Unheard Voices

Photograph for TIME by Helen Kudrich

Time throws off its pretense and ignores Fakhruddin alltogether in its new feature on Bangladesh and goes to the real decision maker. The quote speaks for itself below and gives you a context of some of the very policy of crash and burn that has so backfired until now.

The government has made no promises about when it will lift the emergency. Shying away from democratic commitments, Moeen is far more eager to talk about building effective leadership in Bangladesh and educating its vast, illiterate masses — as he himself puts it — “so that they don’t keep on cutting off their own feet.” Such a tone is fitting for a man who styles himself the redeemer of his country. “You can judge the people of a nation by the type of leaders they select,” he concludes. Most Bangladeshis are wondering when they’ll really get that chance.

Read the complete piece here

In the meantime, if you want to meet one of these “vast”, “illiterate”, “docile”, self destructive, too kind for their own good and dumb voters, meet Nazima Akter profiled in Washington Post.

Comment from SC

No matter how diehard military supporters are seeing prudence and greatness in this release, it is too little - too late. IF it is a strategic decision concerning national security, the stupid and cohorts should have thought about it before they acted. Arresting SH, KZ and interfering into DU are the greatest tactical mistakes that this junta has done, even if someone naively believe they had good intentions. Lot more could be achieved by doing institutional reforms riding people’s support rather than concentrating on removing two leaders.

With all the best wishes for SH’s health, I have to say, this release has come with two ominous shadows. Firstly, SH is released neither by the people’s movement nor by the laws of the land. No matter how much AL screams that no condition is attached, some shady business transaction has happened. Any under the table deal must have something evil in it that requires hiding from the public eye. IF AL assumes they can put the dagger in BNP’s heart by partnering with the junta, it will come back and get them. We people, need and demand a strong, healthy opposition.

Secondly, when SH was arrested, the ‘non-independent’ judicial magistrate has magically opened his shop to take the case at 7:30 am and sent her to jail. Now, suddenly all three-four judges in the ‘independent’ judiciary, within couple of hours, finds that SH’s physical presence is not needed anymore and she is not a flight risk (in fact the government is putting all the effort to fly her out!). It is the ultimate miscarriage of judicial process. Once a military ruler started sell-buy business of politicians making ‘politics difficult’, now this military ruler and sycophants started buying and selling of judges, shedding the last bit of trust from the court of law.

Is there any last chance to preserve some of the nascent goods and prevent heroic comeback of the corrupt politicians? Don’t get me wrong, I am 110% against any direct or indirect military rule, but don’t find a scintilla of sympathy for the corrupt and incompetent top tiers that were surrounding the two leaders right before the collapse.

(AFP/Farjana Khan Godhuly)

This once again proves the tragic state of judiciary in Bangladesh and goes to show that things hardly have changed from the pre 1/11 days when verdicts on Ershad’s cases were decided based on which party he was supporting that day. Makes you wonder whether post 1-11 is simply a continuation of pre 1-11 minus 2. This is what we said when she was arrested 11 months ago and also on the merits of the first case.

Bangladesh Lets Hasina Visit U.S. for Health Check (Update2)/By Jay Shankar (more…)

Game on. It is a testament to the circular nature of politics in Bangladesh that I used the same heading and same introduction to a column almost three years ago. The more things change, the more they stay the same. The dynamics are different now, of course, with both AL and BNP in the opposition, so to speak, but once again the issue is elections and whether or not to participate.

The official letters from the AL and BNP to the caretaker government, respectfully declining the invitations to participate in the ongoing dialogue about the upcoming elections, have not yet been mailed, but in all other respects, it is official: AL and BNP will not attend the dialogue, and more crucially, will not participate in the December elections unless their leaders are first freed.

In the wake of the strong statement opposing participation made by the grassroots and district level workers of the AL when they met earlier in the week, the decision to endorse this policy by the senior leadership of the central working committee is no surprise. Indeed, haven’t we all been bemoaning for years now the lack of internal party democracy within the AL? Well, this was internal party democracy in action.
(more…)

The political parties are handing the excuses on a platter for not having an election to the current government. One can already see the script …

” We called them to dialogue, they did not come. we called for reform, they did not reform. In such a dire situtation, in order to save the future of our country, we do not have any alternative but to ……..”

Is it too much to expect some strategic vision from our political honchos? or am i missing something? A full blown catastrophe helps whom? Does AL seriously believe that it can do another hartal andolon to bring down this government?

Can anyone from the party insider sources give me the real story behind the boycott?

