Unheard Voices

Here is my 10 point proposal that will make politicians/government officials less desperate to stick to power and make the opposition less greedy to return to power. Poeple with mostly ideological interst and those who want to serve and make a change will only be interested in taking the job of governing Bangladesh.

1. No government housing ( No more minto road) for ministers, state and deputy ministers and advisers. ( Rent the Minto road houses to interntional hotel compaies, guest house operators. ).
2. No flag car and no governmnet provded transport except Prime minister, Chief Justice, Opposition leader, speaker.
3. Mandating the ministers and speakers to use public transport for travelling between Dhaka and constituency.
4. Bar the government and elected officials from travelling to foeign lands for treatment except the conditions which are absolutely not treatable in Bangladesh.
5. Put a term limitof on the position of prime Minister. My take on it is to make it a max of two.
6. Make it a rule, no family member of a prime minister can replace him/her. May need to wait at least one to two term before doing so. Same rule should apply for MPs, no relative/family member can contest from the same constituency for at least two terms.
7. Prime Minster and opposition leader must have a monthly open press conferece that would be telecast live.
8. There must be pre election and midterm debates directly between the prime minister and the oppisition leader.
9. There would be only one official residence cum office for prime minister. Similar accomodation/office must also be arranged for the leader of opposition. There must not be any government supply for food service, cook in these accomodations and any other government installations. All officials, starting from prime minister will have to do/arrange their own grocery shopping and cooking. They may hire cooks on their own, but not through government.
10. All the circuit houses, Dak banglows, governments rest houses must cease to exist. These all should be sold/rented to hotel operators. Officials, politicians using these accomodation may later get reimbursed from specific departments provided the trips non-political public interest have been justified.

44 years ago yesterday East Bengal lost one of it’s greatest leaders of all time, Sher-e-Bangla A K Fazlul Huq. We, who grew up in the 70s and 80s knew part of Sher-e-Bangla. I don’t know how much the generation of 90s and this millenum know of Sher-e-Bangla A K fazlul Huq.

Sher e bangle A K fazlul Huq was born on 26 October 1873 near Barisal. After the traditional Islamic education and early schooling at Barisal Zilla School, he passed the FA Examination in 1892 and BA Examination (with triple Honours in Chemistry, Mathematics and Physics) in 1894 from the Presidency College, and obtained the MA degree in Mathematics in 1896 from the University of Calcutta. He later obtained BL degree in 1897 from the University Law College, Calcutta. Fazlul Huq started legal practice as an apprentice under Sir Asutosh Mookherjee. Huq had the good fortune of receiving affection in numerous and various ways from the likes of Aswini Kumar Datta and Prafulla Chandra Ray.

Friday, April 28, 2006: Hearing for Nineteen-Year Old Bangladeshi American Deported From Dhaka on Secret Plane

A detention hearing will be held on Friday morning, April 28, 2006, at 11:30 at the Federal Court for the Eastern District of New York in downtown Brooklyn for nineteen-year-old Ensanul Islam Sadequee.

Attendance by community representatives at the hearing is very important. The community can provide much needed practical and emotional support for Ensanul’s family, who face a terrible situation. Both of Ensanul’s sisters, who live in different parts of the United States, are coming to New York hoping to see their brother. They remain deeply concerned about his treatment and his ability to get a fair hearing.

Moreover, the presence of members of the community would help ensure that the proceedings are conducted fairly. It would be a powerful message that the treatment of individuals accused of serious terrorism offenses remains of deep concern to a community vigilant against.

From Robin bhai:

People like Abul Khaer are thse who make Bangladesh work are neglected. Despite the fact thousands have died in launch disasters over the last 30 years Khaer can’t even get proper equipment to do his job.

“Time and time again I have asked for better equipment but my bosses just say that there is no money for this,” says Khaer.

Published in the Malaysian Star

Abul Khaer’s selfless dedication to his work ? recovering the bodies of ferry accident victims has made him a national hero in Bangladesh, reports SHAFIQ ALAM.

THE scene is etched in Abul Khaer’s mind: several thousand villagers line a desolate riverbank, their eyes following his every move as he prepares to plunge into the dark, swirling waters in search of the bodies of their loved ones.

A ferry with at least 100 passengers on board has gone down and the 38-year-old Khaer and an elite team of fire service divers have been called to the scene.

Abul Khaer: ‘It gives the relatives (of accident victims) a certain peace of mind if they can at least bury their dead.’

(more…)

[This statement of solidarity is an initiative of the South Asia Forum for Human Rights and is endorsed by lawyers, human rights activists and concerned citizens from across South Asia.]

The compromise proposed by King Gyanendra of Nepal on Friday, April 21 evening, which envisages his continuance as a constitutional monarch, is a last-ditch attempt to perpetuate the old order. It will not satisfy the demand for the establishment of a true democracy in the country, for the fulfillment of which the nation has risen in a spontaneous and mass revolt.

