Thu 26 Apr 2007
The plan A against the two hated/beloved political leaders of the country has apparently failed. This failure has not only derailed the efforts of CTG and their backers to redesign Bangladesh politics, it has exposed the lack of coordination, lack of planning, chaos and restlessness within the government.
This failure could be a lesson to learn from.
But I doubt the backers of the CTG will take lesson from the failure of plan A and I feel they will now try heavy-handedly to impose plan B.
I suspect that the plan B of this powerful quarter to get the country rid of these two major political party leaders will be to implicate them with corruption/violence and blackmail them into jail sentence or worse. And news items in today’s newspapers like this one reporting inquiry of these leaders’s bank account suggest that the steps towards plan B have already started.
While Plan A was conceived on Pakistan-Musharraf-Benazir-Nawaz model, Plan B will be totally based on a domestic model. The model in this case will be our good old H M Ershad. Per this plan B, I guess, the two leaders will be subjected to a litany of corruption cases similar to what Ershad endured. And the plan B authors also believe that as Ershad was controlled with the stick called jail for long fifteen years, these two leaders also could be managed with the similar jail fear.
However, a very publicized and failed plan A has weakened the prospects of a plan B. Specifically its credibility will be questioned from the start. Now any corruption case against these two will be taken with a grain of salt by all parties concerned (This same thing could have been extremely popular one week earlier). There will be more international scrutiny and invigorated domestic resistance to prosecuting these two leaders.
The irony is that if the plan B was attempted immediately post 1/11 and not after a failed Plan A, prosecuting and crippling the political prowess of these two leaders would have been much easier. And a big portion of the general population in Bangladesh would have supported this plan B, but now they would rather be a cautious observer while there will be another large chunk of population who will dare oppose this publicly.
For more on these two leaders, especially why they are unfairly and wrongly treated as dynastic despots please read this post.
April 26th, 2007 at 3:19 am
Mirroring my thoughts exactly Rumi:
April 26th, 2007 at 7:16 am
Gonga amar Maa ……..
“The Indian government was in touch with former Bangladesh Premier Sheikh Hasina when she was banned from returning home even as the Awami League leader gave credit to “media and international pressure” for the care-taker military government to lift the ban.”
http://www.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=85506
April 26th, 2007 at 9:18 am
Unlike Democracy-Bangladesh-Style, the legal apparatus in BD is clear cut. So I’m not sure why Plan B will be more difficult because of the propaganda catastrophe of the aftermath of Plan A.
Either both of these ex-leaders are guilty of crimes of corruption and abuse of human rights or they are not. If they are, they can and should be prosecuted. If they are not, they should be free citizens.
Which is why I find this sentence quite strange:
I suspect that the plan B of this powerful quarter to get the country rid of these two major political party leaders will be to implicate them with corruption/violence and blackmail them into jail sentence or worse.
Which suggests that the prosecution of these two individuals will be the subject of blackmail and intrigue rather than clear-cut prosecution by the rule of law.
This one will run and run…
April 26th, 2007 at 10:00 am
It will run on and one because the unfair thing about courts is that they favour the rich and powerful and are not independant of political colour. The two party leaders have plenty of minnions to continue backing them, my foolish UK compatriots, plenty of US people as well as internals.
Aren’t there simply laws for incompetance and farcical leadership or do we just leave that one to the ever reliable and truthful democratic process?
April 26th, 2007 at 1:29 pm
Armies are trained dictator and apply brute force. It fits with their system. Win is only options they have against
enemies/opposition. This simply doesn’t work, will not work and should not work in civil societies, where respect & tolerance
of various opinions are life line. Moin already mentioned he doesn’t prefer ‘elective process’ and recent drama with
leaders/bank account simply reflects their set mind frame. Few of these army leaders reached point of no return. Failure will
cause them (not entire army) harm. From now on their priority is to save themselves. It also reflects poorly of these
generals. So sad.
April 26th, 2007 at 4:43 pm
It’s a continous battle between ‘closed system’ and ‘open system’. The former will always be defeated.
