Unheard Voices

Over the past few months, there has been clash over personalities and their neutrality and competence. Both parties claim that they want free and fair election and both parties claim that they want to uphold the constitution. In my proposal, I am assuming that is the case. Based on that I am proposing the following framework to have a free and fair election in Bangladesh. If both parties are sincere, there is a bit for both parties and no party gets everything they want. But I believe this is our best chance to have a free and fair election with competent people as supervisors. I have put this forth to Take Back Bangladesh to see if they can hash it out more and propose it in their platform tomorrow. It will be great to get your input as well.

1. We need more time to hold a credible election. In that regard, as per article 123(4) in the constitution if the CEC deems it it is impossible to hold an election for an act of God, another 90 day extension is possible. I propose that we take guidance from Supreme Court to request for this extra 90 days because of national emergency.

2. If we get the extra 90 days, we will have 5 months to hold free and fair election. If we don’t get the extra 3 months, we have to do the following in two months.

3. The election will be done by a new election commission and a new caretaker government. All the current caretaker advisers and the chief adviser will resign.

4. 10 new caretaker advisers will be picked from a pool of 30 advisers who conducted the past 3 election as part of the last 3 caretaker governments. This will be in agreement with both parties.

5. Chief Caretaker adviser post will go to the next available chief justice or a civilian who is acceptible to both parties as per constitution. In this case, should the chief justices are not acceptible to both parties. So the post should be offered to Dr. Yunus or one person from the adviser pool of 30 from past caretaker governments with proven track record on efficiency and neutrality.

6. For constitutional obligations, the President stays as the figure head president with the responsibility of the defence ministry.

7. All elecition Commissioners will have to resign and a new election commission with 3 commissioners are created. The post of chief election commissioner is offered to Mr. Sayeed who was the immediate past cec and has very good reputation for competence. The post of other 2 commissioners be filled by past two CEC from 96 and 91 election who have conducted the election successfully. Both parties won under these commissioners, so there should be no controversy about their partisanship and there will be a balance. Also these people with proven competence are what we need to conduct an election which will be one of the toughest to hold.

8. Voter List will be updated for the upcoming election to make it “near perfect”.

9. As soon as the voter list draft is completed, election will be held in the shortest possible time.

In making this proposal, I have tried to find who are the most non-controversial people with proven competence (relatively speaking). Also since the fights are mostly on personalities, giving a limited pool to chose from will make the disagreements easy to resolve. AL gets new election commission, voter list and BNP gets to keep the president and a fresh new advisory council.

Any takers? Let’s build on this with your suggestion and propose it as the average citizen’s proposal tomorrow at the Take Back Bangladesh concert with as much media coverage as possible so that it becomes embarrassing for both the parties to reject it. I know. I am sounding unrealistic. But lets dare to dream like Dr. Y.

Things do seem pretty bleak at first blush. It seems fairly apparent now that nothing is going to retrieve the political situation any time soon. Aziz is gone, but it is clear that free and fair elections are as unlikely as before. The decision to publish the election schedule last Monday signals that the caretaker government continues to do the 4-party alliance’s bidding and also that those calling the shots don’t much care about public opinion.

The game plan is obvious. Full steam to elections. It doesn’t matter if the 14-party alliance contests or not. In fact, if not, all the better. If it does contest, that’s fine, too: without meaningful election reform, the fix is already in. Hurriedly swear in a new cabinet and parliament. Brazen it out.

What is the 14-party alliance to do? It will hit the streets again on Sunday. No surprise there. What it hopes to achieve remains unclear. The erstwhile opposition has shown that it can force the caretaker government to … what exactly? Make meaningless concessions that do not have any impact on the situation on the ground, if the evidence available so far is any guide.

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Two reports: First one from Farhan.

Just before going into recess (1 pm BST) the Supreme Court bench
hearing the Writ against the President / CTG Chief said “we are
inclined to give a ruling after recess”. At 2pm after recess they
said that the Chief Justice had “withdrawn their jurisdiction” and
hence they are could not issue a ruling.

In lay man’s terms before lunch the Judges hearing the case said that
they will give a ruling. But after lunch they came back saying that
the Chief Justice has suspended their power to make any ruling. The
Attorney General had made a plea to the Chief Justice to do this.

Chaos prevails in the area with many prominent pro BNP lawyers
(including the ex- Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister) had to
flee the scene. Chief Justices office and residence has been attacked
as was that of the AG.

Things are grave indeed.

2nd one from Moin Ghani, a lawyer present on the scene.

