On Saturday morning (yesterday), I got an email from a journalist in Rajshahi. I should really call him a fortune teller because he predicted a death. His email read like this:
Sat, Jul 26, 2008 at 10:32 AM Just now I heard Dr. Mizanur Rahman Tutul was arrested by RAB. Perhaps this night he (Tutul) would be ‘crossfired’. Dr. Tutul is the chief of banned Purbo Banglar Communist Party (M-L Red Flag).
As soon as I read it I felt a sense of helplessness, probably one millionth of how his family felt at that time. Dr. Tutul’s mother had no idea where his son was. From various sources she heard that Tutul was picked up by RAB and she feared for the worst. There was no court to go for bail, there was no lawyer to go to. Because he was not shown arrested in any official log. By Saturday night she desperately went for the last resort — ‘appealing’ to the government to save her son’s life. She went to the Rajshahi Press Club and asked whichever journalists she could talk to and she did a press conference clinging to a hope that perhaps a media outcry will help the government to move and save her son. I sent the email to every HR group I knew. Just like that journalists who were also trying their best to spread the word out with a sense of gloom.
Too little, too late.
This morning — the predictable news was on bdnews24. The fortune teller has called it correctly.
Naogaon, July 27(bdnews24.com) – A top leader of an extremist party died early Sunday in an exchange of gunfire with police in Naogaon, a police official said.
The dead man was identified as Dr Mizanur Rahman, alias Dadabhai, the organising leader of Purbo Bangla Communist Party (ML Lal Pataka), an extremist party of the south, officer in charge of Raninagar police Tofazzal Hossain confirmed.
An earthquake just hit Dhaka. The magnitude was 5.6 in richter scale. Everybody I know in Dhaka felt the jolt. Hence I re-post this blog two years two months later.
Thousands more die in Indonesia. Earthquake strikes once again. Poor Iran, Indonesia, these countries lie on the fault line. Historically most of the earthquakes happened on the fault lines. California is also situated on a tectonic plate border, the fault line. And all the structures in California are built earthquake safe.
Here is a map of all the major and monor tectonic plates of the world.
If you can locate Bangladesh in the world map, you will see two plate bounderies, i.e. two fault lines cross Bangladesh. On the noth, the Indian plate clashes with the Eurasian plate and on the east, Indian plate borders Australian plate and continues to Burma plate.
I am not a geology student and won’t pretend to know or understand the basics of the importance of these plate bounderies and earthquake possibilities.
Different newspaper reports inform us that many scientists have been warning about the probability of a devastating 8-9 richter scale catastrophic earthquake in the northeastern and southeastern parts of Bangladesh.
So, major earthquake is also possible in Bangladesh. Are we ready?
Can the authority in Bangladesh speak out with certainty that at least one, only one single rsidential apartment in Bangladesh have been bult to withstand a7.0- 9.0 richter scale earthquake?
We we talk about issues, a variety of issues. There is a word in english dictionery, ‘Priority’. Should we, as a nation, relearn the meaning and implication of the word?
Our highly polarised partisan supporters agree on very few things. But probably even the most partisan of AL/BNP supporters would agree that the President of our People’s Republic, His Excellency Prof Dr YesIajYesuddin Ahmed bears a large responsiblity for the sorry mess we find ourselves today. Of course they’d think so for different reasons. BNP partisans would argue that not only did Prof Dr Ahmed fail to tackle Awami-led andolon anarchy, he failed to see that a conspiracy was brewing in the cantonment, and he betrayed the party (and the people they’d claim) on 11 Jan 2007. The Awami partisans would say that it was Yesuddin’s yes-madam actions to rig the election in BNP’s favour that made the coup possible in the first place.
