Black and Gray

The New Anthem

2010-03-28T19:17:00.005+06:00

South Asia first found its English voice—in literature and in song— in the nineteenth century. It changed and morphed over two hundred years so that it now boasts of as many registers as there are languages and dialects within its geographical frontiers.

The New Anthem anthologises 22 major writers of fiction, who with their original narrative style, have reinterpreted the region's turbulent history at both personal and national levels. The New Anthem confirms that many of the most brilliant storytellers of world literature were born in the Indian subcontinent. Ahmede Hussain weaves the anthology together to make it a testimony to the brilliance of South Asian fiction.

Writers Connect runs an interview of Ahmede Hussain

Live Mint has called it an excellent new anthology, saying:

In a few years, Tranquebar Press has built up an impressive list that includes both the entertaining and the literary. Ahmede Hussain’s excellent new anthology, The New Anthem: The Subcontinent in its Own Words (Westland/Tranquebar), offers good examples of writing that is both literary and entertaining. The roughly two dozen contributions are not just by established names, but also by talented new writers, such as Sumana Roy, Abeer Hoque and Qaisra Shahraz. For me, the revelation was the number of promising Bangladeshi writers. Bangladeshi writing in English gets neglected, and there is evidence in the Dhaka-based Hussain’s anthology that this neglect is unjustified.

Verveonline has said:

Selects for accomplishment over the cutting edge, and succeeds in a solid representation of the wealth of the region’s literary talent.

Bangalore Mirror has said: The New Anthem: The Subcontinent In Its Own Words is an attempt by its writing class to bridge the gap between three nations — India, Bangladesh and Pakistan.

It is an effort by its post-partition generation to go beyond artificial boundaries drawn between these countries; to paint a picture of the subcontinent, the way they perceive it, through their writings.

This anthology shows how writers and thinkers may live and work in different countries, but as human beings, and because they share a common history, they can connect in many ways. Although their countries are independent political entities, they have many cultural and linguistic similarities. Excerpts of an email interview with Ahmede Hussain, a journalist from Bangladesh, who has edited the anthology.

Indian magazine Outlook has said:

Altaf Tyrewala’s hand-wringing Mumbai abortionist, Monideepa Sahu’s mother-and-son outing; Khademul Islam’s Chittagong ‘cyclone’; here are examples of subcontinental writers telling stories in a language that came from a colonial power, and remains foreign to large swathes of their countrymen—all without affectation or apology.
This is a major cultural achievement, but it is only meaningful in a specific cultural context.

The Daily Star magazine, Bangladesh has said:

The Indian subcontinent has had its fair share of glory and tragedy. The glory comes through a recapitulation of the circumstances which have historically gone into the making of its composite character. The tragedy has been political, in that the subcontinent was destined to be broken asunder, with lives and futures all going down the slippery road to disaster. And yet, more than six decades after the vivisection of the land, there is today a new cooperative effort among the descendants of the Partition generation to bridge the gap that has so long defined links, or the lack of them, between the three nations forked out of a once undivided India. And you spot that effort to narrow the chasm in the region of literature, into which area has now stepped the young Ahmede Hussain.

In The New Anthem: The Subcontinent In Its Own Words, Hussain brings together the subcontinent, as it were, in the perception(s) of its writing classes. To be sure, authors in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh (and quite a good number of them are part of the subcontinental diaspora) have in these past many years focused on their perspectives in literature, bringing into those thoughts a newer dimension into the intellectual workings of new generation minds. Niaz Zaman's efforts, as also those made by Mohiuddin Ahmed of the University Press Limited, to bring South Asian writers together set off a new trend here in Bangladesh. Now, it appears, it is Ahmede Hussain's turn to reinforce that trend, indeed carry it forward. As he looks at it, South Asian fiction is today a reality that has taken on an independence of its own. It is a new genre, having morphed into it from whatever may have been its previous state. That is the image you come across as you swim through the tales presented in this paperback.

The richness is all, both in terms of the writers brought together and in the quality of the tales that come to you one after the other. The twenty-two stories happen to be, as it were, a broad image of the subcontinent as it dominates the minds of the young. The writing is thoughtful and yet the language is fast paced, demonstrating none of the inhibitions that might have circumscribed expression in an earlier generation. You might be able to spot, as you go through Abeer Hoque's The Straight Path, a degree of liberalism which has come into South Asian story-telling. The thoughts flow, and so does language which, you are well aware, springs from traditions sprouting in the West. You do not expect a twenty-seven year-old woman, in your social ambience, to develop a crush on a young man a decade younger. But there it is, in Hoque's narrative. Sensuality and that certain bit of eroticism shake things up at the edge of the water.

The wonders of the flesh apart, there are in this anthology stories that plumb the depths of human psychology. Read Qaisra Shahraz's The Malay Host, where duplicity combines with tourism to throw up a tale of misery. The owner of the home, almost a model one, fawns over his western visitors and yet there is a viciousness about him that is revealed only at the end of the tale. By then, everything has burned down. There are only the ashes that remain. When you reflect on ashes, you are pulled back into thoughts of politics, even if momentarily. Much was reduced to ashes in the brutal summer of 1947. Ironically, much has been rebuilt, in a way, in times that remain quite removed from that horrible parting of the ways. But you cannot really stay away from a remembrance of the old bitterness. Dwell, if you will, on Saadat Hasan Manto. In Tabish Khair's creative imagination, the tragedy of Manto comes alive. Read Night of 16th January 1955. It is Manto the tragedian who speaks. He has observed much, suffered much, in his journey from the expansive world of an integrated India to the narrow confines of Pakistan. And he has paid a price. The soliloquy says it all. It is a bitter soul in full expression of his misery. The final words encompass that misery: 'Don't laugh, saale. Make a peg for me before it is dawn.'

Closer to your surroundings, indeed within your surroundings, it is Carl Bloom who brings forth the dichotomy of experience that is Dhaka in The Alley. On the one hand, it is elitism as exemplified by private universities that the visiting American academic is brought up against; and, on the other, it is the molestation of a poor, scantily clad and famished woman in the falling light of day she becomes an unwilling witness to. The irony is inescapable.

It is a gallery of storytellers you have here. Mahmud Rahman, Kamila Shamsie, Amit Chaudhuri, Padma Viswanathan, Khademul Islam, Mohsin Hamid, Sumana Roy, Sharbari Ahmed, Rachael Khan and so many others make a beeline for your attention. The danger is in the possibility of your falling in love with them all, with the craft they seek to uphold here.

Read on. This is one work you just might not be able to put down.

Bangladesh Striding Forward

2010-03-28T19:16:00.002+06:00

When Bangladesh got independence through a bloody war in 1971, it promised to build a country on the basis of equality and economic justice. Freedom from the clutches of the Punjabi-dominated Pakistani ruling class had been the war cry of Bangladesh's independence struggle. Thirty nine years on, there have been significant developments on the economic front: the country's central bank now boasts a healthy reserve; the economy has withstood the world-wide recession; export earnings have skyrocketed; absolute poverty has declined by 30 percent; food security has been ensured; and Bangladesh, once infamously dubbed a bottomless basket, now generates most of its development budget on its own. Still, stories of inequality haunt us. Under the razzmatazz of South Asia's largest shopping mall walk malnourished children, who take birth in the streets to grow up forever famished and stunted; life for them is mere survival, a day-to-day existence. As Bangladesh dreams of becoming a middle-income country soon, The Star tries to explore the true meaning of economic freedom and ways to achieve it.

Jahanara Begum was 13 years old when the marauding 'khansenas' occupied her village in Daudkandi, Comilla. Her father, a farmer who earned his living off a small acre of land, was brutally murdered as he gave shelter to the Muktijoddhas of the area. She went to school for a few years, her education has been limited to the bare basics. "My mother was in distress; I don't have anyone save for a younger sister, so she thought it was not possible for us to make use of the land," Jahanara says.

The family soon sold the land, its only source of income, and concentrated on raising cows. "There were three cows, but one died later," she says. Jahanara doesn't quite recall when that happened ("Somewhere during Ziaur Rahman's rule," she says), but she remembers a relative's advice that changed her life for the better.

Jahanara's maternal uncle is a sprightly man of 60 now, still full of energy. He runs a thriving restaurant in the bazaar that caters to around 300 people everyday. Twenty two years ago, long after the death of the second cow, when Jahanara was finding it difficult, impossible almost, to make ends meet, Yakub Miah came up with a novel idea: Why didn't Jahanara, a mother of two now, take a loan from that bank, which is offering loans to poor women like her?

The idea was quickly accepted, loans taken, new cows bought along with some chicks. And it worked well. Of Jahanara's three daughters, one is now studying at Chittagong University, another is a nurse and the third will take her higher secondary examinations this year.

Jahanara's is not the only success story the Bangladeshi economy has to offer. A silent but quick revolution has taken place on the economic front. "Bangladesh has increased its growth rate from below four percent to five and despite the global recession it has been able to maintain a growth rate which is above five percent," MM Akash, professor of Economics at Dhaka University, says. He thinks that over the last couple of decades, the country has made some significant progress when it comes to social development indicators.

Annisul Haq, president of Bangladesh's largest apex body FBCCI, comes up with a set of successes. "There are a lot of milestones: Garments, microfinance, girl's education," he says. What is common about them is that a significant portion of the growth has come from internal economy.

"Dependency on foreign aid has also been decreased. During the eighties we received foreign aid ranging between 80 and 110 percent of the development budget, which has come down to 50 percent," says MM Akash. The driving force behind this is the inflow of remittance earnings.

"There are two other sources that have contributed to Bangladesh's economic success--a quantum jump in the crop production in the early nineties and the rapid growth of the readymade garments industry," Akash says.

President of the Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and Industry Anis Ud Dowla thinks agriculture is an area where there is room for improvement. "There must also be a policy on agriculture and food prices. Government must subsidise fertiliser and diesel and all other inputs that are crucial for the agro-based industries. At the same time the government expects a stable food price that will be within the reach of the masses," he says.

He thinks that the government is yet to work out what should be the expected cost of this subsidy and at what price the government expects rice to be sold on the market. "There should also be a calculation, which must formulate the price at which a farmer can make reasonable profit. At the same time the government must also take the private sector onboard to ensure that the farmers are better equipped with technical know-hows of modern farming such as the timely utilisation of fertiliser," he says.

All is however not well. Dowla complaints that there are hundreds of companies that have failed to start operations because of an acute power crisis. "Shortage of electricity and unavailability of gas for industrial use and the lack of a coal policy because of which coal cannot be used as a source of energy," he says.

Haq of the FBCCI also identifies energy crisis as the major obstacle to businesses flourishing. "If it goes on like this we will come across a crisis soon," he says. Dowla, however, is quick to call the current situation dangerous and says, "We are on the brink of a disaster as many businesses have been shut down because of inadequate supply of electricity."

Many think that the root of all evil lies in the lack of political will rather than hiccups in the economy. Freedom fighter and former adviser of the caretaker government Akbar Ali Khan believes political problems are not problems if they are handled by pro-people political leadership.

"The problems that we are facing are more political than economic. When we came into being, politically we were a united nation, but the economic future of the country was in question. At that time people started to call Bangladesh a bottomless basket," he says, "Over the last few decades we have proven them wrong, we have established the fact that this country has a bright economic future. We have doubled our per capita income, we have more than doubled the production of food, we have reduced poverty to 40 percent, we have made a lot of progress." But, Akbar thinks over the last two decades, Bangladesh has also become a divided nation and it is not possible to tell where its politicians are leading it. "And that is the greatest worry for Bangladesh," he says.

Akbar believes that the greatest challenge that lies before a developing economy like Bangladesh is rising inequality. Bangladesh is shining, but beneath the veneer of prosperity the ugly face of poverty is hidden. The National Gini Coefficient that measures the level of inequality has been increasing in Bangladesh and it is the highest in South Asia. "People are drawn into the cities without any proper infrastructural facilities, inequality is going up, which will create serious political problems," Akbar says. Akash echoes Akbar's views and says, "As a result of indiscriminate or non-pragmatic privatisation, liberalisation and deregulation the top five percent of the rich and powerful in our country have been able to enjoy a relatively larger share of the growing real income and wealth of our country."

Akbar Ali Khan thinks that legitimacy is the key issue. "Now ordinary people do not accept the way things are. They think no one in this country deserves to be rich. There is inequality in many countries but in Bangladesh this inequality has no legitimacy; people have no belief in any institution, and they do not have any respect for the authority," he says, "You are not giving them electricity or any of the necessary services, and they are unhappy. It is a combustible condition and we need a political leadership that will deal with this with sagacity."

Presently, the political leadership, which Akbar thinks, is needed turn the wheel fast towards a double-digit growth is hard to find. Anis Ud Dowla says the government needs to come up with a solution to the current energy crisis. "We at the MCCI think the open pit mining will be the most feasible and cost-effective solution," he says, "India does that in West Bengal and Bihar, so there is no reason why we cannot do this. The government has already floated tender for power projects based on coal that is a welcome development. We request the government to implement them as fast as possible. It must also set up LNG terminals so that we can import liquidified natural gas. Meanwhile the government should also expedite the explorations of gas on and offshore."

Along with the energy crisis, the problem of improper utilisation of land also comes to the fore. "We need to use our lands in the right way," Haq says. A land reform commission can be set up and land can be redistributed to the farmer after making big cooperatives.

Social insecurity also dissuades people from making investments, one reason why Bangladesh's internal investment generation is so low. Akbar Ali Khan thinks people must be allowed to walk in the streets first before they are coaxed into making investments. The country's capital market has so far shown bullish trends, the two burses are crowded with first time investors who have seen the market as an outlet of investment.

But diverting the money into more productive channels such as short and medium enterprises (SME) remains a Herculean task. Akash thinks SMEs, especially the agro-based ones, will work miracles. But Akbar is cautiously optimistic; he says, "Setting up businesses in Bangladesh is an extremely complicated affair. You need to address these problems before you pin your hopes on the SMEs. There is a limit to where they can go."

Khalid Mahmood started Kay Kraft, a designer boutique, in 1993 with a meagre capital of Tk 5000. The company now runs 13 showrooms across the city. He complains of impediments that are slowing down the progress of the boutique industry. "To set up a boutique one needs to give bribe to different officials," he says. Alluding to a recent declaration by the Commerce Minister that boutique will be declared an industry, Khalid suggests that a comprehensive study on the sector is carried out first.

Khalid also thinks economic reform is needed to create an investment-friendly atmosphere for the new and existing SMEs. Akbar, who was Chairman of Regulatory Reforms Commission when he resigned five months ago, says that politicians are not interested in reform. " What have they done since I have resigned five months ago? They have not done anything," he says, " Most of the time the executive is not interested in any reform. We have not initiated any reform whatsoever in the last 39 years."

So, how faraway are we from becoming a middle-income country? Dowla thinks very faraway. But Akbar Ali Khan remains an incorrigible optimist. He says, " I won’t say it's not possible, on the contrary I think it is very much feasible because the people of this country are creative and enterprising. The farmers have repeatedly given us bumper food production, the migrant workers in the Middle East have sent foreign currency, and the private sector has shown its promise."

Akash believes instead of micro-credits, small loans can be given to the poor to set up shops and businesses. Jahanara, whose farm now has an annual turnover of around 200,000 takas, agrees. "If I can buy five more cows and three new vans, my profit will treble in six months," her eyes shine with hope as Jahanara talks about her investment plan.

Bleak is the Word

2010-03-28T19:14:00.002+06:00

Bangladesh's performance in this year's all South Asian meet has been its best in any international tournament. It could have been a lot better if the government had created more sporting opportunities for youngsters

Ten years ago Shibpur, which is 60 miles off downtown Dhaka, was a sleepy little village, famous for occasionally making it to the newspaper for road accidents in Boroitola. "It is at the bend of the road that cars used to slip," says Kamrul Islam Mridha, who hails from Narsingdi. Cars still go off the track, sometimes they ram into other vehicles, and in worst cases humans are run over by trucks.

Some things, however, have changed. "Boroitola was literarily in everyone's tongue," Kamrul says, "The place was famous for the sweet and sour deshi rose apples." A decade on, that rose apple tree has embraced a slow painful death; it seems old age has made her decrepit and worn out.

Along with the tree, playing fields in Shibpur are also disappearing. "There were numerous playgrounds; we used to play kabadi and football," Kamrul says. Last year, a company has established a composite industry where cotton is yarned into soft textile. The company has bought up huge swathes of land, of which include some playgrounds. "In two or three years time, football will become history in Narsingdi," Kamrul says.

Legendary football player Kazi Salahuddin is equally fearfull of the game's future. "To make sport thrive, you need a sporting culture," says Salahuddin, "And this is completely absent from our life." He says that Bangladesh has not fared well in different sporting events because sport is not in the priority list of our policymakers.

Kamrunnahar Dana, an icon of women's badminton in Bangladesh, thinks there is no opportunity for the budding talents to bloom in the country. "In the eighties, all the schools and colleges participated in different inter-school, inter-college competitions," she says. Tournaments like these are a highly irregular affair now. Only public universities and a few government-run schools and colleges have proper facilities like playgrounds and sport equipment. Most private universities do not have a campus of their own, let alone playing fields.

Bashir Ahmed, who has won the national award in hockey, thinks unless the government create new playgrounds in the cities, new sportspersons will not emerge. He says, "There will be temporary successes like the recently concluded South Asian Games, but in the long run, the country will be stuck with one or two gold medals in indoor sports such as shooting and taekwondo," Bashir says.

In fact, in the SA Games that was held last week, most of the golds that Bangladesh bagged were in indoor events. Salahuddin thinks it just highlights the problem of scarcity of playgrounds and the absence of a good management. "This observation will earn me quite a few enemies, but I must tell you that 90 per cent of the golds that we have won in this tournament are in unpopular indoor events," he says, "In a pre-game press conference, a cycling federation official said that Bangladesh would snatch the gold medal. When he was asked what his team's best timing was, he said that he wasn't aware of any timing. With officials like these, how can you expect sport to flourish in the country?"

MM Akash, professor of Economics at University of Dhaka, blames it on "ever-pervasive consumerism". He says that an apartment culture has been created in the country's towns where children go to school in the morning and come back home in the afternoon only to go to the coaching centres. "At the end of the day, they are tired and unhappy. We are robbing them of their childhood," he says. Dana says that most of the players now come from poor families. "Who would want their sons and daughters to become a badminton player? It does not earn your bread," she says.

Companies like the BJMC, BTMC, Ansar and Bangladesh Biman had quotas for players and they gave them jobs. BJMC and BTMC have stopped recruiting sportspersons, Biman has a cricket and badminton team. "Sportsmen and women are left with no other option but take up a situation in Ansar, which pays only around Tk 4000-5000 a year," Dana says.

A player's job description in the Ansar is a little complicated though; the organisation demands its player-employees to play more than one games of sport. "It makes no sense at all that Ansar wants a player to be good at football, cricket, ushu, karate…almost all the games on earth," Dana says.

Bashir puts more emphasis on the financing sides. He says, "The government must come forward to adequately finance the games in which the country has the prospect of winning medals in the Olympics." Akash thinks that because Bangladesh is a cricket crazy nation, more and more money has been pumped into it and cricket is delivering the goods. "Bangladesh's appalling performance in the track and field events prove that it is under-financed," he says.

As Akash speaks, news comes in: a manufacturing plant is going to be built on another playground in Shibpur, which has produced many good sportsmen. Salahuddin says if things go on like this, apart from football and cricket, Bangladesh does not have any future in any other sports. "There is no professionalism in our sporting world; to make matters worse there is a scarcity of good playgrounds. The future is definitely bleak. I am sorry, but bleak is the word," he says.

Death in Dhaka

2010-03-28T19:12:00.003+06:00

The government is making efforts to make the capital's roads safe for the citizens, but it is turning out to be an uphill task as the drivers and pedestrians are flouting traffic rules

Last week, two deaths, one in downtown Dhaka, another in Gazipur, have outraged citizens. In both the incidents two five-year-olds were run over by a speeding microbus. The incidents are eerily familiar: The children were at a busy intersection and were crossing the street when the buses, disregarding the red light, sped fast; the children died on the spot, the bus-driver tried to flee only to be apprehended later by an angry mob.

Dr Charisma Choudhury, Assistant Professor, Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET), thinks that drivers regularly cross the speed limit and there is no one to bring them to book. "Whenever they see that the street is free they try to pass the traffic lights as early as they can. They don't really care if the light is red, green or yellow."

To make it even worse, driving licenses are up for sale at the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) office in Mirpur. The unscrupulous officials at the BRTA, in connivance with some driving schools, offer two packages for would-be drivers. To drive a private car or a motorcycle, all one needs to do is to give Tk 7000 to a BRTA officer and the license will be delivered within seven working days. No test will be taken; the applicant will need to sign two papers though.

"There is another package for bus and trucks. The cost will be Tk 5000 higher," says a BRTA clerk. He says that in both the packages, no driving test will be taken. "It's for busy people like you," he says.

It is indeed a small wonder that the streets of Dhaka are flooded with under-aged drivers. Those who cannot pay the rather hefty fees (for a license government charges less than 2000 Taka), can get a forged license. "You can also get a forged license if you want; it will cost Tk 3000. But do remember that these licenses are fake, you cannot renew them; your name will not be in our book," the BRTA clerk says.

His boss, Assistant Director of the BRTA Mohsin Ashraf, however, claims that no such thing happen in his organisation. "There is a board magistrate on the driving board, there is also someone from polytechnic and two police inspectors along with two BRTA men. The question of any foul play does not arise," he says.

He claims that licenses for driving heavy vehicles are not even given by the BRTA. "These licenses are obtained either through the brokers or different labour unions," he says. He claims that 'heavy licenses' are given only after an applicant proves that he has driven a light and a medium-sized vehicle for three years each. He, however, admits that the government, because of labour strikes and negotiations with the labour leaders, is sometimes forced to issue 'heavy licenses' to the union leaders. "It's a long process," he says.

Charisma thinks it is difficult to enforce traffic rules when those who were supposed to be enforcing the law are themselves breaking it. "Many violations that have the potential to cause accidents remain fully overlooked until there is a fatality," she says.

To make matters worse, there are about one million vehicles clogging the streets with only 2,265 police personnel to man them. According to a Daily Star report 180 new vehicles are introduced to the city every day and only 730 traffic policemen were hired in the last six years.

Charisma says that footpaths are not pedestrian-friendly, neither are the footbridges. "Going up the stairs is a universal problem, which planners in the neighbouring countries are also facing," she says. She thinks that when dusk falls sometimes the footbridges become unsafe.

A walk into the footbridge at Farmgate reveals that, after nightfall it becomes a haven for prostitutes and drug peddlers. Presence of criminals and other such elements in footbridges and underpasses dissuades the pedestrians from using them, which in turn make jaywalking rampant.

Charisma says stringent laws need to be enforced to make the roads safe. "It is true that severe punishment of a driver after an accident can make other drivers more careful, but penalties for smaller violations can play an even bigger role," she says.

The deaths of two children on the streets of our capital should come as a big wake up call for our policy makers. History, however, suggests otherwise. Our bureaucracy grinds slowly, and, like the streets of Dhaka, it, too, is prone to accidents.

Promises to Keep

2010-01-18T18:21:00.003+06:00

The Awami League has swept an electoral landslide only seven months ago, promising to change the country and its politics. In the council that it has held last Friday, it has been business as usual, with the predictable outcome: Sheikh Hasina has been elected as the party President for the sixth time in a row and Syed Ashraful Islam, assistant secretary general in the outgoing committee, has been elected as the new party General Secretary; for both the posts there have been no other candidates. For the 45 posts of the central working committee, the council has delegated power to the new President and General Secretary; a move that has put the AL, the biggest democratic party in the country, under criticism. What can the party, which was the vanguard of the country's independence, do to infuse intra-party democracy and bring in fresh blood in its leadership, both of which have been miserably missing in the country's politics?

Sixty-year-old rickshawpuller Alam Miah, who voted for the Awami League in the last elections and a member of the party, cannot think of anyone but Sheikh Hasina to lead the party which is as old as he is. Last Friday, he eagerly waited in front of the newly christened Bangabandhu International Conference Centre. His wait was over as soon as Hasina was elected unanimously by 5,253 councillors. He left the venue in an hour, reassured that his leader Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's daughter would lead the party. "It will be good for the country," he said.

However Awami League's 20th council has failed to impress Imtiaz Ahmed, professor of International Relations at Dhaka University. "I had greater expectations and I think this particular council could not deliver," he says. What Imtiaz finds particularly unimpressive is the way the council has elected the President and General Secretary. "People this time thought that they would go for serious elections, that there would be votes and at least two or three candidates would fight," he says.

Hasina's election in the council has come as no surprise. Even though she has not been elected through secret ballot, given the popularity that she enjoys in the country, not to mention inside the party, there is little doubt that if transparent ballot boxes were used she would still have bagged all the 5,253 votes.

The newly elected President and General Secretary of Awami League.
The council was supposed to elect a 73-member central working committee (CWC), but instead it delegated the power to choose 45 members of the CWC to the new President and General Secretary. The AL constitution empowers the party President to handpick the remaining members of the CWC. "It was told that democratic principles would be followed (in the council)," Professor Muzaffer Ahmed, eminent economist and member of the Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB), says. He thinks that this is not the way democracy works. Professor Imtiaz Ahmed also thinks voting was necessary. "The prime minister herself said that transparent ballot boxes would be brought. This is an old way of electing leadership," he says.

Even though some councillors say that the council's chief election commissioner MA Mannan made the proposal, the veteran leader however denies any foul play. He told The Daily Star that no one filed their candidacy for other posts; "We even received a proposal from a councillor to empower the newly elected president and general secretary to choose leaders for the rest of the posts. The councillors unanimously delegated their power to the president and general secretary," he said.

Professor Imtiaz says that giving power to two people is a weakness in democracy. "You cannot give power to someone to dominate all," he says. He hopes that three years from now on things will change, and the party will work for more internal democracy. Syed Ashraful Islam agrees. He says, " It is true that the people of the country want the Awami League to be more democratic. We had a voter list for the council; we had all the preparation for elections. But as there wasn't more than one candidate, elections could not be held. That does not mean that the process in which leaders were elected cannot be called democratic. Efforts will be made in the future so that there are more candidates and party leaders are elected through direct votes of party councillors."

There is a popular expectation that the council will elect a set of leaders that will be different from those who are now holding ministerial posts to prevent meddling of party interests in ministerial responsibilities. "That expectation is also foiled because the party president is the prime minister," Imtiaz says. Now that Sheikh Hasina is vested with the power to choose a new team, it can be hoped that she is going to pick fresh leaders, not those who are performing different ministerial duties. "For democracy to work properly the party and government should be run by two sets of people," Professor Muzaffer Ahmed says. He thinks that the party should work as a watchdog, keeping the government on its toes.

Professor Muzaffer cites the famous example of former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Kamaraj Kumarasami who, to invigorate the Indian Congress, proposed that all senior Congress leaders should resign from their ministerial posts and devote all their energy to the party. Elected the Chief Minister of his state three consecutive times, he duly resigned from the post of the chief minister to make room for new leadership.

Sheikh Hasina has steered her party towards a historic victory through her statesmanship. Her speeches in the run up to the general elections had shown vision to a nation that teetered on the brink of social and political chaos. Her urge to create a modern 'digital' Bangladesh earned her a huge fan following among the first time voters. History will be kind on her if she rises up to the occasion and picks a young dynamic leadership as her colleagues in the presidium and the CWC. Those who hold the ministerial posts must not be given organisational duties. Only tested young and honest leaders should be picked to run the party.

Historically the ruling party General Secretary has always been bestowed with the responsibility of running the Local Government, Rural Development and Co-operatives (LGRD) Ministry. In effect the ministry becomes a bastion of ruling party lobbyists who try to take undue advantages of their close proximity with the party in power. It is hardly surprising that on several occasions, the ministry has featured in the list of the TIB as one of the most corrupt ministries. Now that Syed Ashraful Islam, the LGRD minister, has been elected the General Secretary of the Awami League, a certain degree of apprehension is there that there will be a conflict of interest. Ashraful was famous for his bold stance during the state of emergency imposed by the last caretaker government. He will set a good example if he decides to resign from the LGRD minister to put all his energy to strengthen his party at the grassroots. It will be a healthy sign for the country's fledgling democracy, not to mention the fact that for the first time since the restoration of democracy in 1991, a ruling party will get the attention of a secretary general who is not overloaded with ministerial duties.

As the requirement of the Representation of People's Order requires that every registered party hold its council by July 24, the AL's last council was a hurriedly done affair and it has left room for improvement. Now is the time Sheikh Hasina infuses fresh blood in the party and concentrates more on the internal democracy of the party. "A democratic party's strength is in its democracy," Imtiaz says, "take Muslim League, one of the reasons why the party has gone into oblivion is because it did not practice internal democracy in its fold. If democracy is not practised rigorously the party might not be able to return to office in the next general elections."

The onus now lies on Sheikh Hasina and her foresight to decide a team that is going to lead the five-decade old Awami League into the challenges of the new millennium. In its chequered history the party has won the general elections in Bangladesh thrice, twice it was blessed with absolute majority. Bangladesh's history is entwined with the rise of the Awami League, it has led the country towards independence, and it has been at the forefront of all the democratic struggles against different military dictatorships that have plagued the country for half its life. "As a party that led Bangladesh towards independence, our expectations from the Awami League are high," says Professor Imtiaz, "This council has not met those expectations. I hope that it will be better next time."

Syed Ashraful Islam assures that it will be different in the future. He says, "We do not want to go back to confrontational politics. We want to change the country and its political culture and for this we need the support from all political parties. Awami League is a part of the society in which we live. It is not practical to think that the party is immune to the disease that has infested the country. But that day will soon come when the leaders of the party will be elected through ballot." One only hopes that he keeps his promise.

History of Glory

June 23, 1949: East Pakistan Awami Muslim League formed, breaking away from All Pakistan Muslim League. Maulana Abdul Hamid Khan Bhashani was its first President, its first general secretary was Shamsul Hoq and Treasurer was Nurul Islam Chowdhury. Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Khondokar Mostaq Ahmad and AK Rafiqul Hussain were its first three joint secretaries.

1952: Awami Muslim League and its student wing play an instrumental role in the Language Movement that can be termed as the beginning of our independence struggle.

October 21, 1953: In a council meeting it drops the word Muslim from its name.

March 8-12, 1954: Awami League takes the lead in forming the United Front (UF), later known as the Jukta Front with Krishak Sramik Party, Nizam-e-Islam and Ganatantri Dal, forming a 21-point charter, written by Abul Mansur Ahmad, with 'Boat' as the symbol to fight the Muslim League in the East Bengal Legislative Assembly elections. Muslim League (ML) faces a humiliating defeat: of the 237 Muslim seats, the ML secures only 9 seats as against 223 seats by the UF, of which Awami League bags143 seats.

March, 1954: Shere Bangla AK Fazlul Haq of Krishak Sramik Party leads the UF government.

May 29, 1954: Using section 92/A of the provisional constitution of Pakistan, Governor General Pakistan dismisses the Jukta Front government.

March 23, 1956: First constitution of Pakistan formed. Awami league welcomes it.

12 September, 1956 to 11 October, 1957: Awami League cobbles up a coalition with the Republican Party at the centre and runs a government that Awami League leader Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy leads.

February 7-8, 1957: Bhashani calls a conference at Kagmari in protest of Awami League leadership's support to the government's move to join the Southeast Asia Treaty Organisation (SEATO) and Central Treaty Organisation (CENTO). It earns Bhashani the title Red Maulana, he forms his own party National Awami Party; Awami League formally splits.

October 7, 1958: Iskander Mirza, the then Governor General, declares martial law; General Ayub Khan is made its chief martial law administrator.

October 27, 1958: Ayub deposes Mirza in a bloodless coup. Political Parties Elected Bodies Disqualified Ordinance promulgated, which practically disbands all political parties. All major political leaders arrested on charges of corruption. Most major leaders of Awami League are arrested.

February 6, 1962: Sheikh Mujibur Rahman is arrested again under the Public Security Act and is released four days later.

Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy
June 1962: Ayub Khan comes up with his own Constitution, modelled on indirect election, through an electoral college, and termed it 'Basic Democracy'. Instead of reviving the Awami League, Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy joins hands with Nurul Amin, Khwaza Nazimuddin, Maulvi Farid Ahmed and Hamidul Haq Chowdhury to form National Democratic Front against Ayub Khan's military-backed rule, to restore democracy and force and election.

December 5, 1963: Suhrawardy mysteriously dies in Lebanon. He is found dead in his hotel room.

March, 1964: In a meeting initiated by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, All Pakistan Awami League meets at Dhaka to revive the party. Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan becomes the president and Shamsul Hoq the general secretary. Sheikh Mujibur Rahman becomes the chief of East Pakistan Awami League.

January, 1965: Fatema Jinnah, sister of Pakistan's founder MA Jinnah, is given support by the Combined Opposition Party as the Presidential candidate. She loses to Ayub Khan.

February 5, 1966: Sheikh Mujibur Rahman places the famous Six-points charter at a conference of all political parties in Lahore. Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan, the president of All Pakistan Awami League opposes, a break-up of the party becomes imminent.

March 1, 1966: A council meeting of the Awami League is called and it elects Sheikh Mujibur Rahman as the President and Tajuddin Ahmed the general secretary of Awami League.

May 8, 1966: Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was arrested under the Defence of Pakistan Rules. "Those who speak of the six points will be met with the language of weapons," Ayub Khan says. Major Awami League leaders are arrested.

June 7, 1966: A strike is called to protest the arrests; as all the major leaders are in jail, organisational secretary of Awami League Mizanur Rahman and the party's woman leader Amena Begum call the strike.

December, 1967: Pakistan government lodges the so-called Agartala Conspiracy.

January, 1968: Agartala Conspiracy. A list of 35, the so-called conspirators, which Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman tops, is disclosed.

June 19, 1968: A Special Tribunal starts its proceeding. The judges are Justices SA Rahman, Mujibur Rahman Khan and Maksumul Hakim.

January 19, 1969: Asaduzzaman Asad, Dhaka Hall leader of Leftist East Pakistan Students Union, is killed by the police in a major demonstration. Students place their 11-point demands, which spark a mass upsurge against Ayub Khan.

February 15, 1969: Sergeant Zahurul Haq, an accused in the so-called Agartala Conspiracy Case is murdered in Dhaka Cantonment.

February 19, 1969: Maulana Bhashani declares that he is going to take people to storm the cantonment if Sheikh Mujib and other accused are not released.

February 20, 1969: The house of SA Rahman, the chief Judge of the Conspiracy case, is torched; he leaves Dhaka and never came back.

February 22, 1969: Rear Admiral AR Khan, defence minister of Pakistan, declares that the so-called Agartala Conspiracy case has been withdrawn. Sheikh Mujibur Rahman is released after about three years in captivity and receives a tumultuous welcome by the people.

February 23, 1969: In a speech at an all-party student mass rally at the Race Course, Tofail Ahmed, a student leader, on behalf of the All Party Students' Action Committee, bestows on Sheikh Mujib the title 'Bangabandhu', the 'friend of Bengal'. It soon becomes a symbol of adoration for Sheikh Mujib who rises to become the supreme leader of his people.

February 26-March 13, 1969: Bangabandhu places Six-points and 11-points at the Round Table Conference at Rawalpindi. The conference reaches a stalemate as the Pakistani junta refuse to accept Bangabandhu's demands.

March 25, 1969: General Yahya Khan, who two years later would launch a bloody assault on the Bengalis on March 25, 1971, seizes power in a bloodless coup.

January 6, 1970: Bangabandhu is re-elected the president of Awami League.

October 17, 1970: Bangabandhu selects 'boat' as the Awami League's election symbol for the general elections; the party starts its elections from a rally at Dhaka's Dholai Khal.

November 12, 1970: A devastating cyclone rips through East Pakistan, killing around 500,000 people. Awami League joins relief effort.

December 1970-January 1971: In the all Pakistan general elections, of the 300 seats, Awami League wins 160, Pakistan People's Party gets 81. The ruling Pakistani establishment refuses to handover power to the Awami League.

January 27, 1971: Zulfiquar Ali Bhutto, leader of Pakistan People's Party arrives in Dhaka to form a coalition with the Awami League. The talk collapses.

March 1, 1971: Yahya Khan postpones the National Assembly session.

March 3, 1971: A general strike called by the Awami League cripples the whole of East Pakistan.

Bangabandhu's historic March 7 speech.
March 7, 1971: Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman at a mammoth rally at Race Course says, "This struggle is the struggle for freedom, this struggle is the struggle for independence." He calls for civil disobedience against the junta.

March 16-24, 1971: Bangabandhu, Yahya Khan and Zulfiquar Ali Bhutto have talks about handover of power. The talks fail; Yahya and Bhutto leave East Pakistan.

March 25, 1971: General Yahya and his butchers start one of the most gruesome genocides in modern history. The Operation Searchlight alone kills hundreds of Bengalis on the night of March 25. Before his arrest from the historic house of Dhanmandi 32, Bangabandhu is said to have declared Bangladesh's independence at the zero hour of March 26.

March 26-December 16 1971: Awami League successfully leads one of the bravest resistances in human history. On April 17, the Bangladesh government is formed at Mujibnagar with Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman as the President in absentia, Syed Nazrul Islam as the Acting President and Tajuddin Ahmed as the Prime Minister. Members of Awami League fight hand in hand, shoulder to shoulder with the masses. Three million Bengalis embrace martyrdom.

January 10, 1972: Bangabandhu reaches Dhaka to a tearful welcome, two days later he becomes the Prime Minister of the newly independent country.

March 7, 1973: First general elections in independent Bangladesh held. Awami League wins an electoral landslide; of the 300 seats, it alone wins in 293 constituencies.

October 26, 1974: Tajuddin Ahmed, the man who was the Prime Minister of the government in exile and also led the Liberation War in Bangabandhu's absence, is told to resign.

