Unheard Voices

pic credit: private

Jahangir Alam Akash of Rajshahi recently did something really foolish which not many journalists dared to do in today’s Bangladesh. He filed an exclusive report for CSB channel on how RAB shot to injury a local political leader point blank in front of his wife and daughter. 30 minutes after the shooting, he went to the scene and reported live for CSB. Bad news for him. RAB commandar was not happy at this national exposure. The local RAB commander Major Rashidul Hasan Rashid called him and said he better watch out. His reports were “anti-state” and RAB would be forced to take action against him. Anyone who is familiar with our Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) knows that the “action” is almost tantamount to death sentence. Ever since then, Akash and his pregnant wife Sharmin felt there was no one to protect them. They moved from their house terrified and moved outside Rajshahi in fear of getting killed in “crossfire”.

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Saudi Arabia executes 3 Bangladeshis
Agence France-Presse . Riyadh
Three Bangladeshis were beheaded in Saudi Arabia on Friday after being convicted of robbery and sexual assault, the interior ministry said. Thakeer Abdul Rahman, Tafeel Abdul Rasheed and Nayoon Jowley were executed in the kingdom’s capital city Riyadh for breaking into the home of a fellow Bangladeshi, robbing him at knifepoint and sexually assaulting his wife, the ministry said in a statement carried by the official SPA news agency.

Many questions come to my mind,
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A month ago, Islamists made a fiery national issue over “Mohammad Biral” cartoon and were handed head of ex-Communist leader Motiur Rahman. Can Secularists learn from tactics of opponents? Can they take Jamaat’s statement “there are no 1971 War Criminals” and 1971 was a “civil war” and turn it into a mega-issue?

DENIAL
*Shah Hannan says “there was no genocide, only civil war.”
*Ali Ahsan Mujaheed: “There were no war criminals”

RESPONSE
*Constitution Allows Banning of Islamist Politics
*Try War Criminals Through Special Commission
*Gen. Ibrahim on War Criminals
*War Heroes Blast Jamaat
*Public Outrage over Jamaat Statement
*War Crimes expert says Mujaheed “blatant lie”
*War Heroes Demand War Crimes Trials
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In Bangladesh general peoples’ disgust over corruption can’t be over emphasized. The collective anger, hatred and the plea for a relief is enormous. It is clear that, even in the short term, people are ready for any sort of sacrifice, like giving up their fundamental rights like freedom of speech, freedom of meeting, politics etc, if that helps routing out corruption from the society. In this context, it is not very surprising that this current government has enjoyed an overwhelming public support despite many drastic measures.

It is also not a meticulously hidden secret that General Moeen U Ahmed is the de facto ruler of the country although he maintains that he is merely the army chief under civilian leadership. Let me give some example why I say so. Example 1. Remember the camera front outburst of estranged Magistrate Rokonuddoula? He was saying that he visited General Moeen three times regarding the separation of judiciary issue and Gen Moeen rebuffed the demand to halt stripping administrative magistrates of judicial power. Why a leading administrative magistrate will go to army chief for such a purely non military issue and how the general will give decision in that regard? In Example 2, General Moeen has been repeatedly making statements about election date. In an ideal civil government, the army chief will only be there to help out the civil administration during election time. When or whether election will be held or not, that is purely the decision of the civil cabinet and the election commission.
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You could easily spend years in this city and not even know of its existence. Hidden away in the triangle formed by upmarket Banani and Gulshan, and bustling Mohakkali, a stone’s throw but also a universe away from the villas and the trendy boutiques, the slum area of Korail is an island of poverty in a sea of affluence. But you won’t find despair or self-pity here. (more…)

This week’s Economist carries an article highlighting positive developments within Britain’s Bangladeshi community. Until now, Bangladeshis have lagged behind other ethnic minorities on most socio-economic indicators, but this is beginning to change. Especially encouraging is the fact that Bangladeshi youngsters are starting to pull ahead in terms of academic achievement. (more…)

Jamaat-e Islami met with Election Commission this week. While BNP/AL are falling apart and failing to even agree on the team to meet EC, JI are highest ranking political party to meet w/ EC. Prothom Alo reports JI will oppose the following conditions in EC’s draft constitution:
1. No political party can contest election if they discriminate on basis of religion, race, ethnicity, language or gender
2. Each political parties’ committee must have 33% women membership

[Image: Jamaat amir Matiur Rahman Nizami]
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While everyone is busy with other drama, on 27th August, 2007, Bangladesh High Court issued writ petition declaring 1997 CHT Peace Treaty Unconstitutional. If this challenge is not met, the historic treaty that ended a 30 year guerilla war in CHT (although CHT Paharis still wait for Treaty implementation) will be canceled. Shabash Bangladesh! (more…)

It is more than a month since Arifur Rahman’s arrest. 30 days is a long time. Mohammad Arifur Rahman, the Prothom Alo cartoonist, has spent the better part of Ramadan in prison and has spent Eid away from his family. (more…)

Very few media outlets reported on one of the most welcome statements in recent time from anyone connected to the Caretaker Government. Which in itself is a telling detail.