April 26th, 2007 at 8:15 pm
Sid,
While the law is clear, judges, prosecutors and even witnesses are susceptible to public pressure. If the police are also politicised, then these people will have no protection from such pressure. That’s all I was trying to say. I could be wrong
April 26th, 2007 at 10:24 pm
Should Hasina Khaleda resign to help build new leadership. Read this:
http://www.prothom-alo.org/mcat.news.details.php?nid=MzY3MDY=&mid=Mw==
April 26th, 2007 at 11:20 pm
I had been with the process of these reforms I would have started with the Plan C to bann the 3 parties AWL, BNP and Jamat.
The 3 heads would be contained with retirement or punishment based on the merits of the crimes they committed.
Whatever reform proccess we try with these 3 parties with their zealots, sycophants or militants, wonn’t work out towards politics of civility, enduring democracy and stability. October 2006 history will repeat itself in every rought politcal calendar year.
All Corruption-spree leaders should be destined in jail and corruption-free leades given the opportunity to lead new parties with new outlook, new commitment and new mission for building brighter Bagladesh teemed with the potentials for prosperiy and peace, self-esteem, honor and respect.
April 27th, 2007 at 2:13 am
It seems like Plan A may still be alive but in a revised form. Khaleda and Co. have apparently been granted Saudi visa and they will be leaving shortly, confirmed by KZ’s brother S. Iskander himself and many news dailies.
Hasina also stirred up too much trouble for the CTG from London and she will probably be reluctant to return home anytime soon, (IMO) for fear of retribution.
Although many of you may disagree but I hope the revised plan is a success.
April 27th, 2007 at 3:35 am
Tk. 3 crore each in Hasina and Khaleda’s account? Did these two ladies ever have a paid full time job?
Hasina says that the money belongs to ‘Bangabandhu Memorial Fund’ donated by Bangladeshis all over the world.
Well, why is it in her personal account then?
I applaud the government for trying to find the source of this wealth — they should have done this long time ago instead of trying to exile them.
This should be part of a fair investigation, not a vindication attempt. Otherwise this will also fail miserably like ‘Plan A’, although some newspapers are reporting that Khaleda still wants to go for ‘Umrah’. So does it mean Khaleda has given in to blackmail?
April 27th, 2007 at 3:57 am
Re # 10 and # 11
I believe Khaleda Zia will be visiting Saudi Arabia for a short term. She may want to go to Saudi Arabia for a variety of reason,
1. Ship Arafat Rahman Coco outside the country, apparently KZ does not want her other son also to end up in jail.
2. Although not very visible like US/EU/UK, Saudi Arabia has always influenced our policies. One may argue that Saudi’s hold stronger clout in BD policies than US/UK. KZ may want to meet high ups in Saudi Arabia. It was definitely unprecedented to have a diplomat come and visit an ex PM who was apparently under house arrest.
3. Another reason KZ frequently visits SA is her treatment.
April 27th, 2007 at 4:25 am
The ones with real sway over Bangladesh government and it’s policies are the IMF and the world bank, which are mainly governed by the US/EU(UK).
Saudi Arabia has tradionally been reluctant to interfere in the politics of other countries. The two most active Amabassodors before the State Of Emergency was declared are from the US and UK.
The current situation in Bangladesh right now itself is quite unprecedented, so I am not surprised that the Saudi Amabassodor met with KZ at her residence. Saudis like maintaining a low profile, imagine Khaleda visiting the Saudi Embassy and the commotion it would have caused.
I am speculating but am confident that the Ambassodor went to meet KZ with the CTG’s tacit approval.
April 27th, 2007 at 9:02 am
The army must go back to the barracks. Otherwise democracy and our sovreignity is doomed.
It can bring no solution for our democracy. These generals have already started induging in corruption. Who had given them the right to appoint ambassadors? Who has given them the rigt to write off debts of a vegetable oil dealer? Who took bribes to let Gorki go free? People should try these criminals for indulging in rampant corruption in the name of weeding out corruption.
Why are so many appointees of past government still in their jobs. Why is Fakruddin’s relative, Shamser Mobin Khan still in Washington, DC? They are just staging a mockery to decieve the common people. They must go or otherwise people will march to Dhaka in crores. There will be Kansats in lakhs and no traitor and thug will be spared.