February 24, 1975: One party-government system is introduced. All the political parties are banned to create Bangladesh Krishak Sramik Awami League. All newspapers are banned; the four newspapers, which are allowed to be published, are government-controlled. Presidential government is formed.

August 15, 1975: On one of the darkest nights of our history, Father of the nation, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman is assassinated along with all but two of the members of his family by a bunch of deranged disgruntled mid-ranking army officers led by Lt Col (sacked) Faruk Rahman.

August 16, 1975: All but five major Awami League leaders take oath in the new cabinet headed by Khondokar Mostaq Ahmed. Those who did not take oath in the cabinet of killers are: Syed Nazrul Islam, Tajuddin Ahmed, Kamruzzaman, Captain Mansur Ali and Dr Kamal Hossain.

November 3, 1975: Syed Nazrul Islam, Tajuddin Ahmed, Kamruzzaman and Captain Mansur Ali, four leaders kept in prison, are murdered.

November 4, 1975-May 16, 1981: Awami League faces the toughest time in its history. For these six years the party has been practically leaderless. Those who have tried to lead the party are: Mizanur Rahman Chowdhury, Abdul Malek Ukil and Zohra Tajuddin, of them the latter's contribution is commendable.

Bangabandhu with his daughter Sheikh Hasina.
May 17, 1981: Sheikh Hasina becomes the Awami League's President, following her return from exile after her father's assassination.

May 18, 1981-May 6, 1986: Sheikh Hasina leads the party under the military dictatorships of Generals Ziaur Rahman and HM Ershad.

May 7, 1986: General elections under Gen HM Ershad. Hasina decides to participate in the elections; Awami League wins 73 seats, becomes the main opposition.

January 1989-December 6, 1990: Awami League and Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) lead a mass upsurge that ousts the despotic rule of General HM Ershad.

February 27, 1991: General elections. The BNP wins the elections with 169 seats; Awami League gets only 92.

1993: Awami League faces a split; Dr Kamal Hossain leaves to form Gono Forum.

1994-1996: Awami League under the leadership of Sheikh Hasina leads a popular movement against the BNP government to establish the caretaker government system.

February 15, 1996: Awami League wins the elections, getting 146 seats.

1996-2001: Sheikh Hasina's first term in office. Two of its major achievements are striking the water sharing treaty between Bangladesh and India, and the signing of a peace treaty with Jana Sanghiti Samiti.

October 1, 2001: The Awami League loses the elections. It gets only 62 seats, compared to the BNP, which wins in 193 constituencies.

May 7, 2004: Assailants shoat and kill Ahsanullah Master, an Awami League MP, in Tongi

August 21, 2004: Grenades are thrown at a rally organised by the Awami League. Sheikh Hasina survives the assassination attempt. But 23 party members, including the women's affairs secretary Ivy Rahman, die.

January 27, 2005: Awami League leader Shah MS Kibria is murdered in a grenade attack.

November-December, 2006: Awami League launches street agitation against President Iajuddin Ahmed's caretaker government.

July 16, 2007: Sheikh Hasina is arrested on charges of corruption. Many other Awami League leaders also face corruption charges.

June 11, 2008: Hasina is released from prison.

December 29, 2008: Awami League-led Grand Alliance wins the general elections winning 230 seats. Sheikh Hasina starts her second term in office.

Hasina's First Year

2010-01-18T18:20:00.002+06:00

The Awami League-led Mahajote, which won an electoral landslide in the last general elections, has finished its one year in office last week. In the run up to the polls the alliance promised to bring a digital Bangladesh, a country free from poverty and economic exploitation, a golden Bengal where only rule of law will prevail. As the Awami League enters the second year of its third term in office, we try to explore some important issues of the day: What are the government's major achievements? What are the setbacks the government has faced in its rule? And, more importantly, what lies ahead for Sheikh Hasina and her young government, upon which the country has bestowed its future?

In the last general elections, throughout electioneering Sheikh Hasina, leader of the Awami League and Mahajote, showed brinkmanship; unlike her Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) counterpart, she had shunned mud slinging and character assassination and, on top of it all, the Awami League's (AL) Vision 2021, her manifesto for change went down well among the young voters, who made up 32 per cent of the electorate. Sheikh Hasina promised change, and the voters answered her call by voting overwhelmingly in her favour. When the results came out, it became apparent that Bangladeshis had rewritten history; a silent revolution had taken place on December 29, 2008. While the BNP, the AL's archrival, lost 163 seats, the AL gained 168.

While forming her cabinet, Sheikh Hasina surprised many by choosing fresh young faces for important ministries. For the first time in the country's history, Home and Foreign Ministries went to women ministers. Most of Hasina's young colleagues have had an untainted past. The parliamentary standing committees were formed in the first session of the parliament and some chairmanship of these important bodies went to opposition MPs. "For the first time in the history of Bangladesh in the parliament all the standing committees are functioning with four chairpersons from the opposition. Committees are the most important part of the parliamentary system; the committees work round the clock in Westminster democracy. It is a big achievement," says Waliur Rahman, a political analyst.

Post-poll violence, however, turned out to be difficult to contain; and no sooner had Hasina and her nascent government tamed the spiralling lawlessness, it faced the biggest challenge in its term in office: the BDR mutiny. On February 25, last year, barely two months into Hasina's second term in office, a bunch of disgruntled bloodthirsty jawans of the Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) mutinied at the forces headquarters in Pilkhana killing 57 army officers who were deputed to the country's border security forces. Faced with the prospect of a civil war breaking out for the murderers were armed to the teeth, the government showed maximum restraint, and two days after it broke out, the mutiny was quelled. The government arrested the masterminds of the massacre within a week and the trial of the killers is going on.

This year farmers have got electricity for irrigation at the right time and the supply of fertiliser has been adequate.
One of the biggest successes of the government is the stimulus economic package that it has rolled out to withstand the ongoing global economic recession. By the beginning of its second year at the helm, all the major indicators are showing an upward turn and Bangladesh has shielded its financial interests well. In the last year, manpower export has also increased. Economist MM Akash thinks some of the government measures have successfully thwarted the threat posed by the ongoing global economic meltdown, but he, however, cautions that there might be a thorny road ahead. "The price of rice is increasing on the market, and the manipulation of the middlemen is increasing by day. Only time can tell how it handles the situation," he says.

On the agriculture front it has all been rosy. Enough supply of power have ensured that the farmers have got electricity for irrigation at the right time, supply of fertiliser this year has been adequate and Sheikh Hasina and her government can be given due credit for the food autarky that the country has achieved. Mujahidul Islam Selim, general secretary of the Communist Party of Bangladesh, thinks the success in food production is due to the government's new agriculture policy, which has seen an increase in giving subsidy and agricultural loan to the farmers. "Beside these initiatives, the government also needs to smash the hands of the middlemen and party-cadres who reap the most benefits of the food production, depriving the farmers of their due share," he says.

Awami League MP Abdur Razzak calls food security the most important issue of our time. "There has been some significant progress in this field and if the government continues the help that it has extended to the farmers, we can expect another bumper food production in the new year," he says.

Hasina's government faced the biggest challenge in its term in office: the BDR mutiny.
Political analyst Dilara Choudhury thinks the biggest success of the government is the formation of a non-communal democratic education policy. "After being given the charge of the education, Minister Nurul Islam Nahid has formed a new Education Policy that aims to ensure education for all," she says. This is the first time that textbooks have been distributed free of charge to all the students at different educational institutions on the first day of their class. Nahid also plans to put more emphasis on vocational training to meet the rising challenges of the new millennium. "If he keeps his promise, we can expect our education system to be on a firm footing within a few years," Dilara says. Selim agrees; he says, "The government can claim some big achievements in the educational sector."

The government has also taken some steps to save the rivers from the encroachers, who, blessed with the impunity of the subsequent governments, have grabbed government land. In the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, Sheikh Hasina and her government's leading role in favour of the countries adversely affected by the rising Carbon-dioxide omissions has earned her kudos.

The government has successfully fought the legal battle of punishing the killers of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. " It will, once and for all, flag the fact that nobody can get away with murdering somebody meaning that the rule of law is being established through the process of this trial," says Waliur Rahman. War crime trial is also in the offing.

But the government's success is blotched with its failure to pursue its drive against corruption as vigorously and relentlessly as it should be. "It is, again, a must for the establishment of rule," he says.

Sheikh Hasina promised change, and the voters answered her call by voting overwhelmingly in her favour.

Decentralisation of power got a big blow when the MPs were made advisers of different Upazila Parishads (UP). In the absence of complete rules of business, the Parishads are functioning on temporary rules of business, which does not define the role of the body's Vice Chairperson. "The way the UPs are handled is disappointing," Dilara Choudhury says. She thinks that the government has failed to keep the promises that it has made in the run-up to the elections.

Another problem with the temporary provision is that it gives more power to the elected representatives of the people than the bureaucrats. "The recommendations of the Local Government Commission have also not been implemented," she says, "We expected the government to decentralise power. We hope that in the near future the government will change its outlook and strengthen the local institutions."

Some of the government measures have successfully thwarted the threat posed by the ongoing global economic meltdown.
There have also been allegations that the government has failed to rein in on its student wing, some members of which have allegedly been involved in manipulations of government tenders, and, in worst cases, extortion. "Even though its top leadership has remained untainted by corruption, it has not been able to control some of the leaders of its mass organisations," MM Akash says.

Abdur Razzak is disappointed by the government's performance in ensuring energy security. "The government could not generate enough electricity in 2009. I have remained an optimist though; I think the new projects will generate adequate electricity in the next two years' time. I hope they work," he says.

The Awami League government has promised to set up the war crime tribunals.

Besides a couple of hiccups such as these, the government's stride towards its own Vision 2021 has been a promising one. Dilara thinks the government's first term in office has gone rather well. "There are some major achievements," she says, "and as the first year of any government, it has had some achievements it can be proud of." She says that the law and order situation in the country has been good.

Waliur Rahman suggests that the government restart the jail killing trial. "As a witness of the trial I can tell you that it has not been properly done. The government must immediately restart the trial process," he says.

He also thinks that in the next one year the government must also think seriously to create the post of National Defence Adviser. "I think we badly need it to face the challenges of terrorism and other internal and external threats," Waliur says.

Dilara also suggests that the government ensures energy security. "It is a must. Without it there will be no investment," she cautions. Waliur agrees, but he thinks the new projects that the government has taken will work well. "It is just a matter of time that our energy needs will be fulfilled," she says.

In one of her election speeches Sheikh Hasina had famously said, “Boat (the AL's election symbol) has brought you independence, repeat your choice this time too, it will give you economic freedom.” So far her government has made significant progress in achieving that goal. Only time can tell if her government can strengthen these achievements and bring about the Golden Bengal that our founding fathers have dreamt of.

Democracy Needs a Firm Footing

2010-01-18T18:18:00.005+06:00

After many tempestuous years, democracy in the new millennium has gained a firm footing in the country. Analysts and politicians expect politics in the next 10 years to be different from what it has been. They think good governance and rule of law is the key to establishing a truly democratic Bangladesh.

Parliament must be the centre of all political activities.
Democracy in the last nine years has gone through many phases. There have been violent confrontations in the streets that led to the declaration of the State of Emergency and the rule of a non-elected caretaker government, which held power for two years. Even though power has been changed twice through elections, misgoverance and politicisation of the bureaucracy by the ruling parties have been rampant in the last 10 years. Bangladesh is still far away from establishing rule of law.

Sheikh Hasina
The biggest strength that democracy in Bangladesh can boast of is perhaps the huge support of the masses that it wields in its favour. In the last four general elections there have been a huge turnout of voters who waited patiently at the polling stations to exercise their right to vote. In all cases, anti-incumbency factor has been crucial for in all these four polls the voters have overwhelmingly voted for the party in opposition in the last parliament.

It also shows the disappointment that the masses have felt in their elected representatives. "In the last 10 years Bangladesh was in the process of democratisation, but we cannot say that the process had produced 100 percent successful return in so far as democracy is concerned," says Dr Syed Anwar Hossain, professor of History at Dhaka University.

Awami League MP Suranjit Sengupta agrees; he thinks the impediments that the country's beleaguered democracy faces now go back to the assassination of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. "I think our War of Liberation is an unfinished revolution," he says, "We were supposed to take the path of non-communal democracy, which was laid down in the constitution of 1971."

He thinks Bangabandhu was misdirected, deceived by the defeated forces of the war who eventually killed him along with his family members. "Since then our politics have been divided into two groups--pro and anti-liberation forces," he says, "Before 1975, the nation dreamt of a bright future, a non-communal democratic country free from exploitation, but with the murder of Bangabandhu, the country had moved towards the path of becoming a mini-Pakistan."

It is indeed heartening to see the Awami League government start the process of trying the war criminals along with bringing the perpetrators of all previous political killings to book. Having said that, it must adhere to the principles of rule of low and justice, without which it will be difficult to bring the country back to the track of good governance.

Bangladesh Nationalist Party leader MK Anwar does not see a bright future ahead as he thinks no one in the political establishment has the right mindset to run the political institutions in a democratic fashion. "There is no denying that our democracy is still in infancy," he says, "there are many things that need to be done to make democracy functional and I do not see them coming."

He says that during the first few days of the last caretaker government's regime, he saw some sense of optimism, but later, "within a very short time I was disillusioned." The reason he says, "Either they (the regime) could not identify their real task or they had some hidden agenda."

Khaleda Zia
Anwar thinks political parties should practise internal democracy, which Suranjit says "a must to establish democratic values in all walks of life". He says that the country must reinstate its first constitution: " In the last elections there has been a mass upsurge and a verdict has been given to the Awami League to go back to the constitution of 1972. If we stick to the constitution of 1972 and step into the new decade, people will be reunited, economic emancipation will come. If the killers of Bangabandhu are hanged, it will be a fall of post-1975 politics, and if we do not lose our way, I think, we will be able to march forward because we have enough potential as a nation," Sengupta says.

Imtiaz Ahmed, professor of Dhaka University, however, considers intolerance the biggest enemy of democracy. "Both the political parties believe in 'if you are not with us, you are against us’ kind of ideology, and this harms good governance and rule of law dearly," he says, "and because of this culture of intolerance many a time dubious forces have cropped up to play a determining role."

He thinks true democracy is yet to take root in the country. "Whenever we want a complete functioning democracy, our politicians tell us that Bangladesh has its own version of democracy and we have to make do with it. I think this idea is flawed, democracy is a universal political idea, there can never be a 'different democracy', which is practised only in Bangladesh," he says.

Professor Anwar Hossainalso thinks some of the politicians are not capable of rising up to the challenges of the new millennium. "Some of the politicians are not at all attuned with the tenets of democracy and rule of law," he says, " The common people are democratically oriented; we have democratic rules in our past, in ancient times we had, however small, many democratic republics."

He says that Bangladesh has many expectations that have so far remained unfulfilled in so far as the role of politicians is concerned and in most of the cases the politicians have not been able to deliver. "The democratic norms and values and rules of the game are not properly followed by the politicians," he says.

MK Anwar says emphasis must be put on making the parliament effective. "Parliament has been used for mudslinging and character assassinations, and if it goes on, it will cease to remain an effective institution," Anwar says. He considers establishment of rule of law an integral part of democracy and says, "A democratic society is always guided by rule of law, in our life it has remained absent. The Awami League government has politicised bureaucracy in 1995; we have our fair share of blame too. But this should not have been done…"

Professor Imtiaz says politicisation of bureaucracy has been so widespread that it is lobbying and allegiance to the ruling party only that decides who is going to be the Vice Chancellor of a university or who will be made an Officer with a Special Duty in a particular ministry. Along with getting rid of nepotism and sycophancy, MK Anwar thinks the ruling party must recognise the role of the opposition party and give it its due honour to make parliament functional. "Along with this, the administration must be depoliticised, judiciary needs to work in a free and transparent manner," he says.

Professor Imtiaz says the politicians need to rise up to the occasion to make democracy work. "If we don't do this," he says, "We will remain a 'different democracy', and in such a warped political form of government, dubious forces can always raise their head." So far the Awami League, in its third term in office, has taken some significant steps to fix the anomalies that our politics have been riddled with. It has brought in new faces to the cabinet, and has given the post of chairman of different parliamentary standing committees to the opposition lawmakers. But the power of money and muscle that has made democracy dysfunctional in the pre-2001 politics still remains a significant force. Both the major political parties need to get rid of criminal elements in its fold and make room for young leadership to emerge.

At the beginning of its tenure the Hasina government failed to reign in on some of its young members who indulged themselves in manipulating government tenders and extortion. It needed the Prime Minister's intervention to stop these Chhatra League leaders from their dastardly acts. The biggest challenge that the new government has faced in its one-year tenure is the crisis centring on the mutiny of some members of the Bangladesh Rifles in which 58 army officers were murdered. The trials of the mutineers have already started and are expected to be finished soon.

The biggest test for democracy to work will be to make parliament effective through meaningful participation. This means the practice of boycott must be boycotted. Opposition parties have traditionally indulged in this punitive strategy at the cost of valuable taxpayers’ money and thwarting the support of their loyal voters. The ruling party Chief and Leader of the Opposition have the greatest responsibility of all, by burying their personal bitterness towards each other and bringing in a new era of healthy competition and unity when it comes to issues of national interest. Unless our politicians practise what they preach, democracy has a long way to go before it leaves its infancy.

The new government, which has won an electoral landslide in the last elections, also promises to bring a digital Bangladesh free from corruption and nepotism by the end of the next decade. Whether it sticks to it promises and leads the country to a prosperous future only time can tell.

Not Child's Play

2010-01-18T18:18:00.004+06:00

With the advent of the Internet and mobile phones the number of Bangladeshis visiting pornographic websites is increasing. Sometimes children are featured in these lurid videos; teenagers also download these sexually explicit scenes and pass it on to their friends. There have been occasions when girl students killed themselves when footages of their self shot nude videos or scenes of their sexual acts were caught on hidden camera and were published on the net. There is no strong law in the country to protect children from the threat of porn. New laws and a social movement against pornography is now the demand of the time.

Bangladesh woke up to the nightmare of 'homemade deshi porn' in 2001 when Suman, a Bangladeshi-born American, came to the country and videoed his sexual acts with three local women. Unaware of the presence of the camera, the women fell into Suman's love trap and were shot in compromising postures. The CDs which hit the market later on carried a commentary that degraded the women. A general diary was lodged, but by that time Suman and his lone accomplice had fled the country; the CDs started to be sold in the shops; of the three women, one has left the country, the other two still bear the shame of being exposed publicly in such a way.

Suman's is not the only scandal to plague the country's CD scene. Taking the advantage of cameras in mobile phones, intimate details of individuals are videoed, sometimes with the consent of willing female friends, only to be leaked into the market. Last week, Shobuj (name changed), a ninth grader at a reputed English medium school in Uttara, was caught at school with a CD. "We have gone through it and to our utter horror we have found that it contains explicit scenes of some of our male and female students," says the Principal of the school who wants to remain anonymous.

The Principal thinks it is difficult to handle what she calls 'this new nuisance', as modern technology, like a double-edged sword, has both good and bad sides. "We have banned cell phones at school, but parents complain that without the phone it becomes impossible for them to contact their children in times of need," she says.

Manusher Jonno Foundation, a non-government organisation, has conducted an extensive survey in the country on child pornography. Its report says, " Watching naked pictures through mobile phone is found to be a common trend among the children (covered by the survey). According to some children, they enjoy bad songs by mobile phone. Also, children are found to exchange porno pictures through mobile phone." The report, quoting an owner of a cyber café, says that a boy and a girl of a reputed school of Dhaka recorded their own sex act and sent it to others by MMS.

"Pornography is spreading among the children mostly by the friends through chatting; drawing curiosity on sex or by peer pressure that insist them to view porno picture or movie considering it as a part of their smartness and adulthood," the report says, "Sometimes they simply follow their seniors at school or college. It is noticeable from their discussion that considering growing demand porno movies are prepared in large scale inside the country too and the children are aware about these web sites."

The children who indulge themselves in such activities just for the fun of it know little about the ramifications of their actions. Shobuj says that he has got the videos through the blue-tooth of his friends' mobiles and has made a CD of all the videos because he wants to see them together.

Some of these videos hardly remain a private affair. "There are several ways a video tape can be leaked," says Shanto, a dealer in porn, who only uses his first name, "We mostly get the porn from computer repair shops, where people send their PCs to be fixed."

He runs a bustling shop at the heart of the city's Hatirpool area and his clientele include 13-year-old school goers to 70-year-old retired civil servants. He says that his collections are the best in town; while some of the CDs show Bangladeshi men and women having sex, the rest contain scenes where children as young as 14 are either shown nude or are making love to each other. Asked whether he knows that selling porn is illegal, he replies, "There are many things, which are illegal, smoking in a public place is one, why don't you go and arrest the person who is smoking in front of my shop? I am merely doing entertainment business. If people feel happy after watching my CDs what's wrong with it?"

However innocent Shanto wants to make his trade sound, only a few months ago pornography has taken the life of a young woman in Gazipur. The girl fell in love with a young man of her age and they had sex in a hotel room. Little did they know that the hotelier runs a secret racket of pornographers who kept a hidden camera in the room. Soon the video made its way into the Internet and within days it became the talk of the town. The girl committed suicide by hanging herself from the ceiling fan.

Her family has not yet filed a case with the police, as it will expose its members to further humiliation. "After the video was uploaded on the net, my daughter's friends started to avoid her. There were whispers on the streets. One day she came back from her college and locked herself up. If only I knew!" Nasreen Akhter (name changed), the girl's mother, says.

Her suicide and an attempted suicide of another girl have prompted the police to request the ban on 84 websites carrying nude photographs and sexually explicit video clips of Bangladeshi girls. In fact there are certain websites on the Internet, which are solely dedicated to Bangladeshi child porn. Shanto says that some of the CDs that he sells are downloaded from the net. In its report on child porn, Manusher Jonno Foundation says, "Few students shared that they and their friends searched for porno pictures through Internet and visited porno websites. They said that they visited cyber cafés and downloaded pictures through their pen drive and later it installed them in their personal computer to watch secretly at home. Some students said that at present mobile phone is being used commonly to download porno pictures, as it is easy to install."

As the net is not easily accessible for most young adults, some go to the cyber cafés only to download nude photographs and videos from adult sites. Sometimes they go through Facebook or other social networking sites to download revealing photographs of girls. Some of them even upload their own photos on these web pages and anyone can download and use them.

Borhanuddin Lascar, owner of such a café confesses that most of his clients are students. He however refuses to accept that most of them use his facilities to search for porn; "Sometimes they come to google for important assignments that they have to prepare for their studies. It's true that some succumb to the allure of pornography; I cannot do anything about it. I have no way to track down whether my clients are doing research or watching porn on an adult site," Lascar says.

In fact, there is no cyber café in the city that monitors the activities of its clients; neither do they track the activities of their children or underage customers. Exposure to porn at an early age can wreak havoc on a child's psyche. A child can grow up being aggressive, he might grow to degrade women and can see them merely as sexual objects. Psychologists believe that watching porn at an early age can give a child twisted ideas about sexuality, harming his sexual life when he grows up.

Eminent lawyer Barrister Mokhsedul Islam considers child porn a big problem and he finds the police request to ban websites ludicrous as he thinks that whenever and wherever the police find any such website it must immediately block it: "What is the point of asking permission?" Barrister Islam asks.

Many young people go to cyber cafés to see x-rated films, as there is no system of monitoring the activities of clients.

He thinks existing laws are not adequate to deal with pornography, let alone help the children who have fallen victim to porn. In Bangladesh the law that directly deals with porn is 149 years old, and there is no wonder that it does not cover the Internet or Multi-media Messages. Section 292 of the Penal Code defines porn as "obscene book, pamphlet, paper, drawing, painting, representation or figure or any other obscene object whatsoever", and hands down prison sentences up to six months to a person who sells, lets to hire, distributes, exhibits or circulates to "any person under the age of twenty years".

Section 292 does not even mention children, and lawyer Barrister Raghib Rauf Chowdhury finds it poorly made to fight the rising menace of child pornography. The Children Act 1974 does not cover child pornography and the act which does: Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Act 2006: does not specifically mention any offence committed by or against the juveniles. "If you talk about pornography in general there is no law that singularly deals with it. Even the Children Act does not carry severe punishment. The ICT Act carries sever punishment with a prison sentence of up to 10 years and a fine of up to Tk 1 crore. But the law is not clear enough to cover the situation that we are dealing with nowadays," Barrister Chowdhury says.

He says that of late he has come across an incident where a girl is threatened by her ex-lover that he is going to publish all her photographs online as their relationship has broken up. "It has become so rampant that new laws need to be enacted," Barrister Chowdhury says.

According to the 57/1 of ICT Act a person will be considered guilty if he willingly publishes or transmits anything untrue or vulgar on the internet or in any other electronic format or after reading or hearing of which a person becomes inspired to become corrupt or dishonest; or anything that can cause defamation; deterioration of law and order; or can create a situation that may lead to the deterioration of law and order; or can harm the image of a person or state; or hurt the religious sentiments; or can give incite against any individual or organisation.

The law is inadequate to fight child pornography.
Barrister Chowdhury thinks the ICT Act is meant more for the television channels than the pornographers or owners of pornographic sites. Colonel Mizanur Rahman Khan, Additional Director General of the Rapid Action Battalion (Rab), agrees. He says, "If the law were strong, the criminals would have thought twice before starting their dastardly acts. A stringent law that will curb cyber crime with an iron hand is the demand of the time."

Col Khan, a father himself, thinks to give or not to give mobile phone to one's child is one of the toughest challenges that a parent faces nowadays. "When I was a teenager, we used to go to school early in the morning and get back home in the evening after playing in the field. There was no security concern at the time, my parents were sure where we were; they knew that we were safe and sound. But it is not the same now, I always worry when my child goes out of home and because of the cell phone I can communicate with my child," he says.

Yet he thinks, except for the blessings part, mobile phone is also a curse in disguise. "Only a few days ago the Rab has caught some criminals from Farmgate who were uploading porn on mobile phones at 200 taka per cell phones. We act whenever we get a whiff of porn," Col Khan says.

One of the prized feathers in Rab's crown is the arrests of some criminals who, as a gang, were kidnapping and raping young girls and videoed their acts. Acting on a tip off the elite crime-busting unit nabbed all the criminals of the group, which was stationed in Savar. "It is a social crime and whenever we find any crime we act promptly," Col Khan says.

He believes that as it is a social crime, Rab is not enough to handle it. He thinks a social movement is needed to make people aware against child porn. "After we have raised the issue of yaba, the newspapers have taken up the issue and our joint efforts have kept the use of this illegal substance to the bare minimum," he says.

Col Khan also suggests strong vigilance of the law enforcing agencies. On top of it all he puts the outmost emphasis on making children and young adults aware of the tentacles of pornography. "At the end of the day only a social movement can raise awareness against child porn, as law enforcers we can only kill the source, but if the demand is there the many-headed monster of porn can creep up again in a different form," he says.

The Original Sin

2010-01-18T18:17:00.003+06:00

It has been more than a mere trial. On August 15, 1975, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, along with 13 members of his family, was brutally murdered by a bunch of disgruntled, degenerate members of the Army. Obstacles were created to bar the trial of the killers, not only that, Zia, Ershad and Khaleda governments gave them protection and diplomatic jobs, creating a society where killers of innocent men, women and children can go scot-free. It has taken the nation 34 long years to bring Bangabandhu's 12 killers to book. Last week's Supreme Court verdict is a giant step towards establishment of a society based on democracy and the rule of law.

Barrister Sheikh Fazle Noor Taposh, one of the three survivors of the August mayhem, will never forget the dawn of August 15, 1975. Taposh, who was around four years old at that time, was sleeping in his room with his brother when he heard his father's footsteps in the stairs. Sheikh Fazlul Haq Moni, one of the organisers of the Liberation War was going downstairs to pick up "the day's newspaper or a book", Taposh could not quite recall. As he reached the landing space of the stairs, a bunch of killers led by Risaldar Moslehuddin got hold of him. Moni, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's nephew, was told to walk ahead. "You are under arrest," said the Risaldar.

"Meanwhile, my mother came down," says Taposh, "Before the killers fired at my father, in an attempt to save him, my mother came before the gun and both were shot." She was seven-months pregnant at the time of the killing.

Taposh and his elder brother were eyewitnesses to one of the grisliest and barbaric murders in human history. "After the massacre, Mrs Fatema Selim, one of our aunts, took us to a safe house, telling us that it was not safe to stay in that house any more," Taposh says.

He was completely devastated. "Even though I was a mere toddler at that time I knew what I had lost," Taposh says. He and his brother have been lucky because within a few hours after the murders, the killers came back looking for Moni's two sons that they had orphaned.

Taposh still bears the trauma of the loss. "I won't be able to tell you what I feel. Parents are a person's biggest assets. I miss them in every step of my life's successes and failures, achievements and defeats," he says. Taposh, who has recently survived an assassination attempt, says that he missed his father when he first became a barrister.

The first attack on the night of August 15 was launched on Abdur Rab Serniabat's house. In the 20-minute-long killing spree that ensued, the murderers killed Serniabat, his wife, daughters and three minor members of his family. Serniabat's son Abul Hasnat Abdullah, a survivor in the family who has luckily escaped on that frightful night, told a British journalist, “I later saw my wife, mother and 20-year-old sister badly wounded and bleeding." He says that his two young daughters, uninjured, were sobbing behind a sofa where they had hidden during the massacre. Lying dead on the floor were his 5-year-old son, two sisters aged 10 and 15 and his 11-year old brother, the family ayah (maid), a house-boy and his cousin Shahidul Islam Serniabat.

On the night of August 15, 1975, the killers divided themselves into several groups. The first one, led by Lt Col (then Major) SHBM Nur Chowdhury and Lt Colonel (then Major) Mohiuddin Ahmed, went to the historic house at Dhanmandi road no 32. The second group, assigned to kill Abdur Rab Serniabat and his family members, was led by Major Dalim, and Risaldar Moslehuddin Khan led the third group, which launched an attack on Sheikh Fazlul Haq Moni's house.

Gen. Zia (extreme left), the then second in command of Bangladesh Army at Khondokar Moshtaque's oath-taking ceremony.

When the massacre was going on at Serniabat household, Bangabandhu got a call from the house. "Get the police control room," he told his personal assistant Muhitul Islam. When he could get neither the police station nor the Ganobhaban Exchange, Bangabandhu himself tried to make a call. A hail of bullets poured in and Mujib told Islam to duck under the table. A few minutes later Bangabandhu got up and went out to the veranda. Meanwhile, the butchers had already killed Sheikh Kamal and Sheikh Jamal. By that time Major Mohiuddin took Bangabandhu to the landing of the stairs. Nur appeared in the corner and said something to Mohiuddin, to which the latter moved to one side. "What do you want?" Bangabandhu asked. There was silence. Nur and Major Huda then simultaneously fired volleys of bullets from their Sten guns. Bangabandhu's whole body twisted back and slipped to the landing of the stairs. It was 5.40 in the morning. Mujib's death could not quench the blood-thirst of the murderers, Begum Fazilatunnesa Mujib, Bangabandhu's wife, embraced martyrdom within a few minutes. The killers then went into one room after the other and killed Bangabandhu's two daughters-in-law.

The killers looked for Sheikh Russell, Bangabandhu's 10-year-old son, and found him in a corner. "I want to go to my mother," Russell, merely a toddler, cried. "We are taking you to her," said one of the killers and took him to first floor. There were volleys of gunshots.

Khandakar Moshtaque Ahmed, who declared himself President on August 15 following Bangabandhu's brutal assassination, on 26th September promulgated an ordinance indemnifying the killers. The Ordinance was promulgated, as the Bangladesh Gazette dated that day says, “ to restrict the taking of any legal or other proceedings in respect of certain acts or things in connection with, or in preparation or execution of any plan for, or steps necessitating, the historical change and the Proclamation of Martial Law on the morning of 15th August, 1975.”

The murders have been brutal and barbaric as it is, but to indemnify the killers of pregnant women and children have been something unheard of. With the brutal and barbaric murders of August 15, Bangladesh, as a nation, plunged into an abyss of darkness. Within nine days of the mayhem, the then Army Chief Gen Shafiullah was sent into retirement and was replaced by his second-in-command Gen Ziaur Rahman. Since then, except for the four days of November 3-7, 1975, Zia was at the centre of power. There has been widespread allegation that Gen Zia gave the killers the go-ahead to assassinate Mujib and his family. Lt Col (dismissed) Farooq, in a confessional statement given to the trial court on December 19, 1996 said that Lt Col (retd) Sultan Shahrier Rashid Khan told him prior to the massacre that Zia would support them if Mujib was killed.

"There are multilateral dimensions to the conspiracy," says Syed Anwar Husain, professor of History at University of Dhaka. He says that there is evidence, however a little bit peripheral, to suggest Zia's involvement in the August massacre. "This evidence arises out of his perfunctory reaction upon being informed that Bangabandhu was killed. Zia replied, 'President is killed, so what? The Vice President is there. Uphold the constitution'."

These staccato sentences, Professor Anwar says, when analysed together, lead to disturbing conclusions. "Firstly," he says, "it appeared that he took this very barbaric and dastardly incident very lightly, meaning he had a foreknowledge of the happenings." He also says that Zia said the right thing by urging everyone to uphold the constitution under such abnormal circumstances. "Anybody in a responsible position could have said the same thing; but the core statement, which makes us suspicious is: 'So what?'"

In fact, it was Zia who incorporated the infamous Indemnity Ordinance into the constitution, constitutionally protecting the killers of innocent men, women and children. "Zia was at the forefront of all the beneficiaries of this tragic happening. He was the man who did everything to shield the killers from any legal process and he also managed to provide them with safe passages out of the country," Professor Anwar says.

In fact, Zia's assumption of power was coated with the blood of the martyrs of the August 15 mayhem. The killers have found a benevolent friend in Gen Ziaur Rahman-- he gave them diplomatic jobs, legal protection by incorporating the Indemnity Ordinance into the constitution at his own rubber-stamp, pet parliament.

Even though Bangabandhu's killers are about to walk the gallows in a month, Zia's involvement in the August carnage waits to be unearthed. The murders gave birth to a string of bloody coups and counter-coups. There was a government in Dhaka, but there had been alternative centres of powers at different times in the months of August, September, October and November, 1975.

The culture of coup, conspiracy and murder that was given birth to in 1975, continued. Zia himself survived several coup attempts, all of which he suppressed with an iron hand. During Zia's regime there had been several trials for launching coups, and interestingly in most of the cases those who were on the dock were army officers who fought during the Liberation War; but for the August 15 killers waited only government benefits. On May 30, 1981, Zia himself became a victim of coup; he was assassinated in Chittagong. And those who were put to trial before a martial law court were also freedom fighter officers of the Bangladesh Army. It seemed as though a conspiracy had been hatched to purge the army of Muktijoddha officers.

Bangabandhu's murder has destroyed all the major democratic institutions of the country. Judiciary, in the hands of different military dictators, was used to legitimise the latter's illegal hold on power. Elections became a joke, and one of the worst victims of the August 15 mayhem has been the Armed Forces of the country. For 15 long years the nation was rattled by a culture of killing and impunity that started through the massacres of August 15; and our Army was no exception. Militarisation of governance has done no country any good, and as a result of it both the Army and the country's wobbling democracy suffered.

In 1990, the Armed Forces took the courageous stance of refusing to obey the dictatorial regime of General HM Ershad. During the mass upsurge, at the fag end of Ershad's regime, the army high command refused to fire on the masses that took to the street to bring down Ershad's illegal rule. The mass movement paved the way to restoration of democracy, which we had lost on August 15, 1975 through the brutal murder of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

Khaleda Zia, Ziaur Rahman's widow, who assumed power after democracy was restored in 1991, kept her late husband's policy regarding the killers unaltered. In the February 15, 1996 general elections, held when Khaleda was in office, Khandaker Abdur Rashid, one of the self-confessed killers of the Father of the Nation, was elected uncontested. And the subsequent governments that followed the carnage have all had their fair shares in abetting the killings. One of the basic tenants of democracy is the rule of law and as they did not hold trial of the killers of innocent, unarmed men, women and children, the basis on which Zia, Ershad and Khaleda regimes held power was immoral, if not illegal.

Khaleda Zia's sympathy for Mujib's killers can only be explained if clear evidence of Zia's hand in Mujib murder can be found. Not only did Khaleda follow her late husband's policy on the killers, during her second term in office the Mujib murder case was deliberately stalled through the creation of one government-made obstacle after the other. Zia helped the killers flee: Khaleda made their trial difficult.

The trial of the killers, done in a free and transparent manner, finally ended last week, 34 years after the murders. The Awami League government deserves kudos for not tampering with justice, keeping the judicial system free from undue influences. Last week's Supreme Court verdict that upheld the death penalty of Bangabandhu's 12 killers is immensely significant on several counts. It proves that no matter how long it is or how well protected the killers are, there is no law in the country that can save murderers of innocent men and women. To establish a society based on the basic tenants of the rule of law it is a must that killers are punished; and that is exactly what has happened through the Supreme Court verdict. During the era of military dictatorships, there are several instances where judges, at gunpoint, had to legitimise the despotic rules of different military dictators. This verdict has also absolved the highest court of the land of its previous sins.

Last week our Supreme Court has at last given us the opportunity of heaving a collective sigh of relief. The dark era of misrule, abuse of power and impunity that has prevailed over the years has come to an end. We demand a quick execution of the verdict, with which we also wish to move on as a nation towards the establishment of Golden Bengal that Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman had dreamt of but could not achieve. Our goal should now be to build a happy and prosperous nation. Establishment of a country based on rule of law, democratic values, and social and economic justice is perhaps the biggest tribute we can pay to our Father of the Nation.

