে হরতাল করলে দেশের ক্ষতি। এবং রাজনৈতিক দলগুলো বিরোধীদলে থাকলে হরতাল জায়েজ, আর সরকারীদলে থাকলে নাজায়েজ ।”

দেশে অরাজকতা তৈরী করে সরকারকে বিপদে ফেলার একটা কায়দা হল – হরতাল।

The first thing comes into mind when talking about Hartal is that it brings huge loss for the country. If a political party is in the opposition, Hartal is absolutely ok for them, if they are the ruling party then obviously they are against Hartal.

Because Hartal is the way to put the government in an awkward position by creating anarchy.

Aminul Haque Bachchu at Pothom Alo blog explains Hartal with a poem:

লাঠি হাতে মাঠে চল
এলো ঐ বিপক্ষ দল
হরতাল হরতাল ।

গরীব মারার নয়া কল
রাজনীতির এক মাত্র বল
হরতাল হরতাল ।

মানুষ ক্ষ্যাপানোর কৌশল
ক্ষমতায় যাওয়ার ছল
হরতাল হরতাল ।

পকেটে পিস্তল, হাতে মশাল
গাড়ী ভাঙ্গতে রাস্তায় চল
হরতাল হরতাল ।

On the field with sticks in action
Here comes the opposition
Hartal Hartal

A new device to kill the poor
The only ball of the politicians
Hartal Hartal

Its a tool to instigate citizens
Its a trick to come to power
Hartal Hartal

Torch in hand, Guns in Pocket
Lets take the street and break the cars
Hartal Hartal

However some netizens are also supporting the Hartal. Blogger Dhibor at Somewhereinblog.net gives logic for the strike:

আগামীকাল আঃ লিগে দুঃশাসনের বিরুদ্ধে প্রতিবাদ জানাতে যে হরতালের উদ্যোগ নেয়া হয়েছে, সেখানেও কঠোর অবস্থানের কোন বিকল্প নেই। কেননা আওয়ামী লিগ ভদ্র ভাষা বোঝে না। তারা যেমন নীতিতে কর্মে সন্ত্রাসি, সেরকম শক্ত প্রতিরোধ না গড়তে পারলে, ওরা পুলিশকে সাথে নিয়ে পেটোয়াবাহিনি লেলিয়ে দেবেই। ইতিমধ্যে কিছু কিছু আলামত স্পস্ট হয়েছে।

তাই মার খেয়ে পালানোর কোন সুযোগ নেই। যে কাজ অনেক অনেক দিন আগেই করা উচিত ছিল, (যদিও ইস্যুর তো কোন অভাবই ছিল না), সেটা এতদিন পরে হলেও যে করা হচ্ছে, সেজন্য মৃদু ধন্যবাদ বিরোধী দল পেতে পারে।

There is no alternative to taking a tough stand by a Hartal declared to protest (ruling party) Awami League’s repressions. Because Awami League does not understand peaceful language. As they are dominant in their work and policies, if the resistance is not strong enough, they will put the police on our back to beat us. Some symptoms have already been divulged.

There is no achievement in running away after being beaten. The opposition should have done this a long time ago (the issues were present) and they have finally decided for it – they should get thanks from me.

The above statement shows the confrontational state of Bangladesh politics.

Twitter users also reacted this way:

Banglar Manchitro at Somewherein questions:

বিরোধীদলতো হরতাল বাদে অন্য যেকোন কর্মসূচি দিতে পারতো। তারা লংমার্চ, অবস্থান কর্মসূচি, অনশন করতে পারতো। তাহলে তারা কেন এই ক্ষতিকর হরতাল দিল।

আমাদের দেশের জন্য আমরা কি এই হরতাল সর্মথন করি?????

The opposition could declare other means of protests except Hartal. They could use long march, sitting protests, hunger strike etc. So why did they declare this destructive Hartal?

Do we really support this Hartal for our country’s sake?