Tiktiki is not a party hack. Nor is he privy to any inside information. But his observation of politics tells him that not only is this man one of the worst tenant of Bangabhaban (and previous tenants include characters like Khondoker Mushtaq Ahmed or Dr Abdul Malik - East Pakistan’s last governor), the Prof Dr is the single most responsible individual for 1/11 and its aftermath. If he had shown an ounce of integrity and resolve, we would have had an election participated by everyone on 22 Jan 2007. And regardless of the result - Grand Alliance landslide, hung parliament, or a BNP-JI re-election -we would probably have been better off than we are today.
So, dear reader, Tiktiki is no fan of this sorry excuse of an educator. But whatever his sins, Dr Yesuddin remains the only constitutionally elected person in our republic. The question is, for how long? (more…)
Imagine this were Chile and Pinochet were still alive.
The Bangladeshi equivalent of what has just happened is that the daughter of Allende has joined hands with Pinochet to launch a political alliance against another military-created party with a party of traitors heding behind religion (a sort of ultra right Opus Dei). Normal people would condemn this out of sight.
The grand alliance of the Awami League and the Jatiyo Party is anything but grand. It smells of 1986 when the two colluded in a sham election. Then the Awami League (and JSD’s Rob) perpetuated the dictatorship for a further four miserable years. All in the cheap pursuit of power, costly to the nation.
The current election commission in Bangladesh is, in my view, the worst and most biased election commissions in the history of Bangladesh. Today, they hosted a grand voter roll completion ceremony. Guest of honor was the army chief Moeen, his personal Secretary AKA Chief Advisor Fakhruddin Ahmed and a corps of diplomats. There was no politician, not a single one ( except Gen Moeen U Ahmed). Politicians were not invited.
EC should be thanked for at least exposing who they consider their real clients are and where their allegiance is. In an ideal world, EC is there for dealing with political parties and politicians. But this SH ( Shamsul Huda, Shakhawat Hossain, Suhul Hossain) election commission does not believe in that. Their decisions are made in the military intelligence office and definitely their allegiance lies there and it is also getting clear that they don’t want the politicians to participate in the elections they plan to conduct. They don’t care what the politicians say. For them it is more important what the diplomats say. Hence diplomats instead of politicians were invited in today’s voter roll completion ceremony.
Today is Tajuddin Ahmed’s birthday. The following was written last year.
-Shahnoor Wahid
On Monday, the 82nd birth anniversary of Tajuddin Ahmed came and went by without making much of a noise. Can we expect a grand celebration of his birth anniversary one day? Does he not deserve one? Is his memory fading away from our collective minds? Will our next generation remember him at all?
These are questions worth delving into, since laudable attempts are being made at the moment to recognise and restore the rightful place of great national leaders along with that of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the chief architect of Bangladesh.
In fact, the illustrious political career of Tajuddin and his contribution to the creation of Bangladesh will remain an inspiration for all freedom loving peoples of the world. But, unfortunately, the apathy and disrespect that has been shown to him since his assassination will go down as a nation’s collective story of shame. And we must correct ourselves at the first available opportunity.
I met Smriti Kona Biswas a couple of times — first when I was working on an article on CHT and I was meeting a friend of hers for information. The next time I met her I was doing a story on lead pollution. A Fulbright scholar, Dr Amal Mitra, wanted to carry out a survey on the level of lead in the blood of Bangladeshi children. Her NGO, Society to Uplift Social Harmony (SUSH) helped Dr. Mitra carry out the survey on schools in some parts of Bangladesh, including the night school that was part of her organisation.
Later I came to know that this Smriti Kona was the same person who was brutally gang-raped in 1995 (when she was a college student) by a notorious gang of miscreants who used to haunt the campus of Barisal’s Brojmohon University College (BM College). The only thing that saved Smriti Kona’s life was that the incident, which took place in an abandoned building inside the college, was spotted by someone who informed the college authorities who rushed in and caught them. The culprits received 10 years rigorous imprisonment each.