What do you think?

n

Bangladesh parties reject talks

A much delayed welcome speech from Fakhruddin Shaheb. Comment about the content of is a bit later but the best part of the speech was that it had some specific dates.
Quick Instant reaction:

Positives:

1. Definitive date for election. Finally a date is here which should partially dispel speculation about the election whether it will happen or not.
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After a lot of fumbling, failures and reform buzzwords, it seems that the government has come up with its own exit strategy. No, it has nothing to do with continuing reform or fixing our institutes. Its simply about their collective backside getting protected by ensuring their hold in the power for the long term.

Based on judging last few month’s of events and recently reports, the exit strategy now centers around Dhaner Sheesh and it looks like this:

• Create a splinter group of BNP whom the election commission would give the dhaner sheesh symbol.
• Float multiple smaller parties and create a loose coalition of Jatiyotabadi forces and civil society elements which will include this fake BNP with Ershad’s JP, Badruddoza’s BDB, PDP, Dr. Kamal Hossain’s Gonoforum etc.
• Ensure that this front gets at least 130 odd seats and a majority or at least enough to hold the balance of power.
• Post election, elect General Moeen U Ahmed as the president of Bangladesh by the obedient governing party.
• Create a national security council under the president to make sure that President Moeen U Ahmed have enough power to control the army after his retirement.
• Rule the country via a defacto military-civilian oligarchy
• If any of the above chain of events fail, the election will be stalled. That will also be done in a ‘constitutional’ way. The recent rezoning of the parliamentary districts makes it possible that the stalling of the election will be one law suit away.
• In the event of a violent protests by the political parties, elections will be stalled as well calling it a national security issue and the country will then be effectively ruled by the newly formed national security council or a ‘national unity government’ made up of pet BNP-AL leaders.

Follow the past few months activities, and the next few months, it will all fall into place. Also the recent ICG report has hinted on it as well quoting an unnamed international diplomat.

When or if the dust settles in Bangladesh, we may see a retired army chief as president, another retired army chief as the anti-corruption czar, a retired general administering elections and a security council which takes the advice of three or more generals as to how to manage the country.And this could be the best case scenario for Bangladesh’s civilian democracy.

(more…)

As part of a programme marking the International Women’s Day, the government announced a National Women Development Policy on 8 March (see here). The announced policy was condemned by a section of the clerics as un-Islamic. Specifically, the clerics objected to any possible change to the inheritance laws such that women could get equal inheritance rights as men. On 11 March, the government announced that it had no intention of passing any law that is ‘anti-Islam’ (see here). On 27 March, the government formed a 20-member committee to identify inconsistencies in the policy as per Islamic rules and suggest steps (see here). While the committee deliberated, the clerical opposition continued. Following the Friday prayers on 11 April, violent protests broke out around Baitul Mukarram (see here). On 17 April, the committee recommended that the government amends its policy, replacing any commitment to equality between the sexes with ‘just rights’ for women (see here).

Drishtipat is committed to equal rights - irrespective of age, gender, ethnicity or faith - of all citizens. As such, it supports, without any reservation, equal property and inheritance rights for men and women. But this post is not about the commitment to these rights. Nor is it about theological discussions about what Islam has to say on the matter. Rather, it is about some lessons to be drawn from the developments described in the first paragraph.

(More in Mukti)

If you forgot the brutal godfather from Feni Jainal Hajari and his thugs, he is back albeit online.

http://www.hazarikaonline.com/

Check out his foray into journalism and his ‘fight’ for democracy. It was alarming to see well known columnist Masuda Bhatti’s name in the website. In the fight for restoring democracy, we must pick our allies carefully and search for people who truly believe in people’s rights rather than the ones who want to go back to the system so that they can abuse them. I earnestly hope that Masuda Bhatti’s name was put there as a mistake and she actually has done her home work.

Browse through the site and don’t forget to read up his defence here. The tagline of the site says ’stop talking, start doing’. Wondering what he wants us to start doing — break the hands and legs of fellow journalists, perhaps?

If you don’t know who Hazari is, you can read up on his extra curricular activities here

Barack Obama, with his compelling life story, is inspiring America like nobody has since John F. Kennedy. The child of a black father from Kenya and a white mother from Kansas, and raised by his grandparents, Obama started his political life at the bottom of the food chain as a community organiser in Chicago, and is now reaching for the US presidency.

As a curious outsider, I have watched Obama with polarised emotions over the last couple of months. I have alternated between inspiration and depression; inspired by his magnetic promise for the American youth and saddened by the lack of such leaders at home.