All is not Quiet on the Eastern Front

2010-01-18T18:16:00.003+06:00

Bangladesh's relations with its eastern neighbour have hit an all time low

Since General Ne Win deposed the country's elected government in a bloodless coup in 1950, Myanmar (Burma) has remained one of the hermit kingdoms of the world. The country has kept itself isolated from rest of the world, and even though it borders Bangladesh, Myanmar has never occupied the attention at the policymaking level that it deserves.

Bangladesh woke up to the reality in early January 2001 when Myanmar started to build a dam on the upper stream of the Naaf River, which constitutes a large part of 340-kilometre long Bangladesh-Myanmar border. Exchanges of fire took place and in the midst of it all, Myanmar pushed in thousands of its ethnic Rohingyas whom the junta had evicted from its Rakhine State. The country stopped building the dam after two battalions of Bangladesh Rifles were posted there, but the Myanmarese generals are still to take all the Rohingyas back.

Meanwhile, those who were giving Myanmar a serious head at Bangladesh's Foreign Affairs Ministry in Segunbagicha again went back to a long slumber. It was rudely broken last year in November when two Myanmarese warships intruded into Bangladesh's waters to build an oilrig. Bangladesh Navy sent its own warship BNS Abu Bakar to thwart the intrusion, which was aided by intense diplomatic manoeuvring.

Myanmar retreated only to come back this autumn, a time when the sea remains tranquil. The country's generals, between last November and this year's August, have augmented its collection of weapons by buying missiles from countries as diverse as China, North Korea, Russia and Bulgaria. Of these ammos, the most lethal is perhaps North Korean Taep'o-dong-2, which is weighed 79,189 kg with a range of 4,000 kilometres, making Tatmadaw, the Myanmar Army, capable of striking anywhere in Bangladesh.

Imtiaz Ahmed, professor of International Relations at the University of Dhaka, thinks if the news is true then Bangladesh should raise the matter to different international forums so that the junta does not spring a surprise on us. "Equipping ourselves (militarily) should be our first priority now," he says.

In early January 2001 Myanmar started to build a dam on the upper stream of the Naaf River.

All is now not well on Bangladesh's eastern front-- the generals in Naypyidaw started to send troops to the country's border last month and by October 18 its total military strength stands at a whopping 50,000, not to mention the 50 tanks, anti-aircraft batteries it has kept at hand. Two divisions of the army are ready, armed to the teeth, as back-up only 50 miles off the Naaf.

While Myanmar is building up troops, Bangladesh Foreign Ministry has categorically denied any unusual Myanmarese troops reinforcement across the border. Foreign Minster Dipu Moni has told journalists that she cannot confirm the news. " "I had talks with our ambassador, an army officer, in Myanmar and he told me that it is a routine practice," she said, adding, “Foreign Secretary Mijarul Quayes also called the Myanmar ambassador in Dhaka and the envoy conveyed him the same message," she has said.

Reality, however, does not reflect Dipu Moni's claim: Bangladesh Army, however belatedly, has started a massive deployment titled "Operation Nishchidro Prachir" (Operation Fortress), which has seen the country's military presence strengthened.

National security expert Brig Gen Shahedul Anam Khan ndc, psc (rtd) criticises Dipu Moni's comment as "rather strange". He says, "Moving such a large element of a conventional force is not routine movement and is certainly against the norms of border management. Any such movement within a particular distance from the border, as agreed upon by the two sides, has to be notified to the other well in advance. One wonders whether that was done."

Gen Anam says Bangladesh's military strategists have unnecessarily remained indifferent to Myanmar's military ambition. "We have always considered the country (Myanmar) a doormat," he says, "but, now what?" He says that while we had been neglecting Myanmar and did not even consider it worth evaluating its threat potentials, the government in Yangon had been building up its military to a point that has now reversed the force balance in favour of Myanmar by a factor, on the average, of 1:3.

A leaked Bangladesh Rifles document obtained by The Daily Star suggests that the Myanmarese junta has sets its eyes on Bangladesh's St Martin's Island, which is strategically located on the tip of the Bay of Bengal. The report, which has been sent to the government, identifies the island as the main target of the Myanmarese attack should a full-blown conflict breaks out.

Gen Anam thinks it is high time that Bangladesh prepares itself to safeguard its national economic interests by properly arming itself. " One would like to think that the rulers in Yangon understand that coercion or use of force will not help resolve matters. Outstanding issues should be resolved through discussions."

Professor Ahmed thinks the government should take the issue of troops build-up to different regional and international forums. "We can engage different regional and international partners like China with us," he says.

Myanmar, however, has recently assured Bangladesh that its recent activities at the border is routine and Bangladesh has nothing to worry about. Professor Ahmed remains sceptical though; "It is very difficult to trust a dictatorship," he says, "there is no civil society in Myanmar, there is no independent media in that country. As there are no checks and balances, it is hard to take them at face value."

Without any shred of democracy or rule of law, Myanmar poses one of the greatest diplomatic challenges that the Hasina government has faced in its new term in office. Dhaka has to work through its intricate network of friends to create a peaceful solution to the crisis, and should negotiations fail, it must be ready to do what best the country, its people and its armed forces can do to safeguard its political and economic sovereignty.

Forgotten Friends

2010-01-18T18:15:00.002+06:00

From India to Edward Kennedy, many nations and individuals had helped Bangladesh during its War of Liberation. Thirty-eight years after its independence, the country is yet to recognise many of its friends who helped its cause at a time when help was badly needed.

On a dark night of 1962 Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, befooling the Pakistani border security guards, crossed the India-Pakistan border at Comilla. Bangabandhu was arrested by the members of the Border Security Force (BSF), and was taken to the nearby police station. Mujib made a call to the District Magistrate (DM) and told him that a plane was supposed to be waiting for him at the airport to take him to Delhi. Throughout 1962, Mujib had been secretly talking to the Indian government officials at the country's Deputy High Commission in Dhaka. Masterminded by Bangabandhu himself, the plan was for the independence of East Pakistan-- Bengali officers and jawans of the Pakistan Army and East Pakistan Rifles would lead an armed uprising to liberate the country from Pakistan; Awami League was going to be at the forefront of the struggle. Bangabandhu secretly crossed the border on January 27 in the hope of going to Delhi to put his plan before the Indian premier. Unaware of Mujib's visit, the DM at Agartala told Bangabandhu to go back home as neither the Deputy High Commission nor Delhi had informed him of Mujib's sojourn. Mujib was dropped near the border, where he sneaked into Comilla again. Six years later, the Pakistan government charged Mujib with sedition, saying that he had hatched a conspiracy in Agartala to create a separate nation.

Indira Gandhi
In fact, Indian hand in Bangladesh's independence can be traced back as far away as 1962. The country was closely watching the political developments on its eastern frontier, and when the Pakistan Army launched Operation Searchlight on the night of March 25, 1971, India was quick to react. From the morning of March 26, Indian government-run radio station Akashbani stopped their regular programmes and repeatedly announced the news of the massacre in Dhaka: "'Civil war has started in East Pakistan,' it declared," says Abul Fateh who tuned into the station at 12 in the morning that day, "it was so reassuring to hear the news amidst the death and destruction."

More reassuring was the song that followed the news snippets. At the dawn of the darkest of night in the history of the Bengali nation Akashbani played Amar Shonar Bangla, Ami Tomae Bhalobashi (My Golden Bengal, I adore you), which later became Bangladesh's national anthem. "We were overjoyed. This one song has given us courage, hope and the dream to fight on," Abul says.

On March 27, Tajuddin Ahmed and other leaders of the Awami League crossed the border and were received with due honour by the BSF. They met the then Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in Delhi. Tajuddin was assured of all help that his fledgling nation needed. “We had Mujib's declaration…Zia's declaration on independence. When the refugees started coming in, I was standing on the border… they were in a very shocking state. Soon we started getting more and more refugees and the government of India decided that we should help the Muktibahini, the freedom fighters,” says Lt Gen (rtd) JFR Jacob, former chief of the Indian Army.

Two days after Tajuddin's arrival, Indira Gandhi declared that India would open its border and welcome Bengali refugees to its soil. "It was an unprecedented decision, for countries usually close its borders when refugees pour in," says Shahriar Kabir, who is researching on India's involvement in Bangladesh's Liberation War.

On March 31, Indira Gandhi herself moved a resolution in the parliament, which went: "The House records its profound conviction that the historic upsurge of the 75 million people of East Pakistan will triumph. The House wishes to assure them that their struggle and sacrifices will receive the wholehearted sympathy and support of the people of India."

Indian help increased as the number of refugees flooded Salt Lake and Agartala. In the first week of April India had started arming the freedom fighters, it got a momentum after the Bangladesh government in exile was formed on April 17 in Mujibnagar, Meherpur. Not only that India also sent its own troops in guise of freedom fighters to fight for the cause of Bangladesh, long before it formally recognised Bangladesh's sovereignty. "Officially," says Kabir, "India joined the war on December 3. But India had always sent its own army men to East Pakistan to fight alongside the Muktijoddhas." In fact, on May 15, the Indian Army launched an operation codenamed 'Operation Jackpot'. It coordinated 30,000 regular soldiers and 100,000 guerrillas who effectively destroyed the infrastructure of the Pakistan Army.

Even though Lt Gen Jacob puts Indian death toll at 1,400; unofficially, Kabir says, it could be as high as 20,000. "Pakistan Army arrested many Indian soldiers in March-November and paraded them before TV cameras," says Kabir, "and all of them were Indian jawans who infiltrated into East Pakistan to fight for Bangladesh." On the diplomatic front Bangladesh got a huge boost thanks again to a whirlwind tour that Indira Gandhi had made to the Western European capitals. By the time her trip was over, Bangladesh had the support of the people of Britain, France, Germany and Austria by its side.

The Soviet Union and its friends, meanwhile, supplied the Muktibahini with arms and military logistics and in mid November the combined strength of the freedom fighters stood at 1,49,000 compared to Pakistani strength of 85,000. At the fag end of the Bangladesh War, the Soviets vetoed thrice at the United Nations against proposals opposing Bangladesh's independence.

US Senator Edward Kennedy, Congressman Cornelius Edward Gallagher played a crucial role in creating opinion in favour of Bangladesh; singers Ravi Shankar, George Harrison and Joan Boaz staged the famous Concert for Bangladesh to raise funds for Bangladeshi refugees; French author André Malraux championed Bangladesh's cause across Europe. But Indians beat them all: in 1971, Indian actress Waheeda Rahman, famous for her roles in 'Kaagaz Ke Phool' and 'Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam', donated signing money of all her films to Bangladesh Shohaok Samiti (Bangladesh Assistance Association), Oscar-winning director Satyajit Ray raised money for the organisation. Artist Maqbool Fida Hussain exhibited his works on the streets of Bombay and donated the earnings.

On December 3, sensing defeat, the Pakistan Army launched Operation Chengiz Khan, a pre-emptive air strike on Indian airbases in Amritsar, Ambala, Agra, Awantipur, Bikaner, Halwara, Jodhpur, Jaisalmer, Pathankot, Srinagar and Uttarlai. The operation ended miserably and only spelled disaster for the Pakistan Army both on its eastern and western wings-- India declared war on Pakistan; Bhutan recognised Bangladesh on December 6; India followed suit. The next day, India launched a final military push towards Dhaka and within 14 days, the great Pakistan military establishment was on its knees on the Race Course of Dhaka.

Thirty-eight years after its independence, Bangladesh is yet to honour the help that Indira Gandhi had given us when as a nation we plunged into an abyss of darkness. "Bangladesh should name a street after her and Edward Kennedy," Abul says. The government can also erect a monument to honour the Indian soldiers who laid down their lives for Bangladesh's independence. Those who fought in the war can be given an honorary medal. "Bangladesh should also give honorary citizenship to the foreign fighters who fought alongside the Muktijoddhas," he says, "Such token gestures could be a small way of showing our gratitude."

Axis of Evil

2010-01-18T18:13:00.002+06:00

Growing diplomatic and military ties between Myanmar and North Korea pose a security threat for Bangladesh and other Southeast Asian nations

Gen Shwe Mann, right, and a North Korean officer exchange a gift at an air force unit. Shwe Mann (left) and Gen Kim Gyok-sik exchange copies of a memorandum of understanding at the Defence Ministry.
It is indeed a marriage of convenience. Myanmar (Burma), which has been under a vile military dictatorship, has lately reached out to North Korea, which is ruled by the hegemonic rule Kim Jong-il. The relationship between these two countries, however, has never been smooth: even though Myanmar got independence in 1947, and North Korea in 1948, Rangoon and Pyongyang exchanged emissaries as late as in 1974. The friendship lasted no more than nine years; Rangoon severed all diplomatic ties with Pyongyang when some North Korean operatives carried out an attack in Myanmar on South Korean President Chun Doo Hwan.

Both the countries set up embassies in each others' capitals two years ago and since then military ties between Myanmar and North Korea has grown at an alarming rate, so much so that US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has called it "destabilising for the region". She has said that, "It would pose a direct threat to Burma's neighbours." The irony however, does not escape us: even though Myanmar is an impoverished nation of 50,020,000, whose economy grows at 2.9 per cent a year, one of the lowest in the region, 40 percent of its budget is spent on defence. Military rulers, as the history of the world suggests, are always plagued with paranoia and Myanmar's Generals are no exception. Faced with the prospect of being overthrown by its own people, the Generals have shifted the capital to Naypyidaw. A string of leaked photos and documents received by The Star suggests that the Myanmarese Generals are under this impression that a 'foreign force' is going to invade the country through the Irrawaddy delta, which borders Bangladesh. A photo of a recent briefing of the Myanmarese Army on the National Air Defence Command System show that senior commanders think that foreign ships and naval vessels will launch an attack on the country's army through the region.

A briefing on the National Air Defense Command System to Burmese (background projector shows lower part of Burma and part of the Irrawaddy delta where the regime believes foreign forces and naval ships would enter Burma.
Both North Korea and Myanmar have certain things in common though, and it is indeed surprising that it has taken so long for both the countries, shunned by the world for their disrespect for human rights and rule of law, to have made friends with each other. Ne Win, who usurped power in Myanmar in 1962 and died in 1988, was an ardent advocate of what he called the 'Burmese way of socialism'. It eerily resembles Kim Il-sung (who died in 1994 and till date is called the 'Eternal President of the Republic') who, when he was alive, called his version of dictatorship as the Juche way to socialism.

Even though Myanmar and North Korea have re-established ties after 25 years, there are signs that the Myanmar junta is all praise for its Korean counterpart's infamous 'Songun (military first) policy'. In November last year, North Korean Deputy Foreign Minister Kim Young Il paid a visit to Myanmar to sign a free visa agreement. The year witnessed five visits by Myanmarese government officials to the hermit kingdom, which since Kim Il-sung's death in 1994, is ruled by his son Kim Jong Il. According to a report run by the Korean Central Agency, Yangon (Rangoon) Mayor Brigadier General Aung Thein Linn, in a visit to North Korea last year, heartily praised the Songun policy. The enthusiasm in Korean militaristic chauvinism shows that the Myanmarese junta is planning to replicate the North Korean model in its own country.

The most significant of all the visits took place in November last year when Than Shwe, the head of state of Myanmar and Commander-in-Chief of the Tatmadaw (Myanmarese Army) went to Pyongyang last November. On his shopping list were: the technology for building tunnels, aircraft, naval ships and missiles ranged 500-1,000 kilometres. According to the Irrawaddy, a newsmagazine run by Myanmarese in exile, the junta is planning to build Scud-D, E and F missiles. Recently the Japanese government has intercepted the supply of magnetic measuring device that is used to build long-range ballistic missile system; the shipment was made to Myanmar. A raid made by the country's police suggests that North Korea has already transferred the Taep'o-dong-2 equipment to Myanmar. If the news is true, Bangladesh's national defence system is in danger. Weighed 79,189 kg, Taep'o-dong-2 is the longest of North Korean missiles--it is thought to have a range of 4,000 kilometres, which means the entire Bangladesh will be under its range. Worst still, it can carry nuclear warheads.

In fact, the Myanmarese junta has already bought short and medium range ballistic missiles (SRMBs) from China and North Korea, SRMB air defence system from Russia, low altitude surface-to-surface missiles from Ukraine and Bulgaria. Recent intelligence reports suggest that the country is also building an intricate network of tunnels across the country to supply ammos and troops in a possible war with the help of the North Koreans. The project, bombastically titled People's Militia Strategic Operation, has its headquarters in the capital and is thought to be lined with bombproof materials. One of these tunnels, housed under the Pyinmana road, can accommodate 1000 soldiers for several months.

Bangladesh needs to take Myanmar's recent military ambition seriously. The country's relationship with its eastern neighbour remains unstable, and the latest developments in Naypyidaw are particularly alarming on more than one count. Myanmar under the leadership of the ruling Generals is a prison for small ethnic minorities. In 1988, the regime forcibly evicted 300,000 of the country's minority Rohingya Muslims who fled to Bangladesh, creating a major humanitarian disaster. In November last year, a fleet of Myanmarese naval ships illegally entered into Bangladesh territory in the Bay of Bengal, an area which is rich in oil, gas and other mineral resources. Bangladesh Navy has repulsed the intrusion, Myanmar, now armed with new military hardware, can turn up again this winter to lay claim to the disputed territory, says an intelligent report.

All the telltale signs are there: last month the Myanmar Army arrived in the bordering Mongdu and Alitanjo and forcibly acquired around 1,000 acres of arable land from the ethnic Rohingyas to distribute it among the Buddhist citizens of Mongdu. The Army has also told the Rohingyas of the country's Sectors 6 and 7 to go to the hills or to take refuge in Bangladesh.

At the same time Myanmar is building its military presence across the border. It has deployed a new string of missiles; in the Arakan state alone the Army's strength stands at 500,000. To make it even worse, Bangladesh's border with Myanmar has remained ill guarded, especially after the Pilkhana carnage. Kaptai power station, which, should the border skirmishes turn into a large-scale conflict, will become a natural target, is not properly shielded from a possible enemy fire. Compared to Myanmar's newly bought military hardware, Bangladesh is lagging far behind.

As a nation that loves democracy and freedom, Bangladesh must take the issue of Myanmar's appalling human rights record to the international level. The country also needs to hold joint patrol exercises with countries like the US, UK and Australia. The free world must also look at Myanmar, where a despotic insane regime has held Aung San Suu Kyi, the elected premier of the country in prison for the last 14 years. In fact, the Myanmarese junta's growing fondness of the North Korean regime spells disaster for the region, especially for neighbours like Bangladesh and Thailand. Bangladesh's ultimate aim should be to get rid of the thorn that has been refusing to go away. As it cannot do away with it alone, it can seek the help of those who wish to do the same. Myanmar under the Generals is risky as it is; the junta's North Korean connection calls for immediate action.

Giving Recognition

2009-08-29T16:47:00.003+07:00

After taking stock of its geo-political impact, Bangladesh should quickly give diplomatic recognition to Kosovo

Tiny Balkan republic of Kosovo hit the newspaper headlines of the country last week when Foreign Secretary Mijarul Quayes told the press that Dhaka was not yet ready to give recognition to Kosovo, which declared independence from Serbia in 2008.

Even though 62 countries have so far recognised Kosovo, of which include some big guns of the Muslim world, Bangladesh has been flip-flopping on the issue for the last 18 months. In June last year, the then Chief Adviser Dr Fakhruddin Ahmed said that Bangladesh would recognise the "new European country"; he also went on to say that Bangladesh would lobby with fellow Asian Muslim countries so that Kosovo got international recognition. More than a year after that, Muslim capitals such as Riyadh, Kuala Lumpur and Abu Dhabi have exchanged emissaries with Pristina and Bangladesh, as Mijarul has put it, still does not "feel the necessity to recognise Kosovo at this moment".

It is clear from Mijarul's comment that Bangladesh does not want to anger Russia, with which it has signed a $1.5 billion deal to set up a nuclear power plant. Mijarul does not name Russia, yet the allusion to the former super-power is more than obvious: "We will consider many factors before making a decision. If we recognise Kosovo, we are certainly taking a side. But if we don't, we are not leaning to any side," he says. .

Because it does not want to see a US-Nato foothold in the Balkans, Russia has been the biggest backer of Serbia during the bloody Balkan War and the support has some Soviet-era nostalgia associated with it. Former communist Yugoslavia had its fair share of ethnic tensions, some of which got exposed badly and bloodily when the country was disintegrated in 1992. In fact, Russia's love affair with Slobodan Milošević, the former President of Yugoslavia, dates back to the cold war. Milošević, who was later tried for war crimes in The Hague, quite openly advocated mass murder and genocide against the ethnic Albanian population of Bosnia Herzegovina and Kosovo. With Russia on his side, nothing could hold the butcher of the Balkans back. One of the most gruesome genocides in European history since the World War II took place in Račak, central Kosovo, when 45 unarmed Kosovar Albanians were butchered on one single day. In fact, Kosovo's struggle for independence eerily resembles Bangladesh's Independence War--a tiny nation of 2,100,000 freeing itself from the clutches of a hegemonic power; freedom, however, has come at a cost: 10,000 Kosovar Albanians died, 3,000 are still missing.

US Ambassador James F Moriarty thinks Bangladesh should recognise Kosovo. In an exclusive interview with The Star he says: "I think if you look at what has happened recently, the number of countries recognising Kosovo has increased to 62, which include very prominent Muslim countries such as Saudi Arabia, Malaysia and the UAE. If you look at the fact that the World Bank and the IMF have accepted Kosovo as a member and if you look at Bangladesh's own history where like Kosovo they were a minority, where the East Pakistanis thought that they were controlled by other people who were not giving them their right due, I think the parallels with Kosovo are also very striking. And if we put them all together, how would it benefit Bangladesh? It would put Bangladesh on the side of the right."

Ali Nasirullah, a Bangladeshi who lived in Kosovo during the war, thinks it is morally wrong that Bangladesh has not yet recognised Kosovo. "Like us they have suffered for belonging to a particular race, we should stand by their side," he says.

Professor Imtiaz Ahmed of Dhaka University also agrees on the moral issue. He thinks that the question of acknowledging a country's sovereignty depends on many issues, which include "trade and other bilateral relations." He also takes into consideration the Russian factor and says that Bangladesh must think of the possible ramifications that it can carry in terms of its relationship with Russia.

Ali thinks creating a healthy relationship with Kosovo will open the door of new opportunities to Bangladeshi businesses. "Unless it wants to look insensitive and foolish as a nation in the eyes of the international community, Bangladesh should recognise Kosovo," he says.

Ali thinks that a nuclear power plant takes a decade to complete if it goes smoothly, and there is no instance in the history of world politics where a country has pulled out of an international agreement because the other country has recognised the sovereignty of another country. "And the bigger question is," Ali says, "Who is going to fund this (nuclear) project? The Russians won't, they don't give 10 billion dollars of assistance to anybody. And should we keep Kosovo in the backseat until the Russians build the reactor? And, by the way, where are our feelings for the Ummah?"

Ambassador Moriarty, however, does not make any comment on the Russian connection. He says, "It's for Bangladesh and Russia to look at their own relations. Does anybody have a timeline for construction of a nuclear reactor here as the project is really far advanced? Is there something really going on that I am not aware of? Because all I am aware of is that preliminary discussions are going on, and the project is hugely expensive. So this is an issue that I don't have all the details of and obviously this is something that you have to decide. I also couldn't imagine a country is saying we are going to break off relations if you recognise Kosovo, because if the Russians are going to do that they would have had to broken off relations with a whole bunch of other countries. I will let Russia speak for itself."

When contacted, Russian embassy sources refused to make any comment on the issue. But the country's stance is clear; "Russia should use every opportunity at its disposal to block Kosovo's admission to the UN as an independent state," Konstantin Kosachyov, head of the international affairs committee at the lower house of Russia's parliament, is quoted as saying in Ria Novosti, the Russian state owned news agency.

Ambassador Moriarty says giving recognition to Kosovo without any further dillydallying is the right thing to do. "All I am saying is that, from my perspective, from the perspective of 61 other countries, from the perspective of the IMF and the World Bank, this is the right thing for Bangladesh to do. In the case of Kosovo it is clearly a Muslim-majority portion of the country oppressed by the larger portion. The sight of great atrocities by the great majority power…there is no reason why Bangladesh can't recognise Kosovo," he says.

Professor Imtiaz says that it is a matter of time that Bangladesh will recognise Kosovo. He believes that the Foreign Secretary's comment last week means the country is buying time, and eventually Bangladesh will recognise the tiny Balkan nation, whose history, like Bangladesh's own, is soaked with the blood of those who loved the country so dearly. The sooner the government recognises Kosovo, the better.

Caught in the Web

2009-07-18T19:48:00.002+07:00

Under the very nose of the law enforcing agencies, porn industry in Bangladesh is spreading

A few days ago 14-year-old Rakib (not his real name), student of a renowned school in Uttara, was caught in the school with a bagful of CDs. When the school authority played the discs on computer they found what they had been fearing--the CDs contained pornographic videos made in Bangladesh, some even had self-shot footages of some of the school's female students. "With the advent of digital camera embedded mobile phones, this practice has become common nowadays," says Rupam (not his real name), who keeps a stash of porn in his shop at the Bashundhara Shopping Complex. He says that initially these photos and videos are shot by the girls themselves or their male friends, but later on, Rupam says, "The footages get leaked and come to us."

There are various ways in which a privately shot video clip travels to the glitzy shops of Dhaka and eventually makes its ways into the mufassil towns. Sometimes jealous or dumped boyfriends pass these videos onto their friends or upload it to the file-sharing websites where anyone can download them for free. "There are times phones get lost or the computers where these photos and videos are stored are sent to the mechanics to be repaired," Rupam says. From the repair shops the footages go directly to the hands of the porn dealers. "A good quality footage with a 60-minutes duration costs something around 20,000 taka," says Halim, a blue film dealer who only reveals his first name. He reasons his actions by saying that in a free country everyone has the right to buy, sell and watch whatever he or she wants to. After buying the videos or the Multi-media Text Messages Halim and his team save them to their computer and make several DVD copies of them.

On a few occasions, some men have used a hidden video camera to capture the act, while their female partners remain completely unaware of the presence of the shooting. In most of the pornographic videos made in Bangladesh the camera is shown static, sometimes it is set in a hotel room, where the camera is placed inside the cupboard, which is set half ajar. Most of the victims of these crimes come from educated middle class family, and are student of different universities.

Orpita (not her real name) was studying at a private university where she met a young man with whom she had an affair. A few months later they met at her lover's house where they made love. Little did she know that the whole act was captured on a video camera and was sold to a porn dealer. She now lives in the US, and she lives with nothing but sheer humiliation. A pioneer in this crime is Suman, a Non-resident Bangladeshi. In the late nineties he came to Dhaka and secretly filmed his rendezvous with three different women and sold the CDs to the shops in Hatirpool's Nahar Plaza. A police case was eventually lodged against Suman and his accomplice, but both the criminals by then had fled the country.

And then there are some foreigners who video themselves having sex with local prostitutes only to upload it on the Internet. There are two sex tapes in circulation on the market in which the local woman is seen talking to the camera and later on getting paid for her service. Local blue film sellers download the tapes from the Internet or get them from the hotel managers and porters who run a network that buys videos from the foreigners.

Almost all foreign video pornographic materials are downloaded from the net. In the absence of a proper cyber law it is difficult, if not impossible, to nab those who download porn from the web to sell. In fact, a stringent enforcement of privacy law is also absent in the country. Last year the Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) launched an all out drive against the makers of indecent films, which has witnessed the death of vulgarity in the commercial films made in the country. But a Rab official says that the organisation has not had any plan yet to start a crackdown on the porn-makers. "As of yet we do not have any such plan, but a new drive can be in the offing," he says.

Rakib bought the CDs from the footpath in front of Baku Shah Market in Nilkhet where he went to buy his textbooks. In fact, the market is a hotbed for pornographers as students of the city regularly go there to buy books at a cheaper price. Because of the inaction of the law enforcing agencies many youths like Rakib get caught in the web of the porn. Playing fields are disappearing fast in the city, leaving the children and teenagers entertainment hungry. It is time the government takes concrete measures to eradicate the menace that threatens to destroy our future generation. Increased patrolling by the police, strict enforcement of laws regarding cyber crimes and a mass awareness campaign can make the lives of the teenagers porn free again.

Dealing with the Generals

2009-07-07T21:24:00.001+07:00

Bangladesh's foreign policy on its eastern neighbour needs to be changed

For the last 47 years, since General Ne Win usurped power in a bloodless coup, Myanmar (Burma) has remained an epitome of dictatorship. The country is run by a clique of Generals who, armed with the money generated from lucrative timber and rice trade, has completely disregard the plights of their poor subjects. Under their rule Myanmar has become a prison for different nationalities, the diversity of which once made the country famous in the world. In the most brutal instance, in 1988, the regime forcibly evicted 300,000 of the country's minority Rohingya Muslims who fled to Bangladesh, creating a humanitarian catastrophe.

The story refuses to stop there: in November last year some Myanmarese naval ships illegally entered into Bangladesh territory, which is thought to be rich in oil, gas and other mineral resources. Even though Bangladesh Navy has repulsed the Myanmarese intruders, the country, it seems, is bent on making its western neighbour's life difficult. A few weeks ago, Myanmar army has turned up in Mongdu and Alitanjo to evict ethnic Muslim Rohingyas from their ancestral homeland. They forcibly acquired around 1,000 acres of arable land and distributed it among the Buddhist citizens of Mongdu town. The authority has also told the Rohingyas of the country's Sectors 6 and 7 to go to the hills or to take refuge in Bangladesh.

While the recent carnage at the BDR headquarters has brought the country's border guards on its knees, in the recent weeks, more and more Rohingyas are trying to enter into Bangladesh on different points at the border such as Palongkhali and Ghundhum. Most of these refugees tell of inhuman tortures and tribulations that they have gone through in the hands of their own security forces. More such exodus may be in the offing as the Myanmarese authority is reported to have been planning to build a new cluster of villages near the border. In fact, recent history of the Southeast Asian nation suggests that its government has been systematically pursuing a policy to change the demography of its Rakhine State.

Bangladesh's experience with the Myanmarese refugees has never been pleasant. Some of these refugee organisations heavily depend on arms and drug trafficking to fund themselves. To make it even worse, some of these groups maintain a strong relationship with Bangladeshi extremist groups.

There are signs that the diplomatic and military defeat that the country has suffered last winter over the oil and gas rigs at the Bay is not taken lightly by the Generals in Naypyidaw. Recently Myanmar has started to fence its border with Bangladesh, and it has strengthened its military presence in the Rakhine state, which borders Bangladesh. The most notable addition in the junta's armoury is a few missiles, which the country has deployed near Bangladesh border. In the Arakan region alone, with the new deployment, the Myanmar army's strength stands at 500,000. A continuous supply of military hardware is pouring in; along with it the junta is improving the infrastructural facilities. Everything, in fact, indicates that the Generals in Myanmar are again planning to lay claim to the disputed waters of the Bay.

And they could not have got a time better than now. Our national border has never been so unguarded before. The Pilkhana massacre has left Bangladesh's border guards in tatters, because of which smuggling in Bangladesh-Myanmar border has increased. Taking its advantage, says intelligence officials, Bangladesh's eastern neighbour is nowadays sending more spies into Bangladesh territory.

How prepared are we then to thwart a second Myanmarese intrusion? Our military presence in the area, compared to new Myanmarese build up, is shabby. Take Kaptai power station, which, should the border skirmishes turn into a large-scale conflict, will become a natural target of the enemy fire. No step has so far been taken to create a defence shield around it. Our Navy needs to be armed with the newest military gadgets; new soldiers need to be recruited into the army. Given that a huge number of our boys and girls in olive work abroad in different UN missions, the number of soldiers that remain in the country is inadequate to fend off any adventurous threat of an invading force. It is time the government takes the matter seriously; in the changed global scenario, where energy security has become important, Bangladesh quickly needs build a million-man army. The government must also make military training compulsory for every able-bodied citizens, a six-months course on military study should be incorporated into Higher Secondary syllabus. On top of it all, Bangladesh must also equip its armed forces with the state of the art arsenals. A strong army, as the old saying goes, is the best deterrent. Bangladesh also has to make joint patrols and exercises with friendly countries such as the US, UK and Australia.

On the diplomatic front, China is Myanmar's only trusted ally. It has been told by the western media that the Myanmarese Generals have houses in China, in case a mass upsurge forces them to flee the country. China has also long been Bangladesh's friend; the country may seek Chinese help to dissuade the Myanmarese junta from carrying out a second misadventure into Bangladeshi waters.

After the fall of Saddam Hussein in Iraq, the Myanmarese junta is perhaps one of the most brutal regimes in this part of the world. While the world's media is preoccupied with Iraq, Afghanistan and North Korea, the Myanmarese government unleashes a reign of terror on its own citizens. After the cyclone Nargis hit the country's Irrawaddy delta last year, killing 200,000, the Myanmarese Generals deliberately dilly-dallied to issue the UN the permission to work in the densely populated Irrawaddy Division, a move that prompted the UN to call the situation unprecedented. Imposition of an economic and diplomatic sanction on such a vile regime has long been overdue.

As a nation that loves democracy, freedom and rule of law, Bangladesh cannot remain an apathetic observer in Myanmarese affairs. It is time we take the western capitals into confidence. Myanmar's last four-decade-old treacherous history shows us that to deal with the country's Generals one needs both a carrot and a stick. The sooner our foreign office realises it the better.

The New Big Thing

2009-05-31T18:09:00.001+06:00

In an exclusive interview, Paul Vinay Kumar, Executive Editor of Westland Limited and Tranquebar Press shows the way to make it big in the publishing world

Tell our readers a little about Westland Books/Tranquebar Press.

Westland Limited is a growing Indian trade publishing and distribution house, which includes EastWest Books and the new Tranquebar Press. Westland publishes general trade books: our list of titles includes books on food and cooking, spirituality and self-help, health and wellness, popular fiction, history and architecture, general reference, travel and a host of other subjects.

The group has several decades of experience in book retail and distribution, and to move into publishing was a natural transition. With a young, energetic team of editors and designers based in Chennai and Delhi, Westland Limited is one of the few publishing houses in India to bring both the North and the South together. Westland is the publishing and distribution arm of Landmark Ltd, the company that runs the Landmark chain of bookstores in the major metros across India.

Tranquebar Press gets its name from the tiny, beautiful coastal town in Tamil Nadu (now called Tharangambadi) where Indian publishing and printing really began. Our emphasis is on new writing and experimental work of high literary standards in any genre. Our list of authors includes Jeet Thayil, Saeed Mirza, Ruchir Joshi, Daljit Nagra, Susan Mridula Koshy, Arun Krishnan and many more.

Generally speaking, when Tranquebar Press goes through a certain manuscript what does it look for before it hands down the verdict?

Like every other publishing house, the focus is on interesting subjects and fabulous writing. The genre of the book determines the relative importance given to these two criterions. Tranquebar's emphasis is on unusual literary fiction. Unlike many other publishing houses, we publish a reasonable amount of poetry.

Also, we believe very strongly in the importance of translations, especially in the context of a country like India where there are so many people divided and united by language. Our fundamental belief is that we want to publish books which, in a world filled with some may say too many books, make a difference and bring readers something new, meaningful and memorable.

As one of the leading English language publishers in India, do you think the era of printed words is coming to an end?

Emphatically no! While we're planning to do audio books and are actively starting to look at e-books, we view these as supplements to draw in new readers and not as a replacement to books. No technology--however exciting--can ever match up to the experience of curling up with a book under a blanket, the smell of paper, the tactile experience of turning the pages, the satisfaction of going back to an old book where the dog-eared pages mark old memories, and the sheer joy of organising books on one's bookshelf.

Having said that, I think the e-book market is yet to come of age in India. We're still trying to work out the four factors that will ensure the growth of the e-book market: an affordable reading device; content (at the right price); a great selection of content and e-books that are easy to use

As an ardent e-book fan I don't expect paper books to become obsolete--they'll co-exist and publishers such as Westland will offer combined packages, so that our readers get the best of both worlds.

In the South-Asian sub-continent, where people speak so many languages, what role do you think translated works can play in bridging the gaps between cultures?

It is absolutely essential to have translations in our part of the world. There is so much richness and diversity of literature just waiting to be read. In India, we have this completely appalling situation where we know the names of the great contemporary writers, but we are unable to read them except some short story published in some anthology! One of the great things that this virtual explosion of publishing in English over the last ten years has achieved is that a lot more translations are now available, though in my view this is still not enough. I would love to be able to publish more translations between say Bengali and Tamil, Gujurati and Telegu so that readers who do not read in English and Hindi (the two most popular languages for translation) can read more of what is being written in other parts of the country. Having said which, I also believe that the present generation of people whose work and social life is mainly in urban English speaking worlds are losing the ability to read in their mother tongues, which is tragic.

His Master's Voice

2009-05-19T19:35:00.005+06:00

Let a hundred flowers blossom and a hundred schools of thought contend

In the general elections that took place last December, Sheikh Hasina, leader of the Awami League, on numerous occasions promised to create what she called a 'Digital Bangladesh'. In a country infested with unabated corruption and silent famine, the call earned her a huge fan following among the new young voters who saw Hasina as a cheerleader of change. Four months after her electoral landslide, that much-touted change has still not arrived at the Bangladesh Television headquarters in Rampura. Faces of old sycophants have been replaced with new ones. 'Aat-tar Shongbad' (ATS; News at Eight), the channel's flagship news programme, stills broadcasts reports of no news value as headlines, news so insignificant that it would not have otherwise deserved a third-page single column treatment in the following day's paper. If one watches the ATS everyday (which many viewers will find rather torturous) one will see a trend, however disturbing, repeated every night: "I think the BTV news crew live with the ministers 24 hours a day," says Nurunnahar, who watches the BTV every night out of compulsion as her meagre income as a maid does not allow her to subscribe to satellite channels.

