Unheard Voices

There are some great new posts at the Bangla site including one from Sultana Kamal. Please visit and comment.

Please check it out: http://www.drishtipat.org/bangla

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Update — Highlights so far

- Sultana Kamal’s powerful post on the ongoing multi-faceted multi-layered oppression of women in our society

- Activist and writer Priscilla Raj muses on the links between violence and law enforcement

- Ragib Hasan (main man behind Wikipedia in Bengali) writes a fascinating piece on the deep roots of the Bengali script

- Shubinoy Mustofi begins a series on the role of agriculture in the BD economy - all you ever wanted to know about Surplus Labour and Disguised Unemployment is explained therein!

- and last but not the least, writer and journalist Anisul Hoque (of Goddyo-Cartoon fame) survives a brush with death! Written in the signature Anisul Hoque style, it is both hilarious and frightening…

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Bangladesh’s Army Chief General Moeen U Ahmed (L) receives a horse from his Indian counterpart Deepak Kapoor after inspecting the guard of honour in New Delhi February 25, 2008. The Indian Army presented the Bangladesh Army with two horses and two mares. Ahmed is on a week-long official visit to India
Photo: Reuters
Title: with due credit to SAY

This is how author Tahmima Anam of Golden Age fame, daughter of Daily Star editor Mahfuz Anam, was captioned in New Age yesterday. Perhaps it is an honest mistake. Perhaps it is not. If it isn’t, then this is so silly that its almost embarrassing and disgusting at the same time.

Tentative Programme: Conference on Genocide, Truth and Justice
1-2 March, 2008 (Venue : Brac Centre Inn, 75 Mohakhali, Dhaka 1212) (more…)

Army golf club (Photo: Munem Wasif)
A law suit has been filed against AL leader Shaikh Hasina for accepting a donation of three crore taka for the Bangabandhu Trust and allegedly giving undue favour to Summit corporation for a power plant. Fair enough. If this can be proven, this should be punished. If the the former prime minister has created a situation where the business men had no choice but to give this donation to get the business, that is unwarranted. There is a bit of conflict of interest there. But we will let the court decide who is guilty and who is not.

But get this. A few weeks ago, a commenter had this to say in a thread in this blog

Despite Sidr, rising food prices, the army has been able to ‘collect’ 25 crore for a new club house for the Army Golf Club (Kurmitola). This has been possible due to multiple ‘donors’. I attended their lavish party for this ironic cause. The reality at the party was that the donors had to donate.

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We received a copy of an email from Prof Anu Muhammad stated below. The professor’s clear principled positions have rattled quite a few and he has successfully managed to put together a strong coalition of groups in protecting national interest in the government’s dealing concerning national coal and gas. We’d like to demand extra protection and security for him as he has now clearly become a high value target in this game of high stakes.

Last night (21-22 Feb) at 12.16 I received a phone call. The caller identified himself as Mahmud Hasan. He started referring my writings on Phulbari. ‘Why you are writing all these? Stop
writing. Why you talk in TV programmes? Stop these.’

He continued saying, ‘this is time for your retirement. Take final retirement. You have done enough.’

At the end he said, ‘no more speaking in dialogues, discussions or seminars from now on. If you do, we will use human bomb to blow you up.’ - Anu

You can read more of Anu Muhammad’s recent pieces at New Age here.

দৃষ্টিপাতের ইংরেজী ব্লগ Unheard Voices গত তিন বছরে ব্যাপক পাঠক জনপ্রিয়তা লাভ করেছে। শুধুমাত্র মানবাধিকার নয়, এই ব্লগ বাংলাদেশের রাজনীতি, অর্থনীতি, সমাজ ও সংস্কৃতি ইত্যাদি নানা বিষয়ে আড্ডা ও আলোচনার জন্যে উন্মুক্ত।

দেশের আজ ক্রান্তিকাল। আমাদের সামনে হাজারো চ্যালেঞ্জ, এবং তা মোকাবেলা করতে একটি বড় প্রয়োজন হলো গণসচেতনতা বৃদ্ধি করা। ‘না বলা কথা’-য় আমরা দেশের উন্নয়ন নিয়েই লিখবো। আমরা তুলে ধরবো আমাদের তরুন প্রজন্মের চিন্তাধারা, তাদের স্বপ্ন, সম্ভাবনা ও সমস্যার কথা। আমরা আমাদের সমাজের উপরে আলোকপাত করবো, আর বলবো সমাজের হারিয়ে যাওয়া মানুষ, অদৃশ্য মানুষদের কথা। আমরা নিরলসভাবে বাংলাদেশের উন্নয়নের কথা বলে যাবো।