Speaking the day before the International Day for the Right to Information, ACC Chairman Hasan Mashhud Chowdhury was critical of the government’s recent censorship of two economist articles in early September, as first reported by Human Rights Watch. I repeat for those of us prone to label each other as “pro/anti-CTG”: the chairman of the ACC, a retired Lt. General and a former army chief agrees with human rights campaigners (aka a ngo):

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The following was sent to us anonymously. After verifying some of the information posted here and considering complete blackout of this news in the print media, we are publishing this. This has a few interesting points that needs to be debated. The background of the story was covered here. The opinion is of the author only.

Unholy Alliance?

-Proshno Uttor

The past few weeks have seen tempers run high in some part of the artistic and heritage community over the supposed ‘theft’ of our artifacts by a foreign government, their ‘threatened destruction’ and the ‘anti-state’ activity constituted by their exhibition abroad. Quieter voices within both communities have talked about the importance of culture being part of a universal heritage, which cannot be confined within geographical borders and boundaries but must be shared across communities and countries. But our press has done little to give space to these voices, reporting only the shrill and frankly ignorant (’the Mona Lisa has not been shown outside France’ says one eminent former DG Archaeology – now involved in litigation to stop the artefacts being taken abroad).

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From Drik India

Dear Friends,

Allow me to share a small story with you. A story that most of you might have come across in fairy tales or sometimes even in real life. A story of love between two people from two different social backgrounds that usually ends with “… and they lived happily ever after” or in a classical way where both or one of the lovers dies due to the evil forces that ply against their union.

Rizwanur Rahman and Priyanka Tody fell in love with each other and decided to marry. Rizwanur was a graphic designer by profession and Priyanka was his student at the multimedia center in Kolkata where he worked. In spite of coming from a lower middle class family that lived in a small, tin-roofed house in one of the poorest colonies of the city Kolkata and narrowly surviving through a fatherless childhood, Rizwanur and his brother managed to grow up well-educated and well-groomed gentlemen. Priyanka, on the other hand, came from one of the richest merchant families in the city spending her days in extreme luxury in her palatial house in one of the most posh areas in Kolkata and should never even have dreamt of stooping down to get inside the house where Rizwanur lived. But little could she resist the charms of Rizwanur and was perhaps bowled over even more by the creative hand of Rezwanur that drew mind blowing graphic images on the computer screen which sent loud and clear messages to Priyanka saying “Love him…”.
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I don’t follow Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) daily like I follow the US market. DSE remarkably had a good run at least in the last decade and maybe a little longer from what I gather from my periodic observation and news sources.

In Dhaka , I still remember getting started with the stock market but not with much experience in trading but more about knowing the companies that offered shares to public. I still remember buying shares of Bangladesh Thai Aluminum (BTI) when it went public and I was just a little boy at that time. Just hearing about everybody talking about using Thai Aluminum windows and doors in the newly built houses and seeing the start of the apartment construction boom, I just knew that this would be a profitable venture and it was.

Lately, I am seeing more and more news and reviews of Dhaka Stock Market in various internationally renowned sources. Most of these have positive and encouraging messages that hold promise of emerging international investment in our country’s private sector. Last week’s news on readymade garment export falling 25% in the first quarter was depressing, but this latest write-up in Bloomberg reports our surging stock market is up 66% this year and at its 10-year high, relieving some of the worries. Though the raging bull of Bangladesh Stock Market positioned itself second in Asia this year after China, it feels awkward to have anything beyond a cautiously optimistic outlook of the economy considering the “temporary” political condition (a.k.a. CTG) and the impending unknowns beyond that.

Here is the link of the article from Bloomberg: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=ajYCq0jTs6Fo&refer=home

It seems like the other day when our very own Mohammed Yunus won the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize to become the first Bangladeshi to reach that stature. In reality, a year has gone by and we witnessed a situation escalating almost to a civil war, a state of emergency which is still in effect, an army backed caretaker government taking over the control of the government with a promise to bring mass reforms to the nation, a terrible flood, rise and fall of many powerful men and women and many other myriad events in Bangladesh.

During my morning commute today, I got to know from radio news that Al Gore (former vice-president and presidential candidate) was nominated as the 2007 Nobel Peace Price winner for his climate change campaign. First thing that came to my mind was “global warming” and then “Bangladesh”. It is without a doubt that Bangladesh is one of the top countries to suffer the consequences of climate change or global warming if we are not seeing some of the affects already. Inadvertently but undoubtedly, the Noble Peace Prize touched Bangladesh profoundly two years in a row.

Al Gore is a man with probably equal share of critics and exponents from the left to the right. Leaving aside you political view on Gore, he deserves accolades for bringing global awareness to this very serious global issue. We have not seen much needed broadened and elevated conversation on global warning until recently and if you recall it was at the top of recently concluded UN general assembly meeting. It is hard to believe the number of people still denying global warming as a scientific fact – it is like believing the Earth is flat simply because we can’t see the arch. Congratulations to Al Gore for his campaign that directly affects millions of lives in Bangladesh.

Eid Greetings to all our bloggers, commenters and well-wishers!

photo: Fatal Cleopetra