There are hundreds and thousands of viewers like Nurunnahar who are forced to watch ministers speaking as chief guests at the annual cultural programme of schools. "Four months ago, it was the Advisers I watched every night at eight on television, two years ago it was Khaleda Zia and her ministers," Nurunnahar says. None of the 14 television channels that fight for the attention of the country's millions of viewers has the license for territorial broadcast. A new law titled 'Terrestrial Telecast Facilities Preservation for Bangladesh Television Act 2009' (TTFP), to which the Prime Minister has given her nod last month gives the BTV the sole owner of the rights to terrestrial facility. It means that no other television channel will be able to broadcast programmes using their own terrestrial equipments; to watch every channel but the BTV the viewers have to pay the cable operators.

Muhammad Jahangir, an eminent media analyst, thinks the very idea is anti-democratic. "The government believes in Free Market Economy; and in a free market everyone has the right to compete with each other. Terrestrial equipments are costly, not all channels would have been able to own them, but enacting a blanket law to prohibit anyone from using the facility is ludicrous," he says.

What makes it even more complicated is that whenever a political government comes to power the BTV is virtually run by the party that holds power. "It comes at a heavy price; the television authority tends to satisfy the cultural activists of the party in power, and at times it airs substandard programmes only because they are made by a BNP or AL activist," Jahangir says. He also says that the 'Package Programme' of the BTV is plagued with corruption as in many a time the BTV buys below standard programmes, shows that no channel in the country would run.

In fact, members of the civil society has criticised the TTFP. Dr Badiul Alam Majumdar, secretary of non-governmental organisation Shujan, thinks the government should open the sky for any channel that wants to broadcast terrestrially. "The very idea that only one channel, and that too run by the government, can hold such a right runs counter to the tenets of democracy," he says.

The excuse that the government has come up with for taking such a draconian measure is that giving everyone terrestrial license will put the country's national security at risk. But Jahangir finds the idea difficult to buy; he says, "It is not the same as buying a MIG-29; instead, an open terrestrial license policy will free our airwaves. The government, after all, does not tell the newspapers that only the government-run newspaper will be run in four colours, all others have to limit themselves to only black and white." He also thinks that if an open terrestrial policy is not pursued it will make a mockery of Sheikh Hasina's promise of Digital Bangladesh. "You can never get a scientifically advanced country if you have policies like the ones that we have," he says.

Without freeing the BTV from the clutches of nepotism and sycophancy, the establishment of Digital Bangladesh is impossible. In the manifesto of the Three Alliances that led the country towards the great Democratic Revolution of 1990, all the major parties promised to give autonomy to the BTV, which during the deposed military dictator Gen HM Ershad's rule was known as "the Sahib and his servants' idiot box". In the general elections that were followed by Ershad's ouster from power, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) led by Khaleda Zia was voted to power, and in her five-year term she never did anything to free the BTV. The Awami League government, which followed Khaleda's rule, formed a committee to give autonomy to the BTV, which was gradually losing audience to the satellite channels. In the elections of 2001, the BNP came back to power, riding a massive electoral landfall, and Khaleda did everything at her disposal to tighten her grip on the lone provider of terrestrial broadcasting.

In the three consecutive elections since the restoration of democracy the AL, in its manifesto, promised to set the BTV free. The party had made last year's polls an exception; its Charter for Change did not include the BTV issue. Because of this, Jahangir thinks, the AL cannot be blamed for not making the BTV an autonomous body, as during the electioneering the party has never made any such promise. "We cannot blame them," he says, "but I find their actions deplorable. The state-run television must be immediately freed."

Majumdar says that the sycophants have always been the cause of the last governments' downfall. "As the BTV has the sole terrestrial rights, every owner of a television set has access to the BTV and for some, the BTV is the only source of entertainment," he says. In the last 37 years, the channel's talk shows and news have tittered on the verge of cheap canvassing for the parties in power and their policies. In an entertainment-starved country the voters will not like it if Sisimpur is switched off the air to show the government's latest effort to make the campus free of thuggery and gangsterism.

It is understandable that the government will find it difficult to part with the BTV. But it must also understand that in an era where the citizens of the country are exposed to the Internet and love to have options in choosing what to watch and what not to, the BTV, in the hands of government, is more a liability than an asset. The government needs to give autonomy to the BTV as soon as it can; it must be freed from every kind of nepotism and the channel should purge all the inept producers and crew.

It is good that the government wants to establish another new channel; but there will be further trouble if it is run like the BTV. The government should also seriously think of starting a sport channel. A national broadcasting policy must also be formed. The government should pave the way for new private television channels, especially the ones that will cater to the younger generation. The BTV has always been known as its master's voice, now is the time to let the channel run on its own. The only way forward to establishing a vibrant democracy is to allow free, unhindered flow of information. The AL-led government will create a milestone in our short history of democracy if it gives full autonomy to the BTV, allowing it to run as an independent entity. Only time can tell if the government, which has the support of the whole nation behind it, will be able to rise up to the occasion or not.

The Brown Man's Burden

2009-04-25T17:14:00.001+06:00

Gora
Rabindranath Tagore
Translated by: Radha Chakravarty
Penguin Books; Rs 399

Kaiser Haq, poet and translator, once famously said that it was impossible to translate Rabindranath Tagore. Haq later went on to do the impossible, translating Tagore that is. His 'Quartet' (Translation of Tagore's 'Chaturanga'; 1916) has earned Haq critical acclaim. The latest work of translation of Tagore to hit the bookstores is Radha Chakravarty's translation of Tagore's post-colonial text 'Gora' (1907-1909). In the broadest sense of the word Gora is thematically linked with 'Ghare-Baire' (The Home and the World; 1916). Gora's social setting is late 19th century Bengal, a colony in turmoil. But unlike Rudyard Kipling's 'Kim' (1900-1901), which is the journey of an Irish soldier's orphaned son into the heart of colonial India, Gora is a political novel and a scathing criticism of the Hindu revivalist movement of the late 19th century that novelists like Bankim Chandra Chatterjee (1838 -1894) propagated.

While 'Kim' ("A poor white, the poorest of the poor") searches for his spiritual soul, Gora, also the son of an Irishman delves deep into the heart of the colonial man to portray the society and politics of its time. Tagore, with his masterful prose, aloof yet engaging, depicts a time that was both violent and polemical. The time, on one hand, offered bigotry to the frustrated colonised youth: on the other there was the glorious Bengali Renaissance. Europe was abuzz with anarchism; nihilist and anarchic thoughts regularly filtered into the drawing rooms of Calcutta. With the advent of Brahmo Samaj and Brahmoism, the soul of Bengal was also in turmoil. Even though through social reforms, it liberated millions from the clutches of social tyranny, the spiritual solace that Brahmoism offered was limited to the petit bourgeoisies of the Bengal and was heavily swayed by the European liberalism.

A master social observer that he is, Tagore portrays beliefs and dogmas of many strands as Radha Chakravarty in her introduction says, "The elite Hindu group is not homogenized: from the rigid, unworldly orthodoxy of Krishnadayal to Abinash's naïve celebration of ritual and Harimohini's growing inflexibility about Sucharita's habits, the narrative represents varying facets of religious conservatism." Radha's introduction is full of such eloquent critique of the novel, and one wishes that had it been a little longer, it would have given the reader a better guide to such a complex and complicated text, which with the rise of religious conservatism in the Indian sub-continent is becoming even more relevant.

Tagore makes use of all the tools that he has had as a modernist--Gora is filled with double and paired characters and its narrative is imbued with contradictions and paradoxes. It culminates when Gora, brought up a Hindu, is told about his true birth; his world falls apart, along with it, it shatters his concept of identity. Couple with it the fact that Gora was born in 1987, the year in which Indian sepoys, irrespective of their casts and creeds, rose in unison to liberate India from the clutches of the Empire. An Irishman's son, Ireland, Irish Nationalism--an allusion to another colony. Gora looses all identities and all his identities become one-- he embodies the secular spirit of modern India.

One of the leading intellectuals of her time, Radha Chakravarty has translated two more important Tagore novels--'Chokher Bali' and 'Farewell Song: Shesher Kabita'. Gora indeed shows her maturity as a translator. Her incorporation of certain Bengali words in her translation, in the era of chutneyfication of English, is a surprising change from the translations one is familiar with. Words like 'bon' and 'champa' are retained, which have added a new dimension to the text that was first published about a hundred years ago. Radha's prose is seductive, which reminds the reader that while translating, the translator, even though she is transplanting reality into a different language, has to read the pulse of the text that she is translating. Radha's is one of the best Tagore translations so far; Tagore would have approved.

Essentially, Gora is the spiritual and political dilemma of the post-colonial man and his quest for his true self. At the end of 'Kim', Teshoo Lama's search for the River of Arrow ends and he is blessed with nirvana, our post-colonial Gora for his turn toils in the labyrinth of Bengal's murky history.

The Journal of Contemporary Literature

2009-04-15T17:46:00.010+06:00

The Journal of Contemporary Literature, an Indian journal has published Ahmede Hussain and Tabish Khair's conversations on literature, politics and the world today in its Volume 1, No 1 issue. To get a copy email:
Dr. O.P. Dwivedi
om_dwivedi2003@yahoo.com
M-61, Govindpur Colony
Allahabad-211004
Uttar Pradesh
INDIA

From England with Hate

2009-04-04T15:40:00.006+06:00

Green Crescent, a non-governmental organisation registered in Britain, is suspected to have been funding terrorism in Bangladesh

After watching it for about a week, a Rapid Action Battalion team led by Lt Commander Mamunur Rashid on the 24th of last month stormed into a red-bricked building that stands on a specious four-acre land in the Ramkeshob village, Burhanuddin of the country's lone island district Bhola. The discovery that Mamun and his men made in that early afternoon swoop is no less than staggering-- a bomb bluster, nine firearms, 2,500 bullets, 3,000 grenade splinters, an explosives blaster, four pairs of German-made uniforms, 200 gram gunpowder, bullet-making components and equipment, two walkie-talkies, two bows, two remote control devices, binoculars, a book on how to operate firearms and other extremist literature--all of which are essential ingredients for making bullets. These equipments are used to make small firearms; usually terrorists use the lead balls to make the projectile of the bullet; and the copper that has been found can be used to make the cartridge where gunpowder and the pin are put. The following day, police also recovered a speedboat and two bottles of acid from the madrasa.

The establishment, which housed 11 students at the time of the raid, has been heavily fortified by a circular trench, and a down bridge was used by its occupants to get in and out of the premises. In the guise of the madrasa-cum-orphanage, the terrorists actually ran a mini ordinance factory. "The 'bomb bluster' is usually used by regular armies to train their members in the use of explosive devices," says a defence official, who wishes to remain anonymous. In fact, Lt Commander Mamun has told the Daily Star that chances are there that the terrorists have been making improvised explosive devices and assembling ammunition. "We've found materials needed to assemble bullets. They include percussion caps, cartridge cases and bullet heads. And all these are made in the UK," he has said.

The ammo factory's connection with the United Kingdom (UK), however, does not stop here--the madrasa is founded by a British charity called Green Crescent, a non-governmental organisation (NGO), which is registered with the British Charity Commission under number 1099233. The organisation's chief, 45-year-old Faisal Mostafa, who has a PhD in metal corrosion, has been under surveillance of the British spy agency Military Intelligence, Section 5 (MI5) for the last 13 years. Even though prosecutor's claimed to have found explosives in his house, the Manchester Crown Court acquitted Mostafa in 1996 and handed him a prison sentence of four years for illegally possessing a firearm. Six years later he was arrested again, this time in Birmingham, along with a fellow Bangladeshi-born Moinul Abedin (codenamed 'Pivotal Dancer' by MI5 operatives). Even though the latter was found guilty of plotting to cause explosions across the UK, Mostafa, who provided Abedin with explosives, was let off the hook. Security experts see the Birmingham arrests as the first evidence of the presence of al-Qaeda in British soil. Mostafa was arrested again last year while trying to board a plane with a gas-powered pistol and a primer. He was given a suspended sentence.

Ghulam Mostafa, Faisal Mostafa's father who left Bangladesh 45 years ago, thinks his son is innocent. He claims that Mostafa has always been into hunting and he makes his own bullets with spent cartridges and gunpowder. Initial investigation made into the Bhola ammo haul, however, does not match with Ghulam Mostafa's assertion--a student of the madrasa has told the investigators that Maulana Mohammad Russell, a teacher at the seminary, used to give him sermons to take up arms to fight the holy war. Apart from the telltale signs, a notebook recovered from the madrasa bears the name of M Akhter Hossain, a soldier of battalion 18of Bangladesh Rifles, which mutinied against the state and the government of Bangladesh a month ago.

Even though the number of weapons recovered in Bhola is not huge compared to the Chittagong and Bogra ammo hauls, the discovery of foreign terrorists working in the guise of NGO workers is new. We have known it all along that the warped ideologies of al-Qaeda and its leaders have proliferated in the west, especially in Britain; Bangladesh has also experienced its first suicide bombing four years ago. However, no direct link between al-Qaeda and the local terror outfits has been found before the Bhola ammo haul. The sophistication of the ammo-making materials suggests that the group is different from the run-of-the-mill terror outfits like Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh, which has so far been involved in small-scale attacks.

The government needs to dig deep to find out the NGOs that are working in the country in the name of development works, and are spreading the message of hatred. As a nation we are immensely fortunate that on numerous occasions our law enforcing agencies, with the help of the conscious citizens, have caught the terror cells off guard, pre-empting many potential terrorist attacks. That does not mean that lady luck will always wink at us. We need a concentrated effort to make life costly and difficult for the terrorists. The government can make a high-powered committee to coordinate its anti-terrorism efforts. Imams of different mosques and madrasas should be trained to give sermons on the proper teachings of Islam; a religion that literary means peace.

The incident also highlighted the need for an international taskforce consisting of all our security partners. A mere regional taskforce is not enough to fight terror, which knows no boundary. There might be more such terror outfits at work in the country, which need to be neutralised before they spring at us again. In the sub-continent, which has witnessed strings of terrorist attacks in the last few years, Bangladesh has so far cushioned itself from religious extremism; those days, blissful though they have been, have come to an end. There is no denying that the terror organisations have set their eyes on Bangladesh because of its geo-political location on the tip of the Bay of Bengal. Time has now come for the government to rise up to the occasion and fight terror to the end.

It is Time

2009-03-25T17:34:00.014+06:00

The parliament has passed a bill to try the war criminals, now is the time the government takes concrete steps to start the trial

During our nation's Liberation War when the whole nation was fighting the occupying Pakistan army, a bunch of thugs and killers mostly belonging to the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), Muslim League (ML) and Nizam-e-Islam (NI) formed three different groups of killers and rapists. These killing squads-- Razakar, Al Badr and Al Shams--in the nine bleak months of 1971 carried out atrocities on the innocent Bangali population of the country.

Members of the Razakar, Al Badr and Al Shams spread their tentacles all over the country to provide the information of movements of the freedom fighters to the Pakistan army and worst still they committed one of the most gruesome human rights abuses in recent human history by abducting Bangali women, some even in their early teens, to be sent to the concentration camps of the Pakistan army. In the last few days of the war, when these vile forces saw their orgy of killing and rape drawing to a brutal end, they formed killing squads, which led the abduction and killing of Bangali intellectuals. The discovery of mass graves and newspaper reports of those days prove that some leaders of the JI, NI and MIL and their student and youth wings were involved in acts of mass murder. Siddik Salik, who served as a Major in the marauding Pakistan army in 1971, in his book 'Witness to Surrender' says, "The only people who came forward (to help the Pakistani army butcher and rape innocent people) were 'the rightists like Khwaza Khairuddin of the Council Muslim League, Fazlul Qader Chaudhry of the Convention Muslim League, Khan Sobur A Khan of the Qayyum Muslim League, Professor Ghulam Azam of the Jamaat-e-Islami and Maulvi Farid Ahmed of the Nizam-e-Islam Party."

The crimes that these butchers have committed are no less gruesome than those perpetrated by Hitler and his Nazi cohorts. The trial of these bunch of mass murderers started no sooner than the country's independence in 1971. On January 24, 1972, the Collaborator's Act was promulgated; by October 1973, over 37,000 suspected war criminals were arrested of whom 26,000, against whom there was no clear evidence of killing, rape and arson, were pardoned under a general amnesty. When Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was murdered on the dark night of August 15, 1975, 11,000 killers and rapists were in jail, facing trial. The JI, NI and ML were banned for their role in war crime. After the death of Bangabandhu, the ban was lifted and the government of Ziaur Rahman, which usurped power in a bloody coup d'état in 1975, made a known collaborator of the Pakistani regime the country's Prime Minister.

The rehabilitation of the killers continued throughout the eighties and nineties of the last century. In the last government led by Zia's widow Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) Khaleda Zia, two known war criminals were given important portfolios; of them includes, Ali Ahsan Mojahed, who was quoted to have said by “Daily Sangram” on October 15,1971: "The youths of the Razakars and al-Badar forces and all other voluntary organisations have been working for the nation to protect it from the collaborators and agents of India." In the last caretaker government's regime, he, also secretary general of JI and head of the Al Badr paramilitia, said no war crime had been committed in 1971. His comment and the subsequent diatribes of some war criminals and their sympathisers have proven that members of the JI does not hold an iota of remorse for actively participating in the genocides of 1971.

In fact, as an issue, the trial of the war criminals has been one of the deciding factors of last year's general elections. The BNP, which went to the elections keeping its electoral alliance with the JI intact, was routed in the polls as the party was seen by voters, especially the younger ones, as war crime sympathisers. In its electoral manifesto, the Awami League has promised that it will bring the killers of 1971 to the book. Now that the party holds an absolute majority in the parliament, it is time to take the nation forward to that direction.

The AL-led Grand Alliance government will significantly lose its popularity if at the end of its term the party fails to try at least most of the known war criminals. During the Liberation War, because the Communist Soviet Union supported our liberation struggle, the US and its allies sided with the Pakistani junta by providing it with military logistic and diplomatic support. The second week of December 1971, witnessed the arrival of the United States Seventh Fleet's carrier taskforce 74 in the Bay of Bengal to help the losing Pakistani junta. Time, however, has changed: Now the US is a good friend of our country and an important strategic ally. One hopes that, as a time-tested friend of the people of Bangladesh and a friend that wants to see democracy and rule of law flourish in Bangladesh, the US will support the efforts of the people of Bangladesh to bring the war criminals of 1971 before justice.

The government should immediately form a tribunal with a High Court judge as the head under the International (Crimes) Tribunal Act 1973. It should also pass a law in the parliament making war crime denial a crime-- Germany has already outlawed holocaust denial, many European countries also have such laws.

The matter of the JI, NI, ML and other such organisation's participation in the war crimes as a political entity has to be probed. Democracy allows freedom of speech and movement; having said that, a democratic society needs to build its own mechanism to safeguard itself from those who want to destroy the very foundation on which it stands. Democracy will not take a firm footing in our country if the criminals who committed the worst crimes against humanity against the people of our country remain free.

It is heartening to see the government has barred the suspected war criminals from travelling abroad. Transparency, respect for human rights and rule of law should be our guiding principles in dealing with the war criminals.

There are some, small in number though, who believe that the trial of war criminals will breed extremism in the country, as the JI is the 'biggest moderate Islamic party' in the country. This analysis runs the risk of equating Bangladesh's socio-political condition with that of Pakistan's. Unlike Pakistan, the JI in Bangladesh, as the last elections have proven, does not wield a mass support base, and the party does not work as a buffer between extremism and democracy. Bangladesh has an unofficial two-party system, when it comes to the elections or lending their political support, Bangladeshis have voted for two major political parties: in the general elections, the JI has never bagged more than 8 percent of total votes cast. The party has always become a distant fourth after Gen HM Ershad's Jatya Party. In fact, the trial of the war criminals will be a chance for the JI to clean its rank of its tainted past. As a new beginning, the JI should drop war criminals from its leadership and swear allegiance to Bangladesh and everything the country stands for.

The government should start the trial as soon as it can. The crime that has been committed against this nation and its people in 1971 must not go unpunished. The blood of the martyrs is crying out for justice, we have ignored it for 37 long years; history will not forgive us if we fail this time.

The International Crimes (Tribunal) Act 1973, says: "…A Tribunal shall have power to try and punish any person irrespective of his nationality who, being a member of any armed, defence or auxiliary forces commits or has committed in the territory of Bangladesh, whether before or after the commencement of this act, any of the following crimes.
(2) The following acts or any of them are crimes within the jurisdiction of a Tribunal for which there shall
be individual responsibility, namely:-
(a) Crimes against Humanity: namely, murder, extermination enslavement, deportation, imprisonment, abduction, confinement, torture, rape or other inhumane acts committed against any civilian population or prosecutions on political, racial, ethnic or religious grounds whether or not in violation of the domestic law of the country where perpetrated;
(b) Crimes against Peace: namely planning, preparation, initiation or waging of a war of aggression or a war in violation of international treaties, agreements or assurances;
(c) Genocide: meaning and including any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy in whole or in part, a national ethnic, racial, religious or political group, as such:
(i) killing members of the group;
(ii) causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
(iii) deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
(iv) imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
(v) forcibly transferring children of the group to another group;
(d) War Crimes: namely, violation of laws or customs of war which include but are not limited to murder, ill-treatment or deportation to slave labour or for any other purpose of civilian population in the territory of Bangladesh; murder or ill-treatment of prisoners of war or persons on the seas, killing of hostages and
detenues, plunder of public or private property, wanton destruction of cities, towns or villages or devastation not justified by military necessity;
(e) Violation of any humanitarian rules applicable in armed conflicts laid down in the Geneva Convention of 1949;
(f) Any other crimes under international law;
(g) Attempt abatement or conspiracy to commit any such crimes;
(h) Complicity in or failure to prevent commission of any such crimes.

About the formation of the trial the Act says: (1) For the purpose of section 3, the Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette, set up one or more Tribunals, each consisting of a Chairman and not less that two and not more that four other members.
(2) Any person who is or is qualified to be a Judge of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh or has been a
Judge of any High Court or Supreme court which at any time was in existence in the territory of
Bangladesh or who is qualified to be a member of General Court Martial under any service law of
Bangladesh may be appointed as a Chairman or member of a Tribunal.
(3) The permanent seat of a Tribunal shall be in Dacca.
Provided that a Tribunal may hold its sittings as such other place or places as it deems fit.
(4) If any member of a Tribunal dies or is, due to illness or any other reason, unable to continue to perform his functions, the Government may, by notification in the official Gazette, declare the office of such member to be vacant and appoint thereto another person qualified to hold the office.
(5) If, in the course of a trial, any one of the members of a Tribunal is, for any reason, unable to attend any sitting thereof, the trial may continue before the other members.
(6) A Tribunal shall not, merely by reason of any change in its membership or the absence of any member thereof from any sitting, be bound to recall and re-hear any witness who has already given any evidence and may act on the evidence already given of produced before it.
(7) If, upon any matter requiring the decision of a Tribunal, there is a difference of opinion among its members, the opinion of the majority shall prevail and the decision of the Tribunal shall be expressed in terms of the views of the majority.
(8) Neither the constitution of a Tribunal nor the appointment of its Chairman or members shall be challenged by the prosecution or by the accused persons of their counsel.

Profiles of Terror

2009-03-18T18:19:00.002+06:00

Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh, which has carried out strings of suicide bombings four years ago, is regrouping; to make it even worse a few more terror outfits it seems are at work in the country

On November 29, 2005, a small, wiry young man went into the Gazipur courthouse at around 10 in the morning with a parcel in hand. Within a minute the youth, who was later identified as Abdur Razzak, made his small grisly place in the country’s history by becoming Bangladesh’s first suicide bomber. Razzak killed himself and on his way to martyrdom killed two more persons. The attack was a simultaneous one: Abul Bashar, another bomber, also in his late teens, blew himself up a few yards into the 102-years old Chittagong court building, killing two bystanders and maiming a few hundreds. Bashar survived for two more days to succumb of injuries.

The birth of Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) has taken place under the eyes of Bangladesh Nationalist Party led Four Party Alliance government (FPA) that ruled the country from 2001-2006. In the first three years of its rule the FPA regime denied the presence of the outfit with a minister calling it ‘a figment of the media’s imagination.’ When Siddikul Islam alias Bangla Bhai, one of the militant masterminds, formed Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh, which is believed to be a sister organisation of the JMB, the law enforcing agencies helped him by giving him shelter. Khaleda Zia, the then Prime Minister, was famous for seeing conspiracy behind anything that she found unpleasant in her rule. The gruesome photographs of a man beaten down to death by Bangla Bhai’s goons after being hung upside down from a tree did not prompt Khaleda take any action against the terror outfit.

It was after the terrorists had planted 63 bombs in the district headquarters of the country that the then government launched a war on the JMB. At the fag end of the FPA government’s term both the top leaders of the terror group were arrested and the previous caretaker government executed the death penalty that the highest court had handed them down. Even though the group has been thought to be on the run, some recent arrests of the members of the group suggests that the JMB is regrouping and is ready to launch a new offensive.

Arrests made on the 14th of this month in Sarikandi of Bogra district have produced revealing information: on the remote islets of the river Jamuna such as Bhatkhewor, the group has set up numerous training grounds. The JMB, in the run up to the last year’s general elections, threatened to carry out terrorist attacks on the election day. Discovery of huge caches of homemade grenades in a house in Mirpur rented by the JMB operatives prove that the group has not lost its operational capabilities and is readying itself to unleash another mayhem soon.

Another homegrown trade outfit is the Harkat-ul-Jihad-al Islami Bangladesh (HuJI). Established in 1992 by Afghan War I veterans, the group is well connected with international terror organisations. In fact, Harkat-ul-Jihad-al Islami (Arabic for The Islamic Struggle Movement), its mother organisation was founded in 1984 by Fazlur Rehman Khalil and Qari Saifullah Akhtar during the Soviet-Afghan War. Khalil later broke away to form his own group Harkat-ul-Ansar. Upon his arrest on October 1, 2005, the HuJi’s Bangladesh operational commander Mufti Abdul Hannan confessed to have carried out grenade attacks on Sheikh Hasina on August 21, 2005. Following his statements the Speedy Trial Tribunal-1 in Dhaka framed charges against detained former BNP MP Abdus Salam Pintu, Hannan and 20 others in two cases filed for grenade attacks on the AL rally.

On May 8 last year, Hannan and two more HuJi operatives were sentenced to death for carrying out a grenade attack on the then British High Commissioner Anwar Choudhury in May 2004. The Sylhet Divisional Speedy Trial Tribunal also awarded life terms to two other accused in the case - Mufti Hannan's brother Muhibullah alias Muhibur Rahman alias Ovi and Mufti Main Uddin alias Abu Zandal. After Hannan’s arrest the HuJi is regrouping and it has been said that in the future the group can work with the JMB or any other like-minded outfits.

DROP

Last week, in a raid in the deep forest of Rwachaungchari Upazila in Bandarban, Bangladesh Army has arrested Kyan Maung Marma and Ko Oo Sein and has recovered one M-16 with a grenade launcher, one M-16, one SAR, and one Chinese-made semi-automatic rifle. The men are members of the Democratic Party of Arakan, a Myanmarese insurgent group which is infamous for its brutal tactics. The presence of DPA and any other such insurgent groups is alarming. The government needs to do its best to flush them out if any such group exist on our soil.

Bangladesh for its unique location on the tip of Bay of Bengal and its border with insurgency prone northeastern India and Myanmar can become a lucrative place for hiding for foreign insurgent groups. The country’s southeast has just recuperating from a bloody insurgency that lasted for over two decades. It is still fighting its own war on terror; the sub-continent is increasingly becoming a dangerous place in which to live. A task force (TF) is necessary to handle the issue and it can coordinate intelligence, make contingency plans in case there is big terrorist attack and can also make people more vigilant about terrorists in their neighbourhoods. Fighting terrorism is indeed a tricky business. Pre-emption is the key as there is no room for failure.

The Bloody Durbar

2009-03-04T15:03:00.004+06:00

On that fateful Wednesday, Nadeet Haque, son of slain sector commander of the Bangladesh Rifles’ (BDR) Dhaka Battalion Col Mujibul Haque, was awakened by a loud thump on the door. “It was our waiter,” he says, “Who told me that a group of men in BDR fatigues were running towards our house.” Nadeet, who is doing his A’ Level as a private student, called his mother, who was in the gym; she advised him to lock himself up in their room. Mili Haque, Nadeet’s mother, was herself in grave danger. Another bunch of murderers were looking for her in every nook and cranny of the BDR compound. The guard of the gym locked Mili up and told the killers that no one was there.

Though her life was saved for the time being, her son, as the gunshots were becoming even louder, hid himself behind the compressor of the AC in the back veranda. “I found one of our maids hiding there,” he says, “In a few minutes I heard some footsteps and jumped onto the sunshade of the building. I clutched at her hand, trying to get her down to where I was. Later I let go of her because I realised that if tried further to get her to my side they would shoot at her.”

Hiding on the sunshade, Nadeet saw the killers set fire to his room to bring him out to kill him. “The fire was spreading fast, and within a few minutes it reached the sunshade. It was so smoky, I could not see anything properly, I had to get up and find a shelter. Some of the killers who were standing in a building construction site, noticed me. They sprayed a few rounds at me as I ran for safety. I am lucky that I am alive and talking to you,” he says in a voice choked with emotion. He broke the wirenet of the kitchen and went into a room in the house and hid himself along with two others under the bed. Shaken, Nadeet does not want to name these two BDR-men who saved his life; when a few jawans turned up again in search of him, these two men, who do menial labour in the house, told the killers that “Col sahib’s son” was not here.

General staff officer 1 (communication) of the BDR Lt Colonel Syed Kamruzzaman will never forget the last Darbar (durbar) of the BDR. The officer who had just taken part in the force’s annual parade a day ago was sitting in the spacious hall of the BDR when immediately after the Director General (DG) of the paramilitary started his speech a young man, without his cap and belt went up to the dais.

Throughout the DG’s speech, which was short-lived, there was commotion at the back of his audience. Some chanted slogans; some made catcalls. An officer and a non-commissioned officer jumped and accosted the young man in an attempt to stop him from reaching the DG. Shaken, the young man fell to the ground; while another man in BDR fatigues ran out of the Darbar. “Like magic, within a few seconds the whole darbar became empty,” says Lt Colonel Kamruzzaman. There were gunshots. At around 9:45 in the morning, a group of mutineers, wearing red bandanas, came up with guns and ordered the 12 officers present to come out and walk in a line led by the DG. "As the DG climbed down the stairs of darbar hall, one jawan sprayed him with bullets. Soon the other jawans there started firing on us," he says.

Lt Colonel Kamruzzaman is lucky, so is Major Munir, who no sooner had the firing begun jumped into a sewer manhole. "It was dark and full of a foul smell. I kept the lid closed and could hear gunshots. I stayed there without any food and light. I could not separate day from night," he says. The marauding bunch of killers did not spare women and children. They separated the women and children from the officers: women with young children in one group were confined in a room with a ceiling fan; women a little older were kept as a separate room with the batmen; the officers, who were not hiding, were held hostage separately. Kamrunnahar Shampa, wife of slain Major Maksudum, says, “The BDR jawans looted all my valuables, after I fled with my baby.” By the first night of the two-day mutiny, the murderers killed almost all the officers present in the compound. The barbarism was reminiscent of the genocide committed by the marauding Pakistani army, only this time the killers belong to the degenerate members of one of our security forces.

Mili Haque is a survivor of the mayhem. “Only that day he (Col Haque) told me that he had been neglecting us for his service to the nation. I can’t fathom how can the jawans have killed someone who has given the topmost priority to the well being of the nation and his soldiers,” she has told the media. She cannot figure out how her husband’s own troops could point their guns at Col Mujib, let alone kill him.

Not only residence of Col Haque, the BDR the killers also looted almost all the houses of the officers before setting them on fire. Some officers were killed in the most brutal way. After killing these brilliant sons and daughters of the soil, the killers dumped the corpses in a couple of mass graves; they dumped some bodies in the sewer, which carried the corpses to the dam near Keranaiganj.

As the mayhem was going on inside, army was rolled in to stop the murderers from coming out of Pilkhana, the BDR headquarters. The plan paid off; the murderers remained confined to the area. The negotiations ensued and the army waited patiently. As the negotiation with the Prime Minister ended, the government declared Prime Ministerial Amnesty to the mutineers. Brig. Gen. (retd) Shahedul Anam Khan, a national security expert, believes it was given on the spur of the moment, without taking into consideration of the ground realities. “In any case, amnesty can only be given for revolt, it can never be applicable to those who have committed murder, arson and other serious kind of atrocities,” he says.

Even though the government’s approach of negotiating with the mutineers has saved many lives, it has also brought into light the other possible option the government could have taken. “The government’s steps have not caused any further loss of life. There is always the temptation to think that if something could have been done, instantly perhaps…yes I agree, the government could have gone for a swift sharp action to surprise the mutineers, the rebel elements, who were not large in number,” Anam says.

He believes that there was a possibility of reducing the mutineers. The former Brigadier General says, “I do not know why it was not done… there may be some tactical problems such as the problem of the built-up area in the BDR Headquarters. There were a large number of families who were eventually saved who would have been killed had the mutineers got a whiff that there was an offensive. The government chose a path that saved more bloodshed.

All the imponderables! In hindsight you can ask why it was not done, but what if the action would have resulted in more bloodshed; in that case we would have asked the government why it had taken action without going for negotiations. There are always two sides to an issue.”

What would Brig Gen (retired) Anam, a brilliant commander in his prime, have done in such a situation? “If I came to know that some of my officers were in danger, I would have moved a company or two, would have gone for commando style operations, which would send the mutineers in several directions and split them apart. It might have been successful or it might not have, one cannot tell. I would not have waited; I would have gone for it. If I came to know that my officers were treated in such a way, I would not have been able to stand still. I would have relied on the element of surprise; being an infantryman I would have gone the whole hog. Everybody does not have to agree with me. There are so many other factors here-- this is my personal opinion,” he answers.

Syed Ashraful Islam, the Local Government Minister and spokesperson, has a different opinion. He says, “The prime minister sent out the troops no sooner had she got the news. But it takes time for the army to reach a certain place. Whatever happened in Peelkhana had happened before the army members had reached the scene. After that, our main concern was the safety of the hostages. The standoff was resolved quickly considering the security of the people in general apart from the BDR members.”

To avert what it says a humanitarian disaster, the government opted for a political settlement. The Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina gave a speech, which warned the murderers of disastrous consequences if they did not give up arms and freed the hostages. The PM’s speech, along with the arrival of the tanks led by 9th Division of the army forced the killers to laid down their arms. Though most BDR members surrendered to the Home Minister, some of the killers have managed to flee. “Most of them crossed the perimeter wall near Hajaribagh, where the road leads to Kamrangirchar while the other path goes to Gabtali and Rayerbazaar,” says an officer of the Rapid Action Battalion, which has arrested some BDR-men.

Lieutenant-General Harunur Rashid, a valiant freedom fighter and former army chief, says the mutiny was well orchestrated and it had little to do with the working conditions in the barracks. “There is the first soldier who wanted to start the killing; as he failed a second group turned up. There has even been a third batch of killers. The red clothes that they have used is not a part of their uniform, which shows that the killers have planned the event before,” Lt Gen Harun says.

In fact, the way some of the murderers have melted into the thin air on the night of last Friday supports Lt Gen Harun’s observation. “Not only that,” says an officer of the Rab who wants to remain anonymous, “Their escape plan has been done meticulously. They have used chairs to climb the wall near Hajaribagh. All of them have followed the same pattern. The three graves that the killers have dug are all evenly squared; so neatly the whole affair of killing and dumping has been done tells us that a group of people has orchestrated the massacre long ago. We are trying to pinpoint exactly where the plans were done and we have so far come across the area near 36 Rifles Battalion, which we think have been used to hatch the conspiracy.” He has also said that to do their killing smoothly the murderers wore red, yellow and blue vests. Some killers also fled with a procession that came near the Gate 5 of the Pilkhana. On the first day of the carnage the gate remained unguarded amidst intermittent shelling of the degenerate jawans. Some of these disgruntled mutineers abandoned their weapons in different areas of the compound; some, it is widely believed that, have carried small firearms with them. Some of these disgruntled mutineers abandoned their weapons in different areas of the compound.

Lt Col Shams, a survivor of the massacre, has said on Bangladesh Television that in the morning of the mutiny he saw arms being unloaded from an ash pick-up van while he was hiding. LT Gen Harun points out that the ammos used in the first attack do not match the ammos issued for the day’s duty. “The ammunition fired by the killers is much more than the ammunition issued for routine duties. It suggests that extra ammunition has been collected beforehand from some sources. We do not know where the rest of the ammos that they have used have come from,” Lt Gen Harun says.

The armoury, from where the weapons have been looted, is a heavily guarded affair. There are ironed collapsible gates, which are locked with two padlocks. All the rifles are on rifle racks and each and every one of them are chained to each other. Ammunition are kept in a different room, one has to go to a separate room to get them. There is a strip or magazine inside the ammunition box made of steel. Even the fastest loader will have to spend 10 minutes to get and load the ammo. The promptness with which the mutineers have turned up with automatic weapons also suggests that they have planned the massacre long ago.

“Immediately after the first bullet was fired at the Darbar Hall, a group of armed killers surrounded the family accommodations, which also shows previous planning,” Let Gen Harun says.

Brig Gen Anam thinks the Darbar mayhem was “pre-planned and all the so-called demands and grievances of the mutineers were excuses to draw public sympathy which the electronic media helped them gain by highlighting them.” He says that Bangladesh is no stranger to such incidents: “This is exactly what happened between November 3 and 7, 1975. Large-scale infiltration was carried inside the ranks, and these people went after the officers. But the causality then was nothing compared to what we have suffered on February 25.”

Major General (retired) Syed Mohammad Ibrahim, a security analyst, could not but agree: “It can’t be the brainchild of soldiers who have just passed their SSC or HSC exams and a bulk of whom remain busy in strenuous border duties. Outsiders from X or Y corner must have contacted insiders well in time keeping in view the BDR Week. As more and more events are being unfolded, it is displaying the involvement of matured conspirators. It is only a question of time and sincerity, both used intelligently, for the conspiracy to be laid bare in front of the nation,” he says on the last day of February.

