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The recent attack on the young ruling party lawmaker Fazle Noor Taposh MP was not the first among deadly forays over politicians of Bangladesh. A common phrase in our country goes like, “where the murderers of Bangabandhu & Ziaur Rahman are never held, there will be no surprise if other high profile murders are let getaway.” Even after the unparallel massacre inside Bangladesh Riffles HQ at Pilkhana, Dhaka, many told that “the murderers here too will getaway and we won’t mind because we’ve seen trials on murders of Sheikh Mujib and Ziaur Rahman unsolved and it doesn’t matter whether we do mind or else”.
- Confusions are being created that why the ministers are extensively making statements to relate the carnage with Bangabandhu assassination trial.
Nobody has anything to deny the fact that most of the legal fights for assassinations or attempts on high profile statesperson have not been properly conclusive just because the government at office has tried to politically utilize the issues, has ignored unhealthy diversion of investigation for sake of discomforting domestic political rivals. This is a tragic fact that’s applicable for almost all trials of the kind.
General population often gets annoyed at the common obsession that our politicians have of debating past sour issues. Here some sentences about past have been written just to amplify the fact that, may be a powerful bomb flew toward a member of the house all of a sudden shook the nation, but it won’t be a surprise if his legal fight too is found to have the same fate of being on pursuit of a zero.
Fazle Noor Taposh MP, although a very young lawmaker and is in quite an early stage of his expectedly brighter political future, has been put on the top of the current political focus by the attempt and it has rang to the minds of us that indeed Fazle Noor Taposh is stringed fervently to various high profile political concerns. He is,
- a notable panel lawyer in the trial on Bangabandhu’s assassination,
- a figure related to the controversy of government’s unpopular dialogue attempt with BDR mutineers at the late night of 25 February, 2009,
- an anticipated select by Sheikh Hasina to fight the upcoming mayoral elections in Dhaka for Awami League,
- and again a very close aide to Sheikh Hasina, almost the most trusted one having a political future brighter than almost anyone of his stage.
These are few positions we consider when we think about how Fazle Noor Taposh MP has been politically being since his appearance to acclaim.
Now let also have a serial of what the senior figures in the ruling party or the government have been saying over the matter.
Advocate Sahara Khatun, the Minister of Interior who already has seen the wrath of few AL leaders for possible security negligence, told “Taposh attack is ‘linked’ to Mujib killer” .
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Syed Ashraful Islam, General Secretary of Awami League and Minister of LGRD & Cooperatives, told “the nation believes the killers of Bangabandhu, the extreme communal and anti-liberation forces were involved with the attack” .
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Barrister Mahbubey Alam, the Attorney General and leader of a pro-AL lawyers’ group, told “The attack on Taposh proves that those who do not want the trial of the murder of Bangabandhu are trying to become active.”
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Barrister Shafique Ahmed, the Minister of Law, told “Taposh attack aimed to save Mujib’s killers”
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Dr. Dipu Moni, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, told “The attack was made by those who don’t want progress in trial of Bangabandhu’s murder”.
I don’t understand that why these senior AL leaders and others are pushing the matter to be a concern of Bangabandhu assassination trial. I mean it can be a fact that those who don’t want the trial being conclusive orchestrated the attack. But this is just a possibility, a speculation; so are the others that attack on Taposh could be a knock-off attempt by his domestic political rivals.
- One of several arrested people is Karmul Haque Shwapon, brother of Maj. Dalim, also a 5-years long neighbor of Sheikh Fazle Noor Taposh MP. We expect the arrest to be a part of true investigation, not by a provocation of some minister’s supra-enthusiasm to relate the case with Bangabandhu’s trial. (Photo: BDNews24)
There has been a complaint made to police and they will investigate it, they will have to do it to dig for the truth. At this stage of investigation where nobody knows more than it was a bomb, the series of statements from AL leaders is just looking like a planned media manipulation where the immense influences are being made to manipulate public opinions. Questions may arise that how the ministers and the Attorney General are so confident that the attackers are linked to Bangabandhu’s assassins. Did the attackers tell them before bombing? Or did Bangabandhu’s assassins confirm that the new generation carnage will take place on Taposh?
This is highly concerning that why respective AL leaders and also the party’s Central Working Committee in absence of Sheikh Hasina is pressurizing the people to believe the attack having a link to Bangabandhu’s trial. What’s their source of confidence, what’s their source of information and finally what’s the motive of such premature statements? There are other grounds those have to be considered, why we have not heard a single person anywhere to talk about that?
Bangladeshi people have already learnt that they have a legal system that is not blind. This system can smell one’s political identity, can see the height of one’s political influence and finally can realize one’s power. The system drives itself in accordance with those feelings that a legal system is immensely malicious to have. Forgoing the attackers of a Member of Parliament won’t be a surprise because murderers of the Presidents and Prime Ministers in this country are let getaway.Facebook users click here.
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M. Tawsif Salam
11 September, 2009, Dhaka
Clockwise: Mohammed Salahuddin Chowdhury, Mohammad Shahjahan, Nurul Haque Miah, Abul Kashem Chowdhury, Shakila Yasmin and Shabbir Ahmed.
Immediately after the horrible 9/11 attacks, the perception about Bangladeshi fatalities was that at least 50 of our countrymen have been missing in the rubles, dead or else. Watching the twin towers of the World Trade Center emitting smokes almost like two sky-scrapping chimneys, initially very few people overseas were concerned about knowing how much people of what nationalities have been victims, apart from those who knowingly had family members, coworkers or friends working in New York’s Lower Manhattan that day.
People of approximately 60 nationalities were among the victims. The initial perception of around 50 Bangladeshis killed was later corrected as there were 12 Bangladeshi victims documented. Now this information too ain’t assuring as there were talks that there could be some Bangladeshis working around but ‘not documented’, might have been in terms of legal measures. This means disappointment, that the actual number of how many Bangladeshis were killed in 11 September 2001 attacks won’t be known ever.