Winning the court battle was not the end of the story though. She faced constant prejudice from society. Only after getting admission into Dhaka University did she get some peace of mind. Her organisation SUSH is an attempt to help women like her, who are struggling to earn a place for themselves in this cruel society. Unfortunately, her organisation is in trouble. Read all about it here.
As the US expands its war on terror, its venomous civilisational crusade of establishing democracies in the Middle East, one notices how Bangladesh has gradually been re-fashioned as a ‘moderately’ Muslim country, in an area considered to be ‘vital to US interests’. Jamaat-e-Islami, in the words of Richard Boucher, US assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asian affairs, is a ‘democratic party’. James F Moriarty, US ambassador to Bangladesh, in his congressional testimony (February 6, 2008), said US interest in Bangladesh revolved around the latter denying space to ‘terrorism’ (mind you, Islamic, not US, not state-sponsored). Moriarty’s ideas echo Maulana Matiur Rahman Nizami’s. In an interview given last year, Nizami said, Jamaat was important to keep Bangladesh free of militancy and terrorism (Probe, June 27-July 3, 2007). (more…)
To quote my article of June 29, 1995, “Why do martial laws fail?” “Martial Laws fail because the initiators of all extra-constitutional rule ride into town on tanks with the lofty Aim of saving the country, relying on that platonic national purpose to make themselves credible. They soon adjust the Aim to more material (and less patriotic) reasons of self-perpetuation. The original Aim remains publicly the same, becomes an exercise in self-delusion. This diversion of Aim means that one individual or group is simply replaced by another (or others), instead of being a transition mechanism that provides for and facilitates the process of the democratic system being repaired and renovated to reflect the real genius and aspirations of the people.”
A refined ‘Pakistan model’?
Source: The News
By Ikram Sehgal
July 17, 2008
The term ‘dirty war’ refers to the way the Argentine military junta kidnapped, tortured, killed or simply forced the disappearance of its civilian political opponents during the late 1970s. Similar tactics were used by other contemporary Latin American juntas. The crucial difference between a run of the mill counter-insurgency and the Argentine-style dirty war is that the latter involves state sponsored violence against unarmed, civilian political opposition.
Update: July 14:Corruption case against the publisher of Shomokal - one of the outspoken Bangla dailies. July 18th: Part owner of New Age , the most outspoken daily, and publisher of daily Jai Jai Din, in jail for ‘violation of EPR through money laundering’ .
A general diary filed with Gulshan police said information provided by intelligence agencies revealed that Sayeed Hossain was involved in money laundering, which was destroying the country’s economy.
– conincidentally after New Age publishes news about an army intelligence group ‘recommending’ Bangladesh bank to return 100 crores taka to two business groups.
The move has been initiated following a proposal of an intelligence agency which recommended that the Bangladesh Bank and the National Board of Revenue should adjust the money against 16 business establishments of the two groups.
…..Sources in the central bank said a good number of other businessmen and politicians, who were forced to deposit their money with the exchequer, have been lobbying relentlessly for similar treatment for their money. (more…)
As of Tuesday afternoon, access to Sachalayatan.com has been blocked from Bangladesh. Right before this unofficial ban, Sachal (as the users of this site fondly call it) bloggers vehemently protested the attack on a war veteran by Jamaat e Islami activists at a “Liberation War” meeting. In one such article Faruk Wasif on Sachalatayan analyzes the incident: “These obstinate freedom fighters from the subaltern dare do what our seasonal “Sector Commanders” or the frogs of our Syphilis Society cannot.” The full article, that may have sealed the fate of Sachal in Bangladesh, has been translated below.
In the meantime New Age produced another stinging rebuke to the military controlled government for its kiddy glove approach towards Jamaat. Here is the blistering piece.
Central Vice President of Bangladesh Nationalist Party’s student wing JCD, and ex VP of Barisal BM College student’s union and Barisal city unit JCD President, Mr Moshiul Alam Sentu was arrested from Dhaka yesterday. It was reported in Newspapers yesterday. This second page small report in a vernacular daily described how he was picked up and taken to undisclosed location yesterday.