The incident has shown, to a great extent, intelligence failure, which Brig Gen Anam calls an “unpardonable failure.” That the preparations of such an incident can go unnoticed by the agencies is surprising. “It is unbelievable how the agencies have failed to get an indication of what was afoot. The whole area must have been secured, covered, screened because of the PM’s visit the previous day. The idea is to keep such places under constant survey. I cannot see how the agencies did not see what was coming; I think there is a gross intelligence failure. The investigation will find out to what extent it failed, whether people were told about it at all or what was told about it.”

Meanwhile, the government has rightly declared that a fast-rack tribunal will be formed to bring the perpetrators of the BDR massacre to justice. Last Saturday, the Local Government Minister Syed Ashraful Islam has said that the law minister has already been instructed by the cabinet to form a special tribunal. "The law and the clauses under which perpetrators can be tried will be put before the cabinet and then a bill will be tabled in parliament to fast-track the trial process," he has told the media. "Every single one of those responsible will be put in the dock,” he has added.

In her speech to the parliament the Prime Minister has said, "I opted for talks to save lives, to save the officers and their families," she said refuting claims that not resorting to force was a tactical mistake. She has also said that she has sought the help of the US and UN to probe into the killing. The PM, who has to handle such a big crisis on the 50th day of her tenure, has taken some widespread measures. Her government has formed a probe committee ensuring representation of the army, air force, navy, police and Rab. In an oblique reference to the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, she has told the parliament that they (the BNP-men) brought out processions in Hajaribagh and other areas surrounding Pilkhana to encourage the killers.

There is no doubt that the crisis has been one of the toughest challenges that any new elected would want to see itself embroiled into. Sadly, there is no instance in our history the probe into that such carnages have been done in a transparent manner; the incidents of November 3-7, 1977 the grenade attacks on the Awami League are only to name a few. We hope the BDR massacre will be an exception. Along with the entire nation we demand a neutral probe into the massacre, we also hope that the nation will be informed about the possible conspirators and their motives.

Given the nature of loss and the scale of brutality, our army, which was on duty during the crisis, has shown maximum restraint. No bullets were fired from their side, putting first priority on the safety of the women and children who were kept hostage inside. It only goes to the credit of the army that they have given peaceful resolution of the grave problem a chance. The government has started to probe into the carnage and we hope that the conspirators, along with the murderers, will be brought before justice. The brutality with which some of the brilliant officers of our armed forces and their family members have been treated cannot go unpunished. We do not have enough words to translate our anger and hatred to those who have committed one of the ghastliest crimes in the nation’s recent history. The blood of the martyrs of the Pilkhana massacre shall not go in vain.

It is time to remain united as a nation. “We love ourselves, we love our friends and family members. But more than them,” says Lt Gen Harun, “We love our nation. At a time of such grave crisis we should be united to safeguard our nation and its sovereignty.” He adds: “The pain that we are suffering should not deter us from safeguarding our country and putting the interest of it before everything. More then anyone else we love the country.”

On simply military terms, the loss for the army and the country is staggering. “The number of officers we have lost would be enough to man 8 to 10 regiments of the army,” he says. Even though no army in the world can stand such a massacre, Anam thinks, traumatised though its members are, “it is a disciplined force and is continuing to act in the highest traditions of professionalism.”

Besides the irreparable loss of life, which has given a big blow to our army and the country, the BDR, as a force, needs to be reconstructed. The mutiny has left our porous border unguarded and our nation’s security has remained under threat. This is the time to rise before the occasion and get united as a nation. It is only the united effort of everyone that can save our nation from this catastrophe.

Meanwhile, Nadeet Haque stares vacantly at the sky and remembers his father, who was the main brain behind the caretaker government’s Operation Dal-Bhat, which was the lifeline for the country’s poor. He says, “My father was a brave man, he worked really hard for the country. I do not know what has happened, I do not know how such an incident can happen.” Like the slain Colonel’s son, the entire nation anxiously waits to see the culprits of the BDR massacre to be brought before justice.

In the Shadow of Terror

2009-02-09T20:08:00.006+06:00

Last week, reports of several international intelligence agencies have suggested that Sheikh Hasina has become the target of a couple of international terrorist organisations. What can be done to fend off such attacks, which are meant to destroy our fledgling democracy?

The grisliest and the most deadly attack that any surviving political leader of the country has withstood came five years ago on August 21 when about 15 grenades were thrown at a rally organised by the Awami League in downtown Paltan. The attack left 20 dead, among them was Ivy Rahman, the party’s then women affairs secretary. The party chief Sheikh Hasina was critically injured; her hearing ability was partially lost. In fact, Hasina, immediately before the first grenade was hurled, was coming down the makeshift truck that was used as a podium, when photojournalists requested her to stop to let them take a last snap. It was then that the first grenade struck where she would have been had she not answered the photographers’ call. Ivy, who was helping Hasina to get down the truck, was hit by the shrapnel only to succumb to death a day later.

It was not for the first time that Hasina had brushed past death. The first of its kind happened during Ershad’s regime, when a group of thugs belonging to the Freedom Party led by Col (retd) Farukh Rahman, the self-proclaimed killer of her father Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib, tried to launch an attack on her home at Dhanmondi 32. The next attempt came a decade later when bombs were found at a meeting, which was to be attended by Hasina in Tungipara.

Subsequent probes in these attacks and other numerous terrorist incidents that were launched in the rule of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP)-led Four-Party Alliance (FPA) were deliberately misled. The police investigation into the August 21 attack is a case in point. The members of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation, who came to Bangladesh to probe into the carnage, did not get any assistance from their local counterparts--the unexploded grenades were hurriedly disposed of and with them valuable clues to the attack were lost. The police later launched the mockery of a probe in which they nabbed a ‘terrorist’ called Joj Mia, who ‘confessed’ to his ‘crime’. Matters reached a head when the media found out that Joj was in fact a petty criminal and his mother spilled the beans, telling the press that she was being given money by the police because her son played along with their version of the story.

Not only this, the FPA government’s role in handling the probes into such terrorist attacks have been appalling. At the dawn of April 2, 2004, huge caches of illegal arms were found in wooden boxes from MV Khawja and FT Amanat, two feeder vessels that were moored in the jetty of the Chittagong Urea Fertiliser Factory. The discovery was staggering, the number of arms was enough to launch a war on a regular army-- 1, 290 SMGs, 100 Tommy guns, 400 semi-automatic spot Rifles, 150 rocket launchers with 40-mm barrels, 2000 grenade launchers, 840 rockets (40mm), 25,020 hand grenades, 6, 392 magazines of SMGs and 18,40 lakh bullets.

The probe into the smuggling of such deadly weapons, again, got lost in a blind ally. No significant breakthrough has ever come, as though no such incident had ever taken place. The smugglers are still at large and it has been alleged that some of these arms were given back to those they belonged to because an influential BNP MP was the mastermind of the trafficking.

A recent investigation done by the immediate past caretaker government into the August 21 massacre has revealed some dirty home truths--behind the attacks were two influential BNP leaders (of them one was a minister) who were close to the so-called Hawa Bhaban, the alterative centre of power that BNP chief Khaleda Zia’s son Tarique Rahman created for himself. Compelling though the findings are, one feels that the new investigation is inadequate. Because of the shoddy nature in which the FPA government has handled the terror attacks, especially that of August 21, one should not be blamed for pointing fingers at the big names of the BNP leadership.

In the run-up to the national elections, it was evident that a string of terrorist attacks was imminent. There was a specific alert from an intelligence agency of a neighbouring country that Sheikh Hasina, who was busy electioneering, was a target of the banned Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HuJi) and Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), which were behind a couple of suicide bombings that rocked the country in 2005. Even though the hanging of the top notches of the JMB and the arrest of HuJi kingpin Hannan have weakened the operational abilities of the groups, recent ammunitions haul in Dhaka’s Mirpur suggests that the terrorists are regrouping for their next attack.

The extremists have never been fond of Hasina; her non-communal stance and, on top of it all, her declaration of war on terror have earned her the wrath of the terrorists, who, there is no doubt, will want her to be silenced. And there are the war criminals, who, now faced with the prospect of being handed down justice, may want to destabilise the country by launching terrorist attacks; some of the war criminals can even give a helping hand to the terrorists by providing them with logistical support.

Terrorists can plant bombs at any place or they can blow themselves up anywhere. To ward off such attacks, the government has to take pre-emptive measures. To begin with, the probes into the Chittagong ammo haul and different terrorist attacks must be done quickly; a White Paper on all the terrorist attacks have to be prepared. The Chittagong arms smuggling and the August 21 attack are two important clues to find out the lynchpins of terror in the country. The government must find out the names that tried to derail the investigations during the FPA government’s regime. Besides this, the most important weapon that a government has against terror is intelligence. As no security force in the world, no matter what weapons it has at its disposal, can prevent determined criminals from blowing themselves up, the best way to fight terrorism is to prevent the creation of suicide bombers.

Islam, the religion that the terrorists use to justify mass murder, has no place for terror in its fold. One way to neutralise the terrorists is perhaps to spread the teachings of Islam, which profess peace and harmony. The curricula of the religious schools need to go through an overhaul. Sheikh Hasina wants to establish a ‘Digital Bangladesh’; where else but these schools can modern IT training start, especially in the religious schools of the poverty-stricken regions?

The government must also share intelligence with the citizens. Siddikul Islam alias Bangla Bhai, the militant guru was arrested on a tip off from an ordinary individual, it was in such a way that Abdur Rahman, JMB supremo, was caught. The ultimate weapon that we have against terrorism is the people of the country, who loathe extremism, and who will never let their religion be used as a pawn by the terrorists.

First 30 Days

2009-02-04T18:07:00.002+06:00

In its first 30 days in office the Awami League-led Mahajote government, besides some occasional glitches, has shown promise

The last general elections, in which the Awami League (AL) and its centre-left coalition have won an overwhelming majority, were held in the backdrop of unabashed corruption and equally shameless nepotism of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP)-led Four Party Alliance government. In the latter’s five-year-rule the country’s democratic polity hit hard and a state of anarchy prevailed in its economy. The elections of December 29 have proven that, the ordinary voters do not forgive their politicians for any mistakes; the polls have witnessed the fall of the titans of the ‘nationalist politics’--all the big guns of the BNP have been silenced by the voters. Besides its rival’s tainted past in governance, what has helped the AL to win such a big victory is the statesmanship that Sheikh Hasina, the party chief, has shown in the run up to the elections.

When, in a last ditch attempt to withstand a possible wipe-out, the BNP chief indulged herself in mudslinging and character assassination, Hasina remained composed, her speeches showed vision to a people grown weary of promises made by politicians. Her dreams of ‘digital Bangladesh’ and a ‘poverty free country’ also generated huge enthusiasm among the young first-time voters. Elections, for the AL, were a smooth sailing. The real challenge has come later.

Faced with the task of forming her cabinet, Hasina has relied on the fresh blood in her rank. It is indeed surprising to see the AL, which is the oldest political party in the country, come up with a band of ministers who are young and some of the holders of important portfolios have been elected for the first time. The presence of those allegedly involved in corruption and thuggery in Hasina’s cabinet is being kept at a bare minimum.

The AL, in its third term in office, has shown political maturity. It has rightly reduced the prices of diesel and fertiliser, which is going to give impetuous to the green revolution. All is well on the economic front too; even though the rest of the world is going through a recession, Bangladesh’s economic indicators have remained buoyant. Bangladesh has stood third in the world of ready-made garment export. Growth, in this fiscal year, one hopes, will be greater than the previous one. Prices of essentials have come down to the reach of the masses, and with another bumper production of rice in the offing it is expected that the prices of rice and dahl will fall further.

The government has also taken the right step of forming a war crime tribunal to bring the perpetrators of the genocide of 1971 to book. The move is going to gain the party widespread support, as one of the reasons behind the BNP’s election debacle is its patronisation of the war criminals. The government has also initiated the process of building Padma Bridge and Ganga barrage.

Even though the AL has come up with a revolutionary charter for change, followed by a cabinet with fresh vibrant faces, in its first 15 days in office, the AL leadership has initially failed to tame its young members, some of whom ran berserk, illegally taking control of different educational institutions while the law enforcers looked on. In the face of mounting criticism, the prime minister herself intervened, instructing the leaders of her party’s student body to behave. Over the last few days, the law and order situation has also posed a problem to the new administration; in the last one month incidents of killing and mugging have increased; mob violence specially setting fire to public and private properties by students to draw attention to their demands has become a norm.

Another episode that has blemished the AL government’s first one month is the Upazila elections, when an AL MP has been found violating the electoral laws, prompting the Election Commissioner to opine that he has been disappointed to see the actions of some ruling law makers.

A lot more actually needs to be done. Sheikh Hasina and her colleagues must keep in mind that the voters have put their faith in the party thinking that this time the AL will be able to bring about the change it said it would bring to the country. It is alarming to see the old gangsters back in the business of mugging and extortion. To improve the law and order situation, the government, on a priority basis, has to overhaul the police, which, as a force, have lost the trust of the general public. New officers have to be recruited, and the force has to be allowed to work neutrally.

It is not possible to root out the corruption from the country in a month, which has spread its tentacles over the last couple of decades. Hasina and her team should allow the Anti-Corruption Commission to work freely; the latter needs to work with diligence, putting emphasis on institutionalised corruption.

We hope, moreover, that a new pro-people economic policy is going to be taken where poverty alleviation will be prioritised, and the government will play a pro-active role to tackle the storm that is brewing in the big economies across the globe.

The first 30 days of Hasina government have gone on well. The new face of governance that the prime minister has brought about shows the promise of a brighter beginning. Her strength is the people of the country who have given her the mandate to change the course of history. It is only hoped that her term in office is going to sow the seeds of a Bangladesh free of bigotry and intolerance, a country on strong financial footing, the Golden Bangla that the founding fathers of our country dared to dream of.

Living Dangerously

2009-01-26T18:12:00.002+06:00

South Asian sub-continent has become a dangerous place in which to live not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing

From the Taliban in the north to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam in the south, the South Asian sub-continent is plagued by terrors of different hues and colours. What makes it even more complex is the manifold nature of the causes that drive the young men (and women) of the sub-continent towards the world of death and degeneration. The history of terrorism in the continent is not new, it dates as far back as the mid sixties of the last century when a faction of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) led by its ultra-leftist leader Charu Majumdar and Kanu Sanyal took up arms to start a Maoist revolution. Charu’s ideology gained some fan following in the then East Pakistan, which caused the Communist party in the country to divide into several microscopic factions. The ideological descendents of Charu and Kanu, after abandoning their ideology, have resorted to extortion and smuggling for a living.

Terrorism, in fact, has never threatened Bangladesh’s polity until a bomb blast at a cultural programme of Udichi Shilpi Goshthi in Jessore on March 6, 1999 left 10 people killed and over 100 injured. The Udichi blast, as it is now known, has been the first in a string of terrorist attacks, which have seen the death of about a thousand. In these attacks, non-communal progressive political and cultural organisations were deliberately targeted, after Udichi came an assassination attempt on the life of the then premier Sheikh Hasina, it was followed by a grisly bomb blast at a rally organised on January 20, 2001 by the Communist Party. There was a lull in the attack for a couple of years only to return in full force—in 2004, in an attack on the country’s secular judiciary, two suicide bombers near simultaneously blew themselves up to kill two judges. Even though the country has vigorously launched its own war on terror, executing the masterminds of its homegrown Al-Qaeda leaders, without making South Asia free from terrorism, the country cannot alone win the war against the terrorists.

Actually, it is in this backdrop that has come the Awami League’s (AL) election manifesto, which, without elaborating further, promises to form a South Asian Taskforce to fight terror. The AL, after winning an absolute majority in the elections, has come to power and the government led by the party is going ahead with the taskforce. Foreign Minister Dipu Moni says, “The modalities of the protocol are being discussed and (will be) finalised here for taking collective measures to eradicate terrorism from the region. We have built up an institutional framework, which can be utilised by the member countries to initiate effective actions. Combating terrorism is a task that South Asia needs to pursue relentlessly.”

Taskforce of the kind Dipu Moni is alluding to already exist. “A taskforce is not a standing force, it’s a mechanism in which you exchange opinions and information, where you enhance your capabilities regarding a particular issue. You can have a country task force, a regional task force. There are examples galore where task forces have been formed to address the problem of terrorism. The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation has its own counter terrorism taskforce called APECCTT,” Brig Gen (retired) Shahedul Anam Khan, a national security expert, says.

Another task force that Anam draws example of is coordinated by none other than the UN Secretary General’s (UNSG) office. The body is called the Counter-Terrorism Implementation Task Force; in a famous speech, the then UNSG Kofi Anan outlined the taskforce’s approach to deal with terrorism; he emphasised on five Ds--Dissuading people from resorting or supporting terrorist acts; denying terrorist the means to carry out attacks; deterring states from supporting terrorism; developing state capacity to defeat terrorism, and defending human rights.

But how the proposed South Asian taskforce is going to work has remained anyone’s guess. Anam, drawing example from APECCTT says, “The taskforce can coordinate the implementation of the anti-terror strategy enunciated by its leaders, assist economies to identify and assess counter-terrorism needs, coordinate capacity building and technical assistance programmes, cooperate with the international organisations to implement the strategy, and facilitate cooperation between South Asian countries on counter-terrorism issues. It is up to the governments to thrash it out.”

Anam thinks that the taskforce should by no means become a part of ‘the US-led so-called war on terror.” He says, “The war on terror is a convoluted idea in which all terrorists are Muslims and therefore all Muslims are terrorists. It’s a wrong starter. If you look at the experience of this so-called war in Pakistan you will find that the government there cannot stop US missiles from hitting targets inside Pakistan, and mostly civilians are being killed. When it becomes an operational strategy, a fighting strategy, which has happened in Pakistan and Afghanistan, a country gets embroiled in danger.”

The presence of the US, UK and EU, along with China as observers will surely help the taskforce in its work. But given that it has caused two wars and numerous skirmishes between the sub-continent’s two nuclear neighbours, chances are there that the issue of Kashmir can overshadow the creation of such a taskforce. There is no denying that in the ever-changing world of counter terrorism the biggest weapon that we have at our disposal is intelligence. The terrorists have their own international network, which transcends national boundaries. It is time that South Asian countries unite to fight the menace that has put millions of lives in grave danger.

Lessons to Learn

2009-01-18T16:02:00.003+06:00

Infuse fresh blood and clean your ranks or else face oblivion

The defeat that the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) has suffered in last month’s general elections is an ignominious one, the worst kind of humiliation that an outgoing ruling party has faced in the history of the South Asian sub-continent. In fact, the margin of defeat is staggering for the BNP, which won 193 seats in the general elections of 2001, has been reduced to 30 seats. What has added an extra pinch of salt to the party’s sore wound is that it has won only three more seats than Jatya Party, which was deposed in a mass upsurge in 1990.

Khaleda Zia, who is leading the party for the last 24 years, will be mistaken if she remains content, wrongly consoling herself by thinking that her party has fared so badly because there has been ‘digital rigging’ or ‘the previous administration was biased against’ the BNP. These remarks, preposterous that they are, will only isolate the masses from her party and will make a fool of someone who used to be known once for reticence. The BNP leadership has to delve deep into its last term in office to find out the causes of the defeat; and it will find the job gargantuan in nature.

From 2001-2006, the BNP, while in government, has ravaged the country, its politics and economy. To begin with, the party’s last term in office has created Hawa Bhaban, an alternative centre of power, which controlled government tender, created curtails that are behind the spiralling price hike of essentials like rice and baby food. The Bhaban, run by Tarique Rahman, Khaleda’s first-born, even handled the promotions of the civil servants in exchange for cash and kind, giving birth to a culture of misrule and impunity. Armed with the blessings of Tarique, who was made the BNP’s senior joint-secretary general, Hawa Bhaban boys, of whom the most notable is Giashuddin Al Mamun, ran amuck: For five long years ordinary Bangladeshis felt as though a clan of thugs had been ruling them.

Besides corruption and mismanagement of the BNP leaders, Khaleda’s term also witnessed the phenomenal rise of religious extremism. Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh (JMJB), a paramilitia vigilante outfit was formed, which butchered ordinary people in the northeastern districts in the name of hunting down Maoist insurgents. When national newspapers broke the news, along with quotes of police officers who said that they were taking the group’s help because Maoist insurgency was on the rise, Khaleda denied their presence; Matiur Rahman Nizami, leader of the JI, a junior partner of the BNP in the government, went one step further: he called the JMJB a figment of the media’s imagination. To make it even worse, numerous terrorist attacks were launched against the main opposition Awami League (AL), and the democratic progressive forces. Jamaat-ul-Mujaheedin Bangladesh (JMB), a new terror outfit, launched a string of suicide attacks that left the country’s judiciary in tatters; grenades were hurled at a rally organised by the AL, assassination attempts were made on the life of its leader Sheikh Hasina. The patrons of the new terror were none other than ministers in Khaleda’s cabinet.

Khaleda’s unflinching infatuation with suspected war criminals made matters worse. People felt betrayed when two individuals who have abetted rape and murder during our Independence war were given two important portfolios in Khaleda’s cabinet. Bangladesh, a country that used to be known for peace and communal harmony, hit the headlines of international dailies for terrorism and suicide bombing.

While casting their votes on the fateful day of December 29, the citizens did not forget the corruption, price hike and extremism that marred their lives when Khaleda was in the helm. Her emotional election speeches, especially the one on state-run radio and television, did little to appease the voters who remained weary and sceptical of her apology, which she had offered a day before the elections.

The BNP is facing the worst political disaster in its history since its birth in the womb of military dictatorship in 1978. The party is at a crossroads now: while on one road lies a Muslim League-like wipeout, the other path, if the party leadership takes it, will lead the party to a clean democratic future. To begin with, the party must start practising democracy from the grass-root level; for a political party internal democracy is like fresh blood that must be infused time and again to keep the party alive and healthy. The party must come up with a neutral, in-depth analysis of its last term in office. Members with a corrupt past, no matter who they are or what position they hold in the party hierarchy, must be expelled.

The party has to get rid of those who harbour extremism or entertain extremist beliefs. The keenest of lessons that December 29 has taught us is perhaps that the ordinary Bangladeshis want the war criminals to be tried; the BNP can gain popular support by bowing before this popular demand and breaking ties with the JI, which has some infamous war criminals in its fold. In the coming five years, the party has to play a pro-people role when issues central to the lives of the masses are going to be discussed in the parliament.

Bangladesh is in need of a strong opposition. The old BNP, ridden with corruption, extremism and war criminal sympathisers, will find itself at bay in the parliament. The party and its leaders have to start cleaning its rank and democratising its polity. It is time to show political maturity and statesmanship; whether Khaleda has these qualities in her only time can tell.

Taming the Wild Horse

2009-01-18T15:58:00.002+06:00

The Grand Alliance has come to power promising to bring down the price of essentials; the job, however, will remain daunting

In the elections, rising price of essentials, especially rice, as an issue, has dimmed corruption and the rise of violent extremism. In the middle of the Four-party Alliance government’s term, food prices showed an upward trend, which reached its zenith in 2005. Coarse rice, a cheap variety of rice, which was sold at Tk 10 when the previous Awami League government handed over power, shot up to Tk 32. In Sheikh Hasina’s last term in office, the country experienced a bumper production of crops and her government also kept a steady reserve of rice. Quite contrary to that, Khaleda government followed a free-for-all policy, which gave birth to several curtails that had started to control the market of the essentials. It is alleged that a coterie of thugs and plunderers that mobbed Hawa Bhaban, Khaleda Zia’s son Tarique Rahman’s office was behind the spiralling prices of essentials. Food production was not good either; coupled with that was the fact that the world economy was going through a recession and food prices were also on the rise on the global market.

The shortage of rice became acute in the caretaker government’s rule as prices of rice started to go up to reach an all-time high; the real income of the masses plummeted; when the situation turned even worse an economist has even compared it with ‘silent famine’. Some short-term measures taken by Dr Fakhruddin Ahmed’s government have eventually averted a full-blown humanitarian disaster. In this background came Sheikh Hasina’s promise, which has generated widespread popular support in the young and women voters. The latter in particular answered the Grand Alliance’s call as they directly bear the brunt of the price hike. But MM Akash, economist and professor of Dhaka University, says, “Bringing down the price of rice to Tk 10 a kilogram is an improbable target, which can never be materialised.” He reasons that if rice is sold at Tk 10 a kg, the farmers will be adversely affected, as their production cost will not decrease to a great extent. Providing them with a free supply of fertiliser will not work as they have to by diesel, the price of which has remained volatile.

Instead of setting the improbable target, the government can develop the purchasing power of the poor by generating employment. The Grand Alliance government has to start employment generation schemes for the rural poor. Akash suggests the creation of self-chosen labour brigades consisting of rural poor who, with the government’s technical help, will carry out labour-intensive infrastructural works. Hundred days guaranteed employment, which the caretaker government has initiated must be continued and should include more people under its safety net.

Akash thinks it must also secure food grain supply. The distribution of these supplies can be by done by using the offices of the local government bodies, which are going to assume office by February. “If the unholy nexus of the middlemen are not eradicated from the market, the dream of curbing price hike will remain an unattainable,” Akash says. A buffer stock, which should be about 15-20 per cent of the total supply, can be created so that the government can intervene whenever speculative trading takes place or when the market shows illogical behaviour.

The new government must keep in mind that it cannot remain an apathetic bystander while ordinary citizens toil. The Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB) can start rationing, something it has abandoned long ago. If it is done, rationing will help the government to control the market and at the same time it will help the masses, especially those belonging to the lower middle class to deal with the ever-increasing cost of living. History suggests that subsequent governments have failed to check corruption in the TCB, one of the major reasons why the rationing system in our country has fallen flat. Checking corruption however will remain a major challenge to bring the prices of essentials within the reach of the ordinary people.

It is understandable that the new government will not be able to tame the wild horse of essentials overnight. But it has to come up with short time remedies that can cushion the poor against inflation and unemployment. It is indeed not easy to change the dynamics of the market overnight, yet the government must know that 140 million hungry stomachs will want a quick fix. Any lax in governance or deterioration of the law and order situation will aggravate the crisis. Never before has a government faced such an uphill task.

People's Victory

2008-12-31T17:06:00.004+06:00

The results of the 9th parliamentary elections have been clear and decisive. The voters have overwhelmingly rejected the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP)-led Four-Party-Alliance (FPA), opting for a change that the Awami League (AL) driven Grand Alliance promises to bring about. This victory is also the victory of the spirit of the liberation war, which is evident in the routing of the anti-liberation forces in Monday’s elections. As the country is on the verge of a historic transition to democracy we analyse the results that have given the AL, the vanguard of our Muktijuddo, a chance to rebuild the nation. The country has vested all the power to Sheikh Hasina and her allies to materialise the dream of golden Bengal that the three million martyrs of our liberation war had dreamed of. In her election speech she has said, “Boat (the AL’s election symbol) has brought you independence, repeat your choice this time too, it will give you economic freedom.” The people of Bangladesh have answered her call; now is the time to show brinkmanship and steer the nation towards a happy and prosperous future.

The BNP’s Downfall

There is no denying that the immediate past FPA government, which ruled the country for five years, was thoroughly corrupt. In Khaleda Zia’s last term in office an alternative centre of power was created in Hawa Bhaban by Tarique Rahman, Khaleda’s first-born. From 2001-2006, the 42-year-old son of the then Prime Minister was the epicentre of corruption and nepotism that plagued Khaleda’s regime. Since his entrance into the BNP, founded by his father, former military dictator Gen Zia, Tarique had involved himself in unlawful influence and businesses at home and abroad. As allegations of corruption against her son became louder, Khaleda turned a blind eye, even occasionally calling it “a conspiracy to tarnish the image of the nationalist forces.” From the broken suitcase that he had left for his widow when he was assassinated in a failed coup in Chittagong, Zia’s two sons became the owner of a textile mill, numerous cargo ships, and a private television channel, not to mention investments worth millions of dollars that Tarique is believed to have secretly made in countries as diverse as Malaysia, Australia and South Africa.

In Khaleda’s regime Tarique, his brother Koko and a coterie of thugs that surrounded them ran amuck. Driven by a get-rich-quick lifestyle, they plundered the country and its fledgling economy. A syndicate was created which was widely believed to be behind the price-hike of essentials like rice and baby food. This was a time when no business deal was made without the prior endorsement of Mr 10 per cent, which remained Tarique’s nom-de-gruerre. Besides business transactions, his long hands were stretched to government tenders and the recruitment of civil servants. Even things as banal as electric poles did not escape his clutches. A recent investigation by the Singapore government has found that Arafat Rahman Koko, Khaleda’s other son, has taken bribes amounting to Tk 11.43 crores and siphoned it off to invest in his own company that he has founded abroad.

Tarique and Koko were good enough to bring the most ignominious defeat an outgoing ruling party has ever suffered in the political history of the South-Asian sub continent. Worst still, together, both the brothers gave given birth to a culture of impunity and degeneration where merit did not matter, the Crown Prince’s blessings alone were enough to hit the jackpot.
Armed with this, some members of the BNP, in the party’s last term, unleashed a reign of unbridled corruption and mafia-like terror where it is justified to gobble up goods meant to be used for victims of flood or other natural disasters.

All the democratic institutions were systematically destroyed; it seemed as though the BNP had held some grudge against the country and its polity and now that it had got the chance it was obliterating everything the country stands for. Known war criminals were made ministers; Zia helped Razakars to be rehabilitated in independent Bangladesh: his widow made the country their fiefdom.

Patronised by Khaleda’s cabinet members, several militant outfits crept up in the north and northeast. When Siddikur Rahman alias Bangla Bhai and his Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh were unleashing a reign of terror on innocent people in the name of wiping out Maoist rebels, Khaleda and Matiur Rahman Nizami were in denial about their presence, with the latter calling it “a figment of media’s imagination”. When in one of the ghastliest terror attacks militants lobbed grenades at a meeting of the then opposition leader Sheikh Hasina, Khaleda’s colleagues were quick to find the culprits in the fold of the AL leadership; the subsequent probes were deliberately misled to save the real culprits. It took a couple of years and near simultaneous blasts in 63 districts, marking the début of the birth of terrorist group Jamaat-ul- Mujaheedin Bangladesh (JMB) to make Khaleda swallow her words. The JMB was banned, but their abettors remained close to the BNP leadership.

Like her infamous Roman predecessor in history, Khaleda fiddled when her subjects starved due to a price-hike of essentials. At the fag end of her regime, the BNP leadership tried to go on with a fake voter list that had over 1 crore fictitious names. In the run up to the elections, when news of her son’s corruption has hit the headlines, Khaleda has cried innocence, which has not boded well with the voters. To make matters worse, in several constituencies the party has nominated party members who are widely believed to be corrupt. With this add the vision and maturity that its opposition, the Grand Alliance, especially the AL, has shown. The BNP has, in fact, sealed its own fate; the people of Bangladesh have just written it aloud.

Bangladesh has Voted for Change

Compared to Khaleda’s last term in office, prices of rice and dal in Hasina’s rule was within the reach of the toiling masses thanks to a flurry of bumper productions of crops. Voters, especially the women voters who directly bear the brunt of price-hike, have kept it in mind while voting for ‘boat’, the AL’s election symbol.

This year’s polls, besides the corruption of the BNP’s last term in office, the rise of extremism as an issue has played a crucial role. Even though the country has witnessed several terrorist incidents, including a couple of suicide attacks, ordinary Bangladeshis have never entertained extremist beliefs. The BNP’s flirting with the extremists has left the voters with no other option but vote for the AL-led Grand Alliance, which has shown the non-communal alternative.

Throughout the electioneering, Sheikh Hasina has shown brinkmanship. Her ‘Vision 2021’ has been welcomed by the young voters, who constitute 32 per cent of the electorate. Unlike her BNP counterpart, Hasina shunned character assassinations and mud slinging during electioneering. The manifesto that she has presented before the nation has shown her maturity as a politician, she has simply steered her party and the alliance towards one of the biggest election victories since independence.

In fact, this is for the second time in Bangladesh’s history that in a free and fair election a party has been voted to power with an absolute majority, the first being the AL-led government by Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. This is a huge responsibility, which the party has to shoulder, especially at a time when the global economy has entered a recession, which might affect the country’s export and remittances.

The next government has to deal with extremism with an iron hand. Instead of taking the traditional approach, the next AL-government should exterminate the causes that drive young men towards the world of suicide bombing. Computer and vocational trainings must be incorporated in the religious education system; secular education system must include the proper teachings of Islam, a religion the literal meaning of which is peace. At the same time, the government must reign in on the terror outfits and bring their patrons to book.

The next government must pursue the cases of Bangabandhu murder pending with the court. It must also immediately set up a tribunal to try the war criminals of 1971.

The whole country is now united behind the AL and the Grand Alliance, and its leadership must create a platform of broad national unity to take the nation forward. The last two elections’ voting trend tells us that Bangladeshis do not forgive their leaders for making mistakes. The AL was humbled once by the voters in 2001; the BNP, it is obvious from its last term in office that the party has not learnt anything from it. One hopes that it will be different this time round. Everything that the next government needs to do is to closely scrutinise the mistakes that its predecessors have made and make sure that it does not make them.

From Sheikh Hasina the nation expects the vision and magnanimity that she has shown during electioneering. She should also carry on the institutional reforms that have been initiated in the last two years and must ensure the freedom of judiciary and press. Civil service needs to be made free of the remnants of politicisation that took place during the FPA government’s rule.

These elections have given Bangladesh the opportunity to have a fresh start after years of misrule and abuse of power. The country is at a crossroads now. One path is going to lead us to tolerance, economic development while on the other lie violence and poverty. The situation eerily resembles that of 1972 when a new era dawned on us. We could not build the nation at that time for the sabotage of the anti-liberation forces, our ineptitude in governance and the murder of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and the four national leaders who led the nation during the Muktijuddo. This time Sheikh Hasina and the alliance must seize the opportunity and materialise the promises that they have made in their manifestoes.

Politics in the New Era

In these elections the voters have also overwhelmingly voted out war criminals, most of whom have been vying for seats in the FPA’s banner. Some recent comments made by Jamaat leaders Matiur Rahman Nizami and Ali Ahsan Mojahed have proven that the party still does not feel repentant for the crimes they have committed against the nation and its people in 1971. Like an albatross on the neck, the JI and its past has become a liability for the party’s alliance friends.

To do politics in Bangladesh, the JI must believe in Bangladesh’s sovereignty and everything that it stands for. It has to clean its leadership of war criminals. The BNP has to rethink its relationship with the JI as the elections have proven that in the new scenario frolicking with those suspected of war crimes may not yield dividend on Election Day. The BNP leadership has to start from the scratch. The party has to reform itself, which can be started by removing the corrupt from its leadership. The party has to come clean before the nation and given that a vacuum is created in the centre right politics, the BNP will be able to fill it if the party can come up with the right cause and shuns the politics of violence, anarchy and corruption.

The Jatya Party (JP) led by deposed President HM Ershad has gained significant grounds in the elections. It has made inroads in Sylhet and Chittagong. Till now JP has restricted itself in the north and the popularity it enjoys across the country centres round Ershad’s personality. These elections have given the party 27 seats, which is the party’s second best performance in any elections. The JP, whose politics is centre to the right, is capable of claiming the BNP’s votes in the next elections if it can go beyond the personality cult of Ershad and comes up with its vision of the country’s future.

The last parliament did not have any Left MPs. This time five MPs, three from the Jatya Shamajtantrik Dal and two from the Workers Party of Bangladesh, have been elected. They, however, have ridden the ‘boat’ to cross the shore. The country’s left has to work hard to fare well in the next elections. If they get ministries it will be for the first time that Bangladesh is going to have Left ministers; so much so for a country where two years ago two known war criminals adorned the cabinet.

Last week’s general elections are going to make a long-lasting impact on the country’s politics. A bright new beginning lies before us. The nation’s expectations will be high, as they, in a rare display of unity, have ousted the FPA. The people’s verdict we now know. History tells us that the masses never make mistakes in choosing their leaders. So far, Sheikh Hasina, the AL and Grand Alliance leader, has shown the leadership ability that the country is in need of in the new era. She and her colleagues have to keep in mind that with power comes responsibility. Bangladesh has produced leaders like Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Maulana Abdul Hamid Khan Bhashani and Tajuddin Ahmed, leaders who led a life of sacrifice, leaders who were capable of reading the pulse of the people. Last Monday Bangladesh has voted for change, it is now time its leaders rise up to the occasion to build a modern, prosperous country free from poverty and exploitation.

Getting the Impossible Done

2008-12-22T19:23:00.005+06:00

In an exclusive interview, Major General Md Shafiqul Islam, ndc, psc, Military Secretary of the Bangladesh Army, which has co-managed the Bangladesh Voter Registration Project with the Election Commission, talks about how the dream of a flawless voter list has come true. This year the ID World International Congress has honoured Major General Islam with the ID Outstanding Achievement Award

Can you please tell us about the process in which the national ID card project worked?

Before explaining the process, I would like to touch up on the events that led to this project. The events of 11 January 2007 created a widespread national expectation for an accurate voter list with photographs. Considering the significance of the task, Bangladesh Army, under the direction of the Chief of Army Staff, proposed an integrated task, which would produce not only a voter list, but also National ID cards and a biometric database for the citizens above 18 years of age. The model for the process was deliberated by a national committee and then was put to test through a pilot project at Sreepur Pouroshobha on June 10, 2007.