For someone looking for stuffs about the Bangladeshi victims of 9/11, the initial disgust will be offered by the authority of Bangladesh, that’s our government. Throughout a staggering hunt for information about brothers & sisters we lost that day, one will completely fail to get something that can be thought is given or provided by any agencies or departments of Bangladesh government. It’s understandable that during the attack the administration at home was to execute a general election of nearly 70 million voters, so it couldn’t respond at once. But not only years passed rather it’s being almost a decade after a number of Bangladeshi deaths overseas, we rarely found any of our government people to pronounce a word about it or to provide at least some statistics. It can be that we ain’t keen enough to get them so they ain’t keen enough to provide.
Among 12 confirmed Bangladeshis who were killed on September 11, 2001 there are Mohammad Sadeque Ali, Shabbir Ahmed, Nurul Haque Miah, Nurul’s wife Shakila Yasmin, Mohammad Shahjahan, Mohammed Salahuddin Chowdhury, Abul Kashem Chowdhury, Navid Hossain, Osman Ghani and Ashfaq Ahmed. As the Bangladesh High Commission at United States has a confirmation of 12 victims, definitely there are two more names those I’ve failed to mention here. However all the mentioned 10 were the citizens of United States of America and except Ashfaq Ahmed, Navid Hossain & Osman Ghani, I can provide at least something about seven others.
Mohammad Sadeque Ali
Mohammad Sadeque Ali, 62, according to a former Bangladeshi diplomat Syed Muazzem Ali, was a newspaper vendor. He lived in New York’s Jackson Heights with his wife Mumtaz. During the attack Ali was at Lower Manhattan presumably somewhere too-close-to or inside the World Trade Center and was later never found.
Shabbir Ahmed
Shabbir Ahmed
Shabbir Ahmed, 47, worked in the famous ‘Windows on The World’ restaurant on the 106th floor of the WTC North Tower. Migrated to US from Bangladesh in 1981, he loved the job he had in ‘Windows on The World’ and he stayed there for 11 years. Ahmed was married to Jeba and the couple had three children. Ahmed became able to meet his dream of sending all of them for college education. At the time of Ahmed’s death, a son named Tanvir was 16-year old and a daughter that went to Brooklyn College were 19-year old. The family’s home is at Marine Park, Brooklyn, New York. At the time a plane penetrated the tower, Ahmed was at work in his beloved workplace with 89 other coworkers including Mohammed Salahuddin Chowdhury, another Bangladeshi employee in there, reportedly were serving 76 guests; none of the people survived.
Mohammad Shahjahan
Mohammad Shahjahan
Mohammad Shahjahan, 41, lived with his wife Mansura at Spring Valley, a neighborhood at the border of towns Ramapo and Clarkstown at Rockland County, New York. He was a Computer Administrator in the professional service provider & insurance brokerage farm Marsh & McLennan Companies, Inc. (MMC)., which held offices between floors 93 & 100, the ultimate impact zone of the attack. 295 employees including Shahjahan and two other Bangladeshis, Nurul Haque Miah & Shakila Yasmin, were working at MMC at the time of attack; among them nobody survived.
Abul Kashem Chowdhury
Abul Kashem Chowdhury
Abul Kashem Chowdhury, 30, was 2nd generation Bangladeshi-American, child of a former Bangladeshi diplomat. He resided in New York with his family of his wife, parents, a brother and two sisters. A College of Staten Island graduate, Chowdhury was about to pursue a career on computer expertise, which even he had one at financial services farm Cantor Fitzgerald L.P. as a Senior Assistant Analyst. His brother Abul Qaiser Chowdhury said that he and his brother worked to support their family; have been like two arms to their loved ones. During the attack Chowdhury was on the 103rd floor, who even called his brother after the plane made the hit and he was approaching to come down, but the communication was tragically brief and everything was finished in hours. Months before the attack Chowdhury got married to Young Kim, a 2nd generation Korean-American. Kim, remarking his husband as a ‘devoted moviegoer’, was about to go to movies with him after work on the fateful day.
Mohammed Salahuddin Chowdhury
Mohammad Salahuddin Chowdhury
Mohammed Salahuddin Chowdhury, 38, was a Queens, New York resident where he lived with his wife Baraheen Ashrafi. Salahuddin, a Dhaka University physics graduate, migrated to US in 1987. In US he studied real-estate and also obtained a diploma in Computer Science. Initially he worked in Baltimore but later came to New York for something better would come up. He decided to stay in New York in anyways so he started working in the famous ‘Windows on The World’ restaurant as a waiter. Salahuddin & Baraheen had a 6-year old boy. In the time of attacks Baraheen was pregnant and was due to operate at late hours of the fateful date. In fact Salahuddin usually attended the work in evening hours but that day chose to serve in the morning so that he could stay with his wife to the operation. Farqad Chowdhury, born 48-hours after deadly attack took away his father with 88 other coworkers, has been perhaps one of the first 9/11 orphans to be born. HBO’s 9/11 documentary “In Memoriam: New York City, 9/11/01” has covered the tragic fate of Salahuddin’s family.
Nurul Haque Miah
Nurul Haque Miah
Nurul Haque Miah, 35, was born in Bangladesh to an immensely pious family in 1966. A mid-80s immigrant to US, Nurul started working for Marsh & McLennan Companies, Inc., (MMC) in 1986. In 1999 he married Shakila Yasmin; an early-90s immigrant whom he met in a friend’s wedding in 1995 & dated for 5 years. Nurul had a very good reputation at work & was awarded as recognition of merit in MMC. Nurul studied and had a degree in audiovisual technology, as the final position he had in MMC was an Audiovisual Technologist where he worked for 15 years. Nurul’s workplace was on the 93rd floor. But during the attack he was in a meeting on the 99th floor, while his wife Shakila, also an MMC employee, was on the 97th floor; MMC was a tenant holding 8 floors from 93rd to 100th. To mention, all these floors got the worst impact after the plane made hit especially the floors 93th-99th through where the plane actually penetrated, let as assume Nurul and his wife to be two of the very initial victims of the deadly attack.