A Sad Day for the Judiciary of Bangladesh

The High Court Division of Bangladesh was scheduled to pass a Rule on the President of Bangladesh to show cause why his assumption of office of the Chief Advisor of Bangladesh should not be declared to be illegal and unlawful. The Court had mentioned yesterday that the order will be passed today, without disclosing what the order would be.
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According to the Daily Star, The first Bangladeshi Nobel laureate, Dr. Muhammad Yunus, urged the battling political parties to sign a peace accord, agree to participate in the coming elections and pledge themselves to form a coalition government whatever the election results.

Under Yunus’ draft proposals the party to lose the election would still get one third of the posts in the cabinet. The tenure of the coalition government would be one year and it would be charged with devising a long-term solution to the political crisis.

More here.

Some of you are anxiously awaiting to find out what happened today at the court at the hearing for the petition against Iajuddin. One of the lawyers from the court Moin Ghani contributes with his observation on the proceedings. Thank you, Moin.

We had a full day’s hearing on the writ petition challenging the President’s assumption of office of the Chief Advisor and his subsequent unilateral actions keeping the Advisers in the dark, in contrast to the principle of collective responsibility of the Advisers.

The Attorney General of Bangladesh spoke for almost more than half the day.
The crux of the Attorney General’s argument was that 30 days have already elapsed since the President assumed the office of the Chief Adviser of the Caretaker Government, which is to be in place for an interim period of 90 days only. Since the political parties had acquiesced to the assumption of power by the President they had therefore forfeited their right to challenge this holding of office.

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In Detroit’s west side, life nearly comes to a halt as soon as the night falls. Mohammed Masuduzzaman preferred this semi-graveyard shift as a laundry-mart attendant as he could use the time to catch up with some studies. A PhD candidate at Wayne State University College of Engineering, Masuduzzaman probably typifies the middle class Bangladeshi who, after being disgruntled with the anarchy at home, sailed abroad in search of a better life. Masud was apparently a little late to start his voyage. With an eleven year old daughter and 3 year old son and a bachelor’s degree from BUET, several MS degrees in civil, environmental and urban planning, at the age near 50, he was still struggling for a safe existence in USA, the land of his dream.

On Monday, some assailants attacked Masud at his laundry mart, mercilessly chopped him over his face, head and all over the body. Masud was finally declared dead on Wednesday. When some of Masud’s BUET batch mates met his wife Dr Rubina Yasmin, she had an anticipated expenditure of around 12 thousand dollars including funeral arrangements and travel cost and had not more than a couple of hundred dollars in savings.
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New age today reports that our new commissioner fought for the Pakistani army.

Mudabbir fought for Pakistan
army in 1971

One of the two newly appointed election commissioners, Mudabbir Hossain Chowdhury, had fought against the country in favour of the Pakistani occupation army during the war of independence in 1971.
The president of the Sammilita Sangskritik Jote, Nasiruddin Yusuf Bacchu, confirmed the allegation against Mudabbir on Monday.
‘Being a son of the soil, Mudabbir, who was then a second lieutenant in the Pakistan army, actively participated in the massacre, the occupation Pakistan army carried out in the country during the war of liberation in 1971,’ Bacchu, a freedom fighter, told New Age.
On December 16, 1971, the victory day, Mudabbir, like other members of the occupation army headed by lieutenant general Amir Abdullah Khan Niazi, surrendered to the joint command, he said.
He also referred to a book, Muktijuddhey Bektir Abasthan (Stand of Persons in the War of Liberation), in which the author, Major (retired) Shamsul Arefin, mentioned the fact of Mudabbir’s role as an officer of the Pakistani occupation army and his surrender.

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This press release was received this weekend:

Following from a conference held on the November 14, 2006 by Policy Exchange, ‘The Rise of Political Islam in Bangladesh: What’s At Stake in the 2007 Elections?’, jointly chaired by Lord Avebury and Dean Godson of the Policy Exchange, the House of Lords will hold a 2 ½ hour debate next Thursday 30 November on a motion calling attention to the role of the international community in the forthcoming elections in Bangladesh.

Lord Avebury said today:

‘Following the resignation of the former Chief Election Commissioner, the controversial M A Aziz, it was hoped that his successor would be a person acceptable to all parties. It was surprising that Justice Mahfuz ur Rahman, who is also not seen as neutral, has appointed himself without consultation. It is the President who should make this appointment, after hearing from his advisers, and unfortunately the irregular proceedings by the Electoral Commission will prolong the uncertainty about the conduct of the election’.
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When Hanif was elected Mayor of Dhaka, there was an optimistic Bichitra cover: “Here Comes The New Generation”. For the first time, people without family ties coming to power. No more Mujib-Zia clan.