We must recall that the pledge to go for an elected Constituent Assembly had first been made through the Interim Government of Nepal Act, 1951, proclaimed by King Tribhuvan in February 1951.

After a long period of democratic struggle, the political parties led by the Nepali Congress formed a coalition government in April 1990 and worked out yet another compromise with the palace.
Their failure to elect a Constituent Assembly vitiated the promise of democracy. The vitiation resulted in the declaration of a People’s War in February 1996. After a long period of state repression and political violence, all the democratic forces in the country are once again united on the core demand for an elected Constituent Assembly.

(more…)

Don’t know if you all read Shahnoor Wahid’s new column. They are instant classics !

His latest on the punchman Akbar and recent developments

But we are keeping track of the deeds of your golden boys. After a fantastic bout of target practice shooting in Kanshot, your brave boys in khaki and blue practiced punching on the talkative photojournalists at Chhotagong. Oh, what a spectacle it was! Look at the expression on the face of the police officer as he is punching on the face of that old photojournalist. The anger and hatred mixed together to create an expression on his face so terrifying that the ungrateful people of the port city ran to hide under chokirtola (under the bed). I heard, sir, that even the Australian players got so scared that they were looking for some chokis to hide under.

The other news item that profoundly amused the cynics in this country is on and about Sonia Gandhi of India. It says that she does not own a personal car and that she only has Rs. 20,000 in cash and property worth few lakhs only. Ridiculous, isn’t it? Many lady politicians of the world, including some in the Land of Hope, were horrified reading about her condition. It is said that many of them felt to have been let down, in fact embarrassed, by Sonia. “How could Sonia remain so poor being so close to power when we have become billionaires within a decade? We have money in foreign banks. We have property abroad. We have money invested in foreign projects. We travel abroad with thirty family members and thirty-five suitcases four times a year. But look at her!” they thought.

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photo: New Age
What a sad end to a promising life!

Prominent social activist and the country director of Action Aid Bangladesh, Nasreen Pervin Huq, died yesterday following an accident yesterday at the car park of her residence in Dhanmondi.Sources said her driver around 9:30 am yesterday lost control of the vehicle and crushed her against a wall as she was waiting for the car at the car park.

This time in Dhaka, I heard a lot of good things about Nasreen Apa and how she was taking on some courageous projects on human rights. This is such a shame that she had to go this way. More on her life

Yes, a Bangladeshi is also included in this list.

Yesterday many protestors were injured in the pitched battles that took place when the opposition Awami League tried to surround the PM’s office. Today there is an opposition general strike again with potential for more violence, and indeed there has been violence today. And because of the police action yesterday, AL has called for yet another general strike on sunday ( a working day in Bangladesh). This is now pretty much a permanent fixture in the political landscape in Bangladesh. For the uninitiated blog reader I have put together some questions and brief answers to help explain this vicious cycle Bangladeshis find themselves in. I can’t be exhaustive in this post but no doubt I shall blog further… I am not claiming to be impartial - I have never been much of a fence sitter but in case you are wondering I don’t subscribe to any political party.

What is this latest turmoil all about?

The pretext is the reform of the election process (caretaker government system) and reform of the election commission. The issues raised by the opposition are real and justified.

So why don’t the government and the opposition sit down and thrash it out?

The pretext is this - Hasina, the leader of the opposition, says that she can’t possibly sit down with the government if they include their coalition partners. The Jamaat-e-Islami are the coalition partners in question. It is a party with a very dubious role in the formation of Bangladesh.

Wouldn’t you find it difficult to sit with Jamaat?

Thankfully I don’t have to. But Hasina Wajed has done it in the past. In the 1990s, she had an informal alliance with Jamaat in order to topple the BNP. And lets not forget that it was Hasina’s father - Sheikh Mujib - who pardoned Jamaat’s supporters in 1973 despite their heinous role in the liberation war.

Ok let’s leave the history for a bit. You keep going on about pretexts. What the hell is all this really about?

How long have you got? It is about flexing destructive power. It is about readying the people for a fight to capture power. The ritual of elections has come to provide an opportunity for these parties to capture public resources. This capture permits the winner to engage in corruption and to immediately enrich their own faction. The outcome for the country of this “clientelist surplus appropriation” is that social and economic transformation is jeopardised.

So its just a fight to capture resources? Nothing ideological? And what’s this about factions?

Lemme explain. The two main political parties in Bangladesh do not represent different economic interests. They do not represent different social classes. Their supporters come from an array of classes - from the university educated to the peasants in the countryside, small businessmen, big businessmen etc. You can think of them as multi-class factions. Each has its own motley crew of supporters drawn from across the social spectrum. The leaders of the competing factions are similar to each other in class terms. And the people they mobilise are also similar in background to each other. Certainly they may engage in ideological debates but that is just a side show - the real thing is about the interests of the faction. Indeed ideological positions are easily changed in response to changing alignments of factional power ( as above with Hasina and Jamaat, and many other instances of party-hopping, and only today I see that Hasina is now welcoming senior members of the Jatiya Party - once a bitter foe - to her fold).

