Unheard Voices

Taslima 1 — West Bengal Government 0

Taslima told PTI: “After the initial shock, I felt protests should come from the people of West Bengal because the issue is not just the banning of a book written by me.”

More important, she said, “It concerned the more crucial issue whether the majority of people considered it an affront to the freedom of expression.

“After some time, many people came forward to protest the ban. In the initial stage, there was not much protest.

“I think if the powers that be consider that the silent majority would come to terms with their unjust step, their notion needed to be shattered,” she said. “Today, it is me, tomorrow it would be someone else.”

“And to that extent the Calcutta high court’s order has been a victory for everyone who believes in freedom of expression,” she said.

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A Bangladeshi family is worried they could be deported from New Zealand because they can’t pay a $37,500 hospital bill for their three-year-old son who had a stroke.

Shihab Fahim, who has complex congenital heart disease, had a stroke in March while he was outside playing with his family.

He spent 21 days in Starship children’s hospital in Auckland and needs ongoing therapy after being left paralysed down his right side.

He is unable to speak and is fed through a tube in his nose.

His father, Ashraf Uddin Khokon, who is in New Zealand on a student visa, has paid $2500 of the $37,500 medical bill to the Auckland District Health Board and asked to be allowed to repay the debt at $50 a week.

More details and how to help

Some 41 workers, who were discriminated and terminated by their Malaysian employer, received around Tk 10 million as compensation after a protracted legal fight. Those of you who have seen My Migrant Soul and saw the plight of the workers in Malaysia, will be able to relate to what a great legal victory this is. Again, where the government is supposed to stand up for the migrant workers’ rights, it is doing nada. It is the NGOs like Shishuk and Tanaganita which are coming forward to work on cases like this. UK’s migrant workers alone contributed almost 300 million pound to Bangladesh economy in 2003. Add the contributions of the middle east workers and you will see how these people are the biggest contributors to foreign exchange reserve that our finance minister is so proud about. Yet, he is not willing to do anything about their horrific plight. Recently, sickened by all these a few of these workers in Jordan attacked the Bangladeshi consulate. We can only imagine what made them do it. We, at drishtipat, always tried to highlight this issue by film screening and portal sites. However, we have been unable to come up with any project. For some reason, among the educated migrants to North America and Europe, this issue does not appeal that greatly.

Admit it, when you saw the lack of English skills and nervous migrant workers at the Dhaka airport, you were annoyed. You were bothered that they are taking too much time at the queue. When they sat next to you,
at Emirates or Gulf Air, you were upset at their lack of ettiquette. But none of us cared to think a bit deeper about the moving story of journey that each of them brought with them.

If you have a spare moment, read this piece by Afsan bhai called “Are Mishkins people too”. It will make you think twice the next time you see these people in the airport.

For many survival is impossible in Bangladesh and thus we have the expatriate crowd. But they are not the non-resident Bangladeshis of the USA and other developed countries including a few in the Middle East who often write to The Daily Star. They are mostly the desperate poor who populate the lowest end of the job market anywhere in the world. They are a new category of people, “The Miskins”. They will not stay back but send their money home and often can’t even read our paper.

Neglected by the national authorities, hounded by the police of their countries of work, they are the most despised and denigrated lot anywhere who provide the valuable foreign exchange with which we make foreign trips as VIPs.

For them making a trip abroad is part of the survival strategy, learnt over centuries. They have no option to make some decent money except to leave home and return. They are not Chand Sawdagar but his boat assistant who never gets mentioned in myths.

Unless you have seen them where they work you won’t know to what depth of indignity they are made to descend into to make money to send home.

“I ran for few miles across the jungle to escape capture by the police. Finally, I reached Kuala Lumpur after three months. I had spent one lakh to reach there. I found work in construction site carrying bricks a few months after I landed. It’s black market work. But police raided the site and I was arrested. After three months in jail I was let go and deported. I went with a lakh and came home empty.”

