Helping to write History

Helping to Write History
By Eli SaslowWashington Post Staff WriterThursday,

The job requires him to work unnoticed, even in plain view, so Jon Favreau settles into a wooden chair at a busy Starbucks in the center of Penn Quarter. Deadline looms, and he needs to write at least half a page by the end of the day. As the espresso machines whir, Favreau opens his laptop, calls up a document titled "rough draft of inaugural" and goes to work on the most anticipated speech of Barack Obama's life.......................

US Superpower status is shaken

US superpower status is shaken
By Paul Reynolds World affairs correspondent, BBC News website

Will Uncle Sam still bestride the world in future?The financial crisis is likely to diminish the status of the United States as the world's only superpower. On the practical level, the US is already stretched militarily, in Afghanistan and Iraq, and is now stretched financially. On the philosophical level, it will be harder for it to argue in favour of its free market ideas, if its own markets have collapsed....................................

US Superpower status is shaken

US superpower status is shaken

By Paul Reynolds World affairs correspondent, BBC News website

The financial crisis is likely to diminish the status of the United States as the world's only superpower. On the practical level, the US is already stretched militarily, in Afghanistan and Iraq, and is now stretched financially. On the philosophical level, it will be harder for it to argue in favour of its free market ideas, if its own markets have collapsed........................

Pakistan: the New Frontline

Pakistan: the new frontline
Washington's military strategy in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region is expanding its range of enemies,

writes Paul Rogers

BY THE end of August 2008 it was clear that Afghanistan was becoming the principal focus of the George W Bush administration's war on terror. Iraq was believed to be making a transition to some sort of peace after more than five years of war; but as the violence there at last showed some signs of diminishing, so the problems in Afghanistan were escalating.......................

BNP to Continue Good Steps: Khaleda

If elected, BNP to continue good steps of interim govt,

Let JS review bad ones.... Khaleda Zia

tells New Age in an exclusive interview Staff Correspondent
Former prime minister and chairperson of Bangladesh Nationalist Party, Khaleda Zia, has said that her party, if voted to power again, ‘may have to accept some irregularities’ of the present regime ‘which has set its own course, tenure, jurisdiction and agenda’................

Pakistan On The Brink

Pakistan On The Brink

is at the center of a gathering fire storm engulfing south and central Asia in the most volatile confrontation since 9/11. Pakistan, Afghanistan, the US and NATO all bear heavy responsibility for the crisis. AHMED RASHID

For the past seven years the Bush administration studiously ignored the Afghan Taliban and Al Qaeda leadership gathering in the tribal areas of Pakistan, and now scrambles to make up for lost time. US elections are looming, and facing the humiliating prospect of Osama bin Laden outlasting a two-term presidency and even expanding his reach, Bush has pushed the Pentagon into a do-or die-hunt for bin Laden. Whether the search for an "October surprise" for the election succeeds or not, the radical threat is now beyond easy military solution........

Sea of Poppies

'The Ghazipur And Patna Opium Factories Together Produced The Wealth Of Britain'

At an age when other writers begin to worry about running out of words, the author of Sea of Poppies has just embarked on his biggest writing project. It's a labour of love, he says.

SHEELA REDDY

At 52, life couldn't get any better for Amitav Ghosh. At an age when other writers begin to worry about running out of words, he has just embarked on his biggest writing project. It's a labour of love, he says in an interview with Sheela Reddy, that will perhaps keep him busy for the rest of his writing life. The first of his serial magnum opus, The Sea of Poppies, will hit the bookstores on June 1...............................

CTG is in a state of Redundancy

FAKHRUDDIN GOVERNMENT IS IN A STATE OF REDUNDANCY
Can the political leadership regain initiative?

NM Harun

There was or is nothing unavoidable or inevitable about whatever has happened during the periods of the BNP-Jamaat government, the caretaker government of Iajuddin Ahmed or the current Fakhruddin Ahmed government or whatever will happen at the demise of this government. Everything happens because of decisions – be they right or wrong – the actors in politics or the power game take in their wisdom or stupidity.......................