April 27th, 2007 at 10:00 am
The IMF and WB can have a lot of influence on specific things, but they definitely haven’t had any significant influence over any Bangladeshi government in recent years.
Consider the IMF first. It has a say in the macroeconomic policies - interest rates, exchange rates and government revenue and expenditures - of countries that borrow a large sum of money from the IMF to pay for its imports. Bangladesh hasn’t had any problem with paying for its imports under any of its recent governments. So there is no reason at all to think that the IMF is calling the shots. If any of the central bankers or finance ministers made policy decisions that sounded like something from an IMF report, it’s probably because both the Deshi economists and the IMF people used similar models and techniques - Dhaka University’s economics degree uses same textbooks as the US schools.
The WB has a lot more influence over policies in a bunch of areas ranging from rural electrification to water pollution and disease control to traffic management. But these influences are typically at the operational level. Once the government decides to spend some money on an area, WB ‘experts’ influence how that money is spent. Sometimes they improve the outcome, at other times they are irrelevant, and yet at other times they are completely counterproductive. But they are most certainly not directed at achieving political outcomes favouring one side over the other.
The IMF is run on the interest it charges on the money it lends. These days, very few countries are borrowing from them, so they need to tighten their own belt. The WB is also rocked by serious management problem courtesy of its president. You can be assured that the Fund and the Bank are not going around influencing Bangladesh’s politics.
April 27th, 2007 at 11:19 am
I tend to agree with boishakhi they do have a big influence on our planning thought, Though we ourselves are principly to blame for our mental and economic captivity. I’d guess that countries like Iran, Malaysia and China have a little more genuine autonomy than Desh.
#14
The text books observation is very important and heart breaking.
However there is a large influence, though i doubt they(IMF, WB) fund rallies, assasinations and those silly little red paper hats that the Awami Youth Volunteers are wearing these days.
They simply dont need to. They just need to say. “Dear little finance ministry draw up a ‘Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper’. Here are a bunch of conditionalities you poor corrupt little thing. Poverty means this, civil society means this, social capital means this, good governence means this, development means this.”
And we will just lap it up.
Development definitions of all sorts emanate from these institutions. The fact that the National academics dont challenge and supercede these is a testimony to their *independance* and the strength of the Development Industry’s hold on Bangladesh.
The Bretton Woods institutions, the WB and the IMF are tools of a wider economic politics than just Bangladesh. Of postWW2 economic dominance and security.
April 27th, 2007 at 1:11 pm
While the law is clear, judges, prosecutors and even witnesses are susceptible to public pressure. If the police are also politicised, then these people will have no protection from such pressure.
Isn’t that a cop-out? Here we are stuck between the devil and the deep blue sea (take your pick as to which is which), and we can’t get either of them to even see the inside of a courtroom because since we’re up against corrupt lawyers, complacent judges pressurised witnesses. We might as well simply resign ourselves to the continuing saga of the Teflon-coated Super-Matrons.
We can’t live with them, we can’t live without them, we can’t exile them, we can’t put them under house arrest and we can’t prosecute them.
April 27th, 2007 at 1:51 pm
Is it a coincidence?
Hasina was charged with 3 crores taka extortionism and investigation found exactly 3 crore takas in one of our accounts.
Is this money that Mr. Tajul Islam Faruque was sucked off by Sheik Hasina?
Maybe coincidental or that 3 crore is the money of Mr. Taj.
And my charges against Hasina is coming to be real. Once I told in DP what may be the probable corruption charges against Hasina. One of my charges was that she collected so much money for Banghabandu Jadugar and that part of the money surely was embezzled. I had the suspicion because I was physically present one of her meetings in East Londdon back in 1995/94 and people promised to pour money for Banghabandu Jadugar/Kollan trust fund after her call for donation to the fund.
Moreover, nomination sale wouid be biggest source of her income. Close scrutiny can reveal bigger mine of money in Hasina’s possession in her name or in the names of her freinds or family member in BD or abroad.
Thanks.
April 27th, 2007 at 8:28 pm
A cop-out on whose part? Surely you’re not suggesting mine:D….