Photo Credit: Protests in Dhaka. Image from Flickr by Vipez. CC BY-NC-ND

A. B. M. Mohiuddin Chowdhury’s son Mohibul Hassan wrote an interesting analysis that in some areas did not even spare his own father in allocating blame. So it feels like a pretty heart-felt piece.

To spare you from going to Facebook to read the actual item, we are posting it below with our commentary.

Before we start, lets congratulate Mr. Mohiduddin Chowdhury for being a graceful loser: he just congratulated Manzur Alam and offered to assist him in any way.

Now, on to Mr. Hassan’s writing. We will link our comments with inserted pointers in his screed.

[a] Wow.. Mr. Hassan is taking it a bit personally. Mr. Chowdhury lost the election where he was a candidate. Who is this “everyone” Mr. Hassan is speaking of?

[b] Mr. Hassan attended LSE. I have no reason to think he does not know what “muscle” means. Mr. Hassan: please be careful using words like this. People will mistake you as a thug who wanted to win at any cost.

[c] “Failed to utilize the administration”? Is Mr. Hassan claiming that there is a way his side could have used the administration to win the election? Perhaps he forgot that elections are supposed to be won at the ballot box, not by government intervention? The Prime Minister and leader of AL, and of course the election commission would take an extremely dim view of these claims that border on electoral misconduct.

Again, not a bad analysis, but I really wish young Mr. Hassain stopped at complaining about the influence of money without prescribing illegal remedies.

————————————————————–
How the ship sank
by
Chowdhoury Mohibul Hassan.
————————————————————–

With the state of our campaign, I warned everyone, we were playing a losing game, and when I said the “ship” will sink, I was told off! No one bothered to listen to me!

My father and his and emotional approach in politics cost him this election at the expense of everyone [a].

1. I saw our camp had no plan to “bring voters out” and cast their votes, they were all relying on age old local leaders, who simply gone into comma as the party is in power. Worst was relying on councilor candidates, who took money from our opponent. and what did we give them? Absolutely nothing. plus 80% of the places I went to, which were mainly illiterate slum dwellers, fishermen etc, people told us they will vote for our Candidate, but they did not know his symbol has changed from “Harican” to “ship”! Why? Because our posters were virtually absent in the whole city! Reason? Partly financial, and partly our candidate felt “Ridoye mohiuddin” therapy will work again for the last time. He was in their hearts, but in ballot paper they could not find his symbol, as many didn’t even know!

2. Our whole campaign team had no sense of real issues, i.e. that our money is in absolute short supply cinoared to opponent; that when you fight “money”, you must deploy “muscle” [b];

3. I was shouting about this huge money spreading by opponent from the very beginning of the campaign. I could sense people’s attitude. In some slum areas, they simply responded, “anarosh gave me this much, how much do you offer”!

4. Four people were arrested with stash of Cash on 15th and 16th June after mid night. No step was taken. Firstly police informed us two of the arrested guys were Ship Breaker company’s clerks. So they were released. Our brainless friends in the police just had to use ONE BASIC COMMON SENSE! OUR OPPONENT IS A SHIP BREAKER. ALL SHIP BREAKERS PROVIDED HIM COVER FOR CASH MOVEMENT!

5. Our candidates over reliance on “love”. Because he believed “money cannot buy Love”, I said to him, for a slum dweller two hundred taka for ten minutes in a queue is a massive earning. There is no doubt our candidate is hugely popular, but when your opponent just runs a campaign “take cash, give vote”, love is intact, election is lost.

6. All we needed was to deploy “muscle” power because our opponent had an unlimited supply of Cash. He is a rich businessman, who knows how to buy and sell. I raised it from the time he got nominated. Everyone laughed me away. From close aides of him we got this rough idea, he gave 50 councilor candidates 5 lakhs each = 2.5 crore. Asked them to actively work for him. As BNP put single candidates in 34 wards out of 42, this was easy for them. One single candidate in each ward worked like hell for him! Awami league had four to five candidates in each ward! Result, out 42 wards, 28 BNP councilors, and 3 Jamaat elected! In my own ward, Jamaat won because four AL candidates fought with each other! Add straight cash buy with this, at 200tk each vote, you can buy 300,000 vote for a meager price of 6 crore taka. 6+2.5 Crore, on straight buying, and random cash spreading extra 10 crore taka. For about 18.5 crore taka you can take everything on the table! Easy and simple. For someone who is a Bank chairman, and a rich businessman who believed in “charity”, and who has about 500 crore debt to banks, spreading 18.5 crore, is absolute nothing! Our own intelligence report is, he spend more than twice of that.

