E-Bangladesh

The news is very eye-catching and commensurate in terms of ‘positive Bangladesh’: recently the ministry of Industry has sent a proposal to the cabinet division for the decision to reopen three state-owned mills. The National Coordination Committee (NCC) to combat serious crimes has recommended positively on the proposal. But the outcome is not so simple, as we see that NCC recommended to handover North Bengal Paper Mills, one of these three mills to the Bangladesh army for proper maintenances and productivity!

The Daily Star, one of the critical corporate media of Bangladesh reports on 13 July, 2008[]:

According to an industry ministry proposal sent to cabinet division early this month, the NCC recommended: “In order to make the mill productive, it is necessary to hand over the mill to an organisation that is disciplined and neutral. Therefore, it will be rational to handover the mill to the Army for its revival.”

Nice Recommendation! But it is not clear why they did not make the same recommendation for the other two mills when the NCC feels that productivity comes from only ‘the disciplined and neutral organisation’ like ‘Bangladesh Army’.

Read the rest of this entry »

Friday is the typical day of activity of the religious political organization Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh. Last Friday an organization named “Jatiyo Muktijoddha Proshad” (National Freedom Fighters Front) held their annual summit in the Diploma Engineers Institute Auditorium in Dhaka. The Daily Shamokal reported that almost three-fourth of the approximate two thousand participants present were actually Jamaat-e-Islami members and this organization is a front of Jamaat-e-Islami. This organization was established only this January and its head-quarter is in the Jamaat leader Sirajul Haque’s premises in 116/2 Nayapaltan.

This is sort of an anomaly as Jamaat-e-Islami’s role during the liberation war is known to everybody and well documented . They supported the Pakistan army in killing freedom fighters and intellectuals of the country. This fact is in the way of gaining political mileage for them especially when some of their leaders are freshly sued for murder during 1971.

Read the rest of this entry »

Several blog posts have been written in the recent months since the Sajek incident in CHT (Chittagong Hill Tracts) followed by two well-publicised fact finding reports. These reports also brought the Kalpana Chakma campaign in the forefront, once again, reviving her cause in the public domain. While activists are mobilising, organising, speaking for justice, the establishment decided to strike again. This week, five more activists including Alakesh Chakma and Ani Bikash Chakma have been picked up by “plain clothes” security personnel. No charges have been filed; no right to an attorney; no one even knows where they have been taken. They simply disappeared. [Update: according to one unverified report, they have been released after three days of detention in an undisclosed location].

Going through the reports gave me a strange feeling. They reminded me of similar arson attacks, similar disappearances - that have taken place before. Nothing seem to have changed. Same opposing groups, same patterns of prejudice, same abuses, same cover ups. Everything is same except the year stamps. Twelve years ago it was Kalpana Chakma’s disappearance, this year it is Alakesh and Ani. Twelve years ago, the arson attacks took place near New Lalyaghona (Kalpana’s home village); this year, it is in Sajek. Twelve years ago, in that fateful month of madness prior to the national election, 38 people disappeared from Baghaichari including Kalpana; this year the number is rising with promises for more incidents like this in the coming months. As if a video scene is being replayed by someone. Even the official versions and the contrasting human rights narratives sound like distant echoes. They remind us of the outrage, still alive in our memory; they remind us of the sense of helplessness, still raw in our soul. After the noise and roars silence creeps, and in the still air I keep hearing the whisper: “impunity perpetuates injustice, . . . impunity . . . ”

Read the rest of this entry »

Recently the Election Commission (EC) announced that the local government polls in four city corporations and nine municipalities will be held on August 4 this year. The caretaker government will relax the Emergency Powers Rules (EPR) in respective areas to allow campaign processions and rallies.

In the mean-time one of nation’s major political parties BNP has already rejected the schedule for local-body elections and its arch rival Awami League (AL) also termed it a ‘conspiratorial and farcical move’. Jatiya Party (Ershad), one of the other small parties welcomed the decision to hold city corporation and municipality polls before parliamentary elections and urged the government to declare the schedule for Upazila elections too. It looks like the scheduled local government election will remain controversial to some political parties and individuals.

Read the rest of this entry »

Since 27th May , The Daily Amader Shomoy has been chronicling on irregular basis the politico-literary lore of one journalist Peer Habibur Rahman which spun an almost gratifying concurrence from AL politician Mahmudur Rahman Manna on 31st May and host of reactions from the readers. This sequel of Peer starkly exposes pervasive moral decadence and professional dishonesty that challenge our journalism profession today and how effectively they are enticing our gullible ex-revolutionaries and capricious politicians into an alliance with ex-dictators and ruling Generals to execute a grand conspiracy against democracy. The optics of these articles nurtures known adversaries of democracy and their political cohorts and brazenly assassinates the image of the mainstream political leadership and the institutions.

Mahmudur Rahman Manna, whom I knew, had the gift of amazing oratory skill and blazing revolutionary fervour which made him an iconic politician to many young activists like me in 70s. In his mercurial political trek from revolutionary nihilist to centrist AL till date, his followers always felt measurably abandoned by the leader at every turning point of the journey. In the present context when exponents of democracy should remain stead fast and united under the party banner to counter the enormous thrust of conspiracy against democratic institutions, his article appears to be anecdotal and detrimental to his own political identity. We can only hope Manna will work to overcome his political and emotional pitfalls and will be able to show his political maturity not duplicity at this critical point in time.

The reactions of the readers deftly dealt with the intentions of Peer’s articles bringing under spotlight, unlike highly publicized corruption of the politicians, the silent but rampant corruption that has plagued journalism and the tale of a pen turning into a tool of a bounty hunter.