The trial of war criminals

The trial of war criminals: a litmus test

NM Harun

Freedom-fighters are freedom-fighters and war criminals are war criminals in the context of the War of Independence. In the post-’75 Bangladesh, the freedom-fighters are remnants of a radical, revolutionary past that is no longer cherished by the Islam-pasand, neo-liberal political class. The players in the power game are actually busy playing the musical chairs of power though they occasionally mouth the slogan of trying the war criminals as a convenient political tactic …Those who are committed to the cause of trying the war criminals need to stop the process of the ‘destruction of the past’ and link their ‘contemporary experience’ to that of the birth of Bangladesh ..................

The defenning silence

The deafening silence of echoes from the past

NM Harun

What is certain is that the powers that be are finding the prolongation of the queer Fakhruddin government increasingly problematic. Hence all the talk about dialogues between the government and the political parties or the disclaimer about the military’s support for constitutionalism and their non-interest in takeover of power. Concerns are also expressed by sections of civil society about plausible ‘exit formulas’ of the emergency rulers. These are signs of power struggle among the rulers themselves and not of political development …One wonders what kind of solution the powers that be may come up with for the real world problem of power struggle through the application of the process of elimination of the exotic political formulas and schemes. That will determine the course of politics in the near future.................

General Moeen's extension

General Moeen gets extension: time for the court to act

NM Harun

At the present ‘critical juncture of the nation’, the court under Chief Justice Ruhul Amin has two options: either a) uphold the rights of the people through judicial activism or b) uphold the Emergency Powers Rules and facilitate political engineering at the behest of the powers that be…Which way will the Supreme Court eventually go? Let us keep our fingers crossed
There is nothing unusual for a government servant to get extension of his job tenure. General Moeen U Ahmed has taken care to explain the ordinary nature of the recent extension of his tenure as army chief by one year. General Moeen loves to describe the media as the parliament in the absence of an elected parliament in the country now. He got the order extending his tenure on April 6. He convened the so-called media-parliament on April 8 at the Army Headquarters and, as it were, celebrated the good turn of his career by hosting a potato-dominated lunch with the attending editors and senior journalists. Popularising potato-eating as a complement to rice consumption is the latest campaign of the general. What a good sense of humour!......................

Hasina's writ against EPR

Hasina’s writ against EPR: on the dock is the rule of law

NM Harun

As the court got involved in the matter of preparing a proper electoral roll during the periods of the BNP-Jamaat government of former prime minister Khaleda Zia and the caretaker government of Iajuddin, so now, during the period of the military-installed emergency government, it finds itself in the thick of the process of political engineering
In the high drama of politics is usually lost the crucial role the court plays – through action, ambivalence, inertia or inaction – in the life of a modern democratic state. Alexis de Tocqueville, the most authentic and prescient chronicler of the American democratic experience, in his classic book Democracy in America, wrote about 170 years ago:..................

Kpaliks are on prowl

Kapaliks are on the prowl

NM Harun

In the maddening confusion of the open-ended reforms programme of the emergency regime is hidden vital issues of restructuring the polity as well as the state. This is against the backdrop of historical debates over Bengali nationalism versus Bengali Muslim nationalism, secularism versus Islamisation or socialist path versus capitalism and in the present-day contexts of the rise of a new-rich crony capitalist class, increasing influence of the military and NGOs and, above all, the hegemony of Pax Americana
Fidel Castro in his April 15 ‘Reflections’, published in the Cuban official newspaper Granma, mildly admonished a section of the Cuban press for its gullibility while discussing the current situation of Cuba. He warned the Cubans against the danger of being credulous, casual or rash in matters of political thinking....................

Politics Vs.election roadmap

Politics versus electoral roadmap: a situation too fluid to call

NM Harun

Talk of election seems to be premature. The immediate outlook is a clash between the political parties and the powers that be on the issue of releasing Hasina and Khaleda. Only if the political parties lose the battle, the powers that be will be able to stage an election of their choosing, manufacture the election results and perpetuate themselves in power in whatever shape they want. On the other hand, if the political parties succeed in seizing the initiative from the powers that be, it will be an altogether new ball game .........................