ইন্টারনেটের মাধ্যমে আমরা এই আলোচনায় অন্তর্ভুক্ত করতে চাই দেশের প্রযুক্তি-সচেতন নতুন প্রজন্মকে, দেশ-দরদী প্রবাসীদেরকে। আপনিও লিখুন, মন্তব্য রাখুন, অংশগ্রহণ করুন। ধর্ম-গোত্র নির্বিশেষে সবাইকে নিয়ে সোনার বাংলা নির্মাণে এটি আমাদের ক্ষুদ্র প্রয়াস।

আসুন না বলা কথা বলি at http://bangla.drishtipat.org

Over the last 3 years, Unheard voice has become a popular medium for people to visit. The blog has given birth to a writers’ collective that is regularly publishing articles in the print media in home and abroad. At the same time this blog, with tremendous contribution from its readers, has covered news and analysis that has been otherwise missing in the regular media. Still, we always felt, the medium of the discussion which is primarily English, restricted a lot of average citizens from Bangladesh to take part. Not any more.

On this day of Ekushey, we are starting a new chapter in the arena of citizen journalism by launching a new Bangla blog — ‘Na Bola Kotha’. ‘Na Bola Kotha’ (Unspoken words) will talk about issues of younger generation — their dreams, their problems and their inspirations It will talk about economy and progress and at the same time it will speak about the unheard voices and raise the profie of the unseen faces. The Bangla blog will be maintained by mostly a separate group of writers with a bulk of them being from Bangladesh. This will not be a Bangla translation of our English blog. On the contrary, we hope to create a vibrant community via Na Bola kotha with a hope that the discussions will lead to meaningful projects and ideas.

Please join NBK users’ group at Facebook by clicking here.

Visit Na Bola Kotha at http://bangla.drishtipat.org

I can make an easy assumption here. If one does a quick poll on how many people knew of film star Manna, I am pretty sure, 90% would have answered they never heard of Manna. And I am pretty sure the numbers would have been respectively 99% and 100% negative if the questions were how many saw a Manna film and how many of them were Manna’s fans.

On February 17, Dhaka film star Manna died of heart attack. For me, I heard of Manna’s name as a Dhakaiya film actor but never saw any of his movies. (Even If I did, would I confess it in this forum? Mere knowing of Manna, forget about watching his film or becoming his movie, is a blatant sign of cultural backwardness and social downwardness among the members of my class).

When I was watching TV footage of the crowd at United Hospital where Manna died, I thought, OMG, Manna must have been a popular hero. It was a surprise. But that surprise was nothing compared to what I saw the following day, again in TV news footage. Tens of thousands men, young and old, from all over the country, gathered in front of FDC (Dhaka version of Hollywood Film Studios); only to have a glance at Manna for the last moment. Failing to enter FDC campus, those gathered got involved in a pitched battle with the police. E-Bangladesh posted a story on this event. The body was supposed to be taken to Shahid Minar for public viewing. Another mass, tens of thousands strong, also gathered there. And more people were thronging along the way from FDC to Shahid Minar. The clash between police and the mourners got ugly. Fearing people power, the military government forced the FDC organizers to cancel the Shahid Minar viewing.

The spontaneous gathering of people was remarkable. Dhaka has not seen such spontaneous gathering in many years. Even during the peak days of recent anti government movement, all the organized gatherings were not as big.

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After a resounding no to military governence in the Thai election, now the Pakistani voters have spoken and the message could not be clearer. People have decided that they had enough of the Musharraf experiment. The writing is clear for anyone taking notes. However, this election had an added bonus. Pakistani voters have also routed the Islamic hardliners in this election. Ending with a note from a friend:

a defeat for the militarists and islamists anywhere is a victory for secular democracy everywhere. congratulations, pakistan. now my (perhaps rather naive!) heart wants the same thing for Bangladesh.

Drishtipat would like to announce the beginning of the Drishtipat Challenge 2008. Drishtipat believes that a robust economy is an essential factor in promoting human rights and social development. Accordingly, through this business development Challenge, now entering its second year, Drishtipat seeks to create employment opportunities by funding promising small businesses.
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The whole country used to wait for this event throughout the year. Anticipation with sheer excitement and expectation gripped the nation for days. Since morning, the line in front of Dhaka stadium ticket counters looked like a sea of humanity. The annual football face-off between Mohammedan and Abahani, the two most popular football teams in Dhaka used to be the grandest ever super bowl for impoverished Bangladesh.I still vividly recall one such evening of excitement. It is possibly a match-up 30 years ago. Incidentally it was also the evening of Shab e Barat.  Saudi wahbism started flexing its muscle in Bangladesh from late seventies. Until then, Sufi influenced Milad Sharif, Shabe barat etc used to be quite a big thing in Bengali Muslim culture.Ashraful, Shahriyar, Aftabs are national sporting icons now a days. It was Nannu, Manju those days. Nannu was the captain of Abahani and his brother Manju was Mohammedans captain. I still recall being glued to BTV live telecast of the game. I still recall, under roaring applause, two brothers Nannu and Manju shaking hands and exchanging club flag. Then the classic football of Nannu, Manju, Gaffar, Kohinoor, Amalesh, Abul, Enayet etc. Every household didn’t have TV in the 70s. So each drawing room with a TV set was filled with whole neighborhood. It was fun. Thunderous cheers with every goal or missed goal, tea, biscuits coming from different households, women gossiping in the backrooms. The scenario was much more electrifying inside Dhaka stadium. As soon as the game started, a group of very excited football fans across a 30 feet high barbed wire fence separating East and West gallery, used to start throwing brickbats and verbal abuses to each other. This then inevitably would spread in the vicinity of the stadium.