Hmm. Where can I read more?

You can’t do better than read Professor Mushtaq Khan’s seminal article “The Political Ecomomy of Secularism and Religion in Bangladesh.” His article appears in my mate Subho Basu’s book (plug, plug): Electoral Politics in South Asia, Edited by Subho Basu and Suranjan Das. Professor Khan is at the Department of Economics, SOAS, University of London. That article should be required reading for anyone who wants to understand the election process in Bangladesh and indeed the issue of religion as it has played out over the years.

So we can expect a lot more of this violence in the coming months ?

Not only the coming months but indeed the forseeable future - is my pessimistic take. To paraphrase Prof Khan - the construction of viable alternatives which can convince the poor majority that they will do better by supporting class politics rather than factional politics is the most important challenge facing progressives in Bangladesh. But as Prof Khan points out “belonging to a faction and participating in the gamble” is a hell of a lot easier and indeed is attended by less opportunity costs than building another kind of politics.

Dhaka. April 19, 2006.

An Ahmadi lady attacked in Jhikargacha-Jessore

This is an official note issued for all concerned.

On 15th April,2006 Morning Tuzam Ali son of Intaz Morol, one of the accused killers of Shaheed Shah Alam (brutally killed earlier in Oct. 2003) attacked an Ahmadi woman Ayra Begum wife of Momin Ahmad.

She received injuries due to the hard beating in her face and nose. To stop her intense bleeding she was admitted at the local Upazilla Health Complex. The incident took place in front of the Government Primary School in the village of Raghunathpur Bak in broad day light.

This is the same village where Shah Alam was killed two & half years ago. Most of the culprits are moving and living freely at large. A complain has been lodged by the victim the next day
at Jhikargacha Thana and it was received by the Second Officer Delawar Hossain and the OC Thana Belayat Hossain on the same day. A tense situation is prevailing in the village due to this incident. This requires immediate attention and action from all concerned.

Abdul Awwal
Missionary In charge
Ahmadiyya Muslim Jamat, Bangladesh

This following news is disturbing on multiple fronts.

(WASHINGTON, D.C., 4/19/2006) - A prominent national Islamic civil rights and advocacy group today said it is seeking information on the condition of an American Muslim who was reportedly detained in Bangladesh.

The Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said the family of 19-year-old Ehsanul Islam Sadequee reported that he was taken into custody April 17 by armed security personnel in Dhaka, Bangladesh’s capital city.

Sadequee was born in Fairfax, Va., is a resident of Atlanta, Ga., and has a sister in Michigan. His family says he was visiting Bangladesh in order to get married and has been ill recently. They suspect he was targeted by Bangladeshi authorities based on information from U.S. law enforcement agencies that have been periodically interviewing family members in this country since August of last year.

CAIR says it is concerned about Sadequee’s health and the conditions of his detention. Officials with the American embassy in Bangladesh are apparently aware of the case.

“It is important that American officials monitor this case to make sure that all customary norms of international law and humane treatment are maintained,” said CAIR Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper. He urged embassy officials to visit Sadequee in detention.

Hooper noted that the State Department’s “2005 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices” says Bangladesh’s “human rights record remained poor, and the government continued to commit numerous serious abuses.” According to the report, abuses include “arbitrary arrest,” “impunity for security forces,” and “physical and psychological torture.”

Internationally known Bangladeshi journalist, columnist, peace activist and editor of Weekly Blitz Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury is not allowed by Bangladesh government to leave the country, which he terms as “land arrest.”

More here.

It is really hard to be optimistic sometimes when you hear news such as this. The police have probably erased all the goodwill that the cricket team had generated with their performance on the field. Incidents such as this occur with unfortunate regularity in Bangladesh.

This morning some of us had a human chain at the Noboborsho rally for the people of Kansat which got very enthusiastic support from the general mass. We had banners that said, “They have killed people in Kansat, how can we say happy new year?” We asked people to raise their hand in support when they passed us and we got very enthusiastic support from them. It wasn’t much. It was a symbolic protest. We feel that the voices of silent majority must be heard.

Pictures of the protest are here

Some developments on Kansat:

1. Supreme Court asked the administration to not touch the Kansat people on Sunday. Kansat people as you know are asking for their right for electricity. The farmers need electricity for their survival. At least 5 of them were shot to death yesterday. Now fresh contempt of court has been filed.

2. Also BLAST may be looking to provide some legal help to the people of Kansat.

3. As I was just writing this email, I got a call from Iresh, our DP colleague, that ASK is doing a rally infront of Jadughar tomorrow. Also he arranged a congregation at 11 in front of art college and people will be wearing black in protest of the Kansat oppression.

Other than that there has been some political developments. Even though the opposition has ceased on this issue, do not think this is a political tussle between AL and BNP.
This is a nervous state and their petoa bahinis coming down on a some very poor farmers who were demanding for some very basic rights.