My Brother Dulal

My brother Ferdous Alam Dulal
by Shamsul Alam Belal
ON MAY 7, 1981 Ferdous Alam Dulal was killed along with the eminent labour leader Abdur Rahman on Bijoy Nagar Road in the capital. His death was a bolt from the blue for our family. Our mother, who had already lost two of her sons in their minor age, refused to accept that Dulal was no more among us; she still doesn’t. The second among nine children of my parents, Dulal was born in the first half of January 1951. Our mother had extra affection for him, maybe because he was her only fair-complexioned son with a large head, thick curly hair, slim but tall figure and an innocent fact. He used to be timid in his adolescence but became somewhat bohemian in his youth..........................

Please tell us what is happenning ?

Please tell us what is happening

by Shamsher Chowdhury

Honourable Chief Adviser I am once again disturbed by the news that the ‘night runners of Bengal’ have visited the house of one of the teachers of the University of Dhaka. Do you not think that the lessons learnt from the last episode were bad enough? Could it be that the operation was carried out without your knowledge?......................

Megalomania usually brings disasters

Megalomania usually brings disasters

The interested quarters have floated an idea that the proposed dialogues between the government and the political parties should adopt a so-called Citizens’ Charter to be followed by any future elected government. This means the promoters of the dialogues want the political leaders to collaborate with the powers that be in improvising a sort of supra-constitution

NM HARUN

At the present juncture of the country, when the reforms agenda of the emergency regime has floundered, public discontent with the failures of the government in handling the food crisis and price spiral is rising and the emergency regime has lost much of its shine, the powers that be need either to redeem their pledge of returning power to an elected political government or find an excuse to extricate themselves from the bindings of that pledge..........................

No Need for National Security Council

No need for national security council

Why the armed forces are insisting that a national security council has to be formed which will ensure peace in the country? The people at large feel that they should not go back to a situation existing before the proclamation of the state of emergency. But that does not mean that in the post-election scenario the armed forces will call the tune. No political leaders worth his salt will accept it,

writes Achintya Sen

New Age recently reported that a high-level government meeting in principle had approved a proposal for the establishment of the much talked-about national security council. The meeting asked the officials concerned to submit a draft ordinance before the council of advisers in a month............................

Democracy can ensure equality

Democracy can ensure equality only when aided by secularism

In these days, when religious intolerance and conflict is increasing, neutrality of the state in religious matters is all the more necessary. If religion of the majority is given the status of state religion it will not only be discriminatory against religious minority but within the majority religious community also it will encourage the forces of orthodoxy, priestcraft and extremism and inter-sect hostility based on misinterpretation of the scriptures, ...........................

writes Zakeria Shirazi

On the question of Legacy

On the question of legacy

It is evident that the Election Commission is far from independent and that it often operates under duress, at the dictates of some silent and powerful entity having links to the government and under its tacit support,

writes Shamsher Chowdhury

AS OF now this government stands completely isolated from the majority of the people of the country. No matter what might or might not have been the cause of high prices of essentials, particularly food grains, the people’s perception seems to be that it has been largely due to the government’s failure to take timely measures in putting a check on soaring prices....................

The defencing silence

The deafening silence of echoes from the past

NM Harun

What is certain is that the powers that be are finding the prolongation of the queer Fakhruddin government increasingly problematic. Hence all the talk about dialogues between the government and the political parties or the disclaimer about the military’s support for constitutionalism and their non-interest in takeover of power. Concerns are also expressed by sections of civil society about plausible ‘exit formulas’ of the emergency rulers. These are signs of power struggle among the rulers themselves and not of political development …One wonders what kind of solution the powers that be may come up with for the real world problem of power struggle through the application of the process of elimination of the exotic political formulas and schemes. That will determine the course of politics in the near future.................