Shakila Yasmin
Shakila Yasmin
Shakila Yasmin, 26, wife of Nurul Haque Miah, went to US with her parents Sharif A. Chowdhury and Shawkat Ara Sharif when she was 16. She did her S.S.C in Bangladesh and in US got admitted in Wakefield High School in Arlington, Virginia. Obtaining US citizenship in the sixth year of stay, she graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University in 1999 with a degree of Management Information Systems. As told before, she was married to Nurul Haque Miah in 1999, joined her husband’s workplace MMC as a Computer Assistant one year prior to the deadly attack. She was on the 93rd floor when the first plane penetrated the building.
Renaming Brooklyn Streets after Shakila and Nurul
Shakila Yasmin and Nurul Haque Miah
Nurul and Shakila lived in Brooklyn, New York and they had a very good relationship with the neighbors. One of their neighbors Diane Hunt, touched by her neighbors’ tragic deaths, took an initiative to propose renaming of the street in Brooklyn in names of Shakila and Nurul, took the matter to the city council. At her proposition and consent from the fellow councilors, the Mayor of New York City Michael Bloomberg (world’s 8th richest man, the Republican politician who owns Bloomberg L.P) passed a bill 746-A on 29 December, 2005 that renamed a total 67 streets of New York, including the Evington Avenue and the Third Avenue in Brooklyn those got the new name “Shakila Yasmin & Nurul Haque Miah 9-11 Memorial Way”. Mayor Bloomberg, fellow New Yorker Hunt and others who consented in paying respect to our fallen countrymen are yet to receive gratitude officially from Bangladesh. You know we have a lot of real works to do than just go thanking people like recently dead Senator Ted Kennedy who was singled out in US Senate just for talking for Bangladesh in 1971, or the Jewish NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg who honored Bangladesh by naming streets whereas he could choose from people of 59 other nationalities.
M. Tawsif Salam
23 August, 2009. Dhaka.
Majority of the Bangladeshi cricket fans no matter in times of disappointment or pleasure, rarely have denied the fact that the national team contains skilled players required for a pleasant end of a game. It can be that people around have been disappointed immensely for a batsman’s getting out in almost the same way he gets out in most of the occasions; or the one which happens to be more usual for Bangladesh throughout the time that is sudden collapse of the batting order. But rarely has it been told that they couldn’t do because they weren’t meant to do.
However while talking about what they still need and is quite difficult to have, is the consistency of their better performances. In other sense and though it’s a fact that not necessarily a winning game is always the one with good cricket, we can interpret that one of the things the tigers were still looking for has been the consistency of winning. Bangladesh’s consecutive outfighting of Zimbabwe and West Indies can be taken to set up as what we repeatedly call Bangladesh team to have required for years.
Beside good cricket from both the sides a better contribution from the neutral part of the game also seems as a mandatory, which Shane Warne has recently appeared to be concerned about. Recently he was found to lambaste the present day umpiring stating, “The standard of umpiring is as low as I’ve known it in 20 years.” Well, let not just take few disputable decisions to specify a general deterioration. Especially in case of relating the matter with time, it has to be accepted that the advanced use of an advanced technology have made some stuffs quite outcast and mistakes at the grounds are now exposed in a better way. But what really makes us take seriously that are consecutively disputed decisions from certain umpires have very scant record of accountabilities or dramatic improvement.
- Celebration
It really hurts to accommodate any criticism about the ultimate decider of the game in a post-game talk. But talks really do favor in such situations where it sometimes turns to be unbearable and an explication comes up as precedence.
For example we must not mind if Asoka De Silva’s umpiring is brought to attention to at least some extent. Bangladesh team already has received unexpected damages by what appeared to have been disputable decisions of the Sri Lankan umpire. Bangladesh’s tours to Pakistan in 2003 and to West Indies this year are the noted ones.
Asoka as a cricketer has however been impressive in his test debut where he bowled stood nearly as a solid obstacle on ways of the Indian scorers in Colombo back in 1985. As an umpire, well his decisions gave births to few notable flaps. Considering the fact that technology nowadays does even a cruder exposure of man’s mistakes at instance and instead of just regretting a sum of ‘regrettable’ decisions at the international level, there can be suggested a tradeoff between technological aspects and their acceptable contributions to evade any contentiousness among the people around.
- The post-game at Sher-e-Bangla Stadium, Mirpur, Dhaka.
Sunil Gavaskar once has regretted a fact which also we often do; that as the time has advanced it has took away what once was innocence in cricket they had back in their times. Gavaskar told Ayaz Memon on 10 July this year, “There was an innocence about the game when I was kid, which is perhaps not quite there now. I think I would prefer the innocence of the game that was there when I was a teenager.” Things take place which make us think in the same way too. Like, there was some sort of celebration among the fielders in the ground after an opponent batsman made a half-century. It ain’t like such things have disappeared nowadays, but the players are aware that the TV cameras are on them, according to Gavaskar.
After the 4th ODI of Bangladesh-Zimbabwe series in Bulawayo this year, Tamim Iqbal did set something easing Sunil Gavaskar and ourselves too. Charles Coventry’s spectacular 194 not-out ultimately came at nothing for Zimbabwe as Iqbal’s decisive 154 did it sealing the match for Bangladesh. It was the ‘Man of the Match’ trophy that Iqbal was co-chosen for with Coventry and it’s where our point lies. Tamim Iqbal, who’s steady and epic 154 won the match for Bangladesh, stated “I congratulated him (Coventry) and told him that he could keep the trophy. He deserved it… You don’t make world records every day. It was a truly magnificent innings.” That was a good one to ease us as well as Sunil Gavaskar; really a winning habit and else.
This has also been published in the 23 August, 2009 issue of Weekly Economic Times.
Prothom Alo and Daily Star. I actually don’t blame myself while being highly skeptical about two most notable newspapers of our country, because they practically were correlated to my association with blogging in past. I remember the role that Prothom Alo and Daily Star played amid the 1/11 misrule in fact when I started active blogging, where I and many other bloggers can quite rightfully state based upon facts that they were becoming the engineers to establish the public support for the 1/11 regime which appeared to have been having ill-motives against Bangladesh. Whenever we had a confusion about what the then ‘Lord of the Rings’ Gen. Moeen U. Ahmed were trying to say or do, we were used to read Prothom Alo or Daily Star editorials or others’ write-ups inside them. In fact their articles or news reports at that time were written in such way that Gen. Moeen and his conmen were being quite well explained.
