Unheard Voices

This is so sad
Its almost as surreal as an episode from Six Feet Under. Our condolences to the family.

The police said one thing was clear: Ms. Akther was not an intended target but an uninvolved bystander. Her friends and relatives were planning to surprise her tomorrow, her 29th birthday, with a party. It was also meant to celebrate New Year’s Eve. Now her birthday and New Year’s Eve will always fall around the time of her violent death, the 534th homicide in the city this year.

More here on Two strangers’ worlds collide

-Asif

Eliza Griswold wrote an article at slate.com

……..nation of 152 million—the world’s third-most-populous Muslim country—does not become another Afghanistan or, more aptly, another Darfur, where the rebels whose presence the government has long tolerated have seized virtual control….

Militant islam bites everywhere, it did here in USA in 9/11, it did in UK, Spain, Indonesia, Jordan, India, Pakistan and many other places. Afghanistan, Darfur reference never come in those cases, why every little thing in Bangladesh brings the Afghan/Darfur reminder? When terrorism stikes them, they become victims, when the terrorists attack us, we become Sudan-Afghan! Hah!!!!

During a hartal, leaving one’s house is forbidden, and anyone traveling on the roads runs the risk of being killed. It is impossible to go to work, to school, or even to the hospital.

She needed to do a better investigation before making this report.

To most of us, Bangladesh seems like a remote mess—poor and devoid of natural resources. The country has been plagued by sectarian violence since its independence, but the nature of that violence is changing, and we ignore the rise of militant Islam there at our own peril. The jihadists will continue to do their best to make our civil intervention look dangerous and impractical. Our disinterest is their most effective weapon.

…..”civil Intervention”…..!!!

What Bangladeshis want, he said, is continued international pressure on the BNP to distance itself from the militancy.

..So…intervention again!!!…

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Griswold is partly correct; Partly very wrong.

While quite a significant portion of Ms Griswold’s article is correct, she is gravely mistaken in her assessment of Bangladesh to be a future Afghanistan or Darfur.
Yes, religious persecution is there, but they are limited to a handful of small rural communities. Not as violent as systematic as widespread as it is in Gujrat or other parts of India. They are by no means govt sponsored. Govt ineptitude may be a factor.

The religious militancy that has grown in Bangladesh over the last several years, are limited to an extreme minority of madrassa trained mullahs. Events in the aftermath of the suicide bombings clearly show how deep is the anti militancy feeling in Bangladesh. Almost every religious institution, preacher proactively came forward against this sort of violence.

Bangladesh has outperformed even many developed countries in women’s empowerment. Starting from micro credit dependent rural small businesses to the top leadership of the country, women are very well represented.

Bangladesh has steady and very resilient growth in GDP over the last decade.

Bangladesh has a fiercely free media, majority of which is anti government.

Bangladesh has a very vigorous and loud opposition.

And most importantly Bangladesh has a democracy which at least ensures a smooth transition of power. Over the last fifteen years, all three governments came to power purely on people’s verdict.

Ms Griswold, despite you are correct in your depiction of Bangladesh brand of Islam, sociopolitical setup in Bangladesh, you painted a much exaggerated grim picture of Bangladesh. This is unfair.

–Rumi

The international community would be well advised to take note of the Islamist ascendance that presently imperils the country. Though Bangladesh is one the poorest nations in the world, it is strategically important to the U.S.-led “War on Terror.” This is why international pressure must be applied to the country. Bangladesh must be forced to dismantle the terrorist training and ideological infrastructure, something the current government has been unable to do effectively because its coalition partner is part of the problem.

The current crisis unfolding in Bangladesh must act as an early warning signal. It is a dark glimmer of what groups like the Muslim Brotherhood and the Jamaat-i-Islami do once they become part of governments. Advocates of allowing Islamist parties to enter the democratic process must take notice: groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood and the Jamaat abuse their authority and dangerously push for greater powers and privileges which allow them to try and destroy democracy from within. Greater political responsibilities aren’t dissuading them from trying to violently implement Shariah law; they only embolden them. At the very least, recent developments in Bangladesh suggest that any serious discussion of counterterrorism strategy must include a country that for too long has been ignored.

This frontpage magazine story is definitely a reflection of what have been written in Indian and Foreign Media for the last several years and lately also in Bangladesh media. Considering the recent unfolding of events in Bangladesh, there is no room to doubt some authenticity of the report. However what strikes me is the stunning similarity of the tone in the reporting especially in the last two paragraph with that of the demands of the major opposition party in Bangladesh.