Broken Pendulum

Broken pendulum: radicalism revisited
It is impossible to deny that in the political culture of Pakistan and Bangladesh, the democratic filter have been easily bartered and dismissed by weak political leadership, a military with historical political ambitions, a vacuum that has allowed the domination by radicalised religious political parties and a complacence of the populace and the international community not to hold leaders to standards that best serve the interests of the people,

writes Tazreena Sajjad
ON FRIDAY, January 11, the Hudson Institute hosted a discussion on Maneeza Hossain’s book Broken Pendulum: Bangladesh’s Swing to Radicalism. Hossain’s argument in its basic form is that the current government, while trying to root out corruption, is corroding democracy and creating the impetus for the rise of radical Islamism. Through the process of de-legitimising the democracy project, grounds are being established for a virulent form of political Islam that is fast spiralling out of state control and oversight......................

A Million Mutinies

Magazine Mar 31, 2008
A Million Mutinies Within No hagiography:
'He believed that a less than candid biography would be pointless, and his willingness to allow such a book to be published in his lifetime was at once an act of narcissism and humility.'

PATRICK FRENCH

Patrick French's authorised biography of V.S. Naipaul, The World Is What It Is (Picador India, 576 pp, Rs 595), is no hagiography. On the contrary, it is a searingly honest and insightful portrait of a flawed and tormented genius. Reproduced below are three extracts-the first from French's illuminating Introduction to the book; the second charting how Naipaul's views on India evolved and changed over 30 years; and the third from an extraordinary later chapter, in which Naipaul loses one wife and gains another, even as he discards his mistress..................

Remebering Jahanara Imam

Remembering Jahanara Imam: the distraction of ‘dialogue’
NM Harun

It is a truism that any authoritarian intervention like the present emergency rule in countries like ours which have legacies of democratic struggle will eventually be replaced by an elected government. But of immediate interest now is to observe the behaviour of the political leaders and parties: how they carry on the urgent democratic struggle of the people during this difficult emergency period

The issue is the same but the perspectives are different. The Ghatak Dalal Nirmul Committee (Committee for the Elimination of the Killers and Collaborators of 1971) held a mock trial of the war criminals on March 26, 1992. Sixteen years later, on March 21, the Sector Commanders’ Forum held a national convention of the freedom-fighters to press home their demand for the trial of war criminals.............................

Coutdown to Freedom

Countdown to Freedom
Forum takes you back to the days leading up to March 26, 1971

Reheman Sobhan and Hameeda Hossain

This month we commemorate March 26, 1971, Bangladesh's independence day, the day we threw off the yoke of foreign domination and emerged on the world stage as a proud and independent nation, the day we set into motion a nine-month long war that would lead, through despair and devastation, ultimately to liberation...............

People are not befooled by election talk

People are not befooled by election-talk

NM Harun

The question now is simply of choosing either of the two paths – either (a) following in the footsteps of Thailand and Pakistan, have faith in and respect for the people and try to repair the political process through the holding of the stalled elections to the ninth parliament sooner rather than later or (b) perpetuate the authoritarianism, as Burma has done, in the bureaucratic arrogance of superiority over the people with the dire prospect of facing, unlike in Burma but as in the past in our country, popular protest, unrest and resistance to military-driven political engineering..............................

Odhikar: Human Rights Violation

Torture, human rights violations continue:

Odhikar Staff Correspondent

Odhikar, a human rights organisation, on Tuesday cautioned the government about the continuation of torture of the arrested persons and violation of human rights under the state of emergency. ‘It is reported that allegations of torture and violations of human rights continue under the state of emergency. Suspects were picked up by the law enforcement agencies, detained and tortured while they were in custody or during remand in order to extract evidence to use against them or others,’ said Odhikar in a report on the eve of the 13th month of emergency..............................

Tortured Truths

Tortured truths

It was a medieval idea that pain had to be inflicted on the body for truth to pour out. The purpose of modern torture is different. To instil fear. To crush political dissent. To wreak havoc and destroy lives. Often performed out of sheer habit. To assert supremacy. To possess nations. To build empires anew, writes Rahnuma Ahmed

AS A little child, when I was only three or four, I couldn’t understand how people could still see me if I shut my eyes. Later, like most people, I grew up. I realised shutting my eyes didn’t make me any less visible to others...................................