At the same time, Bangladesh Election Commission (BEC) approved this project for nationwide implementation with the assistance of UNDP and requested Bangladesh Army to provide the necessary technical and logistical support required for implementing the same. Hence, a group of dedicated officers along with local software firms developed a customised software and set-up a control and monitoring network for undertaking the job. An operation, code named ‘NOBO JATRA’ was launched in late July 2007. A central control cell at Dhaka cantonment and divisional and district control cells were established to coordinate the project, with the aid of BEC and local administrations. The registration form contained all relevant fields required for the voter list and National ID cards. Registration on paper was accomplished through door-to-door visits by data enumerators while the digital registration was done at the registration centre under the direct supervision of the Army. In the coastal areas of the country, Bangladesh Navy supervised the task. Operators and technical managers were recruited and trained throughout the country by Army personnel. After the digital registration and proof checking of the data, the draft voter list and National ID cards were prepared by the Army.

The voter lists were then handed over to the local election offices and the National ID cards were distributed through the local administrations. An ordinance was also enacted by the government under which a new organization named National Identities Registration Authority (NIRA) had been set up to manage ID card issues in future. For registering and issuing ID cards to approximately 80.11 million voters throughout the entire country, an elaborate time and rotation plan was chalked out considering the topography, communication network, population distribution and socio-cultural sensitivity. To eliminate chances of duplicate registrations by an individual physical and biometrics digital checking were done rigorously. Following all these processes the National ID cards were prepared and distributed to all citizens by 30th October 2008. Throughout this process the citizens of Bangladesh as well as the media proactively helped the Army in completing this widely recognized task.

How challenging was the task?

The task was mammoth, the timeframe was tight and the challenges were many. Some of the challenges were:
The first hurdle we encountered was the selection and customisation of appropriate software. When the news became public that Bangladesh Army was going to enrol and issue ID cards to approximately 90 million people, both local and international software and hardware companies flooded in. Their whole intention was to grab this lucrative contract for business purposes ignoring our national requirements. They projected that a single international standard ID card would cost around 3 to 4 US dollars (amounting to a total of 270 to 360 million US dollars for 90 million voters). This cost projection was for ID cards alone, excluding the costs for voter list with photographs. Their predicted timeframe for the project outdid our expected time limit of 12 to 18 months. Moreover they would not handover the exclusive rights of the software. So we individually searched for and found a few software SDK sources and linked them with several willing local development partners. They took on the challenge and developed enrolment, server and matching software integrating multiple biometric features. Thus the entire technology gamut became solely a Bangladeshi affair.

The second challenge was the selection and procurement of appropriate and cost effective hardware. The huge amount of hardware required (11,000 laptops with webcams and fingerprint scanners, 600 desktops, 550 laser printers, 3000 generators to name a few) drew tough competition from various firms. These firms also tried to push low quality items taking legal advantage of PPR 2003. After much delay UNDP’s direct procurement of hardware saved the day. At one point we were stuck with digital signature capture devices. After much experiment with various digital signatures, we finally decided to capture the signatures from paper through webcam snapshot. It saved money and logistical hassle. Otherwise for the digital signature additional USB port was needed in the laptops. Another innovative decision was to add low-priced keyboard to each laptop so that the novice operators do not damage the integrated laptop keyboards. An additional challenge in the project was to establish an effective troubleshooting chain throughout the country so that technological glitches would not affect the operating state of the equipments.

The procurement, distribution and maintenance of a huge quantity of items like 1,60,000 reams of paper, 100 million laminating pouch, 6300 toner of 720 laser printers, 3500 generators and their spares posed a huge problem. Sometimes the foreign factory production line could not meet the running requirement on the ground. On many occasions, items like toner, laptops, laminating pouch, fingerprint scanners had to be airlifted directly from the production site to Zia International Airport. From there we directly dispatched them to the field of operation. In fact the slow pace of logistics procurement prolonged our field level registration time by about 2 months.

We came across various kinds of social challenges during the project. The most troubling was the use of individual’s title before his first name. It was decided in a high level meeting that names to be written as per each person’s SSC certificate. But many educated people wanted to reflect their professions before their given names with titles such as Lawyer, Physician, Professor, Teacher, Judge, Government Official status, Freedom Fighter etc. Managing these became difficult. The second issue was photographing women with veils. We organized a secluded corner for them with female operators. Another issue was the quality of photographs. Some of the operators could not capture the photographs properly. Other issues like determining age and date of birth of illiterate people, understanding the language and social customs of rural areas like that of Sylhet, Noakhali, and Chittagong posed considerable difficulty for us.

Skilled data entry operators and technical managers were the key to success of the project. Initially these tasks were performed by Army personnel. Gradually we trained students and local people in these fields. However in the coastal and bordering areas, suitable male/female operators were not available. So, on many occasions we transported operators from one district to another, organized their travel, accommodation, food etc so that the job could be completed in time. The nature of the job sometimes required female operators to work graveyard shifts and their safety became a point of concern. We had to organized police escort for them. A handful of operators even tried to beat the system with malpractices. For instance, instead of writing the full name of citizens they would type one alphabet and then move on to the next field. Some operators even copied their own fingerprint for individuals whose fingerprints took considerably longer time to capture. To prevent such incidents we had to take a number of technical and administrative actions.

These factors became critical for coastal, hilly, haor and char areas. We had to complete the registration of these areas keeping an eye on cyclone, monsoon, norwester and flood timing. In some areas like chars and haors it was more convenient to conduct the registration during flood than dry seasons. To meet the requirements of coastal areas, naval vessels were used. For Chittagong Hill Tracts, helicopter sorties were used to transport operators and equipment.

Many have voiced concerns about the issue of privacy. How do you perceive the issue?

For many nations, privacy is a controversial issue when it comes to ID cards with biometrics. However, more and more countries are resolving this problem and national ID cards are being introduced. In our case, we looked into the problem quite critically and took adequate administrative and legal measures to prevent the exploitation of sensitive data. For example, under no circumstances hard or soft data are handed over to wrong/ unauthorized recipient. Also, when data is given to public domains, biometric data is not released. This is the reason why contesting candidates in the forthcoming elections will be given electoral roll “without” photographs. Moreover, an exclusive organization (under the Ministry of Home Affairs)--the National Identities Registration Authorities (NIRA) has been set up to be the owner of the data relating to national ID cards. Most importantly, the enacted ordinance on national ID prohibits handing over of any biometric data without a court order. In the same ordinance, strict punishment has been mentioned for any unauthorised release or leakage of individual citizens’ data.

Will you share any personal experience centring on the project?

There are countless events of the two-year long project that are worth mentioning. In fact every day our team was enriched with new experiences. However, I shall share two small incidents from our pilot project at Sreepur Pouroshobha. To capture fingerprints we kept open-ended options so that a person could be registered with any of their ten fingerprints. We even anticipated that there would be few people (farmers, for example) for whom none of the fingerprints would be captured by scanners and therefore kept an ‘Unreadable Fingerprint’ option. However, at Sreepur someone showed up for registration who unfortunately didn’t have any of his hands and consequently the software didn’t allow his registration. We immediately sat down with the programmers and incorporated a NO FINGER option and then registered the person. In another incident an elderly woman, approximately of 90 years of age arrived for registration. She could barely walk or even raise her head for photograph. The operator’s helper held her head up so that she could be photographed. It was not mandatory for her to come to the registration centre since we would visit her home to register because of her age. So when asked why she had come she replied ‘amarta ami nibo”.

I predicted in my concluding remarks during the Sreepur Pilot Project concluding ceremony that probably these indomitable spirits would be our inspiring light for the uncertain future ahead. Now at the end of this journey I am convinced that their spirits and prayers have helped this challenge to come out with flying colours.

How do you feel after being awarded such a prestigious award?

I feel that through this award, the capability and hard work of Bangladesh Army have been recognized and every Bangladeshi all over the globe has been honoured, because every bit of this mega achievement is the result of the dedication, commitment and belief in the ability of self of all the Bangladeshis. And when this was recognized by a congress, which is the champion of ID technology, it was recognition of the synergic efforts of a nation thriving to identify itself with the progress of the advanced countries of the world. I echoed the same sentiment in front of the audience when I was requested to give my instant feeling in Milan on November 18, 2008.

The Bay of Wonder

2008-10-06T19:52:00.008+06:00

A wildlife photographer turned conservationist and his organisation are fighting for a protected area in the Sundarbans for Bangladesh’s threatened dolphins

Rubaiyat Mansur, fondly called Mowgli by his friends and family, was charmed by the magic of the Sundarbans. In fact, in the early and late nineties he was on board different tourist vessels of Guide Tours, which his father owns, as a tour guide and a wildlife photographer. It was on a visit like this that he met Brian Smith, zoologist and Asia coordinator of IUCN Species Survival Commission, who frequents the shores of Bangladesh and was on a trip to find more about the Irrawaddy dolphins. “The dolphin survey, which held in 2002 and went on for 20 days, was for the first time in our history that we have come to know that along with Ganges River dolphin, commonly known as shushuk, Irrawaddy dolphins also exist in the Sundarbans in a large number,” Mowgli says.

After that, he along with the captains of the Guide Tours ships, have done a lot of small researches on their own. In 2004 they trekked the entire coastal belt and 50 kilometres in the bay to find out the varieties of whales, dolphins and porpoises that grace our waters. After seeing the photos that he had taken of the marine life in the coast, Brian told him to start working on the dolphins, telling him that young Bangladeshis like him should come forward to preserve the natural diversity of the country.

There has been no turning back since then. In the winter of 2005 he and his organisation Bangladesh Cetacean Diversity Project (BCDP) started a project on photo-identification of the bottlenose dolphins of the Sundarbans. “We have found that a huge swathe of water, which spans about 40 kilometres near Mongla is a hotspot of bottlenose dolphins. Because these dolphins come in close proximity with fishing trawlers, they bump into accidents; sometimes their fins get cut off by the blades of these vessels,” Mowgli, who has been at sea in the last three seasons, says.

This water, known as the Swatch-of-no-ground is, in fact, a thriving ground for the whales and dolphins for its unique makeup. “Situated on the south of the delta the Swatch-of-no-Ground is a trough-shaped marine valley or underwater canyon. With a flat floor that is 5 to 7 km wide, depths in the trough at the edge shelf are about 1,200m. It has been suggested that the Swatch-of-no-Ground has a seaward continuation for almost 2,000 km down the Bay of Bengal,” an officer in the Bangladesh Navy explains.

But the menace that this 120-kilometre coastline, including the Swatch, poses for the marine mammals is manifold in nature. At risk is not only the survival of bottlenose, but also around 6000 Irrawaddy dolphins, which live in the estuary and consist the largest population of such dolphins in the world. Even though the fishermen do not target these animals, some get entangled in their nets, meeting painful deaths for these mammals need to breath like humans. “Besides incidental killings,” says Elisabeth Fahrni Mansur of the BCDP, “toxic contamination and the use of gillnet fisheries are rampant in this part of the sea’. Another reason why the government must take urgent measures is that the prey of the cetaceans are depleting fast due to massive catch of fish fingerlings. Elisabeth and the BCDP propose a network of protected areas in the mangrove channel and deep-sea canyon waters where whales and dolphins habitat in all seasons.

Mowgli thinks the protected areas should not exclude the fishermen who go there for their bread and butter, or rather, for their fish and salt. “We want a participatory, sustainable development, which will include all the stakeholders,” he says. His organisation proposes three protected sites for shushuks and Irrawaddy dolphins centring on Katka. Another protected area he proposes for the Swatch, where four species of cetacean population can be found, of them three are dolphins and one is a whale. The first protected area that he proposes is a 12ikilometre channel from Ghagramari Forest Department Patrol Post to the Karamjal Patrol Post through Dhangmari creek on the Passur. The second area will stretch 15 kilometres from Jongra patrol post on the Passur to the confluence of Urubunia creek. The third protected are in the Sundarbans will be 5-kilometeres long, starting from Dudmukhi post to the confluence of the Bhola River.

Besides monitoring the killings of dolphins, the government must also provide the fishermen with global positioning systems and depth sounders and train them their usage so that the fishermen can navigate safely. For their turn, the fishermen will safely release live dolphins that get caught up in the nets and collect samples from the dead animals to pass them on to the authorities concerned.

Creation of a protected area for the whales and dolphins seems a far cry for Mowgli and his team who have continually got the cold shoulder from the government. Apathy remains high. It so happened that many fishermen in the Sundarbans laughed at Mowgli and his crew when he asked them whether they had seen any whale in the water. Their laughter turned into smiles of recognition when he showed them some photos of Bryde’s whale. He says, “Suddenly they screamed, ‘We have seen it many a time’; imagine if this is the case of the people who live half their lives in water how apathetic the townies will be to the plights of the dolphins?”

To save the threatened life of the marine mammals the BCDP is organising an exhibition titled ‘Introducing Whales and Dolphins of Bangladesh’, the aim of which is to make people aware of the plight of these animals. “The interactive exhibition aims at introducing Bangladesh’s cetacean diversity and the ongoing conservation efforts. Through photographs, film shows, games, and models we hope to create a sense of pride and foster support for the conservation of these unique aquatic animals,” Mowgli says.

Introducing Whales and Dolphins of Bangladesh
Bangladesh Cetacean Diversity Project
Bangladesh Shishu Academy, Dhaka
October 9-12, 2008

Photos:
A group of Bryde`s whale at the Swatch-of-No-Ground.
Bottlenose dolphin at the Swatch-of-No-Ground.
Bryde`s whale at the Swatch.
Spinner dolphin.
Spotter dolphin.
Shushuk or Ganges water dolphin
Depth Difference in the Swatch

Made in Bangladesh

2008-09-22T17:32:00.005+06:00

Locally made Products can make the Dream of Autarky come True

Abandoned by her parents, twelve-year-old Masuma sleeps under the awning of a foreign bank, the latest to enter the country’s burgeoning capital market. Masuma does not know how to read and write, neither has she learnt the hidden laws of probability, according to which the stock exchanges work. She sells flowers at the intersection in Motijheel, near the DSE, as it is called by those who invest in the share market. She has remained outside the steady growth of 5/6 percent that Bangladesh’s economy has enjoyed over the last few years. Her father left them, she and her mother, in 2005, the year in which Bangladesh was listed with South Korea and nine other countries as ‘Next Eleven’, eleven emerging economies, by Goldman Sachs investment bank. Her mother ‘disappeared’, as she calls it now, a year after that. Her mother has got married again, Masuma found out later. Left with no other option, Masuma, barely in her teens, started to beg; with the hundreds that she had saved, Masuma bought a few bouquets of flowers to sell it to the commuters who halted at the crossway. Since then it has been her only source of income; “It’s better than begging,” she, who goes hungry on every alternate days, says proudly.

Over the last couple of decades Bangladesh’s economy, considered the 48th largest in terms of its total Gross Domestic Product, has grown. It is difficult to tell to what extent locally made products are contributing to its overall growth, but the advent of Bangladeshi consumer products has become one of its prime contributors. People belonging to the middle-income group are flexing their financial muscle, generating an ever-increasing demand.

The irony, however, does not escape us: Bangladesh’s booming economy is based on a system that forces its own children to go hungry year in and year out. Millions live on subsistence income; hundreds and thousands of children grow up stunted and malnourished. The law of capitalist economy requires growth and development to be heterogeneous-- while new shopping malls are being built and are quickly crowded with the overfed rich, jostling over gaudy, glitzy expensive clothes; we still have to live with the sight of famished, bone-all Masumas sleeping in the footpath. In this cruel city of over one crore, they are the silent, invisible majority. The path to free them from the clutches of the double-headed monster of poverty and exploitation remains a long and treacherous one.

“The boom has taken place because of the small and medium enterprises (SME), the growth of the garment industry and the remittance sent from abroad by migrant workers,” says MM Akash, economist and teacher of Dhaka University. The consumers of these locally made products belong to the lower and middle classes, who, he says, if are given proper government help, can work wonders. One reason why the SMEs have flourished in the country is because certain import restrictions are in force. “All the SMEs produce goods and commodities are import substituting, or they supply the raw materials to small agro-based industries,” he says. If these small enterprises are given the driver’s seat, they will generate more growth and the benefit of it will trickle down to the bottom. “The government should make bank loans cheap and easy for local small industries. It must also create cooperatives of small farmers and weavers and the government has to take the responsibility of marketing their products so that middlemen like big retail stores cannot exploit them,” Akash says.

In fact in an economy like ours cooperatives and guilds owned by the farmers and small investors are necessary to relieve the burden of import expenditure. As their produces are primarily import substituting, encouraging their growth will mean more employment opportunities, which for its turn will generate demand.

Akash has made scathing remarks on the outlets that buy products from small producers only to sell it at a higher price. “They add value to the products that the poor weavers produce and market them at a higher price,” he says, “In the long run this process leaves the producers exploited.” He thinks it is high time that these outlets give up its ownership to the weavers and small producers who produce all its products. “Grameen Check is owned by the weavers, if Grameen can do it, why will other such organisations will remain an exception?”

To strengthen the growth and sustainability that our economy has been enjoying over the last couple of years, the government must take concentrated steps. One wrong decision can ruin everything. “If now,” Akash says, “the government lifts the restrictions following some dictums of the World Bank and open our market to cheap substandard Chinese goods, our SME-based growth, which has so far grown steadily, will not sustain.” Inflow of remittances, on the other hand, does not go to the productive sector. The government can take certain measures that will increase non-resident investments.

Taking the right steps in the right direction to sustain the demand for Bangladeshi products can be the first step towards autarky. It means that Masuma's freedom from hunger and poverty is entwined with Bangladesh’s economic independence.

This article was first published in the September 12 issue of the Star Magazine

Building Bangladesh

2008-09-22T17:16:00.001+06:00

Operated by the Navy, Khulna Shipyard Limited, which has just celebrated its 50th anniversary, is a rare example where a government-run industry is actually making money

In a country where government-run industries are synonymous with corruption and mismanagement, Khulna Shipyard Limited (KSY) has been making a profit for the last eight years. Located around 300 kilometres away from the capital, the KSY was built on over 68.97 acres of land in Khulna by a German firm called Stulcken Sohn in 1957.

It was handed over to the Bangladesh Steel and Engineering Corporation (BSEC) in 1972. The decision soon turned out to be a bad one, for the shipyard, which can repair 16-20 medium size ships at a time, has suffered occasional bouts of loss and had hardly seen any happy times. As the sad state of the yard persisted for 15 consecutive years, Bangladesh Navy (BN) has been given the responsibility of running the KSY on October 3 1999.

For the shipyard, there has been no turning back since then. Manned by 813 people, of whom 36 belonging to the BN, since then it has built 30 new ships, earning the government exchequer millions. “This year, up till April, our sales have reached an all-time high with a profit of TK 6.89 crore,” says an official of the yard. He believes the quality of its products, competitive price and timely delivery have earned the KSY the trust and admiration of local and foreign buyers.

As far as history is concerned, Bangladesh, a riverine delta that it is, has been a hub of shipbuilding. Our country is endowed with the beauty of nature; hundreds of rivers crawl through the lush green landscape of our motherland. We have always been seafarers, but the tradition of using the waterways for ferry goods and people has died away slowly as the subsequent governments have put more emphasis on constructing roads and bridges. Given that inland transportation of goods and commodities is cheaper, if proper attention is given to it, our water transport can do miracles for our economy.

The KSY can play a decisive role in the growth of water transport sector, which in turn, will foster growth and economic development. The official says his company is ready to take up the challenge. “We are doing phase-wise modernisation by introducing modern technology. We also have plans to reduce overhead cost and explore domestic and international market,” he says. A joint venture project to build a slipway is in the offing; construction of a medium size ship should be underway.

Another official says that what sets the KSY apart from other companies is that its products--the ships--are designed and tailor-made to meet the operational needs, and while striving to create effective business development, the KSY management places outmost importance on relationship development with its customers and suppliers. “Satisfied customers,” he says, “are a business's best investment.”

The government has its role to play to help the KSY materialise the dream of making it the best shipbuilding yard in Asia, which its relentless managers and workers have been trying to materialise. The company has achieved a quality management system as per as per ISO 9001: 2000 and is maintaining it in style. “It has also increased its production turnover in allied production sector,” the official says, “man-hour loss has been reduced.”

Inland water transport, as a sector, should be prioritised; the KSY needs to be armed with state-of-the art equipment and machinery to meet the challenges of the new millennium. The story of KSY shows us that if discipline and honesty are guided by innovation, local industries can flourish and can make industrialisation come true.

Our country has become independent through a bloody war. The dreams of the three million martyrs of our liberation war have been a society free from all forms of exploitation, an industrially developed country with a steady economic growth. Ventures like the KSY will surely bring the dream of golden Bengal a little closer.

This article was first published in the August 8, 2008 issue of the Star Magazine

Life Lost in Living

2008-09-22T17:15:00.001+06:00

Spiralling price of essentials means that the health of the ordinary masses is at risk

For 55-year-old hawker Ahmad Ali, father of three, life in the last few years has been a miserable journey. The prices of essentials are rising sharply; but his income is proportionately decreasing. “People do not buy old books like the way they used to,” Ali says, as he sits near his makeshift stall in front of the Institute of Fine Arts at Dhaka University. Meat and fish have gradually evaporated from his shopping list as the price of rice has skyrocketed over the last few months. This trend, however disturbing, has repeated itself in the households across the country. In a situation like this, when 'silent hunger' stalks the bazaars, people, especially the poor ones, have to make a choice between going hungry and having food that is low on micronutrients.

“Micronutrient deficiency in a society takes place slowly and silently,” says a professor at Institute of Food and Nutrition at Dhaka University. She says that as prices increase, the poor make a conscious decision and go for food items that are cheap. “And we all know that these things, which do not have the right micronutrient may cause a whole lot of diseases,” she continues, “We call this micronutrient disorder. It gives birth to diseases as ghastly as night blindness, which happens because of improper Vitamin A intake; Iodine deficiency disorder and anaemia--diseases that cripple the human body and are capable of killing the productivity of an entire nation.”

What is particularly telling is that this silent hunger remains unnoticed till a large number of people fall victim to it, drastically decreasing the growth of an entire economy. “Contrary to famine or famine-like situations, there is no drama involved in it. People do not die en mass, the rich and the mighty hardly notice it until an entire generation is wiped off,” she says. She believes the root causes must be addressed; “Here,” she says “we are talking about things as basic as providing the masses with cheap cereal and non-cereal food items.”

For that to happen prices have to dramatically go down, which, as the Ramadan has come, seems to be a remote possibility. “The situation is strange,” says economist MM Akash, “because even though wholesale prices of the essentials are decreasing on both local and international markets or have remained constant, prices have been spiralling out of the reach of the ordinary people at the retail market.” This means that a nasty form of speculative trade is at work and the middlemen are reaping extraordinary profit from this unnatural situation.

It also means that some people, a minority of the entire populace though they are, have remained outside this so-called price hike--they can spend hundreds on trivialities such as having burger a at one of the many up scale fast food joints that have mushroomed the claustrophobic landscape of the capital. “This wrong demand effect is coming due to a very high-income inequality,” Akash says, “It's driven by cheap unearned income and black money.” This trend contributes to further price hike, which for its turn gives birth to inflationary pressure.

The supply of the essentials has remained vigorous, there is no scarcity of pangash or beef in the bazaar, some customers are buying beef at 200 tk a kg, or will still buy it if prices increase to 500 Tk a kilo, the silent majority of the country are finding it difficult to find their day's meal.

The solution, Akash thinks lies in the creation of an alternative supply channel. He says, “You can never expect private profiteers to run their businesses on an ethical basis.” The alternative supply channel, he says, can take the form of rationing; the fledgling Trading Corporation of Bangladesh, which has been rendered ineffective by flawed policies of the subsequent governments, can be reinvigorated. The government can set up small stores and Operation Dhalbhat of the Bangladesh Rifles has to be extended to the remote areas of the country.

Ahmad Ali, meanwhile, slaves away another day. He has earned around 200 Taka today, he needs to pay a toll of Tk 20 to the police and 10 more to the 'owner of the footpath', still it is enough to buy home a kilo rice and some kachki fish. “My wife cooks kachki fish well with potato,” he says, “it tastes superb if in the curry the potato is one third of the fish. But with what I have earned today I won't be able to buy more that 250 gram of kachki.” A hard choice here, too.

This article was first published in the September 5, 2008 issue of the Star magazine

Revolution Calling

2008-09-22T17:14:00.001+06:00

Since its founding as the Communist Party of India, a part of which later formed the Communist Party of Pakistan on March 9, 1948, the communist movement of Bangladesh has gone through a tempestuous time. Almost throughout the Pakistani era the Communist Party of Bangladesh (CPB), which spearheaded the independence of Bangladesh, was banned. During Bangladesh's independence war the party formed several guerrilla groups that carried out armed resistance against the occupying Pakistani army. After the liberation, it gave support to the Sheikh Mujib-led Awami League government, which Mujahidul Islam Selim, who has just been re-elected general secretary of the party in the Ninth Congress, thinks was a mistake. “It is indeed true that we have lost some golden opportunities. We should not have given a blank support to the AL; we should have tried to consolidate our independence as a nation, at the same time we could have tried to project ourselves as a real alternative to the AL,” he says.

Selim admits that it was right to support Bangabandhu's progressive policies like nationalisation and non-aligned foreign policy but adds that it was unwise to not criticise his weaknesses and mistakes, such as his backing off from land reform, his giving himself up to imperialism, his party's mismanagement and corruption. It actually has taken a lot of hard work for the party to shed the image of being a stooge of the AL. Since the mid nineties, the CPB has been following the policy of creating what the party calls 'a left alternative', Selim says, “A left alternative is the only viable option to come out of the present crisis. And the leading role of the communists is essential to build up such an alternative. It not only has a future, it has eternity in front of it.”

But the creation of a left force parallel to the two big bourgeoisie parties is turning out to be a difficult job, as the other small left parties, whenever the elections come, form alliance with the AL. Another difficulty that the CPB faces in furthering its goal is the threats of terrorist attack that have been plaguing the country for the last couple of decades. In fact, the party was one of the first targets of bomb blasts. Six people died in twin explosions at a CPB rally in downtown Dhaka on January 20, 2001. Seven years after that grisly incident, the killers are yet to be brought to justice. A government led by Sheikh Hasina was in power, and some leaders of the ruling AL summarily blamed it on the internal feud of the CPB. When the party protested such foul play, the party's rally was attacked by goons belonging to the AL, and Selim, along with his comrades, was assaulted on the streets of the capital. It is indeed ironic that when five years later grenades were thrown at an AL rally and assassination attempt was made on the life of Sheikh Hasina, the BNP government blamed it on the AL leadership, saying the attack was an outcome of an internal squabbling of the party's top leadership.

Selim believes a bright left future is awaiting the country. “Bipolar politics is a total failure,” he says, “The bankruptcy of the bourgeoisie has been proven.” He thinks the ruling classes, especially the plundering capitalism, have established their domination over the so-called big parties. He says, “They want to establish such an arrangement that there will only be alternations of governments between the two parties, the reactionary polices of the state will continue to remain the same.”
But experiences, he says, tell us that these two parties are not civilised enough to share the plunder in a peaceful way and this culture has precipitated the anarchy centring around power, because power is so lucrative that the holders of it will not hesitate to do anything to come to power by hook or by crook. “But this arrangement,” he says, “having failed the ruling classes, is now seeking to dominate over not only the two parties but also wants to set up their own alternative.”

The party in its Ninth National Congress has called the present crises a systematic problem, saying the problems that the country is infested with cannot be done away without a total revolutionary change. Selim explains: “At the present moment there is a free market economy and a dependence on imperialism; even if we go to power and pursue the same policies no change will take place in the lives of the masses. Revolution is a must.”

The party thinks the country must reinstate the constitution of 1972 and the founding principles of secularism, democracy, socialism and nationalism should be re-established. Selim sees no contradiction between revolution and Islam, the religion that the majority of Bangladeshis practice. “If one puts it in proper context, one has to admit that Islam has brought about the biggest revolutionary change in human history. There is no contradiction between Islam and revolution or the issue of emancipation of the people,” he says.

The country, however, is still far away from a revolutionary change that will shake the base of its polity. The CPB has 30, 000 members in total; of them there are 7, 000 red card holders. Even though the party has bagged five seats in the elections of 1991, its support, as far as the arithmetic of popular votes is concerned, has slumped over the decades. A thriving left force in the country's politics, however, is a must for democracy to survive. Only time can tell whether the CPB can build a third alternative of like minded left parties that will bring about revolutionary change in the lives of the toiling masses.

World's Window

2008-09-22T17:13:00.001+06:00

The terrorist attack on the United States on September 11, 2001 has changed the course of world history

Seven years after 19 young Muslim men belonging to a then little known terrorist outfit hijacked four commercial airliners to launch one of the ghastliest terror strikes in history, the mark that the event has left on world psyche can still be felt. The world knew little about al-Qaeda (Arabic for the base), which masterminded the attacks, but the Muslim world at that time was brimming with angst, especially because what the Muslims in the streets of Cairo and Quetta saw the United States' unjust support of Israel and the latter's occupation of the holy land.

The history of terrorists using Islam, which literary means peace, to further their political agenda is not old. It dates back to the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, a time when the US, alarmed by the communist invasion of the Central Asian country, supported the Afghan guerrillas with arms and military logistics. Not only in Afghanistan, which has always had a strategic importance as a gateway to Central Asia, the US used Islam in Indonesia, Iran and parts of Africa to fend off the red flag. It supported brutal dictatorial regimes in the developing countries, gave them military hardware, which the juntas used against its own populace. From Gen Augusto Pinochet of Chile to Saddam Hussein of Iraq, the US, the champion of the free world, found friends in the men who 'gassed their own people', who butchered thousands-- all this with the weapons made in the US.

This trend, however disturbing, came to a welcome halt after the fall of the Soviet Union and the subsequent end of the so-called cold war. Even before that, long before Lenin's statues were dismembered by angry mobs in Moscow and Budapest, a silent but quick change was reshaping the world politics. Only chaos ensued when the Red Army was withdrawn from Afghanistan--different factions of the Mujaheedins fought with each other; corruption was rife, mismanagement was the order of the day. At a time like this, a group of Afghan students belonging to different madrasas formed the Taliban, and within a short span of four years overran the capital Kabul. The country's beleaguered communist President Mohammad Najibullah, who was hiding at a UN compound in Kabul was beaten and castrated before he was hanged from a traffic light in the downtown capital.

The arms that the Talibs used to kill were made in the factories of the free world. By 1996 the table were turned, the Taliban and its friend al-Qaeda had arrived the scene. The Iraqi invasion of Kuwait and the US-led Gulf War I, which drove Saddam's men out of the oil-rich kingdom, polarised opinion and the US presence in the Middle East fomented discontent in the Muslim world. It only reconfirmed an idea already engrained in the psyche of the Arabs, that the US, the plunderer of the natural resources of the region, favoured the fat old kings of the Middle East. The latter remain unpopular in their countries, and the US support has made it even worse. It is not difficult to imagine what can happen when disgruntlement is coupled with vengeance and brute force. Osama bin Laden, a former Mujaheedin ideologue, soon hit the headlines, becoming the US's enfant terrible: on August 8, 1998 hundreds of people were killed in simultaneous car bomb explosions at the United States embassies in the East African capital cities of Dar es Salaam and Nairobi. In response, the US launched 'Operation Infinite Reach' to strike a series of cruise missile at different targets in Sudan and Afghanistan.

It is in this back drop that the attack on the US on the fateful morning of September 11, 2001 has taken place. Since then, the world has witnessed two wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and numerous big terrorist attacks in London and Madrid. The wars and attacks have predictably polarised opinion, with some Muslims considering the war on terror an attack on the Islamic world, calling it a ploy to destroy Islam. Terrorists, on the other hand, are indiscriminate in their targets--in Iraq, Afghanistan, Israel and Palestine hundreds die every month in terror attacks of different colours and hues, in almost all cases the victims are unarmed women and children.

Seven years on, the war that has been waged on the US, and is now being compared with the Japanese air raid on US naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, is showing no sign of abating. On the contrary, the war on terror has alienated the majority of Muslims from the western world. The gulf between the east and the west has widened even dangerously. The logics behind the Gulf War II and the occupation of Iraq have increasingly been questioned in the west itself, as the photos of maimed Iraqis, especially children are shown in the television.

And yet Osama bin Laden, the mastermind of the 9/11, as the media has abbreviated the event, remains at large. The string of operations that has been launched to capture him has embarrassingly failed. Winning the hearts and minds of the Muslim masses, which is the bigger battle in the war on terror, has remained neglected. The price of this neglect is going to be higher, there is no denying it.

The 2993 men and women (including 19 hijackers) did not know that their death would change the lives of millions. Their deaths have left the world dangerously divided, perilously close to the end of the old world order.

The Unpunished Crimes

2008-09-22T17:07:00.002+06:00

Three years ago, on August 17, 2005, 63 near simultaneous blasts rocked Bangladesh. One rickshawpuller died from his injury and many more were wounded; Bangladesh woke up to the terror of extremism the presence of which its government had been so vociferously denying. Even though Bangladesh has otherwise been known for religious harmony and tolerance and has always taken pride on its Sufi past, religious extremism on a large scale was first introduced to the world's third largest Muslim population during the Afghan war.

The war, funded by the west to fend off an infiltration of the Soviets in the South asian sub-continent, saw the arming of the Afghan Muslims; the word Mujaheedin reached an iconic status with the photograph of a rocket-propelled-grenade wielding bearded Muslim hitting the cover of the Time magazine and Sylvester Stallone in Rambo joining a gang of Mujaheedins on behalf of the world's 'freedom loving people.' The hills of Kandahar and the lush vales of Herat were soon flooded with angry young Muslims from all over the world. These 'foreign fighters' also included Bangladeshi students who went to study in Peshawar, Pakistan, which borders Afghanistan and especially known for the Afghan refugee camps that dotted the treacherous terrain of the country.

The war eventually ended, the Red Army went away defeated. Interestingly, even before the last Soviet tanks left Kabul, a new ideology was sweeping over the shore of Karachi, Bombay and Chittagong: the gun was about to be refixed at a new enemy--the US and what it stood for. A new front opened and splinter groups, quite independently, started to launch their own little battles--in Kashmir, Ahmedabad and Dhaka. Jamaat-ul-Mujaheedin Bangladesh (JMB), which accepted responsibility for the August 17 blasts, belongs to the latter.

The blasts have been significant in the political history of the country. “Firstly,” says Brig Gen Shahedul Anam Khan ndc, psc (rtd), a national security expert, “no such large scale near simulations blasts have ever taken place in the country before. It has also proven the organisational capabilities of the extremists.” In fact, that the JMB, through these attacks displayed their strength and agility to carry on with their grisly acts, the group later masterminded a string of suicide attacks on the judges in different court buildings of the country.

The 17/ 8 attacks also brought an end to the state of denial that the Four-party Alliance-led government was in. The then Prime Minister Khaleda Zia cried foul when newspapers carried numerous stories on the presence of extremist outfits, terming it a ploy to malign her government's image abroad. Her Industry Minister Matiur Rahman Nizami, at the height of arrogance, called the news of the atrocities committed by Bangla Bhai, a criminal who led a marauding gang of miscreants in the country's northeast, a figment of imagination of the media. The simultaneous blasts of August 17 put an end to that stance, the wheels of the law, however slowly, started to grind. At the fag end of her government's rule, Khaleda's police arrested the top leaders of the JMB and lodged cases of murder.

The lynchpins of terror were hanged last year. The strengths of the JMB have been reduced significantly, but recent newspaper reports suggest that the group is regrouping itself and its members have recently met a number of times to form new committees in different remote areas. Brig Anam agrees; he says, “They have been significantly weakened. But whether their organisational capability has been blunted is a matter of conjecture. The fact that they could manage simultaneous blasts means they have some core members who propagated the acts and are lying in suspended animation, which in an opportune moment may spring into action.”

In fact, out of the 169 cases filed against the JMB members, the trial of only 37 cases has been completed; investigation of 34 cases is yet to be finished; trial is continuing in 98 cases and all five accused in one case have been given release order by the court.

The literal meaning of Islam, the second largest religion in the world, is peace, it also means submission or total surrender of oneself to Allah. Throughout its history Islam has never propagated violence, on the contrary, the Prophet (Peace be upon Him) always used war for defensive purposes. Islam, which has liberated millions across the five continents from the clutches of feudalism and slavery, abhors violence of all kinds. Extremism of the kind that the perpetrators of August 17 blasts preach, has no place in Islam.

The real war on terror needs be fought on all fronts; the key lies in winning the hearts and minds of the toiling masses who live in abject poverty and deprivation. The imams of different mosques and other Islamic scholars can play a pivotal role in making people aware about the evil of terror. At the same time, the government must make sure that the cases against the terror suspects are dispensed quickly; keeping in mind, too, the universal standards of respect for human rights and rule of law. The new terror cells, which are stemming up need to be nipped in the bud to ensure our development as a free, progressive nation. Bangladesh has never been a hub for terror; we have to be on our guard to make sure it does not become one in the future.

For a Free Election

2008-09-22T16:53:00.002+06:00

Even though the government and the Election Commission have carried out some reforms in the electoral process to make it free and fair, honest, competent candidates are still difficult to come by

In the last 16 years of quasi-feudal democracy Bangladesh has witnessed three parliamentary elections in which power has swapped hands thrice. Khaleda Zia and Sheikh Hasina, who ruled the country and their parties with an iron fist, led Bangladesh’s politics into a new level of violent confrontation, making the national parliament Jatya Sangsad ineffective. Even though both the parties bowed to people’s demand and established parliamentary democracy in 1990 after the ouster of Ershad’s dictatorial rule in a mass upsurge, the post of the Prime Minister (PM), in the hands of Khaleda and Hasina, quickly replaced the power of the president. Everything remained in the hands of the PM; it was she who called the shots; she could hire and fire anyone she deemed fit. Whereas in other Westminster democracies, the PM is only the first among the equals, in ours the PM has enjoyed absolute power. A new law has been promulgated to bar floor crossing; the standards of the MPs, in any case, have never been up to the mark. Buying and selling of party nominations have been rampant as some businessmen have seen the election as an opportunity to earn a quick million, a venture in which a one-time investment of one or two crore (paid directly to the Madam or the Netri) could bring both money and power, for the sheaf of paddy or boat has always been good enough to make a few thousands butterflies flutter in the stomach of the voters.