Why there is a need for foreign pressure to have things done in Bangladesh? Bangladesh is not America occupied Iraq so that America has to ensure that things are done right in Bangladesh.
Bangladesh has a fiercely free and powerful media, a distinctively loud opposition, an effective democracy and an upcoming election. If the opposition and the media honestly focus on the firsthand criminals, Government will have no option but come down hard on them. Recent police/RAB successes against JMB is such an example.

Why there is a tendency to seek foreign intervention for every little thing in Bangladesh? It is already 35 years since liberation of our country, but how many more years we need before achieving the emotional and psychological liberation?

–Rumi

Dec 29, ‘05, The Daily Star reports:

The JMB men are coming back to mosques and madrasas in rural areas of the district and resuming their militant activities, different intelligence agencies told The Daily Star.

The top leaders and activists fled from mosques and madrasas in the remote Satkhira areas following countrywide crackdown after series of suicide bomb attacks by the JMB.

The JMB resumed its activities in full swing in the Assassuni, Tala, Kalaroa, Shyamnagar and Sadar upazilas, using mosques and madrasas as their base stations, intelligence agencies said.

The JMB is now busy recruiting new members from madrasas, and students from ultra-poor families are its main target, said some villagers, preferring not to be named.

Full Report

Bangladesh has just been excluded again, for the second year in a row, from the list of countries selected for US assistance through the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MMC).

…..the MCC board has excluded Bangladesh from the list, citing corruption as the reason.

During an online discussion on the current state of US-Bangladeshi relations on Tuesday, 20 December 2005 John A Gastright, deputy assistant secretary for South Asian Affairs in the US state department, cited corruption as the main reason for the exclusion of Bangladesh from aid recipients. He said that corruption was threatening Bangladesh’s survival. “The government should implement its previous commitments to end corruption,” he pointed out.

The full article

Officials of foreign governments have now learned to treat this country with disdain and contempt in addition to denying aid. That does not seem to bother the people in power anymore. They seem to shrug it off as the price for their right and access to unbridled corruption. The name or honour of the country be damned!

What’s next?

I went to see the new Spielberg movie “Munich” today. My pre-movie intention was to write on my observations of Hollywood’s changing tone on politics, especially middle east politics. But a dialogue of a movie character gave me a new question to think on.

In a scene, a character, referring to the plenty amount of food in dinner table, makes a comment, that is something like ” There is Enough food here to feed Bangladesh..”…

Well, the movie was based on events of early 70s. Bangladesh has just came out of the famine of 1974. The infamous comment, international basket case, is already well circulated. What Sub saharan Africa is now a days, Bangladesh, in 70s, was indeed an example of extreme poverty, misery, hunger, strife etc.

We would hope that we have moved on. That sort of stereotyping, hopefully, will not happen with Bangladesh again. Although Bangladesh is no longer the example of the most extreme, hunger, poverty are still there. In fact in international and lately in Indian media also, I see referrences like, ‘a desperately poor and impoverished country’, ‘very impoverished’, ‘hopelessly poor’ , ‘One of the poorest countries in the world’ etc when Bangladesh need to be mentioned for any reason.

My question, how many years it will take Bangladesh to leave behind the poverty curse? Will this happen in one generation?

-Rumi

Dec 24, ‘05, The Daily Star reports: Militant outfit Ahab demands Galib’s release.

Take a look at this

Blaming Jamaat - is this again a ploy to distract the public attention from the real source of the malady of militancy?

Anti-ahmadiyya Demonstration
Bigots clash with cops, 57 injured
Police stop marchers from reaching Ahmadiyya mosque; zealots vow fresh programme.

Read the full report

Jamaat is formidable and the ultimate obstacle to a secular and progressive Bangladesh. But Jamaat does not seem an immediate threat or annoyance.

Our immediate trouble are those madrassa based religious movements. Be it JMB, JMJM or Khatme Nabuwat or Amra Dhaka Bashi.

Time and again, I have been writing, we need to totally exterminate these entities.

I feel, highlighting Jamaat for the bomb blast and related activities is nothing but playing fiddle for the Awami election Politics, and unfortunately most of our progressive media as well as intelligentsia have fallen into this trap.

I am shocked to see these Khatme Nabuwat etc dare take an offensive against Ahamdiyas in a time when the national sentiment is against violence in the name of religion.

