E-Bangladesh

For me, the most alarming news of this week was the report published in bdnews24.com on 8th August, about the death of militant leader, Tapan Malitha. He was killed on 18th June this year. According to RAB officials the leader of a banned militant party died in an exchange of gunfire with Rapid Action Battalion in Kushtia early Wednesday, Tapan and his associates were staying at Rikta’s house- a woman that died alike. As the joint forces closed in, Tapan and his men began firing. RAB returned fire. Tapan died in the exchange of gunfire, though others managed to flee the scene.

But according to the human rights watch organization Odhikar’s report, it was not a mere incident of shoot out but a cold blooded murder. Tapan’s brother Akash, who was also killed in a similar fashion later, told Odhikar that “RAB personnel raided Tapan’s house at dawn and shot him dead at close range,They shot Rikta in the head and feet who was also in the house, leaving her dead at the scene.

Rikta’s mother said her daughter was involved in the business of ready made garments and sarees, and there was no case filed against her at any police station. But why did the RAB kill Rikta? May be to ensure that no traces were left behind of their brutality, insensitiveness and their audacity,

According to Ansar Ali, a village policeman, Rikta’s dead body also bore evidence of struggles with her persecutors. It seems that the poor girl did not gave up easily, she fought for her life and alas, she had no God, no Goddess or any sensible law abiding personal in this elite force who never for a moment had thought, what they were doing was illegal, who would feel for that poor girl, would do something to help her. What the trained state authorized killers did was to kill her in a cold blooded fashion.

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At the time when the Military backed Caretaker Government and their obedient media are continuing ‘the war against corruption’, a letter about the corruption of an Army personnel has been circulating places. May be the writer(s) thought that it would be really appropriate to send the letter to the very people who tuned up their dreamy vocal against the corruption. So the writer(s) addressed it to the army chief General Moyeen U Ahmed and sent some copies to the Chief Advisor’s Office, The Chairman of the ACC, the DGFI etc. A copy was sent to the national daily ‘Prothom Alo’ too, who claim to be leading the citizen’s movement against the corruption and act as the spokesman of TIB lead by Dr. Mozaffar Ahmed and Dr. Iftekharuzzaman. But may be the sender(s) didn’t want to risk the letter to be sent under the carpet. So the anonymous writer sent a copy to Dr. Anwar Hossain too.

No wonder that the ‘Prothom Alo’, which is publicly established as ‘the parliament’ of this military-backed Government, killed the letter and labelled it red to uphold their so called credibility just to regulate their corporate interests for the time ahead.

But ‘unfortunately’ the letter and the scandal are now flying in the open. Because Dr. Anwar Hossain published it on 28 July in Chittagong while giving a speech to the general people and freedom fighters who gathered to form a human chain in front of the Shaheed Minar demanding the trial of the war-criminals of 1971. It was organized by ‘Ekatturer Ghatok-Dalal Nirmul Committee, Chittagong. The human-chain was a memorable event, because freedom fighter Sheikh Mohammad Ali Aman, who was recently assaulted by the followers of the collaborators of the liberation war for telling the truth about their activities, had participated.

[Speech of Dr. Anwar]

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We are not respected by anyone because we are sweepers. But in truth we are not sweepers; we should be called CLEANERS- Joshna Rani Das.

Residing in a ‘sweepers’ colony’ at Tikatoly, Dhaka many like Joshna Rani give vent to years’ of suppressed emotions. This colony, a five storied building, alone houses nearly 210 families. With an ancestry which can be traced back to Kanpur, India, the residents of today’s sweeper’s colony had migrated to Bangladesh more than 300 years ago with hopes of finding a better prospect of life through good jobs. However, the colonial British government channelled them into the trade of sweepers. Since then this has been their profession. Today they work as cleaners for Dhaka City Corporation. Life at the sweeper’s colony is really eventful with non-stop activities—while some prepare to go out to work others return from it. With different work schedules the colony never seems to sleep. Superimposed on this is the myth concerning their negative social role, cultural and religious activities which alienate them in the social context. In fact theirs is a segregated world with a strong social taboo against the inmates. In plain words, mistrusted and misjudged by most people they are regarded as social outcasts.

A fact that is evident from the words of Rajesh, a graduate who has recently completed his IELTS exam:

Please don’t take my photo; if the photo is published I will have to face lots of problems with my friends and the people who know me outside this colony.

Taboo or not these people are part of our society and their contributions over the years cannot be denied. Their necessity cannot be denied even in this age and time. All they require of us is what they rightfully deserve in return for their services: acknowledgement, appreciation and above all respect.

Sweepers have no retirement age no matter how old he or she is. Tikatoly, Dhaka, Bangladesh. April 27 2007,Photo:Amdadul Huq/*Drik*NEWS

A new born baby is by birth a sweeper because the baby is born into sweeper family and must carry on the family tradition. There are very few who can manage to change their profession. Tikatoly, Dhaka, Bangladesh. March 27 2008 ,Photo:Amdadul Huq/*Drik*NEWS

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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’.

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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.

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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 . . . ”

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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.

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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.

Extra-ordinary scenes were in Dhaka yesterday as the freshly released ex Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina met with four advisers and had a telephone chat with the Chief Advisers to demand quick election in Bangladesh. She is on her way to the United States today to be received by her son in Boston.

Sheikh Hasina was arrested 11 months ago in connection with an extortion case and was sent to a sub-jail on the Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban premises. She was also charged with 14 more cases in the course of time.

The Daily Star claims:

The court orders came after a government-formed medical board examined Hasina on June 5 and recommended the next day to send her abroad for better treatment of her ear. Acting on the recommendations, the government yesterday freed her for eight weeks on parole.

According to Prothom Alo the government can cancel the decision of temporary release of Hasina (the executive order under section 401/4A of criminal act) anytime without showing any reason.

However only last Sunday (8th of June) a special court rejected the bail prayer of Sheikh Hasina in the Niko graft case.

Tacit comments in Drishtipat blog:

Sheikh Hasina has been given neither bail nor parole. The courts have exempted her from showing up in person for the trials, but absent a bail or parole, she should still be in jail. Unless there is a secret order somewhere labeling Sudha Shadhan a subjail, Sheikh Hasina is currently, de jure, a runaway from the law.

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A major power struggle occurred in the military quarters recently. A silent coup d’état is in progress in Bangladesh.

Earlier the nation witnessed scores of failed and successful, both bloody and bloodless coup d’état or mutinies since 1975. Military brought General Ziaur Rahman and General H.M. Ershad in power and their remnants are still enjoying major slice in politics.

In the current power struggle, occurs intermittently since Lieutenant General Moeen Uddin Ahmed who was catapulted into helms of affairs of the state power which was actually engineered by four ‘Khalifas’ (conspirators) on January 11, 2007 – popularly known as 1/11.

Has General Moeen been able to consolidate power? Will he be able to govern the nation at the time when political freedom is void? Who gained an upper hand in the latest power struggle? These questions are from the curious mind of enthusiastic citizens, who are cut off from real news from Bangladesh press at a moment when media is controlled by emergency rules.

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