- Prothom Alo and Daily Star, have been subjected to several controversies.
Prothom Alo and Daily Star claim themselves to have the highest circulation among those of their competitors, which I don’t deny. And considering them as two leading newspapers of Bangladesh, they have so far faced handful of allegations which I believe no other leading newspaper in Bangladesh did and in most of the countries are too much rare to face. The series of allegations include with, being weapons to knock down their owner’s business rivals, being an unofficial media body to provide subsequent explications of an undemocratic and unlawful government’s series of ill-motivated steps etc. Deeds they did to viciously support the undemocratic 1/11 government should be enough to completely discourage number of people who could have respect on them as honest journalists.
- The Gulshan Avenue house which was raided by perpetrators with sign-board saying “Owner of This Land is ATN Bangla – এই জমি ক্রয়সূত্রে মালিক এটিএন বাংলা”
What Salman F. Rahman today has told, I consider it to be his right to defend himself if someone throws dirt to him. We remember that after the unlawful grab attempt of a Gulshan Avenue residential building by group of people claiming themselves to be conmen of Mahfuzur Rahman holding a signboard which says “This Property Belongs to ATN Bangla”, Salman F. Rahman being a relative to the actual owner of the building got involved in the case to support his family member, and that was the beginning of a series of ATN Bangla reports against both Salman F. Rahman and BEXIMCO. As similar sort of allegations have come forward about Prothom Alo and Daily Star for a number of times before, we cannot mark someone to be completely without logic if he says a same affair might have taken place between Salman F. Rahman and Prothom Alo & Daily Star. More importantly, according to Daily Star editor Mahfuz Anam’s claim that they are committed to present substantial news to their readers, Prothom Alo and Daily Star were supposed to carry out at least a follow-up of the Gulshan Avenue flap, which they eventually didn’t do. So Prothom Alo and Daily Star’s general claim having ‘social responsibilities’ eventually becomes arguable.
- As a reader and subscriber of both Prothom Alo and Daily Star which I was two years back, I will strongly support if someone claims that Prothom Alo and Daily Star both have been a party to the previous 1/11 regime to help them build their public support, as Salman F. Rahman.
I just can put a shortlist of their assistances. Incidentally and now I feel it was most unfortunate that it were Prothom Alo and Daily Star who gave me the first details of the 1/11 coup d’état. However as the 1/11 regime accommodate some tasks in their plans those where necessary for the harmonious run of a state, distinctive parts of their plans can be marked as they were not completely malicious. These not-malicious plans are often chosen to state that “1/11 also did some good things”. These ‘good things’ were given good coverage by Prothom Alo and Daily Star which I don’t think to be disappointing, and to some extent I was not suspecting about their roles or any of its appeared-to-be-association with the 1/11 government till those moments. But after the 1/11 government was on its political plans like minus-1/2, gagging major parties, creating king’s factions in name of reformists, forcing media to filter presentations, torturing journalists, politicians, teachers, students etc., I attentively noticed that Prothom Alo and Daily Star were being at very effective assistance where number of stories were being made to help the government have a convinced group of people and an apparent public support to their position completely against the ongoing political system. Following this notice, my delivery boy was told that no Prothom Alo and Daily Star should be seen in my house any further. Yes, I subscribed both and I unsubscribed both.
- A screenshot from Daily Star website. ATN Bangla and Daily Star seem to have collaboration.
Now, one can ask if I have made detached from two newspapers. Well I haven’t been detached. When any important issue takes place and becomes attention of the majority media, I become curious about what role Prothom Alo & Daily Star are playing and I get in touch with their online edition. In fact their apparent apathy on the grab attempt on that Gulshan Avenue residential building came by my eyes when I specially checked that what’ve been their remark about allegation on their partial media partner (as ATN Bangla and Daily Star works together online in some cases) ATN Bangla in that illegal operation.
Anyways, about the beginning of 1/11, their reports really gave me and most of their readers an idea that the 10 January late night at Bangabhaban was really a scene full of merriness where D. Iajuddin Ahmed laterally handed over the state-running scepter to hands of the then military chief Gen. Moeen U. Ahmed. In fact the book written by Gen. Moeen U. Ahmed almost echoed what was reported by those newspapers on January 11, 2007. These ‘truths’ started being differed after other officials of Bangabhaban who were present during the overthrow and who were notable ‘non-military’, started to open mouths. Claims of the then Press Secretary of the President hint that Bangabhaban that night was an exact stereotype of how a presidential palace becomes amid a coup d’état; military officials in every rooms, regular house officials with faces like they were looking at ghosts, raiding military officials threatening Bangabhaban officials, officials getting to the President with prepared papers and having them signed etc. As the topic Press Secretary has come, I must mention that Syed Fahim Munaim, who was chosen as the Press Secretary to Dr. Fakhruddin Ahmed, was a Daily Star official prior to his appointment to the Chief Advisor’s office.
- For sake of better acceptability of the claims Salman F. Rahman has made, I will suggest that the matter should be taken to the court as soon as possible so that there can be set an exemplary judicial action against Prothom Alo and Daily Star, if Rahman’s claims are found evident.
Incidentally the political targets of the 1/11 regime have been interesting matches with Prothom Alo and Daily Star targets to be defamed with series reports, substantial or insubstantial. Now those newspapers can defend this that the matches have been coincidental or they were simply doing the duties of ideal journalists. But we, the people who read those (at least once have read) newspapers, have opportunities of their analysis and do know that there exists a term called ‘yellow journalism’, won’t like to be fed and satisfied with these fancy ‘social responsibility’ explanations. People will play with the facts. And the claim that Prothom Alo and Daily Star were party to the promotion of unconstitutional and unlawful regime does have facts to back.
At least this has to be appreciated that Salman F. Rahman stood vocal against Prothom Alo and Daily Star despite many of their targets simply had things forgone or dealt by other means. I will expect that the information that Rahman provided have been substantial. For sake of better acceptability of the claims Salman F. Rahman has made, I will suggest that the matter should be taken to the court as soon as possible so that there can be set an exemplary judicial action against Prothom Alo and Daily Star, if Rahman’s claims are found evident. I also wish courage to the honorable judges that before ensuring justice against the practice of any illegitimate journalism, they will overcome the uneasiness of possibilities that they also can become suitable targets of Prothom Alo and Daily Star.