The aborted parliamentary election of the immediate past is a case in point. Both the parties have compromised with their political belief. A bad precedent has been set in which the Awami League has given nominations to shady businessmen who have discovered a new-found love in the ideology of the party, ignoring its own trusted leaders. A vulgar tussle has ensued between the party and Khaleda Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party for the support of deposed dictator Gen HM Ershad with the latter promising to withdraw cases of corruption against him and the former agreeing to make him President for six months. It was, actually, the possible jail term of the former military ruler, who had already aligned himself with the AL that prompted the AL-led Grand Alliance candidates to withdraw their candidatures from the elections, which paved the way to the emergency; Dr Fakhruddin Ahmed-led caretaker government assumed office in the backdrop of a possible civil war-like situation, the dress rehearsal of which had taken place in October 2006, in which the capital witnessed a flurry of pitch battles between AL and BNP loyalists.

After assuming power in January 11 last year, the current caretaker government has set before itself the task of reforming the country’s politics. The Anti-corruption Commission has been revitalised; most major corruption suspects have been arrested; institutional reforms have been carried out. But the fact of the matter is these reforms are turning out to be inadequate and the risk is there that the country and its politics may slide back to the heydays of quasi-democratic dictatorship of the last 16 years.

The Representation of People Order (RPO) has rightly incorporated many changes that the people have been eagerly waiting for. While the new RPO empowers the Election Commission (EC) to scrap the candidature of any candidate, the system has some loopholes, through which the thugs and goons can resurface to influence the people’s verdict. The RPO makes it mandatory for the political parties to get registered with the EC to participate in the election, it also requires the parties to have in their constitutions that they do not have auxiliary organisations of students, teachers and workers, or overseas chapters. A good move though it is, it has drawn criticism from the parties, who call the provision undemocratic and unconstitutional. Even if the parties agree to this clause, chances remain high that their possible declarations will remain on paper; they will never sever their ties with these professional bodies. Implementation of this clause is going to test the patience and prudence of both the EC and the political parties.

Any person who is declared a war criminal by local or international courts, according to the new law, has been made ineligible for contesting the polls. But, the government has done nothing to probe into the war crimes, and bring the criminals to justice to make the upcoming election more meaningful.

The provision for a ‘No Vote’ is exemplary, 30 percent of it cast in an election, unlike the existing provision of 50 percent that the RPO has, should be good enough to scrap the election in a particular seat.

Another prerequisite for the parties that the EC has made to get registered with it is that they must maintain bank accounts in any of the banks and electoral donations of Tk 20,000 or more must be made in checks. The provision of fining the parties for violating this clause is set at Tk 10 lakh, which, given the magnanimity of the crime, is too meagre.

The toughest task of all, is, perhaps, to find honest competent candidates, something, as the political history of the region suggests, has to come from within the political culture of the country. The government has a lot more to do to create a level playing field for everyone, so that a free and fair election can take place at the end of the proposed road map. What lies between now and the peaceful transition to democracy is an abyss of darkness the kind of which we were mired in during the gory days of late 2006.

It is not expected to see the country, after all the efforts that the government has made, to go back to the days of anarchy and lawlessness. The current government is a constitutionally mandated one; its prime responsibility is to hold a fair election, which will be free from the power of money and muscle; a new parliament will rule the country where the presence of the corrupt and war criminals will not be dominant. The next election will be flawed if the corrupt and war criminals make their way to the parliament, like the way they have done in the previous ones. Our democratic future is hanging in balance; one only hopes that in the next four months the government will be able to sweep clean the junk that the others have made in the last three decades.

United We Stand

2008-08-18T19:25:00.002+06:00

Saarc leadership must show brinkmanship to make the region an economic powerhouse

While its counterparts in Europe, the Far East and Africa have made viable economic unions, South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation (Saarc), which is going to celebrate its 23rd birthday this year, eerily resembles a paper tiger. Though the regional forum has a total landmass of 5,130,746 square kilometres, making it the seventh biggest region in the world, the eight countries of Saarc, which share the same culture and history, have not been able to come close enough to form a Union. Bilateral disputes are rampant, so much so that they at times taint the spirit of co-operation of the organisation.

The summit meeting of the Saarc that has ended in Colombo last week has taken some steps to bring the gap that exists between its members. The Colombo declaration has rightly incorporated two important issues that its leaders have said Saarc will handle--the creation of a food bank or expressing the desire to fight terrorism together.

The question that, however, remains unresolved is the challenge of translating the resolves into results. History tells us that the Saarc has been one of the most poverty-stricken regional groupings in the region despite the fact that its Gross Domestic Product is the 4th biggest in the world; from Kabul to Kolkata one comes across an army of poor, most of whom do not even earn two meals a day. This has been exacerbated by violence and extremism of a different hue that South Asia is littered with. Poverty breeds terrorism, and it is no wonder that the region has witnessed so many terrorist attacks in the last couple of decades. The biggest impediment to self-reliance is perhaps the air of mistrust that the leaders of the group are dogged with. While it is well connected by air to Europe, up until this year there has been no direct flight link between Dhaka and Colombo. An Indian may get a visa to a European country without any hassle, but to get a Pakistani one she will face a wave of difficulties, the rejection rate, it is said that, is an all-time.

Trade barriers are yet to be removed. Footballs made in any western country may be as easily available in Bangladesh as a slab of molasses, but it is difficult, if not impossible, to get one made in Sialkot, which is famous across the globe for producing fine quality footballs. So, economy suffers, and in spite of an economic boom that South Asia has seen in the last couple of decades the number of poor is increasing fast.

To begin with, the leaders of the association should think beyond and start the process of forming a South Asian Union à la EU. A common passport can be introduced, and more importantly, interconnectivity, of all forms, should be thought of to foster development and increase people to people contact. For the Far Eastern countries, South Asia can become the gateway to Central Asia; Nepal and Bhutan can take benefit of the Chittagong Port. A rail and land route can be laid down to connect all the big South Asian cities.

Sharing of energy and water resources is also a must for the region's growth. The countries have to open up their borders and markets to each other for the common good. The regional leaders must not forget that the only way to slay the two-headed monster of poverty and terrorism is through economic development and social connectivity. The Saarc has a long way to go to achieve a poverty-free developed South Asia, the path to South Asian Union is slippery, there are risks at its every turn, but the risks are worth taking for the 1.5 billion South Asian definitely deserve a better future.

Bangladesh's Unfinished Revolution

2008-08-18T19:22:00.001+06:00

With the general elections in the offing, the demand for trying the war criminals is gaining momentum

The trial of those who actively opposed Bangladesh's liberation by taking up arms to fight for the occupying Pakistani army has been one of the unfinished legacies of our history. In 1971, Jamaat-e-Islami, Muslim League and the Nejam-e-Islami -- formed different paramilitary groups such as Shanti Committee, Razakar Bahini, Al Badr and Al Shams that killed hundreds and thousands of innocent Bangalis and raped hundreds. Siddiq Salik, who was serving the Pakistan army as a major in Bangladesh in 1971, in his book 'Witness to Surrender' recounts, (TheDaily Star, 2007-10-28) “The only people who came forward (to help the Pakistani army butcher and rape innocent people) were 'the rightists like Khwaza Khairuddin of the Council Muslim League, Fazlul Qader Chaudhry of the Convention Muslim League, Khan Sobur A Khan of the Qayyum Muslim League, Professor Ghulam Azam of the Jamaat-e-Islami and Maulvi Farid Ahmed of the Nizam-i-Islam Party.”

The Al Badr is thought to be behind the massacre of the intellectuals on December 14, 1971 when a hundred intellectuals were picked up to be slaughtered. As the newspapers suggest, the top leadership of the Jamaat has been involved in the rape and killing during the war of liberation, and the party was banned immediately after the country's independence. In fact, the process of trying the war criminals has started as early as January 24, 1972 when the Collaborator's Act was promulgated. Lieutenant General (rtd) M Harun-Ar-Rashid, a valiant freedom fighter and former chief of Bangladesh army recalls: “The act was later changed twice to make the process easier. By October 1973, over 37, 000 collaborators were arrested.” Contrary to the misconception that all the war criminals have been pardoned, he says, “That year a general amnesty was declared in which the accused against whom there was no clear evidence of killing, rape and arson were given clemency. There was this clause that even those who were pardoned if new allegations of killing, rape and arson turned up against them they could be tried.”

There were 11,000 prisoners against whom there was clear evidence of killing, rape and arson. By December 31, the trials of 752 war criminals were finished, even death penalties were handed down, and one war criminal walked the gallows. Actually, the first death penalty that has been executed in the history of Bangladesh is in fact that of a war criminal.

The situation turned upside down after the murder of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. “In December that year, the Collaborator's Act was repelled and the trial and investigation process was stopped. Even those who had been punished were freed. The Fifth Amendment of the constitution ratified it. When democracy was established in 1991, a movement was launched to try the war criminals; a people's investigative commission was later formed under the leadership of Sufia Kamal,” Harun says.

Harun coordinates the Sector Commanders' Forum (SCF) that has brought the long-standing trial of the war criminals to the fore. This year the organisation has held a convention in which the demand was raised. It is significant for the caretaker government has launched a war on corruption and is set on reforming the country's politics. Many like Harun believe the government should form a commission to start the trial of war criminals. Harun says, “Corruption is related to the looting properties of the state and its citizens. War crime is an even bigger crime for it is done against the state. If a society that allows the war criminals to roam around free for so many years, it is not at all surprising that such a society will become a breeding ground for criminals. Until we are able to try the war criminals, anarchy and lawless will remain pervasive in our country. Moreover, those who have been affected during the Liberation war, those who have been raped, killed or lost their property, have suffered because of the birth of this state. We are now the members of the army of a nation or the journalists of an independent country, and those who have sacrificed their lives or suffered for the birth of the country, we have some responsibilities towards their souls. The most important thing is, it makes no sense at all that we will try the petty criminals, and form different bodies to try the corrupt whereas we do not want to do anything against those who have actively opposed the independence of this state.”

The Chief Adviser of the current Caretaker Government has already termed the participation of the war criminals in the next general election unacceptable. The current chief of the army has also supported the move of bringing the war criminals to justice. Air Vice Marshall (rtd) AK Khandker, former air chief and the deputy supreme commander of the Muktijuddo also thinks that as “We are going through a very important phase of our national life, and from that point of view the coming elections at various levels are going to be of tremendous importance. “ Khandhker, also chief of the SCF thinks that only honest, able and patriotic people should come through the elections. “We want those who committed crimes during the liberation war and those who opposed the very independence of our country to be barred from participating in the election. It is the expectation of the entire nation that the present government starts the process of trying the war criminals and also bar those who opposed the independence of our country, from all elections,” he says.

It is high time that the government sets up a fact-finding commission to probe into the war crimes of 1971. Our new journey towards a bright democratic future will lose its proper direction if war criminals make it into the next parliament.

A Home for Literature

2008-08-18T19:19:00.003+06:00

In an interview, Richard Logsdon, editor of Red Rock Review talks about his work

What are the ideas behind your journal?
Many ideas have shaped Red Rock Review. First and foremost was the intention to publish the very best poetry and fiction available. This stated intention, while a bit generic (What journal doesn't try to publish the best of the available literature?), helped us establish a very high standard for writers who wished their works to be considered for inclusion in Red Rock Review. (The stated intention, too, gave us the right to reject local writers who felt some sort of entitlement to get published by a Las Vegas journal.) Vague as the guideline sounds, we did succeed in attracting works by very good writers by as early as the second issue Ron Carlson and Alberto Rios come to mind and from then on the quality of our submissions skyrocketed. Beyond this, in setting a lofty standard for our magazine, we contributed to the on-going cultural redefinition of a community Las Vegas that is notorious for creating its own decadent art as a standard of perfection.

But we had something else in mind another idea when we started our journal. Twelve years ago, when we published the first issue of Red Rock Review, Las Vegas was in the midst of a crisis of identity. The city couldn't decide who or what it is: fighting against the desire to become a more or less normal city was Las Vegas's notorious gangsterish past (Something some locals still try to deny). Red Rock Review took advantage of this cultural identity crisis, launching a journal whose works rivaled those in the very best journals in the country and that indicated to the public at large that Las Vegas had a serious interest in taking on an identity that would include a genuine love of the arts. By the way, I don't think that Las Vegas will ever resolve its identity crisis but that makes the city a fascinating place to live.

Along with the desire to help reshape the city's image was the desire to give our college Red Rock Review is published under the auspices of the College of Southern Nevada something of cultural worth.

While making an editorial decision, what do you look for in a write-up?
I'd like to say that we're open to all kinds of literature, but that may not necessarily be true. As far as fiction is concerned, we're generally drawn to well crafted stories that are built around a conflict that provides the moral centre to the piece. Accordingly, the plots of the stories that we accept for publication are generally character-driven. Two, we look for full development of character and situation. Of course, there are exceptions: occasionally we'll accept a story that takes liberties with the conventions of story telling and that may fall into the post-modern category. Still, I think as far as short fiction is concerned, the editorial staff of Red Rock Review is pretty traditional.

As for poetry, while we're certainly interested in well-crafted pieces, we're just as interested in different voices, in poems that provide a fresh perspective of something very familiar. To provide an example, I'm currently working on a review of local writer Jarret Keene's latest collection of poems, A Boy's Guide to Arson (Zeitgeist Press, 2008).

How important do you think it is for a writer to know her audience/reader?
It's almost impossible to answer this question, which I shall nonetheless try to take in a couple of directions. For one thing, the question suggests that the writer's knowledge of his/her audience has something to do with the content and success of the submitted work. We run into problems here. Heightened awareness of the audience's needs may lead to a hyper-consciousness that has its parallel in the narrator of Dostoevsky's Notes from Underground. You may recall that the narrator referred to hyper-consciousness as a disease. The narrator's propensity to think too much about others, about himself leads to a kind of inertia, a kind of paralysis, and I think the same may happen with the writer whose acute awareness of his /her audience stifles the creativity, leads the writer to compromise his/her vision, and results in a watered down version of what the writer originally intended. Keep in mind, however, that I am not suggesting that a knowledge of audience is not important for the writer. Your question is so open that it leads me to other speculation. To get to my second point, it could be argued that the writer creates his audiencejust as the audience may help shape the writer. Several years back, I recall reading some essays by Umberto Eco, who made the rather intriguing point that the writer, while aware of the audience, creates with the very act of writing a unique voice that, in turn, actually shapes the audience. I like the point Eco made, because he touched upon the existence of an on-going dynamic between writer and audience, neither one of which was necessarily fixed in place.

Do you think every novelist writes history, both at a personal and a social level?
What you're asking, I think, is to what extent the novelist engages in the writing of history, both on a personal and social level. It's a difficult question and calls for a moving away from the traditional concept of history as a body of writing distinct from the world of fiction and an acceptance of the fact that the writer of fiction can somehow participate in the writing of history. Clearly, the Bengali writer Ahmed Faruk writes a very personal fiction that can be fully understood only within the context of socio-political realities. In his case, the personal and the socio-political become almost one and the same. The question, however, is not merely applicable to contemporaries who write within and about a volatile socio-political situation. I'm thinking of Tolstoy's War and Peace (You see what a traditionalist I am.), which is about several characters' participation in the Napoleonic Wars. In the case of this magnificent novel, the personal cannot really be separated from the social/political/historical dimension that constitutes actual reality of the novel. In fact, doesn't Tolstoy end with a lengthy section in which he argues, among other things, that in the case of his novel the fictional, both on a personal and social level, becomes one with the historical?

But then again, the question may be more applicable to those writers whose fiction compliments or illuminates the volatile social and historical realities of their particular countries. If this is so, then the question may have little to do with those Western writers who, composing from a safe place, do not think of their characters and novels as somehow reflective of larger social/political/historical realities. Of course, even as I write this, I can think of a glaring exception to my implied generality concerning Western writers.

Do you think the world has become a dangerous place in which to live?
One would think that globalisation would have succeeded in making the world a lot less dangerous, a lot less hostile, that inventions like the Internet and cell phones would have dissolved the barriers of hostility separating people. How very naïve. While barriers do come down, new problems emerge: Internet predators, identity theft, global terrorism, etc.

But let's not ignore the larger and more obvious question: when has the world not been a dangerous place to live? History shows the world embroiled in a never-ending series of conflicts. Sometimes the conflicts are civil, sometimes national with country pitted against country. Sometimes -- perhaps most often -- it's the good guys vs. the bad guys. Of course, I'm over-simplifying -- and I'm writing from a place (Las Vegas, Nevada) where the security that I enjoy is balanced against city crime that includes shootings -- in the high schools, on the streets, in the casinos -- are not a rare event. Even so, I recognise that far more dangerous places exist than Las Vegas. Pakistan, Iran, Iraq and Israel come to mind as examples of such places. Too, the ever-present threat of terrorism can make even an Idaho farmer a bit edgy.

But then, again, I don't think the question necessarily requires an answer that categorises countries/regions on the basis of danger. The question concerns the world and brings to my mind the famous poem “The Second Coming” by W.B. Yeats:
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon does not hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the center cannot hold etc. etc.

We all inhabit the same planet, and all will be somehow touched by those smaller and larger apocalyptic events that occur throughout history. Not that we're heading towards some kind of Armageddon. I'm not suggesting that we're creeping towards the end times even though I do admit that the U.S. has so embroiled itself in the politics and warfare of the Middle East that it's sometimes difficult not to imagine that we're headed toward something of cataclysmic proportions. (Of course, the same thinking, that we're all headed toward an international showdown, characterised the Cold War; when I was growing up, the question was not if but when the United States was going to war against the Soviet Union?)

Great Expectations

2008-08-18T19:11:00.003+06:00

Known as Mr Cool, Finance Adviser AB Mirza Azizul Islam has proposed a budget of Tk 99, 962 crore, with Tk 16, 932 crore for social safety net, Tk 13, 648 crore for subsidies and Tk 10, 253 crore for salaries of teachers and doctors. What he does not explain is how he is going to do the most difficult of jobs--getting enough money to fund the most ambitious budget in the country's history.

This year's proposed budget very rightly tries to address three important areas of the country's fledgling economy: rising inflation, a slump in growth and generation of employment. It has indeed been of outmost importance for the world economy is going through a supply shock, especially at a time when inflation is spiralling out of control and economic growth has been stuck at 6 percent. To make it even worse, the country has gone through three natural disasters in a year--two floods and a cyclone. It is indeed surprising that the last fiscal year has experienced a growth of 6.21 percent, and it can fairly be said that it will circle around 6 unless and until new investments are made and employment is created.

The Finance Adviser has been trying his best to give an impetus to the farm sector through Tk 540 crore diesel subsidies, promising Tk 272 crore more for agriculture extension and research. The success of this budget will largely depend on how the sector reacts to it. In an economy of over $60 billion, agriculture is the driving force, if properly tended it will create employment and will be able to take the ongoing food crisis by the horns.

Even though agricultural employment is expected to increase, there is no prospect of it being replicated in its industrial counterpart. The Small and Medium Enterprises, which, if properly assisted, can generate growth in the country, has not been given the attention they deserve. That the Finance Adviser has shown no ways to generate power is not going to help the industries in any way. The energy sector has indeed got a raw deal. State-run exploration company Bapex has been given Tk 3, 200 crore for exploration in the next seven years, but the Finance Adviser has shown no light when it comes to generation of new sources of energy. He has said that the government will shortly declare a new coal policy and further explorations of the country's oil and gas resources are in the offing, but the speech does not give any direction as to how to grapple with the current energy crisis except for mentioning the fact that the International Atomic Energy Agency has proposed to give support to the Rooppur Power Generation Plant. Given that the demand power is going to increase to 5, 569 MW this year, industry will be hit the hardest if new sources of power are not created. The government's performance has so far been dismal when it comes to energy for only 124 MW has been generated in the last fiscal year.

This budget will not please the middle class for the Vat on private English medium schools has not been withdrawn and an increase of custom duty to 25 percent from 10 will make it even worse. Rising cost of essentials coupled with an impending increase in the price of fuel is going to make life difficult for them.

This budget tries to highlight the soft side of capitalism by introducing the first ever employment guarantee scheme, which will create 20 crore working days for 20, 00, 000 unemployed poor by giving them 'guaranteed' work. In fact, the social safety net has been widened by 48 percent, which is going to be 2.8 percent of the GDP.

The Finance Adviser here undoubtedly faces a dilemma. The proposed budget, huge that it is, means that a large deficit of Tk 30, 580, will translate into an 86 percent increase in bank borrowing, which runs the risks of drying out credit for the private sector which the adviser expects to increase to 22.6 percent. The adviser says that the borrowed money is going to be injected domestically, making a positive impact on the overall economy. But that remains an untested hypothesis. The revenue target of Tk 69, 362 crore remains less ambitious, if one takes into consideration the growth of the GDP. More direct tax, in fact, is needed; it will also narrow the gap between the rich and the poor a little. The stakes, actually, are even higher. If government borrowing continues like this macroeconomic stability will come under threat. On top of it all, more government spending will fuel inflation, which he wants to keep at a tolerable rate of 9 percent. Add to that a rising food inflation, about which the adviser has very little to say. Only time can tell how he is going to keep the balance, tricky that it is.

The corporate tax rates for listed and non-listed companies, however, have been reduced to patronise industrial investment. The budget also proposes a three-year tax exemption on incomes made out of computers, software and data processing, which will give a boost to the country's ITC sector.

A smaller ADP will harm growth, making the much-appreciated social safety net programme ineffective. It will turn into a tragedy if even this smaller ADP is not properly utilised, growth will be harmed and rural employment will be affected.

While scrutinising our Chancellor of Exchequer's speech one must keep this in mind that, like the government whose finance adviser he is, this is an interim budget. A new government is going to come into office at the beginning of next year, which has to shoulder the responsibilities of implementing this budget. Despite its drawbacks, given a recession-like scenario in the global economy, we, probably, would not have got a better budget than this. The uphill tasks remain in implementing this budget, keeping bank borrowing and inflation at a minimum level. A stable political situation will help to attract local and foreign investments, which, for its turn, will foster growth.

This article was first published in the June 20, 2008 issue of The Star magazine

Where the Big Fish Lie

2008-08-18T19:08:00.003+06:00

What is Cutbank about?
Well, the simple answer is that the only idea is to publish quality writing. Writing that deserves to be read, but may not find a market outside of the literary press.

Of course, it's more complicated than that. CutBank will celebrate its thirty-fifth anniversary this year. When we were founded in 1973 (by graduate students at the University of Montana and essayist/novelist William Kittredge), the literary landscape in the U.S. was pretty different. Montana had one of only a handful of creative writing graduate programmes in the country, and the literary magazine market was considerably smaller. Today, Master of Fine Arts programmes in creative writing have sprung up like mushrooms after the rain, and almost all of them publish a literary magazine.

The result of that is a lot more work being published, presumably a lot more quality work, though I think in some ways we now have a much bigger rough from which to pluck the diamonds. The further result is that any given literary magazine has a smaller audience, and it becomes more difficult to differentiate yourself from the pack.

Some lit mags --- Ninth Letter comes to mind and also McSweeney's --- set themselves apart with graphic content and design. Which I'm actually very fond of, and I'd like to see CutBank move in that direction in the future. Short of an approach like that, though, I think the obligation is to sort of develop a distinct voice, a distinct aesthetic.

In the last few years, CutBank's aesthetic has, I think, leaned away from the traditional and towards a slightly more experimental writing, in both our poetry and our prose. The phrase I like to use is that we encourage the rejection of functional fixedness --- which is the psychological concept that tells us an object is only good for one thing, that a hammer is only good for pounding nails, etc. We like to publish work that shows interesting things being done with words.

But along with that, I think we've embraced a very slight regional bias in the last few years, and that's an okay thing, too. The American West is still a distinct literary zone, and though I think the writing we publish is a little too unorthodox to really come out of the saloon doors wearing cowboy boots and a Stetson, I like the idea that you can flip through the magazine and, if you're listening very closely, maybe hear a slight jingling of spurs.

While making an editorial decision what do you look for in a write-up?
To be very honest, I mostly push paper around. We have a rotating staff of six genre editors (two for poetry, two for fiction, two for nonfiction) that make most of the decisions on content. With the help, of course, of a small staff of readers and assistant editors. The "functional fixedness" line comes to mind again, though. In any genre, I think we're enticed by a writer who shows a mastery of the language, then a willingness to do build something beautiful with it, maybe beautiful and a little strange. Voice is a big deal for us. An elegantly written short story, however well-plotted or well-paced, will likely fall flat with us if its not delivered in a tone or using a vocabulary that challenges us somehow.

Do you think it is important for a writer to know her audience/reader?
I suppose the importance varies based on what you're writing. On the one hand, there are probably circumstances where a writer can finish a short story, page through their Writers Market for addresses, and send the same piece out to ten or fifteen different lit mags. And have a reasonably good shot with any of them. That being said, it's a pretty safe bet that an essay that works very well for CutBank wouldn't be right for, say, the Virginia Quarterly Review and vice-versa. VQR is a great journal, but a lot of their nonfiction tends to be topical and a tad journalistic. Personally, this is some of my favourite nonfiction. But CutBank's nonfiction pages have a more personal, story-driven emphasis.

When you're outside of the sphere of literary journals, it's a different ballgame entirely, I suppose. I do some writing for music magazines and, at the moment, I'm finishing up a sort of literate guidebook for a travel publisher. In one case I'm writing for a youngish hipster crowd and in the other for a more affluent group of travellers. You have to use two different voices in an instance like that, and to confuse your two audiences would be a mistake.

Do you think every novelist writes history, both at a personal and a social level?
Sure, I suppose so. As a nonfiction writer, I'm sort of immersed in a scene where no one makes any bones about writing from experience. My thinking, though, is that any piece of writing in any genre serves to presence its author in some fashion --- any piece worth reading, anyway. So in that sense, I don't know how any author could ever entirely divorce their personal history from a writing project. And why would you want to, really? Where the "social level" is concerned, I guess I'm not convinced that the distinction between personal history and social history isn't a false one. So the same principle applies. Show me a story that was written from a place outside of social history, and I guess I'll tell you if it's any good.

Do you think the world has become a dangerous place in which to live?
Compared to the Garden of Eden? Perhaps. Beyond that -- dangerous for whom, I would ask? Lately I've spent a lot of time in Yellowstone National Park, which is just south of us here in Missoula, some two million acres of wilderness. And I've been talking to a few naturalists, learning a few things. Is the world more dangerous for us than it is for an elk calf in the spring, when the wolves are skirting the herds in hopes of an easy lunch? More dangerous for us than for the cutthroat trout who have to evade a grizzly's swiping paws just so they might spawn? I don't know. But then, who ever said it was supposed to be less dangerous for us? I think we have it pretty good, all things considered.

Rebels without a Cause

2008-08-18T19:04:00.005+06:00

Student politics, which has a glorious history of leading the nation towards independence, has become hostage to corruption and thuggery

During the fifties and sixties, the students, in the absence of a vigorous labour movement, have led the country's politics. Our history is littered with such examples: the victory of secular United Front in the general elections of 1954 that has kicked the Muslim League out of the political landscape of East Pakistan and, a better example perhaps, is the mass upsurge of 1969, when a wave of nationalism has torn the castle of military dictator Ayub Khan's castle into pieces. In fact, till 1980's the student politics have provided the national politics with great leaders who, when met with the challenge with time, has shown brinkmanship, charisma and leadership quality. Most of the leaders of national politics who make news nowadays are, in fact, the product of the student movements of pre and post independent era. From Matia Chowdhury to Mahmuduur Rahman Manna, Mujahidul Islam Selim to Rizvi Ahmed, student politics has gifted us with leaders whom no dictator can buy, who, time and again, have upheld their principles. In fact, during Bangladesh's independence war, students have worked as vanguards, kindling the light of hope in an abyss of darkness. During the anti-autocracy movement of the nineties, the student organisations, most of which had a left lenience, have shown resolve and unity to fight an amalgam of enemies: religious fanaticism at home and global capitalism abroad.

It has started to go wrong after the fall of Gen HM Ershad in 1990. The leaders of the mass upsurge, most of whom have been students, have quickly sold their souls to the devil. Amanullah Aman, the then VP of Dhaka University Central Students Union (DUCSU), at that time married and the father of a grown-up, has become a Member of the Parliament (MP). Many student leaders have followed suit, a few thousands like him have quickly become millionaires. Student politics, as far as Aman's success story has proven, is like a long-term investment: it yields at maturity. In fact, Bangladesh's student politics is a textbook example of what happens when politics takes a back seat and is controlled by god-father-like national politicians. The degeneration that has been slow during the military dictatorship of the eighties has spread fast in the early and mid nineties. Student politicians have become more interested in winning government tenders than bringing out street processions for better educational facilities. While the price of pen and paper skyrocketed in the mid nineties, two different factions of the government-backed student organisation have found themselves in an hour-long armed conflict over a tender of the Roads and Highways Department.

The situation is even worse at the district levels. In the absence of proper politics, local MPs and leaders of the district ruling party call the shots. Their wishes remain command for local student politicians, who become mere bullyboys of the local leaders. The politics of violent confrontation and relentless corruption that we have witnessed in the last couple of decades have given birth to the most notorious of criminals who lead the two big student organisations. These young people go to the rallies, cheering for one Begum or the other, and to fund their insatiable greed they indulge themselves in criminal activities. From extortions to killing, the long hands of some student leaders are extended everywhere.

Most educational institutes, especially at the tertiary level, do not have adequate seats at the dormitories that they have. A large number of these dormitories, if not all of them, are always controlled by the government-backed student organisation; they recruit the ordinary students by luring them with seats in the hostels; armed goons guard them; gunfight between armed student factions becomes the order of the day. The soul of our future national politics becomes the breeding ground for thugs and goons. Development suffers, education remains in the hands of a selected few who can afford to go abroad to further their studies.

What ails the education sector the most is indeed corrupt student politics. But the government cannot escape the blame: since independence, subsequent governments have never prioritised education. New private universities are set up, where education is sold at Tk 4 lakh a degree, where class rooms are of ten feet by ten feet, where universities do not have an administrative building of their own, let alone a proper laboratory for science students. Some private universities in the capital have even had ready-made garment factories on the upper floors. While basic education is going far beyond the means of the millions and the government plays the role of an apathetic bystander, an army of unemployed are entering the job market with little skill to meet the growing demand of a burgeoning economy. Thus the poor remain poor; living outside the paradigm of power. The economy of $60 billion has also had around 19 lakh young unemployed men, the amount is mammoth when one considers the fact that there is a staggering 2 crore 65 lakh 85 thousand underemployed young men and women, some of these join one of the big student or youth organisations, which thrive on corruption and misrule. As the country's squabbling politicians ignore the plight of the toiling masses, the poor and the marginalised do not have any other way to make their voices heard but translate their frustrations and grievances into angst. These unemployed youth give the national politicians the much-needed fuel in the general elections or at any other desperate moments.

The picture is indeed less than perfect for those who want to find the inner thread of the occasional bouts of violence that rule the streets of our cities at the slightest whiff of discontent. An overhaul of our economic policy is the order of the day; it needs to be made pro-people, pro-poor to be precise. It is the responsibility of the government to educate its own citizens, more public schools and universities must be set up, education has to be made absolutely free till the tertiary level. Private universities have to be forced to give scholarships for the poor students, especially those who hail from poverty-stricken areas. Vocational training and secretarial courses have to be incorporated into the secondary and higher secondary education system, so that the dropouts can get a decent job after passing these public exams. Sending skilled and semi-skilled workers is one of the thriving sectors of our economy; our primary and secondary education must go through a change so that we can have our share in the growing labour market of North and Eastern Europe.

A moratorium for a year or two must be imposed on politics on the campus. It means feuding student politicians and politicised teachers will have to learn to think and act independently. Meanwhile, the political parties must stop using students as cannon fodder. The Election Commission has to enact electoral laws that will discourage the parties from having student fronts. Students studying at different public and private educational institutions will have to be given student housing, enrolment must be based on merit alone. Students are the future of our nation, they are the nation builders of tomorrow; our future as a developed nation depends largely on how we mould them to face the challenge of the new millennium. The Private University Act has remained only on paper-- the University Grants Commission must take stringent measures to enforce it. Any private educational institute who fails to follow it must be punished. A ceiling on fees on private universities needs to be fixed. Elections to the student bodies of all educational institutions must be held on a regular basis.

The reason why we talk of democracy in every breath we take and do not practice it in everyday life is because the very concept of justice and equality is not engrained in our society. The students have to be taught about democracy from an early age, and schools, colleges and universities are the places where they will learn to practice democracy to lead the nation to the path of progress and development. A bleak future awaits us if we fail to save our children from the clutches of corrupt moribund politics. Our future as a developed economically independent nation is entwined with the way we reshape the face of student politics.

This article was first published in the June 27, 2008 issue of The Star Magazine

The Heart of Literature

2008-08-18T18:59:00.004+06:00

In an interview with Ahmede Hussain, James Engelhardt, Managing Editor of
Prairie Schooner, University of Nebraska-Lincoln talks about
his life as an editor.

What are the ideas behind your journal?

The idea we hold closest to us is that we're here to serve writers. Going back a ways, Prairie Schooner was founded in 1926 with the idea of representing Nebraska to the world while bringing the world to Nebraska. We have developed into a journal of international scope that strives to publish the very best work from new and established authors. Because our senior genre readers (in fiction, poetry, and non-fiction) change every few years, our interests are able to evolve. Those genre readers change because we're part of the creative writing PhD program at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (very close to the middle of the country), which is one part of the very supportive English Department. An important aspect of what we do is to involve very active, very knowledgeable graduate students in the production of the magazine. We rely on their keen sense of aesthetics and wide-ranging interests. And, because they come from all over the country and the world, we find new, interesting, vibrant writers.

While making an editorial decision what do you look for in a write-up?
This is a difficult question to answer, but, like many editors, I will say that we're looking for writing that grabs us. Certainly, competency with language is the start, the first floor, the bottom line, but beyond that? The story should grab us with the first page, if the not the first paragraph, and the same holds true for a non-fiction piece. A poem should demand our attention with the first stanza. And then something beyond the mechanics of language, beyond the sparkling opening, should make us take notice as well. The premise, the idea, should make us understand something we haven't thought about. The piece should move us to think about the world, other people, experience beyond ourselves.

As far as topics go, we're voracious and omnivorous. We will get queries from time to time from people wanting to know if anything is taboo for us. The short answer is no. The long answer is that we don't want anything badly written, that's dull, that's too familiar, or that lacks an emotional resonance that reminds us of the struggles, joys and pains of being human in the world.

How important do you think it is for a writer to know his/her audience/reader?
I think it's both hugely important and entirely unknowable. You might, after a while, know who's reading your pieces, but who knows that starting out? And most of our writers, even now, don't have an audience that's large enough for the writer to know their buying habits, or even simply to hear from anyone. On the one hand, this is a great blessing. You can say anything! Be true to your own vision and see what happens. On the other hand, it is easy to form literary cliques with like-minded people, and then a certain conformity can take place. Thinking about an audience can help you push beyond your close friends.

I like the practice of imagining who your ideal reader is and then writing to them. Imagining an audience is useful, I think, but imagining that they might be criticizing every word you put down would not.

Do you think every novelist writes history, both at a personal and a social level? Question4: It will better if we go with it. It will be interesting to see how you see the issue as an editor. If you wish, I can change it.

I'm not a novelist, but every novelist lives, or has lived, in a particular time and place. The concerns of the era are in those books, but we must understand that those concerns might be expressed as a kind of negative; that is, they might be what the artist is struggling against. We don't publish novels, or very many novel excerpts, so I'm a bit unsure how to approach the topic. I think the time of the author resonates through their material, but to say that this is “writing history” seems a much larger claim, and one I'm not entirely comfortable with endorsing.

Do you think the world has become a dangerous place -- to live in?
Compared to when? There are clearly more people, so the incident of violence is greater, but per capita? I don't know. Maybe it's more dangerous because of knowledge, or how easily knowledge is distorted, but even there I'm not sure that our propaganda is any less insidious than propaganda from the past. Is life more “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short” than it was when that line was written? I hardly think so.

And here's where literature helps: while humans and their inhumanity might be very similar over time, the circumstances change. There are new and different exploitations, and the raw numbers larger, so the stories that we tell change, even as the concerns at the core remain the same. That is, greed remains greed. But literature helps us to speak back, to reveal our crises and terrors. Do we learn from this? Will others learn from this? Ah, that's another question, the answer to which doesn't often leave me feeling optimistic.

The Original Sin

2008-08-18T18:56:00.002+06:00

The government must form a commission to probe into the war crimes of 1971

During Bangladesh's liberation war three million people died, one-third of the country's population was displaced, 200,000 women were raped and hundreds and thousands were maimed. The occupying Pakistani army, which started the butchering in the name of Operation Searchlight on the gory night of March 25, 1971, took help from its local collaborators by forming several paramilitary groups such as the Peace Committee, Razakar, Al Badr and Al Shams. Formed by members of Jamaat-e-Islam, Nezam-e-Islam Party and the Muslim League, these groups unleashed a reign of terror during the Muktijudho by picking up innocent Bangladeshis and handing them over to the Pakistani army or forcing women into sexual slavery in the camps of the Pakistanis. Memories are still fresh and the copies of newspapers printed during that time are littered with evidence of war crimes. Hundreds of mass graves have been discovered in which the bodies of innocent civilians were dumped by the collaborators of the Pakistani army.

The trial of these killers and rapists started soon after independence, some of these vile people were arrested, most of the leaders of Jamaat, Nezam-e-Islam and Muslim League, which were banned, were either on the run or had fled the country. A Razakar (collaborator) was executed for killing.