Football legend Nannu died today. He was 59 and was suffering from cancer and kidney failure. I had to write something on our extinct national craze, football and one of its best artists, Monwar Hossain Nannu.

HRW has published a 44 page summary on the account of what happened to Tasneem Khalil in custoday.

Here is the chilling full report where there is a lot of first hand account by Tasneem.

The international media has picked up the news story widely.

Original thread from last May in UV.

Here is a reaction that we got after someone read through the piece:

My blood is boiling with rage. I have been there all along in Bangladesh but never knew a single word of it. So you see how ‘neutral’ this media has become. I was in total darkness. I read T Khalil’s blog once in a while and thought that was a smart guy. It was so appalling to see what happened to him and its even worse than Pak Army cause its our own Army. I knew DGFI is involved in some notorious activities but this is the first time I saw first hand evidence.

The report on Tasneem is outrageous, no doubt.

However, if someone reads it as a damning indictment against the whole of army in general, it will be wrong. As evident from Tasneem’s testimony, there were a number of people in army (juniors) who were sympathetic to him. But the reality is that there is unchecked and unaccoutable power to a very few. When that happens, there is bound to be misuse ot it. As a result, the image of the whole institution suffers. That is what we are seeing in Bangladesh today. That is why an institute that was not trained for law enforcements should not have taken over this job for such a prolonged period. It simply does not work. So this is damning indictment against using army for law enforcement and also an indictment against arbitrary use of power. Most importantly its a damning indictment against torture.

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These days, on February 14, Valentines Day is celebrated in Bangladesh with great fanfare. The students and teen/ post teen generation as well as the older ones use their energy; ingenuity in doing thing to convince their loved ones.

Exactly 25 years ago on the 14 the February, I was about to finish my high school in Dhaka. I had no clue what Valentine day was. Then during the rest of student life in colleges throughout the 80s, I still did not know or do much with Valentines Day.

However 14th February remained a special day for us, the students and young people in the 80s. When the military establishment illegally captured state power on 24th March 1982, on this day, 14 the February the following year i.e. 1983, students lodged a large scale protest against the military occupation of governance. Five students – Zafar, Dipali Saha, Jainal, Mozammel and Ayub – were killed in the police firing, leading to the formation of Chhatra Sangram Parishad (students’ action council), the first politically organised platform against the military junta. The following year, on the same day during a student procession marking the event, the military rulers ran a truck on the peaceful procession instantly crushing Selim and Delwar to death.

Over the next six years, many more lives were lost. We invoked the names of Dipali Shaha, Mozamel, Selim, Delwar millions of times. Students were followed by trade unions followed by professionals and they gloriously defied the military rule. Politicians joined hands and later the civil service stepped in. Military had no options but to surrender and retreat back to the cantonment.

With restoration of democracy, along with many other things, we also forgot those who shed their lives for the democracy. And we badly mangled up militarycracy with a person Ershad. Ten years after fall of Ershad, he came back with a significantly limited capacity of a small political party leader. This time his power was not the military establishment. Ironically the people of his region were his principle force.

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I found myself at the Boi Mela on a temperate February Friday with a line that stretched all the way to the Shahbagh intersection on one side and Doyel Chattar on the other, dividing itself at TSC.

“Oh my God! Let’s come back some other day!”

“Kirey? Tui ki Bangladeshey notun ashchish naki? Chol shamney!”

We made our way towards the entrance of Bangla Academy.

“Can you imagine cutting into a line like this? That would be the fight of the year!”

“Let’s wait. This is Dhaka, not some bloody Western city where we queue up! We have true freedom here!”

The words were not altogether devoid of irony.

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Tired of speculating about the regime’s next move, or feeling disgusted about the blatant human rights violation, or worrying about the skyrocketing prices? Here is something completely different to discuss over. Is the Bangla we speak ‘mangled’? Should we be worried about the demise of ‘impeccable’ Bangla? Who decides the standard of impeccability anyhow? These questions were raised in a series of articles in Prothom Alo some time ago, and have been revived by a recent Daily Star piece (hat tip: Udayan). I’ll summarise these articles first before ending with some thoughts. Looking forward to the comments.

(More at Mukti)