M. Tawsif Salam
19 July, 2009, Dhaka
Group of responsible personalities including government people and the Indian diplomat, have been showing unpalatable stubbornness over the Tipaimukh Dam issue.
Dr. Dipu Moni’s remark about Indian High Commissioner Pinak Ranjan Chakravarty that he breached a diplomat’s code of conduct was not her first remark to be considered as a flap. She received spectacular criticisms after forgoing an Indian journalist who marked Bangladesh as a ‘buffer state’ in a press conference presided by her. People from the top brass of present Awami League government power structure have set some more examples of being kind to forgo a couple of must-protest commentaries of people associated with India. The most recent one was Dipu Moni’s presence in a seminar where Indian High Commissioner added the adjective ‘so-called’ while naming Bangladeshi experts, especially those who are critical to India’s unpopular Tipaimukh dam. After the Chakravarty’s flawless conduct, BNP’s lawmaker Adv. Mahbubuddin Khokon, who is also BNP’s sole representative to the parliamentary body for foreign affairs, demanded immediate expulsion of the rowdy diplomat.
Following Khokon’s demand, Dr. Dipu Moni’s popular remark about Chakravarty’s breaching the code of conduct was almost covering up the controversy that she caused by her silence against humiliation of Bangladesh. Now, it’s to be noted that Dr. Dipu Moni became a part of several events where she received criticisms by either her humiliating silence, or her apparent incompetence to put thrashing replies against what it’s been insulting remark against Bangladesh; and throughout all these Awami League’s attention to her activities never became public. But at a certain point Awami League top brass became really tensed about her statements and took no time to differ what she told about the rowdy diplomat. After no time from Dr. Dipu Moni became coldly vocal about Chakravarty’s rowdiness, Awami League’s spokesperson and the Minister of Local Government and Cooperatives Syed Ashraful Islam said that he at no point thinks that Chakravarty has breached a diplomat’s code of conduct.
Ramesh Sen, the Minister of Water Resources, has done most of the contributions to the series of erratic speeches over Tipaimukh Dam issue. The recent of his performances has been utterly denying that Begum Khaleda Zia has ever sent a letter to the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. Khaleda Zia’s letter to the Prime Minister over her concerns about Tipaimukh has been covered by entire of the media, which our minister Ramesh Sen has confidently denied to have ever taken place.
The Tipaimukh Dam issue has seen more passes than sometimes satirically presented Dutch ‘total football’ could ever have produced or suggested. We don’t know who were midfielders, attackers or defenders, but the passes have been subsequently carried out by the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Water Resources, and Environment & Forest, without much of the senses of their particular roles. Whenever the responsible individuals received stern quizzes about the issue, they either kept passing it to other offices, or made remarks those are solely enough to humiliate the sovereignty of a nation.
The Minister of Commerce Col. Faruk Khan, who in accordance with his official functions wasn’t supposed to be concerned with the issue, claimed all of a sudden that the Bangladeshi experts who are being critical to Tipaimukh issue don’t know anything. Following his statement, Chakravarty made two subsequent comments; one is that the protest against Tipaimukh issue was politically ill-motivated, and the other is no laws on earth could bar India from building Tipaimukh dam. Quoting Chakravarty, Minister of Communication Abul Hossain also told the protest against Tipaimukh dam is insubstantial. Minister of Water Resources Ramesh Sen, who did something more serious than a quotation, told that if there is any negative impact of Tipaimukh dam, Bangladesh should concede the damages at least for sake of the alliance with her greater neighbor.
As it has been told earlier, this series of comments is solely enough to humiliate the sovereignty of a nation. The present government as well as the ruling party, and most importantly Syed Ashraful Islam who was in a hurry to reestablish the submissiveness of his government to the Indian authority by differing Dr. Dipu Moni’s cold protest within hours, should get the note that friendship cannot be imposed. You just cannot pick up a group of people and ask them to recite “Bangladesh and India are friends”, who already are holding newspapers with headlines of Bangladeshi frontier population body-counts to the BSF bullets. Or, you cannot just ask people to accept long-lasting damages just for sake of alliance with a nation which appoints ‘so-called’ diplomats to meddle in our internal politics and humiliate our sovereignty.
People won’t accept speeches from a minister like Ramesh Sen hints to sacrifice Bangladeshi resources for sake of India’s friendship, or of lawmakers like Abdur Razzaq states Bangladesh can make up her desertification by importing Tipaimukh produced power; hence Bangladesh can accept both her desertification and Indian bills just to have power produced in Tipaimukh. These comments hint their loyalties being to something else than the sovereignty of Bangladesh.
This post has also been published at Weekly Economic Times, 26 July, 2009 issue.
From left: Gen. Moeen U. Ahmed, Brig-Gen. Fazlul Bari, Maj-Gen. A.T.M Amin, Lt-Gen. Masud Uddin Chowdhury
Although Gen. Moeen U. Ahmed claimed his 11 January, 2007 unlawful intervention to be something other than a typical coup d’état, the significance of his acts have been too crudely typical. Almost all of the initiatives he took were typical; saving the nation from a nearing ‘civil war’, proposition of all out political reformation, crackdown over corruption etc. Actually there don’t remain a lot more cover-ups that a military ruler can use to defend his outspoken unlawfulness. So the mentioned lollypops were the instruments Gen. Moeen used to form up a façade of his unconstitutional and unlawful regime, suspending the fundamental rights those the people of an independent sovereign state can expect to have.
I’ve heard many people to claim the events of early January 2007 could have triggered a civil war in Bangladesh. It’s highly arguable that whether crying out the imminence of a civil war was really a substantial speculation or was just an excuse to overthrow a uniform government. Such excuses can eventually leave us skeptical because although adversary political activists took the streets no matter whatever ratio they had, no parts of the belligerents were recognized to have ‘military’ wings to drive through a ‘civil war’. At least Gen. Moeen U. Ahmed surely was not a Patton or a Monty to ‘give a chop’ to everything within a night that could have instrumented a countrywide civil war. So probably it was just an excuse to be used to form the public image of the setup that Moeen U. Ahmed with his errand men appeared to have done.