Now Mohammed Hanif is dead from medical complications aggravated by 2004 bomb blast which almost killed him.

Ivy Rahman, killed in another bomb blast.

Gopal Krishan Muhuri, massacred for opposing Shibir land grab. (Hindu hoiyya Bangladesh e chot pat koro, haramjada ekhono bujhos nai, eta Musolman der desh!)

Humayun Azad, died in Germany from complications aggravated by machette attack on him by radical Islamists.
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Another jewel in Iajuddin’s crown. The newly appointed commissioner actually wanted to be a BNP candidate in this election. Traslation from this newspaper clipping:

“I have gotten assurance from the central leaders of BNP leaders and working for the community. I will soon join the party”.

This is an old newspaper clip from sometime ago…

The news is not out yet in the major media and the internet but I just caught the news on TV (Channel i) very early this morning that Bangladesh election date was abruptly announced today. AL and 14-party have been very rigid from the start on accepting any election date unless and until their demands are met. After the M.A. Aziz issue, two main ones that are still outstanding are the reconstitution of the EC and the resolution on the voter list. BNP and the 4-party alliance has been delivering their daily push for the election schedule and now they have it but now we will have to wait and see what the reaction is from the 14-party though I think it will be rejected flat-out. Any thoughts?

Last Day to Submit Nomination: December 10, 2006
Election Day: January 21, 2007

DotSub Technology BETA: Public Translation Project for Yunus Film

Just received this from a Shanghai-based colleague. Apparently a public translation project that is being finished before Nobel ceremony. Uses an interesting subtitling technology, not sure how it will work with non-roman character based languages. Can someone please try it out in Bangla and let us know?
http://www.dotsub.com/nobel/

Update: Initial reaction to the speech is here

Former BNP advisor and a close confidant of Tareq Rahman and other BNP leaders met reportedly 50 senior level government officials. After they found out reporters were there, they left the place like this. While talk of the election engineering is going on, such meeting have raised a lot of eyebrows. Photo: Prothom Alo

From Wednesday’s Washington Post, an excellent article on the Internet revolution slowly spreading across Bangladesh.

Internet Extends Reach Of Bangladeshi Villagers
Cellphone-Linked Computers Help Break Rural Isolation
By Kevin Sullivan

CHARKHAI, Bangladesh — The village doctor’s diagnosis was dire: Marium needed immediate surgery to replace two heart valves.

The 28-year-old mother of three said she was confused and terrified. She could barely imagine open-heart surgery. She had no idea how her family of farm laborers could pay for an operation that would cost $4,000.

The next day, Sept. 16, her father went to see Mahbubul Ambia, who had recently installed the only Internet connection for 20 miles in far northeastern Bangladesh. Ambia sat down at a computer, connected to the Internet by a cable plugged into his cellphone, and searched for cardiac specialists in Dhaka, the capital, 140 miles away. He found one and made an appointment for Marium, who like many people here goes by just one name. The specialist examined her and said she needed only a routine surgical procedure that cost $500.

“I felt a very deep sense of relief,” Marium said.

Villages in one of the world’s poorest countries, long isolated by distance and deprivation, are getting their first Internet access, all connected over cellphones. And in the process, millions of people who have no land-line telephones, and often lack electricity and running water, in recent months have gained access to services considered basic in richer countries: weather reports, e-mail, even a doctor’s second opinion.

Read the rest here. (Registration is free and worth it for this piece alone.)

A stack of similar articles about the digital revolution in developing countries can be found here. Ideas for social entrepreneurs/commercial entrepreneurs among our readers…?

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On a different note, found this little gem in this week’s Economist – from the Letters to the Editor section. The Bangladeshi High Commission’s Press Minister ventilates:

Bangladesh’s constitution
SIR – Your reading of the constitutional conventions that led to Bangladesh’s president, Iajuddin Ahmed, becoming the head of the country’s interim government and the circumstances that led to his assumption of the office of chief adviser was wrong-headed (“Campaign of violence”, November 4th). The reason he is now “commander-in-chief of the armed forces and his own adviser” is that under the constitution the president is the military’s supreme commander and is allowed to assume the chief adviser’s office, provided certain conditions exist. Since all the constitutional steps were rigorously followed and the necessary conditions were fulfilled, your innuendo about an “unconstitutional concentration of power” is absolutely preposterous.

Fazal Kamal
Bangladesh High Commission
London

Doth the minister protest too much?