Why do they dare to do these? Because government is not as strong against them as they are now against JMB.
Definitely governmnet is to blame. But do the media or opposition share some of the blame who are using the bomb events for making political gains against ruling jote by breaking the jote. I was shocked to see desperate attempts in Prothom-Alo and daily Star to somehow relate the bombings to jamaat and a sympathetic tone in Prothom-Alo for these Amini, Mufti Shahidul Islam or other Muftis of Islami Oikyo Jote.

When will we understand that we are letting this madrassa based Frankenstein grow behind our backs , while our minds and conscience ae being used by a side in Awami league and BNP’s politics of power.

- Rumi

Khaleda to Hasina
“Restrain your tongue” don’t make any flaring remarks, refrain from creating anarchy, else sedition charges will be brought against you,”
Everybody else is united today except for them. Pirs, ulema, and people irrespective of their religion and origins are united with the government to maintain democratic practices, development process, peace and to root out terrorism. We have already made much progress and hope to be successful,” she said.

“Everybody has taken part in the national dialogue, political parties, professionals’ bodies, business leaders, except the main opposition. They even did not receive the invitation of the government, what kind of party it is!”

Hasina to Khaleda

“You talk of sedition charges, but you are a traitor yourself,” she told the Rajshahi divisional rally of the 14-party opposition combine led by her party Awami League (AL). “You held anti-militancy meeting (Wednesday’s Paltan meeting) but you protected militants by not speaking against them. Rather, you came down heavily on the opposition.”

“You have came to politics through murders and you have come to power over people’s blood, and the trend continues. You can kill me any moment…You killed 26,000 people including Shah AMS Kibria, Prof Mohammad Younus (of Rajshahi University) and Mamtaz Uddin (ex-MP from Bogra). You can kill anyone. People will bring you to justice”.

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In the middle of this seasonal mud exchange, story of Nolok Babu, a rags to riches story, makes us proud and happy.

Washington, Dec 22, ‘05:

Washington – The United States looks forward to working with Bangladesh in the effort to combat extremist groups and terrorism and encourages Bangladesh to take measures to address corruption, according to U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for South Asian Affairs John Gastright.

“The United States is eager to work with the government of Bangladesh in this effort to combat the extremist groups that have taken the lives of innocent Bangladeshis,” Gastright told a group of Bangladeshi journalists during a December 20 webchat.

Full report.

The US Department of State has issued travel warnings to its citizens residing in or travelling to Bangladesh urging them to take extra care considering the security situation in the country.

http://thedailystar.net/2005/12/23/d5122301117.htm

Dec 20, ‘05, Families of slain journalists express their skepticism regarding the government’s sincerity in carrying out investigations:

The government’s lack of sincerity and negligence of police are encouraging the real culprits, resulting in the murder of one after another journalist, who wrote against them, the families said.
Bangladesh has become a dangerous place for journalists, they told a press conference organised by Bangladesh Federal Union of Journalists (BFUJ) at the Jatiya Press Club after a convention against “Repression on Journalists”.

The Reporters Sans Frontieres’ 2005 report on press freedom in Bangladesh:

For the third year running, Bangladesh was the country with the largest number of journalists physically attacked or threatened with death. Four reporters were killed and 10 were arrested. The conservative government showed no interest in combatting the scourges of corruption and violence against the press. Protected by the authorities, Islamist groups stepped up their intimidation of independent news media.

Internet surveillance — phone taps — when will these “minor infractions of civil liberties” be enough?

Read the news about Press Freedom in the Drishtipat Newsroom.

Dec ‘05 BBC report on Bangladesh’s feared elite police force:

Human rights lawyers in Bangladesh say they are becoming increasingly concerned about the number of suspects dying in the custody of the elite anti-crime force, the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB).

report in May ‘05

report in Dec ‘05

Comments?

Dr Yunus, referred to as the microcredit missionary, discusses the possibility of harnessing technology to eliminate poverty.

Previous DP blog discussion about bridging the digital divide to drive Bangladesh forward.

How can the NRB community contribute?

M B Naqvi, writes from Karachi:

Ah! The irony of it all. West Pakistanis are paying the price. Democracy once subverted in early 1950s has never returned either in original or the present Pakistan. This Pakistan is still under a military government in its fifty-eighth year. The prospects of democracy in Pakistan are not bright. For, the Army is now well entrenched. It knows how to “manage” elections. Its foreign policy ensures it American support and a bogus legitimacy has been given it by its peoples being so laid back. The future seems to belong to the Army. Pakistan is likely to go on being run by the Army and for the Army. Pakistanis are paying the price with their own slavery for keeping the East Bengalis slaves for 24 years.

The full article is an interesting read.

MB Naqvi’s comments on the Aug blasts in Bangladesh.