Moeen, however, had to be at good terms with the Indian authority. To mention, his relationship with India has been considerably better than any other military leaders of Bangladesh, becoming the only Bangladesh Army Chief of Staff to be befriended by India's far-right political masterminds.
Now for sake of arguments, I can be looked for to be asked, should Moeen have waited for the civil war getting truly imminent? Well I like to rule out the issue of a civil war, because for a country like Bangladesh which took less than 20 years from her birth to take the track of a consistent democracy, which in fact has had democracy smoothly and praiseworthily running for 16 long years, a civil war just for two conflicting political parties happens to be too fictitious. In fact as a country recognized to have moderate political and religious views, the civil war issue should have been taken as an insult to Bangladesh.
It’s arguable that whether the sudden intervention, or let me say the 1/11 coup d’état can be justified considering the then situation. Some or many people haven’t been disappointed after completely unlawful and unconstitutional sudden intervention of a man and suspension of people’s fundamental rights for indefinite period of time. People haven’t been disappointed at once because they were confused that whether they had lived better in past couple of months in the then atmosphere. Series of street agitations and two party’s being distant everyday turned Bangladeshi politics to severe disarray. Senior leaders of both the parties were set to negotiate and work a solution out but they could give nothing but smiles after they met. So the series of violence and an almost stalemate of Bangladesh, they have been failure of politicians, not politics. But after taking over the state machine what Gen. Moeen U. Ahmed was after has not been just politicians, he was after politics along with all the apparatuses he could have had a control over, legitimately or else.
We often see commentators among us who appear to have allergies of a system other than democracy, especially if it comes as a subject to military takeover of the state machine. Certain class of people now suddenly appear to be looking for rooms to thank Gen. Moeen at for least something he did. After considerably a protracted quest, its told that whatsoever Moeen U. Ahmed once initiated, have come to an end by resuming the democratic process, so he is to be thanked. In fact a military ruler who overthrew a uniform authority which was a party to state’s democratic process, if can be that fortunate ending up by resuming the democratic process, righteously can be considered as something better than just money lending, thus deserves a Novel Peace Prize.
However the Sheikh Hasina government does contain some of Awami League personalities who will like to give these kingpins real hard time.
But the immediate next democratic government of Moeen’s 1/11 rule didn’t act in the way that of a Novel Peace Prize contender should have acted. Ordinances the 1/11 cabinet once passed, the democratic government turned them into laws. Breaching of the constitutions the 1/11 regime frequently did, the democratic government desperately avoids to sue those matters. Not only has this, a cabinet member at the government of Moeen’s ‘resumed’ democracy, stated that Moeen U. Ahmed has been an Abraham Lincoln in the context of Bangladesh. It’s merely unbelievable that how a person under whose command politicians were tortured, university teachers were jailed and tortured, under whose command the fundamental rights of people were suspended, under whose command journalist was beaten half to death for criticizing him, can be compared with Abraham Lincoln. And it appears things won’t remain up to just comparison with great statesmen. Instead of dealing with the allegations, instead of suing for ousting democracy and hundred more criminal offenses at least attributed to have been done, there have been authoritative talks that there can be rewards for. And eventually this reward part, though haven’t taken place yet, explains everything.
*****
This post has also been published in The Weekly Economic Times, 21 June, 2009 issue.
Sergei Lavrov
Moscow, Russia
One of the most dangerous provocations of international terrorism is the attempt to cover it with “religious banners”. Terrorism has no religious or ethnic nature. Its practice and ideology, based on defying fundamental human values, human life being the first among them, are equally alien to all world confessions, nations, and cultures. Terrorism feeds on political, social and economic problems, which have grown more acute – particularly regarding the preservation of the cultural and civilisation diversity of the modern world – as the result of globalisation and corresponding imbalances in world development.
This understanding underlies Russia’s consistent course towards combating terrorism and its ideology by way of uniting the efforts of states and state institutions with the possibilities of civil society, including religious institutions and organisations.
In this connection, let me remind you that Russia is a unique example of peaceful coexistence and cooperation among more than 160 nationalities. There are 23 thousand religious organisations in our country, representing nearly 50 confessions. Respect to other people’s faith, lifestyle, customs and traditions have created conditions for civilian peace and helped ensure stability. Along with other traditional confessions in Russia, Islam has been making its contribution into efforts towards preventing extremism and intolerance and maintaining an atmosphere of tolerance.
Today, furthering the mutually respectful and constructive communication among different confessions is one of the unconditional priorities of Russia’s policy. The inter-religious dialogue is going on very actively within the country, including the Inter-Religion Council of Russia, which unites leaders of the main traditional confessions. We support all international initiatives aimed at promoting inter-religious concord. The Strategic Vision Group “Russia – Islamic World” and the World Social Forum “Dialogue of Civilisations” have been created upon our initiative, and we keep promoting the idea of establishing the Consultative Council of Religions under the auspices of the UN.
We firmly and decisively condemn terrorism in all its forms. Like many countries, Russia has suffered from terrorism. However, in fighting it, Russia has gained a successful experience of complex anti-terrorism efforts that combine military and law enforcement measures with informational, educational, and socio-economic work. Our tangible achievement is the significant reduction of the terrorist threat in Russia, including the North Caucasus, in which international terrorism had been pumping significant funds and efforts.
Russia is among the leading members of global anti-terrorism cooperation that mostly goes in the format of the UN, which has the central coordinating role in this area, and in regional structures. We have also created an efficient bilateral mechanism of anti-terrorism cooperation with more than 30 states, including Islamic ones. These mechanisms are intended for solving practical tasks in the sphere of anti-terrorism.
We also advocate the active improvement of international anti-terrorism instruments. So far, 13 international anti-terrorism conventions have been signed under the auspice of the UN, but those efforts must be continued. Our obvious reserve is the strengthening of the international contractual basis to combat the use of latest technologies, including the Internet, for terrorist purposes. Russia, among others, has stepped forward with relevant initiatives in this area.