What does Obama mean in the Bangladeshi context? He represents a breed of bottom-up politicians who can inspire and unite the younger generation to dream of tomorrow — and then deliver.

Faisal Salahuddin’s piece here

Today is 7 March. On this day 37 years ago, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman made the most well known speech in Bangla. I don’t know anyone who doesn’t get the goosebumps listening to …amader keu dabaye rakhte parbe na… There is absolutely no denying the fact that the speech marks a milestone in Bangladesh’s quest for freedom. But 37 years on, we’re still waiting for the next speech that never got made.

(More at Mukti)

Mahmud Farooque, from the drishtipat writers’ collective, has chimed in this month’s forum on the reality of political dynasty. Almost a year ago, another blogger in this blog raised a lot of hue and cry with his “Say no to Dynastic Politics” piece. This time Mahmud goes into deep to unearth the cause and the reality of the situation. This study is quite pertinent as we are about to revisit “Minus 2 — the Sequel” in the coming days.

In late December, our progressive, chattering classes — in political addas, opinion pages and the blogosphere — recoiled almost instantaneously in disgust and disbelief upon learning that 19-year-old Bilawal Bhutto was designated to succeed his assassinated mother at the helm of the Pakistan People’s Party, leaving the leadership of the party in the hands of the third successive generation of its founding family.

However, a comparable outrage by the same group was remarkably absent in considering the implications of a Hillary Clinton candidacy, which, if successful, would mean a Bush or a Clinton has been on the US presidential ballot for 28 years and counting. There is an internet site called Bush-Clinton Forever that charts a possible roadmap of keeping either a Bush or a Clinton in the White House till as far as 2057!

So why does the prospect of a Hillary Clinton presidency not raise as many eyebrows among our progressive opinion-makers as does the prospect of a Bilawal Bhutto prime ministership?

When asked, a vast majority of them point to the process, and argue that in the US case the outcome was merely the product of chance and not something determined through an autocratic decree or institutional design. Notwithstanding the disputed results in Florida, there would have been a first Gore rather than a second Bush in the White House in 2001 had the four electoral votes in the state of New Hampshire gone into the Democratic column.

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Something is up…What will be the breaking news in the next few days?

Here is a hint…

The DGFI backed Amadershomoy that asked not so long ago that this government should stay till 2010 is now writing friendly appeals to the two Begums.

On the front page piece, it admits that the 1/11 movement now has no popular support behind and hence the government is looking for alternatives.

The front page story is clearly a threat that a hardlined martial law is coming (”The Country is Heading for a non political solution”). But the reality is different. The fervent activities of Geeta Passi and todays trip by UK foreign secretary David Millbank and their call for immediate election is a sign that there is an urgency on all front.

The big question is — will the junta choose the wise option or will it choose the Musharraf option of suspending the constitution? With the 2nd way, the kingmakers will completely shut out all the safe exit routes for them and the country will head for jalao, porao, logi boitha along with Kaste this time. With the option 1 of not doing any political and judicial engineering and letting things move unhindered, the people behind may still come out unscathed for giving us a meaningful election.

What do you think? What’s cooking behind the scene?

Long time ago, in a galaxy far far away…

There was a Republic where the elected governments actively sought the counsel of the a group of wise beings. The Council of these wise beings consisted of the Jedi — beings who are well-versed in the use of the Force. For a thousand generations, the Jedi kept peace in the Galactic Republic. Then came the Clone Wars, end of the Republic and the rise of the Empire, and resistance against that empire.

Events in that ancient, far away galaxy have a lot of lessons for the present day choices faced in a country that is all-too-close to our hearts. The false promises being made in Bangladesh today, of the council of the wise and a sustained period of stability echo the Republic and the Empire — both fundamentally anti-democratic states.

(More at Mukti)

Advisers look helpless in front of the camera. Statements change everyday but there is no solution to the crisis. Amid all this, the protests are growing larger by the day. The big question is what is the army honchos getting out of dragging this saga for so long ? With a potential of a large scale protest gaining momentum, whose purpose does it serve to create another hoopla in the campus? On one hand there is the charm offensive of dialogue with the political parties and on the other hand the chatter about the potential National Security Council and a Presidential form of govt is unmissable. Amid this backdrop, a potential chaos followed by a crack down will open up ways to bring in some potentially unpopular ordinance. I hope good sense will prevail and the case will be withdrawn against these prisoners of conscience.