Yes, we are stuck between a rock and a hard place (YOU choose which one is which!). But as I said in my blogpost up there: IF the caretaker government had brought them both to a trial, presented credible evidence when the support of the people were unequivocally behind the CTG, then it would have worked.
With the exile saga, the two teflon-coated matrons (classic btw!) are now heroes: SH has shown her “international clout” and KZ has shown her “uncompromising attitude” in the eyes of the people. Hell, I ought to know better but even I got a rush of adrenaline seeing these two take on the powers-that-be.
Now think of people who don’t know better: the die-hards who forget everything wrong that their parties did, the millions who have never read a single Amnesty or HRW report on BD, the person on the street whose biggest worry is what he’ll eat tonight and for whom our politics serves only as entertainment to a miserable existence. They must be firmly behind them now.
Between the devil and the deep blue sea in more than one ways: between an incompetent technocrat-military alliance and a corrupt political alliance. Choose wisely or not at all.
April 28th, 2007 at 2:17 am
Guys.
3 crore isnt really that much. It will just about buy you a rubbish flat in London. (btw about the suitcase matter, has someone done the weight calculation if the currency was presented in dollars/sterling?).
Judging by the way in which very very few empirical instances of these individuals alleged corruption are coming to light, despite years of bad mouthing. I wonder what other national myths and mantras are based on such rubbish evidence gathering. We are rubbish at numbers, but we like them when they help our cause (see level rise of 5m in 2100 vs 38cm in 2100).
I read newspaper articles these days that shy away from accusing them of any wrong doing, taking the lame position of ‘oh well they werent involved directly’. Its funny. I wonder how much of the dhaka rumour mill is fabrication.
asif, i dont know if its a choice between an incompetent technocrat-military alliance and a corrupt political alliance.
The CTG need more time to prove their incompetance I think! The democratic parties have never shown any competance. They are on a steep learning curve. I guess they didnt recieve much training for the roles they find themselves in, but should get better with time.
I know that i would rather a bunch of army people and technocrats build me a boat to sail on. They wouldn’t skimp on materials whilst trying to involve their own set of favoured contractors who are qualified for nothing.
Talking of Plan Bs, what are SHW and BKZ’s Plan Bs. SHW is here in London squeezing every last penny from my willing Sylatian compatriots and making an inarticulate exhibition of herself in the media. BKZ apparently went out for dinner with her politcal mates but didnt talk politics.
April 28th, 2007 at 6:55 am
Bitter Boy from whre you have got Bank information of Hasina? Were you in the team?
April 29th, 2007 at 6:22 pm
Dear Tonay,
I know everything by Hasina bad or good, is Halal to you. If you had browsed all the news media instead of geting stucked with DP or just going through the news media which like, you would have eyed that news topic.
Even Hasina trid to defend her possessing that money claiming, that money came from different sources all across the world for Banghbandu Kallan Trust Fund. But unfortunately instead going to Kollan Fund account the went to Hasina’s own bank account.
Tony, please look at the news archives. What I say has some source. I don’t make up anything. I believe telling lies are the mother of all sins. So, as lying is the mother of all sins, one who can lie can do any crime. I try not to tell a lie and commit any sin knowingly.
To speak the truth, I don’t like Hasina as a leader. She can’t give anything good to nation unless God renews His intention to bestow our nation any good stuff through Hasina. Even though, Hasina can’t give anything to the nation she can give something to me. As I can try do a thesis on Hasina and get a PhD!!!!!!
Thanks.
April 30th, 2007 at 8:11 am
Fugstar old friend, I misspoke: it’s a choice between (1) an incompetent, suspicious, inclusive military-bureaucratic coalition, (2) corrupt, aimless, unprincipled, short-termist political parties, (3) nihilist, petty-issue pursuing (”veiling all women is a national priority”), anti-technology, anti-dissent “Islam”ist coalition and (4) a “civil society” that is not representative of society and is too dependent on/enamoured of Western modes of thought to communicate effectively with our people.
There, lots of descriptors, none used lightly
April 30th, 2007 at 8:12 am
And I know fugstar will tear me a new one for “anti-technology”.