* * * * *
The content above has been delivered by Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov, in response to a question asked by Aftab Hussain, Islamabad, Pakistan. The question was: What is Russia’s official policy about terrorism? Does Russia also see terrorism as an Islamic phenomenon, as it is being perceived by the West?
What place the almighty will grant us to keep our faces so that nobody other than a Bangladeshi can see those. There were a lot of allegations. There were a lot of rumors of thousands of millions of dollars smuggled here and there. There were a lot of rumors of earning millions of taka out of electric posts made of local wood god knows how those could leave opportunities of earning this much amount. These were pushed to courts and judges at gunpoint or out of gunpoint nobody found any of them evident yet. Nobody in Bangladesh, or out of Bangladesh never saw materials or evidences of these allegations directly or indirectly or anyways. None of anything was seen by people. But what finally came to everybody’s eyes are tormented face of him, his broken vertebral column and different part of the body covered with clean bandages. The following short movie has been re-posted from blog of Jingo. The movie is named We Won’t Forgo The Inhuman Torture on Tareq Rahman, made by something called Jingo Interactives.
xanthis
October 31, 2008.
Dhaka.
The present undemocratic, unelected and constitutionally proscribed government has virtualized a barometer that they use as a probability scale for the upcoming general election in December. They say this scale to be strictly showing that there will be a free and fair election in December this year. Every time an issue stands up that causes confusion over the election, they are to become stronger in their voices that “there is no confusion over election, politicians shouldn’t spread confusions”. Yesterday New Age editor Nurul Kabir has added some satire over the reality, that even the advisers, the fellow cabinet members when they are reached by him in some social gatherings, express their own confusions over the election when their conversation turns to a little more personal to nearer ones.
[Nurul Kabir told in Channel One’s Nirbachito Khobor:
বর্তমান সরকারের যারা উপদেষ্টা রয়েছেন, এখানে সেখানে তাদের সাথে যখন আমাদের কথা হয়, কানে কানে জিজ্ঞেস করলে তারাই তো বলেন, কি জানি ভাই ইলেকশান হবে কি না জানিনা]
Highest ranked people of the government among those who can be reached by the press but do not enjoy the power of the policy-maker, actually have no reasons to be believed as the reflectors of the real scene that his going on inside the present regime.
The truth is getting brighter as the election is closing in, that is they are only the civilian cream of a military backed government, is the velvet covers of an unwanted iron hand, should be designated as nothing more than errand men. As far as they are not allowed at the policy-making end of this regime, it’s expected that many of their speeches will have contradiction to the reality, as they themselves are not told the full story. So, it won’t be our bad if we underline the Appellate Division’s rejection of Hasina’s bail appeal two days after the unofficial spokesperson of this undemocratic regime Hossain Zillur Rahman told that there remains no legal blockade that could bar Sheikh Hasina and Begum Zia from the general election. People, who immensely look for a free fair election but never have come to believe this regime’s fable of a free and fair election in December this year, may remain impassive after the Appellate Division has made Hossain Zillur looking like a fool. But people, who have been nourishing their utmost optimism over a free and fair election by the end of this year, now should rethink a few things those they should have been taking under consideration from long before.
What can be a more unpalatable misfortune than a nation having this much uncertainty over an election that is very much up ahead? How somebody can have the right to blame others, who themselves tomorrow states the election will surely take place and the other day say there remains uncertainty? Don’t we find a free and fair election was never certain if we look back?
There are a lot of reasons to not get convinced that a free and fair election will take place by the end of this year. There have been many times where this regime has gone through the other way than what they told. There have been many times the words given by this regime has been proved to be fake and for sake of buying time by convincing the people. I have previously written these same very sentences many times in many posts. I like to show some reasons behind this of my opinions. Readers are requested to keep patience while going through my reasons given here.
• Naked partialities in arbitrary arrests of politicians. Arbitrary arrests of politicians and shameless partiality to protect leaders those had belief on this regime more than a priest has on Christ. Do you think Sadek Hossain Khoka, Mannan Bhuiyan, Tofael Ahmed all are saints thrown from the heaven?
• Patronage for establishing traitors’ factions in both the parties. The line between traitors and loyalists in BNP is now too clear because the October 29 hijack attempt was too noisy. On the other hand the attempt over Awami League has been a semi-success completely under disguise and still in action. Do you think Tofael-Amu-Suranjit-Razzaq quadro even does care about what Zillur Rahman thinks and wants? Don’t you know Sheikh Hasina had wanted names of those went to Heathrow to receive Amu? Don’t you know Sheikh Hasina sat him at the waiting room for hours and finally hasn’t seen him?
• Double role about dynastical appointments. One of the major issues of this regime’s overthrowing the democracy was, removing political dynasties and family favouritism. BNP’s reformist Enam A. Chowdhury, kingpins of Oriental Bank scandal Selim A. Chowdhury and Masud A. Chowdhury, Foreign Adviser Iftekhar A. Chowdhury all are brothers having same parents. D. Fakhruddin Ahmed is their sisters’ husband while Hassan Mashhud Chowdhury is a cousin. Nazim Qamran Chowdhury, the husband of ex-adviser Geeti Ara Safia Chowdhury, who is charged in a graft charge, is another cousin who has never been sued. All these men and women from a single Sylheti Chowdhury family, can you show me a more depraved example than this ever took place in Bangladesh? Note it, the Oriental Bank misappropriation was done when D. Fakhruddin was the Governor of Bangladesh Bank.
• Spiteful biasing of the anti-graft drive. The ACC anti-graft drive, more than a jihad to abolish corruption, has been a tool of political repression and keeping some officials under the thumb. GATCO graft case, which pulled almost all of the senior BNP 2001 cabinet members to the court, had two important names as suspects of grafts. They are D. Sadat Hussain and Maniklal Samaddar. These two have been cleared by the ACC investigation. D. Sadat, the overnight shushil, is now the Public Service Commission chairman and Manik Lal Samaddar has been named as the special assistant to Fakhruddin, equivalent to a minister. Anti-graft mujahidin, eh?