7. All we had to do was ask our guys to “act”. No one gave the order. We were a sitting government party, but failed to utilize administration [c] because of reluctance and party division. We could not interrogate or arrest some of the money handlers and recipients utilizing the government administration. We urged our candidate, but once again, HIS FAITH IN PEOPLE resisted him.

8. Voter turnout was very poor. Overall in our last election 68% people came out and voted. This time 54% people voted! Two reasons for this, our campaign’s failure, we could not bring voters out, secondly, the election day. It was on Thursday, a public holiday due to election, and Friday-Saturday, usual weekend. Many working class people just left the city as if it was Eid. Worst affected areas were the Industrial workers zones! In that area, about 45% votes were cast! So our traditional vote block has been absent either because it was almost Eid holiday, or the poor souls themselves felt over confident that their candidate always wins in the industrial area. As an example, in an industrial area vote centre, Bandartilla, which was famous last time, because BNP candidate only got 25 votes out of 1200, this time was a loser for us! This time, out of 1660 voters, only about 400 voted in that centre. We got 178 and opponent 225! This was the biggest ward of the city with 125000 voters. Traditionally the whole ward was Mohiuddin vote bank due to high working class. But we completely lost it because of low turnout, and local MP Mr MA Latif opposed us with two non awami league councilor candidates who actively worked against us. So when that vote bank has been burst, I was sure it will be disaster.

9. Minority vote bank’s absence. Propaganda by high caste minority leaders over a disputed land with City Corporation over last two years damaged minority’s loyalty to our candidate. Out of 2lakh minority vote I feel we only attracted about 50,000. Rest either did not vote or wasted their votes. But I’m sure most did not vote for our opponent. 35thousand ballots were declared invalid for various reasons including, for not casting vote for Mayoral candidate.

10. Party division, this was the reason why our Ward level awami leaguers were inactive. Sitting MPs in City area were all against us. If we had cash, we could have simply bought them. Unfortunately we didn’t have it. On the day of election AL followers fought between them in three centre! RAB had to be called!

11. There was no wave against the “Ship”. There was a hill of cash it could not climb. Result, the ship has sunk!

Rejoinder:

We received the following from Mr. Mohibul Hassan through a mutual friend:

… pasted my entire note into your website. this was my personal note and was not meant for a website’s cover story. without considering the ethics of putting something on a website without permission, that was unprofessional to the extreme!

and, when i meant utilising adminisitration i meant using them to catch the criminal elements of BNP-Jamaat! and when i meant muscle i meant our volunteer force who should have been pro active in bringing out the voters. if you the administration remains neautral and actually works thats what you call making use of them you dont need to use them like BNP jamaat uses them. but the fact is just the day before the election magistracy power has been seized. so the cash handlers could not even be punished despite being arrested.

Our response:

1. Mr. Hassan’s note was on Facebook, and open for the whole world to see. Calling it “private” now is a bit too late. We also suspected that the note would disappear once we wrote about it, which is why we decided to reproduce it. Unprofessional? Why? We quoted it and gave full attribution to the author.

2. “administration” and “muscle”: We are happy to include Mr. Hassan’s explanation of those phrases. We only hope that as a lawyer and future leader, Mr. Hassan will choose his words more carefully in the future.

Lastly, our personal thanks to Mr. Hassan for his level-headed response.
–

J @ Shada Kalo [http://shadakalo.blogspot.com] writes using a pseudonym and is best known for exposing government, military, corporate foul plays through whistle-blowing investigative reports.

[Read posts by J @ Shada Kalo]