The process was stopped in 1975 when a string of bloody coups witnessed the murder of the country's founding fathers. A known supporter of the Pakistani army was made the Prime Minister, the killers and rapists were set free, and infamous Razakars, Al Badrs and Al Shams members like Khan A Sabur, Golam Azam, Matiur Rahman Nizami, Ali Ahsan Mojahed, were allowed to form political parties again in 1978. These notorious criminals have been allowed to spread their tentacles by the subsequent governments, the most shameless example has been in 2001 when the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, founded by a valiant freedom fighter Major General Ziaur Rahman, formed an electoral alliance with the Jamaat, a party that actively opposed Bangladesh's independence. The alliance, after it won the elections, has made two known collaborators of the Pakistani army, ministers. Nizami, who headed the Al Badr paramilitary in 1971, which killed teachers, writers, doctors and journalists on December 14, 1971, has become a minister of Bangladesh, the birth of which he was opposed to less than four decades ago.

Jamaat or the Razakars-Al Badr-Al Shams have never apologised for the war crimes its members have commited or the criminal activities it has been involved in as a political entity in 1971. On the contrary, the party and its leaders have always held the view that no war crime has ever taken place in 1971. A few months ago the Acting Secretary General of the party has told journalists that there were no war criminals in the country and another stooge of the party Shah Hannan has called Bangladesh's war of independence a mere civil war. A freedom fighter has been assaulted this month at a programme organised by the Jamaat supporters. These people had the audacity to set up a fake 'Muktijudho Parishad' that claims to be for the welfare of the Muktijudhos which did not stop the organisers from humiliating a freedom fighter who had demanded that war criminals be punished.

The necessity for the trial of the killers and rapists of 1971 has always been the demand of the people of this country. It has especially gained momentum since the current caretaker government assumed power on January 11 last year and has declared to reform the country's politics. Hordes of suspected corrupt people have been arrested, most of whom have thought themselves beyond the reach of law. Crimes committed years ago have been unearthed and have had light shed upon them. The Chief Adviser, the Chief of the Army and the Chief Election Commissioner have voiced their opposition to the war crimes, calling the participation of the war criminals uncalled for. In the electoral laws that the current government has proposed it is stipulated that no war criminal will be able to run for the office. Yet the government has so far shied away from forming a tribunal or fact-finding committee to probe into the war crimes. In fact, the outcome of the next general election will be flawed if the killers and rapists of 1971 are allowed to participate in it, and if, like the previous general elections, some of them make it to the parliament.

It is indeed a shame on our conscience as a nation that the deaths of so many martyrs who have laid down their lives for the liberation of our country have not been avenged, and that we, as a nation, have collectively failed to enforce justice on the rapists who have perpetrated one of the worst war crimes in human history. This government, as it has taken so many steps to clean our politics of unscrupulous elements, must also start the process of trying the war criminals by forming a commission to probe into the war crimes. The government has sought the help of the UN in this regard, we know, but it has so far taken very few measures to find out the criminals and bring them to justice so that in the next election they will not be able to take part. Every contestant who wants to run for government office must disclose details like what he or she did or where he or she lived in 1971.

It is understandable that the goal of the caretaker government is to hold a free and fair election and hand over power to the elected representatives of the people. We know that the government is only a few months away from holding the elections, but it is also true that the government cannot deny its responsibility of trying a war crime tribunal as it is long overdue and there is a growing demand for it. This government has done many things that its predecessors could not; trying the war criminals is the only issue in which it is following the footsteps of the previous regimes. It is the expectation of the people that before it leaves, the government will form a war crime commission with a sitting high court judge at its helm to glean into the war crimes committed in 1971. This commission will refer the cases to the war crime tribunal that will be formed later on.

One reason why we have not been able to establish the rule of law is because we have not been able to punish those who have committed acts of murder, rape and arson during the very birth of our nation. This is our original sin, the sin that is still stalking us. It is the responsibility of this government to help us atone for that sin.

Will Democracy get a fresh Start in Bangladesh?

2008-08-18T18:51:00.006+06:00

When the Caretaker Government assumed power one and a half years ago it promised a free and fair election devoid of the power of money and muscle. A drive on corruption has subsequently been launched; some corruption suspects have been arrested. The government has made some institutional reforms to make democracy more participatory and transparent. With the general election only seven months away, the government has invited different political parties to a dialogue. Issues like the election and carrying out reforms once the elected government takes over are expected to dominate the dialogue.

It is indeed under extraordinary circumstances that the caretaker-government (CTG) has assumed power on January 11 last year--politics reached a new height of anarchy; lawlessness was rampant in the country; a general election was going to be held in which the opposition had, at the end, refused to participate. The arrogance and personal dislikes of the two leading politicians touched an all-time high, the country would have faced a civil war-like situation if the general election scheduled to be held on January 22 had been allowed to take place.

The voter list was flawed, a huge number of fake voters made their way into the list thanks to the partisan election commission, which the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) leadership had handpicked to rig the election. In fact, the President himself had sown the seeds for a flawed election when he appointed himself the head of the first caretaker government on October 30, 2006. The system of having a neutral government to hold the general election stumbled further as Prof Iajuddin Ahmed did not let his Advisers function properly. Four senior and respected Advisers subsequently resigned, protesting President Ahmed's partisan roles in running the government.

When democracy was restored in 1990 through a mass upsurge we expected a vibrant and accountable democratic system to take root, instead we saw a dysfunctional democracy where, instead of becoming the first among the equals, the office of the Prime Minister has been used in the most tyrannical manner. Her wishes remained command for her party MPs; a coterie was formed around her inner circle, which manipulated government tenders, gave shelter to killers and earned millions through extortion and selling nomination papers. Politics became synonymous with plundering of the public office. In the last 16 years, we have witnessed the birth of Al Capone-like mafias in the country. It is little wonder that within a few years, Bangladesh has earned the infamous title of being the most corrupt country in the world. This problem was more acute in the last five years, when Hawa Bhaban, an alternative centre of power was created, making Tariq Rahman, BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia's son, as the successor to the Zia dynasty. From manipulations of international tenders to appointment of police officers, the long hand of Tariq and his men were stretched afar, creating a parallel administration. An ever-pervasive culture of corruption and impunity was born and spread its tentacles.

After assuming power, the caretaker government led by Dr Fakhruddin Ahmed has taken the right step of bringing alleged corruption suspects to book. In the last one and a half years we have witnessed the arrests of two former prime ministers and other political leaders and businessmen who had thought themselves above the reach of law. The three stooges of the previous government have been replaced by three new neutral election commissioners; the Anti-Corruption Commission has been revamped; the Public Service Commission has been overhauled; the judiciary has been separated from the executive; the Right to Information Act is in the offing; an ordinance has been promulgated to form a Human Rights Commission (HRC), although it is not clear what is dissuading the government from forming the HRC. To make reforms complete we expect that the government will also set up the office of an Ombudsman.

The rule of the CTG has been an experimental one; it has had both positive and negative repercussions. The fruit of the structural reforms that it has initiated are now near and the only way to attain this is in the form of a good election. The participation of all the political parties is necessary to have a good election. The upcoming dialogue that the CTG has initiated is a long overdue step to bring a national consensus so that the country does not slide back to the days of anarchy and lawlessness. All the political parties must participate in the dialogue and the issue of freedom of both the leaders of the two big political parties must not hinder it. The boycott of the parties will jeopardise the road map for democracy and, worse still, will put us in a situation we will regret to find ourselves in.

Even though leaders of all the major parties have talked of reforming their rank and file, in reality, they have so far stubbornly refused to materialise them. While it is not the job of the government to force the parties to bring reform, the leaders of the BNP, Awami League (AL), Jatya Party (JP) and others must rise above their petty interests, and, for the sake of the country's democratic future, must seriously think of bringing democracy to their folds. In the BNP and AL Khaleda Zia and Sheikh Hasina have always run their parties in a dictatorial manner. The less said about HM Ershad and his JP the better. Ironic, it is though that the leaders who talk of democracy with every breath they take will nurture tyranny at home. This must change, and none but the leaders of their parties should take the responsibility to bring it about. The parties must have elections in every tier, and the Election Commission can help them by sending in observers to monitor these elections.

Another issue that has remained unresolved is the funding of these parties. How the BNP, AL and other political parties fund themselves is a mystery. It has been alleged that the parties take a huge amount of donations from crooked businessmen and criminals in exchange of giving advantage to them when they get elected. In fact, the scrapped general election of 2007 has witnessed such shameless displays of nomination buying and selling: dedicated and loyal leaders were ignored and criminals and shady businessmen were given nominations. The next general election will not bring true democracy if such incidents repeat themselves.

The government and the EC must also take steps to make the upcoming elections more free and transparent. Another issue that should be discussed in the dialogue is the way politics is run in the country. Calling general strikes every now and then and burning down public and private properties are not the democratic way to make one's voice heard. We have seen it time and again that, contrary to the democratic norm that prevails in other societies, the losers always cry foul no matter how free and neutral the election is. Khaleda Zia has done it, so has Sheikh Hasina. This undemocratic behaviour has resulted in the boycott of parliament, which the BNP and AL have done in the last 16 years wholeheartedly, making the parliamentary system ineffective and dysfunctional. There are times when the opposition has not been allowed to talk on the floor, which, along with the personal hatred that Khaleda Zia share with Sheikh Hasina have brought politics to the streets. It cost the country dear. Our economy suffered, in our social life, we have seen the birth of a culture of thuggery and violence. The dialogue must address the issue. It will be unfortunate if the parties cannot come to a general consensus about it.

During the mass upsurge of 1969, under a vile military dictatorship, our students revolted, joining hands with the workers, which changed the map of the South Asian sub-continent: Pakistani dictator Field Marshall Mohammad Ayub Khan had to resign, two years later, people united with the workers, peasants and our valiant students led our great Liberation War that saw the birth of Bangladesh. It was long ago, and since then, especially since the fall of Ershad's dictatorial rule, student and labour organisations have become too involved with national politics. The student organisations of both major parties are full of leaders, who had long passed their studentship; some even have known to have private businesses, and head of big families and who are more thugs than anything else. It is natural that students will raise their voice about issues of national and international interests; student life, after all, is about preparing oneself for the future life as a politician, businessmen, civil servant; students, there is no doubt about it, are the nation builders of tomorrow. Having said that, it is necessary to save student politics from the clutches of the family based, narrow minded, corrupt partisan politics, which use the students as cannon fodder. The same is applicable to our labour organisations. The front organisations, as they are known, must be freed from their mother organisations. In fact, our economic growth would have been much higher if Chittagong Port were not closed for so many days and if the Universities did not have to be shut down because two gun-toting factions of a certain student organisation had tried to capture dormitories at the university for their respective parties.

The parties should also decide to carry on the reforms when they get elected. It will be unfortunate if the new government fails to do the reforms it is expected to do after the next general election. There will be a lot of things at hand to do for the government, which, we expect, will take office in the beginning of January next year.

Besides the issue of economic and structural reform, the next government has to think of ways to make the country more governable. Local government bodies must be strengthened; they should have independent budgets. The local government bodies have to be armed with more power so that everything does not remain Dhaka-centric, which alienates the people's participation in governance. Given that Bangladesh has a population of 15 crores, which makes it a country bigger than France or Spain, demands the need for decentralisation. In this way development will be more homogeneous and the fruit of our economic growth will trickle down to those who need it the most. Proposals for multi-tired local government have been prepared long ago. In fact, local government legislation should have come into force a long time ago. Only the vested interests of the local MPs, who do not want to let go of power, have prevented the creation of local bodies.

It is true that ours is a Parliamentary Democracy, where the Prime Minister is the head of the executive branch. There may be certain provisions in our constitution which may have landed us in the present crisis--In our form of government the Prime Minister's power remains unchecked, and, more dangerously, unbalanced. There is a need to make the PM more accountable. There should be a system of checks and balance. Both the parliament and the office of the President may be empowered to check the PM's unlimited power.

This is not to bring the offices of the President and the Prime Minister at loggerheads. The ultimate accountability of the PM should lie with the parliament. Important legislations should be passed before consulting with the leader of the opposition; in this spirit, vital standing committees should be chaired by opposition MPs to make the system more functional. It must be mentioned here that the President should not be put as a rival to the Prime Minister, if this happens, the whole idea of Parliamentary Democracy will fall apart.

The demand for forming a war crime tribunal to try the Razakars and other collaborators who perpetrated genocide against the unarmed civilian population of Bangladesh has gained momentum. There is no doubt that the whole nation is united behind this demand. Some recent comments made by the Chief Adviser, the Army Chief and the Chief Election Commissioner have made us think that the government does not want to see the war criminals in the next parliament. As it does not have ample time to form a tribunal, the government must consider forming a commission, which will eventually indict those who have committed one of the worst atrocities of the last century. The very national unity that we have talked about can start from here. The government and its backers have so far taken initiatives that no other government in our country has thought of taking before: As it has taken some commendable steps to reform our politics, the government must not shy away from dealing with the issue of forming a Commission to probe war crime.

Bangladesh is at a crossroads. The upcoming dialogue is of outmost importance for the future of our democracy. All the political parties must participate in the dialogue, in which, we hope, different stakeholders of our country's business, politics and media will reach a consensus on the burning issues Bangladesh is facing today.

While we understand their concerns about their leaders and hesitance about participating in the dialogue without them, yet for the sake of democracy, which will come through the election, the political parties must join the dialogue. It will be unfortunate if any political party boycotts the general election that is scheduled to be held at the end of this year. Before the parties make any decision they should keep in mind that any boycott is going to jeopardise democracy and will throw us into an abyss we have been in before January 11, 2007. The State of Emergency should be withdrawn before the general election. If the government cannot do that, it must show the people valid reason for it.

All the stakeholders of the upcoming dialogue must show brinkmanship and come out of their petty personal interests. The situation demands them to rise to the occasion and show tolerance and mutual respect for the greater benefit of the nation. The CTG, for its turn, must earn the trust of the stakeholders. The dialogue must not be allowed to fail. If properly guided, it will pave the way for a free election in seven months' time. A bright new beginning lies before us; history will not forgive us if we try to revert its wheel in the wrong direction.

The Invisible Barracoon

2008-08-18T18:48:00.002+06:00

Income disparity is rising in the country, and what is ominous about it is that it is rising fast. In real terms it translates into a growing number of poor and the diminishing purchasing power of the middle class. Thanks to spiralling prices of essentials, three and a half crores people in Bangladesh find it impossible to earn three meals a day. It means when a group of fellow citizens is buying designer clothes (say at Tk 7000 apiece) for a friend's wedding (where the price of a bouquet costs Tk 200), there exist another set of citizens who go hungry every night, the price of a bouquet is a family's three days income. It can come down to something as trivial as 'hanging out' or having dinner at one of the designer restaurants that have dotted the landscape of this cruel city. The poor, who remain forgotten and made their presence known only at the traffic lights, begging or selling pirated copies of Da Vinci Code, are the invisible majority. They live in the slums, deal in illegal drugs or become the henchmen of one of the local political leaders. Their children grow up famished, uneducated, abandoned; theirs is an army of poor in waiting and the future that the society holds before these children is of hunger, poverty and violence.

Being poor in this city is a difficult business; it means one will have to embrace the fate of being born poor and live a life in poverty and exploitation. The rich in the country, most of them, have earned money through illegal means. It sets an example, a wrong one indeed. The get-rich-quick lifestyle that is so pervasive in the country tells the poor that the only way in which they can change their situation is through unfair means. So something as basic as a bowl of rice or a plate of vegetables makes them commit crime. Hunger, after all, knows no law.

The state does not give them any healthcare facility, for there is very little to speak of. They die, and they die silently; their death does not make it to the obituary page of the newspapers. No tribute awaits them after death; their departure from this world is as ignominious as their birth. The irony must not escape you: here in this country at the price of a bottle of designer water a mother has to sell her newborn, for she could not feed it, here in this city parents send their children to work as domestic workers, as modern day slaves, only to be raped or scalded with hot iron; and in this city, too, people go to foreign countries, spending thousands of taka, to get a nose job or just to have a vacation. Their conscience, perhaps, too, takes a vacation with them.

It may not sound good, we may find it difficult to digest, but ours is a poor country. The millions we spend on buying foreign shoes and cosmetics, if properly spent, could have contributed to the growth of our economy. With that we could have built hospitals where people would get proper treatment, irrespective of the thickness of their purses. We could have built schools, colleges and universities; millions of children who know only a life of penury and injustice could have been able to break the shackles of poverty, making Bangladesh a middle-income country. That sadly remains a far cry. Our economy is not production oriented, neither is it import substituting.

In the olden times, the slaves were kept in a barracoon before they were shipped off and sold. Neglected and maltreated as they were, many died in confinement; the slavers could not have cared less. Our apathy has made the country an invisible, overcrowded barracoon, in which millions are slowly dying of hunger and malnourishment. It is told that Nero, the tyrannical Roman emperor, played with a violin when Rome burned. We have a thousand Neroes in our midst; when the stomachs of the billions are burning these few thousands are fiddling happily. History teaches us that apathy always leads to disaster. We can afford to ignore what history tells us only at our own peril.

This article was first published in the May 30, 2008 of The Star magazine

Waiting for Godot

2008-08-18T18:45:00.003+06:00

For a country that is young and has such a huge number of young people, the politics in Bangladesh is heavily dependent on old politicians

It is unfortunate but true that the average age of the top leaders of all the major political parties has long passed the average age for retirement. In fact, most of the leaders lack vision and the promptness that the country badly needs to face the challenges that the new century throws at its fledgling economy. An old leadership means, the country will unnecessarily dwell on the past and its leaders will remain indifferent to the world of scientific discovery and innovation. One does not need to go afar to see the ramifications. Young people of our country are growing up indifferent to politics, apathy is growing dangerously fast, the country is run without any vision, a culture of lethargy has been born, a culture in which the government, like an idler, remains passive -- instead of having a pro-active role in governance, it only acts when things happen. This apathy or sheer lethargy also means that the people, especially the young ones, have to shout in order to let their voice be heard. It turns bitter at times, for why else will the citizens have to lay siege to the office of the local government office to demand an adequate supply of fertilisers?

This is sad; at least the situation should not have come to this. Bangladesh has been famous for its political leaders; it is, after all, the country of Maulana Bhashani, Hussain Shaheed Suhrawardy, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and Comrade Moni Singh. After the birth of Pakistan and the subsequent military dictatorships that ensued, a vibrant, pro-people student movement was launched and it gave birth to a flurry of leaders who followed a life of sacrifice. The students, as they always have been, form a part of the population, come out from the masses, and, in a country where the majority lacks proper education, should have worked as the vanguard of people. The great mass upsurge that shattered the castle of Ayub Khan into pieces in 1969 is a good example. The movement has been democratic in nature in the sense that its primary aspiration has been to establish democracy in Pakistan. The fall of Ayub, and before that the student and labour movements to remove him from power, swept the politics of Muslim League of Bengal. The party, which led the birth of Pakistan, drew the last blow, the final nail in its coffin. By the election of 1970, the party was wiped off the map of East Pakistan, paving the way for a dynamic leadership to emerge.

In fact, during the bleak days of 1971, it is for the leaders like Tajuddin Ahmed, Syed Nazrul Islam, AKM Mansur Ali that the country, in the absence of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, could focus on the ultimate goal that the masses had given them the mandate for--an independent country free from exploitation, the utopia of Shonar Bangla (Golden Bengal) that the people of this land had always dreamt of but could never have achieved came into being. Leaders like Abdur Razzaq, ASM Abdur Rab, Rashed Khan Menon, Matia Chowdhury, Hasanul Haq Inu and Mujahidul Islam Selim are the by-product of the mass upsurge of 1969 and the war of independence.

Selim is a case in point. Now the general secretary of the Communist Party of Bangladesh, he led a procession against the US-led war on Vietnam, which saw the police fire bullets on innocent students. Then the general secretary of the Dhaka University Central Students' Union (DUCSU), Selim protested the police firing by cancelling the life-long DUCSU membership of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, who was at the helm of power of the nation at that time. So has been the tone of student politics till 1990, when a mass upsurge ended HM Ershad's dictatorial rule. During the anti-autocracy movement, as it is known, new young leaders like Khalequzzaman, AFM Mahbubul Haq, Mahmudur Rahman Manna, came of the age.

With the fall of Ershad, this trend has ended, with it has stopped the supply of mature politicians that the student politics has thus far provided the country with. This is the time when commercialisation of the country has taken place. Some old thugs have become Members of Parliament and student bodies have become breeding grounds for young thugs. Most young politicians that we come across are, like their ageing counterparts, corrupt. The entrance of some of these young politicians into politics has taken place for apolitical reasons: their fathers or husbands have been politicians and the batons, as in a relay race, have been handed down to them to carry on the family business; another way is bottom up-- one has to start as a bully boy in one of the student organisations and through bravery (bullying) one can go up the ladder of success and can even make it to the parliament. Our last three parliaments have been littered with the products of this family-based, narrow-minded politics.

Where the solution lies is difficult to tell for creating leadership is a long process and it has to come from the grassroots. The life of sacrifice that the founding fathers of this nation had chosen has not been emulated by any of our present leaders. The issue is indeed a bigger one and is entwined with the criminalisation of politics that has taken place over the decades. The old guards must make room for young talented leadership to emerge, politics must be freed from the clutches of the evil nexus of businessmen and politicians, national politics must set an example for the youth through making politics and the decision making process more participatory and inclusive. Family-based politics is the biggest enemy of democracy; it gives birth to corruption that eats at the very foundation of the country's economy. The parties' should have internal democracy; the only way a young politician can go up and make it to the party office should be through merit. His or her personal relationship with the top leader must not work as an added advantage. Politicians must know when he or she should call it a day. Contrary to other established democracies, our politicians remain in politics till they die. A good leader can read the pulse of people and act accordingly. While it is true that time teaches the politicians the keenest of lessons, making experience the prime requisite to be a good leader, one must have the magnanimity to pave the way for a better replacement. The creation of a knowledge-based society is also necessary for a steady, enduring economic growth, a growth that will include the toiling masses, from whom the new leaders will come.

In Irish writer Samuel Beckett's legendary tragicomedy Waiting for Godot, a character says, 'Nothing happens, nobody comes, nobody goes, it's awful!' In the play, the characters wait for Godot to arrive, their wait never ends. Like the characters of the play, the people of Bangladesh are waiting for a set of sincere, honest, dedicated leaders to come and lead them to the future of prosperity that three million martyrs of the country's liberation war have dreamt of. There is a Bangla proverb that epitomises their desperation-- Kings come and go, the fate of the downtrodden remains unchanged. The fifteen crore people of this country definitely deserve better leaders.

This article was first published in the May 30, 2008 issue of The Star magazine

An Old Route Revisited

2008-08-18T18:33:00.005+06:00

The train link between Dhaka and Kolkata, which was suspended 42 years ago, has been restored last month. The event has huge symbolism, for the train, rightly called Maitree (friendship) Express, will bring people of these two South Asian neighbours together. Though the quality of service is not up to international standards and the visa-checking procedure makes the journey long and laborious, and there are security concerns, the government must think of introducing more services like this that will link Dhaka with other South Asian cities such as Kathmandu and Thimpu. Bangladesh can become a communication hub; Maitree should just be the first step towards a giant long march.

Fifty-seven-year-old Beauty Rani, a resident of Dhaka's Wari area can still vividly recall the gruesome days of the partition of the Sub-continent, a time, when, she says, “Bad news was no longer news.” She lost her father in a riot, one gory morning he went to keep the family-owned shop, never to come back again. Her maternal uncles left the country to settle in newly formed India, leaving Rani's mother with the shop. The chance of a family reunion was closed shut in 1965, when in the run up to the war of 1965 between India and Pakistan the passenger rail service between Dhaka and Kolkata (Calcutta) was shut down.

The restoration of the service is good news for Rani, who is now toying with the idea of using it to rekindle old relationships, memories that refuse to fizzle out so easily. Feelings like hers are reciprocated on the other side of the fence. Sumana Roy, an Indian writer, sees this as an opportunity to visit her ancestral home in Pabna, a place she has only heard about from her refugee father. “The house has lived on in my memory. I have heard so much about it from my father, the lush paddy field, the river nearby--everything feels so closer to my heart”. Adyta Roy, her father, was not as lucky; he passed away a few days ago, leaving the tumultuous history of Bengal to his daughter.

Mohammad Zamir, former secretary and ambassador, thinks the restoration of direct train service between Dhaka and Kolkata is a step in the right direction. He thinks, “It will foster tourism in Bangladesh and, given that we develop proper infrastructure, it will generate a real sustainable growth in the country's tourism sector. It will eventually contribute towards the interactive engagement in areas of culture, education and healthcare.”

Sumana agrees. She thinks Bangladesh will be hugely benefited from it, as there are hundreds and thousands of Bangalis who live in her part of India who share the bonding of language and culture with the people of Bangladesh. “I have grown up hearing about Bangladesh. The Doi of Bogra and Shutki Maach of Chittagong I have only heard of but have never tasted. This opportunity I will not miss.”

Her enthusiasm is shared by her countrymen. As IANS, an Indian news agency, has reported two days before the inauguration of the service, “It was only the second day of ticket sales for the India-Bangladesh Moitree Express and all the AC First Class tickets were sold out. Then the visa queue kept getting longer. Around 2,000 people queued outside the ticket counter for eastern railways at Fairley Place in central Kolkata.” On April 12, there have been 4, 000 Bangladeshi visa applicants lining outside the Bangladesh deputy high commissioner's office in downtown Kolkata.

Like their Indian counterparts, Bangladeshis have shown keenness in using the service. A significant number of Bangladeshis travel to India to avail the country's healthcare facilities, one of them is Islam Khan Titoo. He thinks the quality of the service is not up to the mark: “We started at 8 in the morning from the Cantonment Station in Dhaka and reached the border at 2:30 in the afternoon. The train that left Dhaka, the Bangladeshi train, did not have good toilet facilities. There is only one toilet in each coach. The food was not good, and it costs 125 Tk. Even though the visa checking and other formalities on both sides took about an hour and a half, we had to wait for two and a half more hours in a waiting room for the engines to be exchanged along with the train drivers.”

Titoo thinks there is no point in having such a waiting room, while, CR Abrar, professor of International Relations of Dhaka University, thinks the cage is unnecessary.

In fact, Pinak Ranjan Chakravarty, Indian high commissioner to Bangladesh, has informed the media a day after the inaugural run that his country and Bangladesh are seriously thinking of introducing on-board visa checking to make travel by Maitree easier. Professor Abrar welcomes it, saying, “ Any alternative arrangement that minimises the travellers' discomfort is certainly welcome.”

Mohammad Zamir, too, believes these problems can be sorted out. “As has been evident, the service has met with small hindrances related to passenger support in areas of immigration and custom clearance. I am, however, hopeful that these minor inconveniences will be ironed out,” he says. He thinks the key to the problem lies in “Careful checking of the passengers that should enable us to contain the flow of possible trafficking of persons and smuggling of drugs and illegal weapons across these frontiers.”

Another concern that some Bangladeshis have expressed is that the train service will become a one-sided affair, that there will be more Bangladeshis travelling to India than the other way round, which in economic terms means Bangladeshis will spend more in India. Abrar rubbishes such a claim. “Bangladeshis mostly go to India to avail better healthcare facilities; and I am very blunt about it. The cost of services and unaccountability of the doctors and pathologists and others involved in our country are the factors that are driving away people to secure treatment in neighbouring countries. This should be addressed too. If the patients don't get proper treatments here they will try to get it from other places. You cannot stop that and you cannot blame anyone,” he says, “Our health sector has to regulate itself.”

Abrar thinks that it is time the government takes up other outstanding issues with India like widening trade deficit and sharing of water of the common rivers. “Starting a passenger train service is a good beginning, but it should be followed up by forward movements--the governments of both the countries should think of other broader issues that have remained unresolved,” he says.

However, everyone agrees that the restoration of the train service between these two historic cities is a good sign that needs to be strengthened further. “This will facilitate the growth of trade. In this context the Saarc secretariat should also take necessary measures to activate land surface and railway service between Bangladesh and Nepal and Bhutan with the active cooperation of India,” Zamir, who travelled in the train that used to exist before 1965, says. Abrar also thinks Bangladesh can become South Asia's communication hub with train lines stretching as far away as Singapore through Sitwe (Akyab) of Myanmar and Nepal and Bhutan.

Meanwhile, setting the apprehensions of the decision makers of both the countries aside, Beauty Rani in her Wari home prepares for travelling to her relatives in 24 Paragana in India, a journey that she has made so many times in her mind. She is no longer the little girl of seven that she used to be when her family members bid that fateful farewell to each other. Her hair has turned grey, ageing has taken its toll on her surely, but she is very little worried that her relatives will not be able to recognise her: “How could they not? One's own flesh and blood after all.”

From sharing of water of the common rivers to changing mindsets, Bangladesh and India have a lot of fixing to do. In the changed situation, China has emerged as an economic powerhouse, so has India. A well-connected South Asia will only usher in a world of economic prosperity and development. Our policy makers should seriously think of making the passenger train service to Kolkata as a starting point to connecting the capital to other South Asian and South East Asian cities like Kathmandu, Thimpu, Sitwe and Bangkok. Our products will become more available to these countries, which in turn, will generate growth. In this global village, connectivity is the key. Besides economic growth, it will translate into more mobility of people that will surely make South Asia a vibrant place in which to live and do business.

This article first appeared in the May 16, 2008 of the Star Weekend Magazine

Colonial Encounters

2008-05-12T17:05:00.002+06:00

The Bengal Renaissance: Identity and creativity from Rammohun Roy to Rabindranath Tagore
Subrata Dasgupta
Permanent Black
pp 280; Rs 595

Sir William Jones, who translated the play Sakuntala into Latin, wrote to a friend about Kalidasa, calling him the Indian Shakespeare, saying, (it was written at a time) ‘when Britons were as unlettered and unpolished as the army of Hanumat’. Jones was a product of Sir Warren Hasting’s new India policy during the Raj, according to which, (all Britons in India) must ‘think and act like an Asian’. He was India’s first Governor General, before that he served as Governor of Bengal. It gave birth to a legion of thinkers now known as British Orientalists in India. The seeds of Bengal Renaissance were sown long ago. Bengal Renaissance, for its turn, has seen the rise of Raja Rammohun Roy and Brahmo Samaj, the idea of a monotheistic Hindu church that Rabindranath Tagore later believed in.

Subrata Dasgupta’s new book tries to dissect the great minds behind Bengal Renaissance. He talks about a ‘cognitive revolution’. By which he suggests, ‘a radical transformation in the way one thinks, perceives, reasons, and conceptualizes’. Throughout the book, Dasgupta tries (and he does it successfully) to prove that the ninetieth century Bengal was ‘a seed time rich in possibilities’, unlike what his contemporary Tapan Raychaudhuri believes. Dasgupta portrays a vivid detail of time, from Michael Madhusudan Datta to Henry Louis Vivian Derozio, he meticulously anatomises the matrix of the time, vibrant and mettlesome that it has been. He has rightly tracked the way creative minds in general work: ‘There are times when a new experience or situation is at odds with one’s stock of schemata; or the creator may be quite dissatisfied with his existing repertoire of schemata. In either case, he may radically alter an existing schema or invent a new schemata are brought into existence is to gain insight into his creativity. Michael Madhusudan Datta took Miltonic blank verse as a model-- his initial schema; but in writing his great Bengali epic poem Meghanadbadh Kabya (The Slaying of Meghanada) he reshaped it for his particular Bengali needs and created the Bengali blank verse form (amritaksar).’

About Derozio, whose disciples (at Hindu College) ‘were only a little younger than their teacher’, Dasgupta says, ‘Derozio’s cross-culturalism was dominated by an “overidentification” with Western beliefs and knowledge systems, and yet in his poetry he drew upon Indian themes as sources of schemata for some of his poems, which he then elaborated and developed based on his English literary sources.’ The book is, in fact, an authoritative guide on the Bengal Renaissance.

Another important aspect of the book is the scientific approach that its author takes to understand the period. He divides Mahendra Lal Sircar’s ‘Belief/Knowledge Space’ into three distinctive categories and endeavours to find in it metaphysical aspects like ‘Curiosity’, and ‘Pride’.

Students of Indian history, especially that of Bengal, should be delighted to find famous texts like ‘Vande Mataram’ discussed at length. ‘The delicate, platonic relationship’ that Tagore had had with Kadambari also comes under scrutiny. ‘Over the years that followed Kadambari’s death, Tagore would embed his memory of and feelings for her in poems and songs; and in fiction-- his novella Nastanir (The Broken Nest, 1901), which became Satyajit Ray’s film Charulata (1964), was influenced by their relationship.’

The prose may feel a little pedantic for those who are not attuned to Dasgupta’s style. Then again, it is no bedtime read, this is a serious book, a must-read for anyone interested in one of most glorious periods in the history of Bengal.

Literature from Niagara Falls

2008-05-07T15:36:00.004+06:00

Gregory Betts is the Editor of PRECIPICe.

What are the ideas behind your journal?

St. Catharines is located between Canada's largest city, Toronto, and one of North America's top tourist destinations, Niagara Falls. We are located in the most fertile and productive wine region of the country, just at the lip of an 800 kilometre ridge called the Niagara Escarpment (over which the Niagara River falls). PRECIPICe is published by Brock University, which sits atop the same escarpment, looking down over the city and the network of rivers, valleys, and creeks below. Traditionally, travellers have moved back and forth between Toronto and Niagara Falls without paying much attention to the region in between. In recent years, however, the wine has improved dramatically and there is a sense that St. Catharines is becoming a centre in its own right. People from outside are starting to stop and discover the area. At the same time, the area has increasingly more to offer. The magazine, and its history, reflects this transition. Previous incarnations of PRECIPICe were focussed on local writers, and on the local community. My co-editor Adam Dickinson and I have remade the magazine so that it is more connected to the national and international literary conversation. There have been two issues so far, with a third just about to be released. We have had remarkable success in publishing great new work by established and emerging authors from across Canada and the United States. There’s some really great work going on, and we’re delighted to be a part of it.

While making an editorial decision what do you look for in a submission?

We get a lot of submissions from writers all around the world. This might surprise some people, but the thing we pay the least attention to is the cover letter. We are trying to unravel the Catch-22 of publishing: you don’t get into our magazine by having already gotten into other magazines. Every piece is numbered and evaluated by our editorial board, which includes a diverse range of tastes. We all, however, look for an exceptionally high degree of linguistic competence coupled with new conceptual approaches to form and subject matter in both poetry and short fiction. “Competence” doesn’t need to mean that our authors must use proper, grammatical English – competence comes from the Latin word for “coincidence” and “agreement.” We are looking for works in which the language matches (or coincides, or agrees with) the subject of the particular work. We publish a high amount of experimental texts – including some that have no conventional language at all. We are always on the lookout for works in which the language and the ideas coincide in a revealing, even uncanny way.

How important do you think it is for a writer to know her audience/reader?

There are a lot of presumptions built into that question. Can an author ever know their audience? Should an author presume to know enough about their audience to customize the work in order to suit them? There are no easy answers to questions of that sort. When we use language to express particular ideas, the relationship between the writer and the audience must be carefully proscribed. But linguistic expressiveness is only one of the many different options available to an author. Some writing has no expressive qualities at all, but is more interested in being itself a beautiful object. For instance, the great Canadian poet bpNichol once walked past a bed of crocuses in full bloom and realized that he had never written a poem about crocuses. Moreover, he realized that he never wanted to write a poem about crocuses. He realized that he wanted his poems to BE like crocuses: beautiful, living, things thrusting themselves into the world, insisting on their own survival. How important is it for a crocus to know its audience?

Do you think every novelist writes history, both at a personal and a social level?

No. I personally don’t think that history is available to a novelist. The medium of literature is one of experience in the present, unfettered from the physical world by the abstraction of language. When we read a text that purports to be historical, we can imagine the world being described, can even feel ourselves a part of it. Ink blots on a page, however, are too tightly constrained and orchestrated and individualistic to ever be the equivalent of the dynamic forces of material history. A novelist can create an experience that conforms to our sense of what it would have been like, but that sense is overwhelmingly determined by the values and experiences of the present. It is for this reason that historical novels are constantly being re-written, as in the Alfred A. Knopf “Myths” series, because values change and our sense of what was important about the past changes too. Through this twisting sense of what was important (and consequently what was not), our changing values can dramatically alter our sense of what happened in the past. Novelists may write about historical events, but novels are never historical (except in the most elusive metaphorical sense).

In Canada, we are undergoing our very first Truth and Reconciliation hearings (the first in the Western world, actually) regarding the abuse of aboriginal peoples and their cultures. It had been an overwhelming trope of Canadian novels that considered the subject to depict aboriginal culture as inevitably dying. Contemporary novelists and readers, however, return to the past to look for signs of life despite the hard times of Small Pox and cultural genocide. The past and the future were both changed by a change in attitudes in the present. To your question, I would counter that novelists write about the present, at a personal and social level.

Do you think the world has become a dangerous place in which to live?

I think, as always, the answer to that question is primarily determined by where you live and how much money you make. People in Canada have almost never been as safe from war, crime, and disease as they are at present. At the same time, though, we are presently at war in Afghanistan where people probably don’t feel so sure about the state of the world. For people in Iraq, Algeria, Congo, Palestine, Sri Lanka, Chechnya, Sudan, Tibet, and other conflict spots, the world has probably become much more dangerous. Compared to the Hitler/Stalin/Mao years, though, is it fair to say that present the world is more dangerous than the past? As always, in terms of non-domestic violence, the experience of poor people is far different for rich people even living in the murder capital of the world (whether it be Baltimore or Bogotá). The same applies to the global climate crisis: the devastating effects, should we fail to prevent them, will primarily be felt by the world’s poorest citizens. Looking back over the history of human civilization, was there ever a time where this was not the case? Has the world become dangerous, or has it always been dangerous – especially for the most vulnerable in our midst? At PRECIPICe, we wrestle with the writer’s responsibility in light of the inequalities of danger. In general, we conclude that a work does not need to engage with ideology and politics directly, but if it does it must, at the least, be well written and new.