• Minus Two Formula. There is no reason to forget the hide & seek game with Sheikh Hasina and unofficial house arrest of Khaleda Zia. There is no reason to forget the Home Ministry resolution that described how a threat Sheikh Hasina is to the national security and tranquility. Continuous attempts to send Begum Zia abroad for physical treatment and her constant denial are also not to be forgone.
• Election Commission’s complete loss of reliability. Can’t we remember how impudently the Chief Election Commission backed the unscrupulous treachery inside a political party? The CEC on September 1, 2007 told,
“জনাব মান্নান ভূঁইয়ার বহিস্কারাদেশটা অবৈধ ছিল, এটা শুধু আমিই মনে করি না, কমিশনের সবাই মনে করেন। এসব বিবেচনা করেই হাফিজুদ্দিন আহমেদকে চিঠি পাঠানো হয়েছে। আরে বিএনপির তো সংবিধানই ঠিক নাই। যাইহোক, এসব রাজনীতির কথা, এখানে এগুলো বলে লাভ নাই। কেচো খুড়তে সাপ বেরিয়ে আসবে।“
Is this a statement from a man who is supposed to be neutral? A strong example of political mistreatment and unreliability lies in that statement from the Chief Election Commissioner. Now it’s your decision that whether he and his team are credible for a free and fair election.
• Obscure treatment with Sheikh Hasina. If I am not wrong Sheikh Hasina was supposed to return home a week after the Eid-ul-Fitr. Now, there are happening a lot of talks invisibly so that all the realities cannot be explicable clearly. But having only some weeks before the election, Sheikh Hasina is still being obscurely barred to return home. Her party leaders ain’t seen sound to have her back to action. These are not at least signs of sincerity for a free fair election. This is also a reference to the second point.
• Indefinite enforcement of emergency rules and denial to withdraw. Whereas the whole nation wants withdrawal of emergency rules, whereas both of the major parties wants the withdrawal without a delay, whereas one of the initial moral backers of this regime, the European Union wants the lift of these rules, the government is suspiciously and illegitimately wary to lift this tool of repression. A regime, who doesn’t feel comfortable to rule without having rights of people and freedom of all barred by the emergency rules, is difficult to rely for prosperous moves.
• Impudent partiality. Playing blind about Ali Hasan Mujahid has been too noisy. Complete surrender to Islamic organizations has been too naked. Ali Hasan Mujahid’s meeting with Chief Adviser under an issued arrest warrant has abolished the total neutrality of the present government. It’s not like they have been neutral in all other cases than Mujahid’s one, but their sacred treatment of Ali Hasan Mujahid has been a shameless showdown and it came clear that, they are not to be relied as neutral.
After having all these points in knowledge, can we be so bum to count days for a free and fair election? Under this government?
xanthis
October 26, 2008
It’s been exact three years of my nearly witnessing a severe road accident. It was the October 26 night of 2005 on our way to Cambridge from Stratford, East London; a dark blue Lotus M1oo overtook our National Express bus. The vehicle was dangerously quick and the driver looked too good with his wheels as it had the tremendous speed although there was quite a rush at the highway. But I said it was mere dangerous. Hardly some minutes passed after I, for the last saw the rear lights of Lotus M100, as our bus went ahead a little far and the worst was found. The blue Lotus M100 crashed at the place where the right-handed lane of the highway was divided to two routes, one to Cambridge and straight I didn’t know. The crash initially looked pretty bad. We could see the rear part of the car was a little lifted up to few inches from the asphalt. Rear glasses were transparent so the suddenly appeared bluish airbags were visible. Our driver was grudgingly passing by the scene too slowly for a highway as well as all the vehicles on our line were doing so. The crash site which was never more than two to three minutes old when we first had that at our sight and the surprise for all South Asians of the bus including myself from Bangladesh was the surroundings of the crash, cordoned by police personnels, the whole highway was turned to nearly illuminated with blue and red lights of ambulances and patrol cars. We passed by and the bus got back its usual highway speed. After some while the driver of our bus god knows from where learnt so, did let us know that two passengers, both male, survived the severe crash and have been rushed to hospital. The accident chapter at my thought was soon shut as we were in a hurry to Cambridge. It was my mother’s birthday and we were carrying a chocolate cake bought from a Sainsbury’s shop at Stratford. The cake was about to lose its speciality if we couldn’t make it before 11:59PM, before her birthday’s getting a day older. But it was beyond everything that I was really amazed with a so rapid response of police and medical agencies to rush to the crash site and rescuing the victims.
Bangladesh Highway Police was first introduced in 2004. We have never got in touch with any statistics that how the situation of Bangladesh road traffic accidents (RTA) have gone better after the formation of a whole new unit devoted to serve the highway matters. We are also not familiar with the reality that whether there has been any improvement or it has gone worse. Heavy rain, foggy weather in the winter, extra rush due to two Eid vacations are special cases when we are never to miss the news headlines of deadly automobile accidents at our highways, specially two notorious ones, the Jamuna Bridge link road at Elenga, Tangail and the whole of the Dhaka-Chittagong highway. Bangladesh is one of the most usual to face this problem increasingly and we can blame and we can throw the responsibilities of these mishaps arbitrarily to the police forces for their poor management of putting some control on highway drivers and off course the post-accident handling. But those who have got in touch with some severe highway accidents anyways, will be found a little exceptional about this blaming part, must protest it and must state it that the Bangladesh Police are the first and fastest governmental agency to respond any deadly or any highway automobile accidents. Their transportation, their manpower and their effort is almost one of the unique one that accident victims get for being helped.
The thing needed is the proper coordination of all government abilities behind helping the issue of these highway accidents and massive loss of lives. Medic teams after each five miles won’t serve the purpose if the drivers on the highway are presented with a relaxed enforcement of traffic rules. We hailed the services of police at the aftermath of a highway automobile accident, but their role before the occurrence must be strengthened. In most of the cases of highway accidents in Bangladesh, the spot is almost never found without fatalities. Especially reckless driving in special occasions mentioned earlier, end up with a larger number of fatalities and in most of the cases with dead and badly disfigured drivers themselves. Little strict coordination of related institutions of the government can deal with these mishaps. It’s about saving lives of people, on their way to home or work or elsewhere.