This was Malaysia from where lakhs of working Bangladeshis are going to be forced out because the Bangladeshi officials didn’t bother to cover the interest of these ordinary Bangladeshis. They are going to be thrown into jails and then shipped home. Media will pick up a few sob stories and then the episode will be over. Hopes generated will be crushed and some hopes will never flower. Even as I write I feel the silliness of my language, the inadequacy of words to express what it means to have no future and no multiple visas to a western country.

Another good but long read is the recent HRW report

Today’s report from Simon

At the Jamiah Darul Ma’arif Al-Islamiah, teachers say they are trying to combine Islam and the modern world. Once he has the Koran memorised, Mohammad will also be offered classes in Arabic and basic English, maths as well as religious studies.

But many madrasas in Bangladesh do not make this gesture towards modernity.

And concerns are mounting that some schools could become breeding grounds for Islamic extremists, after a wave of bomb attacks around the country last month which led to the arrest of scores of people including teachers and students of madrasas.

“There are the same sets of problems in Bangladesh now that Pakistan faced,” said Samina Ahmed, South Asia project director for the International Crisis Group. “Who is keeping an eye on these kids and what they are being taught?”

There are thought to be around 15,000 unregistered, privately run religious schools in Bangladesh, known as Qaumi madrasas, teaching millions of children the Koran, Arabic and little else. Another 9,000 government-funded Aliya madrasas teach a mixture of religion and modern studies.

Police say some Qaumi madrasas were used to train militants or make bombs used in the Aug. 17 attacks, when 500 small explosives went off within half an hour of each other.

Full report here

Bangladesh secured the fourth position out of 16 Asian countries in the Asia Democracy Index, prepared by the Singapore-based Alliance for Reform and Democracy in Asia.

In the overall ranking, Japan topped the list, followed by Hong Kong, Taiwan and Bangladesh. The other countries that were ranked are Philippines (5th), Thailand (6th), Indonesia (7th), Mongolia (8th), Sri Lanka (9th), South Korea (10th), Pakistan (11th), Cambodia (12th), Malaysia (13th), Nepal (14th), Singapore (15th) and Myanmar (16th). In the overall evaluation, Bangladesh’s score is 53.21 per cent.

The index was based on six aspects of democracy: civil rights, elections and political process, governance and corruption, media, rule of law, and participation and representation.

In civil rights and elections and political process, Bangladesh occupied the 9th position with percentage scores of 62.34 per cent and 45.14 per cent respectively. In governance and corruption, Bangladesh’s position is 6th with 43.35 percentage score

Full report is here

Simon Denyer’s series on Bangladesh continues. Today’s focus is on Rajshahi – home of Bangla bhai.

The power and organisational ability of Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen, (the Party of Holy Warriors) came as a shock to Bangladesh — and to the rest of the world. But in Rajshahi district in the country’s wild west, their extreme views and brutal sense of drama came as no surprise at all.
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In February, under international pressure, Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen was banned, and since the Aug. 17 bomb blasts 400 suspects have been arrested.

Bangla Bhai and Rahman are on the run. Police have released photographs and offered a reward for Bangla Bhai in one of the biggest manhunts in the country in years.

But in Rajshahi, there is not much confidence he will ever be caught. Says Press Club Secretary Saidur Rahman: “This drive to arrest him is just theatre”.

Excerpt:

Rising extremism and deteriorating law and order could send Bangladesh’s economy into a downward spiral, Bhattarcharya says. Textile and knitwear buyers might stop coming to Bangladesh, and foreign investors could follow.

Finally, if Bangladesh gets a reputation for Islamic extremism, it might stop being able to export manpower to other countries — and kick away a vital prop of the Bangladeshi economy, the money they send home every month.

“If the sense is ‘you have terrorists’, countries will not want to import our manpower,” he said. “It is obviously a major, major risk.”

Yet there continue to be positives. Small-scale microfinance lending is transforming the rural economy and giving millions of women the chance to pull their families out of the poverty trap.

Nearly 50 million people still live below the poverty line, but infant and maternal mortality are falling. The country also boasts as many girls as boys in its primary schools.