If Bangladesh media still retain the slightest trace of sensitivity, I feel Mr Sentu will get a better coverage in tomorrows newspapers. He was killed today by RAB.
Just like that. That easy!
Members of the defence forces pick up an opposition political leader without any arrest warrant and take him away blindfolded. Then within several hours, without any court proceedings, any charges, any chance of defense, that man is shot and killed. And this is executed by members of government law enforcement agencies and defence forces. And that is not the end of the story. The tortured and mutilated body of the victim is then thrown in a public place in his own locality for public viewing.
Welcome to political season 2008-2009. Welcome to post 1/11 Bangladesh.
Honourable Chancellor, Jahangirnagar University
For the last couple of weeks, a section of the students of Jahangirnagar University and its cultural activists have been spearheading a movement. Their demands are chiefly, that those students who were accused of committing rape in 1998 should not be allowed to sit for their exams, that their certificates should be withdrawn and, that a code against Sexual Harassment should be implemented. It is obvious that the demands raised by the students are principled ones and, these have the support of a section of the teachers of Jahangirnagar University out of a sense of commitment toward these principles. In 1998, the teachers of Jahangirnagar University had condemned the incidence of campus rape. As a matter of fact, the Jahangirnagar University Teachers Association (JUTA) itself had taken a stand on the matter. In this respect, we would also like to point out that the head of the previous caretaker government, Chief Justice Habibur Rahman, while delivering his address at the last Convocation of the University, had paid his respects toward the spirit of the campus anti-rape movement. Honourable Chancellor, we know that you yourself are well aware of these events. (more…)
When the collaborators and killers of 1971, also known as today’s Jamaat-e-Islami, sponsor a national freedom fighters’ organization, you have to wonder how things went so wrong for us.
When the torturers, rapists and murderers of 1971 and their modern-day descendants have the nerve-shattering gall - in the summer of 2008, 37 years after we supposedly became independent - to kick and beat up a freedom fighter, in broad daylight in the heart of our sovereign capital, then you have to wonder if we were ever worthy of this independence and if we will be able to hang on to it in the long run.
When a former Chief Justice of Bangladesh goes to a Jamaat-sponsored “freedom fighters’ event”, gives it his blessing and describes his boundless pride and joy, you have to conclude that at no point since 1971 have the murderers and traitors been so strong, so all-pervasive in the bones and sinews of the System as they are today.
Yesterday was a day that will live in infamy. 24 hours later, the shockwaves are still reverberating through the media and the blogosphere. Whether the central nervous system of the chatterati, the sushils, the bien pensants and the sellouts are still capable of responding to any stimuli is open to question. To any other sentient being, this will cause nothing but anger and shame and impotent rage. Watch what happened to the elderly Mohammad Ali, who fought arm in arm with Col. Taher to liberate this country that we so mistakenly presume to call our own:
After he was released from his forcible detention by Jamaat-Shibir activists, he went to the Daily Shamokal offices and said he will keep speaking out against the vermin, even if he should lose his life in the process. His interview is here.
Faruk Wasif in Sachalayatan exposes the class dimensions of this particular losing battle, and shows how it is the desperate subaltern who remains fearless when all else seems lost, when all the rest are so shamefully compromised.
Update: For those who appear to have forgotten what this was all about in the first place, a couple of hours spent in these archives will give you a harrowing refresher.
The dead man was identified as Dr Mizanur Rahman, alias Dadabhai, the organising leader of Purbo Bangla Communist Party (ML Lal Pataka), an extremist party of the south, officer in charge of Raninagar police Tofazzal Hossain confirmed.
On Monday, the 82nd birth anniversary of Tajuddin Ahmed came and went by without making much of a noise. Can we expect a grand celebration of his birth anniversary one day? Does he not deserve one? Is his memory fading away from our collective minds? Will our next generation remember him at all?