Lissner is amazed by the energy and productivity of most Bangladeshis, who could still transform their country if they could only shake off the burdens of corruption.

“That is what is hampering the tiger,” he said. “If the tiger could get rid of that, it could jump like a tiger.”

Bangladesh stands at historical crossroads

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1241203.cms

So Bangladeshis are not really flocking to India contrary to claims by the Indian politicians. Latest census figures
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1241203.cms

Census figures for 2001 released on Friday show that the number of Bangladeshi migrants during the decade 1991-2001 was about 280,000, a decrease of 53% from close to 600,000 migrants between 1981 and 1991.

So was some rogue elements of Bangladesh military involved with the JMB (bombing suspect)? There was a confession yesterday

One thing that this investigation may look into is the source of the Arges grenade that was used to kill Mr. Kibria and the attempted assassination of Hasina.

Previous reports say that this grenade has been used by the Bangladesh Army. So is it possible that grenades have been smuggled from the military by these rogue elements? The mystery deepens.

The battle against poverty has gained a surprisingly effective ally: business. By treating the poor like clients and consumers, they are accepted into the global economy. As a result, they are ultimately given the chance to prosper.

A great article on ODE about Grameen Phone.

The much talked about letter from the 16 US Congressmen.

Read it here

Daily Star letters are always interesting reads…One such exchange

Hasina’s stand
Shadabul Mujib Los Angeles, US

Opposition leader Hasina has characteristically publicised to international community that Bangladesh is a heaven for Islamic terrorists. In her recent press commentary, she suggested that an international investigation into the recent serial bomb blasts be conducted. I must ask why she is carrying on the smear campaign against our homeland that brings unwanted attention and scrutiny from international community. Her comments only cause embarrassment to Bangladeshis living at home and abroad.

In her press release, she also demanded that the prime minister relinquish her office immediately, as the public has lost confidence in the government. What she has failed to realise is that the citizens have also lost confidence in the opposition. We have a prime minister whose government consists of left wing ultra neo liberals, who are responsible for corruption, and on the other hand, we have a major opposition leader who is utterly conservative and absolutely incapable of controlling her mouth. She will go to any lengths to tarnish the image of Bangladesh. Rather than calling for national solidarity, and show of strong resolve, she is out in public and among journalists to tarnish our image, culture and secular democratic values that we cherish since 1971.

What she had suggested is wrong. Bangladesh is a progressive & self correcting democratic country in the South Asian region. It is an icon of freedom, and a symbol of progressive movement. Hindus, Christians, and Muslims are free to express their opinions, and choose their own religions, and way of lives. Women are the fastest growing working class that has an active role in today’s economic, social, and political arena. As a result, in the last decade and a half, Bangladesh had two female prime ministers.

The reply:

Hasina’s stand
Sanjoy Kumar Nath, Chittagong

Mr Shahabul Mujib writes (Wed Aug 31) that the leader of the opposition, among her many crimes, is out to tarnish “secular democratic values that we cherish since 1971″. How, by speaking out against religious fanaticism and indiscriminate bombing is the leader of the opposition tarnishing the values of 1971? Perhaps his disgust would be better targeted at those who share the stage with those who worked against our independence in 1971.

He goes on to add, “Hindus, Christians, and Muslims are free to express their opinions, and choose their own religions, and way of lives.” I would like to ask Mr Mujib, who lives in the comfort of Los Angeles many thousands of miles away, whether he has been to the villages of the extreme corners of Bangladesh where over one and a half crore Hindus and Christians live, where women are afraid to leave their homes on their own, where property owners live in constant fear of confiscation under the enemy property ACT and where voters are afraid to participate in elections.

We fight alongside our Muslim brothers against the common evils of poverty, unemployment and political violence and share the dream of glory for our beloved Bangladesh, but we don’t need the patronising ignorance of the elite abroad.

Mr Mujib, if hearing unpleasant truths about our country embarrasses you, come and stand beside us and spend your energy on correcting those things, but do not attack the victims.

My question is how many of you know what they are talking about when they are referring to four main principles of 1971 or the enemy property law etc..