Fundamental choices facing Bangladesh

Fundamental choices facing Bangladesh: Godot does not arrive

NM Harun

The irony in the present-day Bangladesh is that the microscopically small nouveau riche class, which is based on crony capitalism and is also comprador in nature, has the military apparently with it and has virtually seized state power. But this class has not yet succeeded in creating –– and does not have the potential of creating any time soon –– a viable political party or parties of its own. The Awami League, despite its wooing of this treacherous class, still maintains its umbilical links with the petty bourgeoisie and its tactical/periodical alliance with the parties and forces which are or claim to be progressive, left-leaning and leftist; the BNP and the Jatiya Party, both creations of the cantonment, are too weak to protect as well as serve the nouveau riche class. In the vacuum, the military has been lording it over the caricature of a caretaker government that the Fakhruddin government is and trying to create an impression that it is the saviour of the nation........................................

Welcome ACC Plan

Welcome ACC plan to bring army under anti-graft surveillance
Bangladesh’s image at home and abroad as a country reeling from pervasive corruption at almost every level of society is a reflection of ground realities that ordinary Bangladeshis encounter in their daily lives. As such, any legal measures adopted to tackle corruption are not only welcome, it is important for such measures to be as pervasive, leaving out no section of society from its remit of operations...........................

Democracy depends on two "begums"

Democracy depends on our two ‘begums’
The future of our democracy depends not on the implementation of ‘minus-two’ by our generals nor on the ability of the civilian façade of the powers that be, i.e. the interim government of Fakhruddin Ahmed and the Election Commission headed by ATM Shamsul Huda, to fashion acceptable general elections to the ninth parliament. It depends instead, whether we wish to believe it or not, on the ability of our two major political leaders – the two ‘begums’ as the Economist refers to them – to rise out of the ashes and to lead their parties and our country in a new direction, writes Shameran Abed......................

Conspitorial moves by the Govt.

Conspiratorial moves the name of the game: who will bell the cat?

All sorts of wild speculations, made in utter disregard to the constitution, are doing the rounds in total impunity and at times with the indulgence of the powers that be. Advancing formulas of power struggle -- be it even through staging parliamentary elections -- outside the purview of the constitution is tantamount to seizing power through conspiratorial means… In this juncture, the key to politics lies with Hasina and Khaleda who have succeeded to retain, unquestionably, the leadership of their respective parties, the Awami League and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party. They are apparently playing it cool: if they survive, they will win; but their tormentors need to win to survive

NM Harun

An accomplished intellectual, Muhammad Habibur Rahman, had the rare opportunity to head the judiciary of the country as chief justice and also to adorn the position of the head of the government as chief adviser. He thus has, from his real-life experiences, a holistic view of the state of Bangladesh....................................

A Photo -op fraught

A photo-op fraught with misgivings

Autocratic regimes can ensure stability through confiscating people’s rights and spreading fear. However, peace and stability gained through oppression is always fragile and short-lived. If nothing else, one can hope that our chief adviser has realised this by sharing a stage with the likes of Musharraf and Karzai,
writes Shameran Abed

THEY say a picture is worth a thousand words. A picture that was splashed on the front pages of almost every major newspaper in this country last weekend, of our chief adviser, Fakhruddin Ahmed, posing with Pakistan president Parvez Musharraf and Afghan president Hamid Karzai in Davos, may be worth a few more. That the three leaders and the Iraqi deputy prime minister, Barham Salih, who somehow managed to escape the photo-op, were placed in the same panel by the organisers of the World Economic Forum tells its own story. But the picture that emerged from the panel, of the three leaders holding hands and smiling for the cameras, showed enough for even the staunchest supporters of this present undemocratic dispensation to feel a little queasy........................................

The Blood on your Hand

The blood on your hands Fakhruddin Ahmed’s government –

which incidentally promised accountability and decency in governance after its assumption of power – has seen at least 176 deaths in custody, some of them so terrifyingly gruesome that even a written account is too graphic for consumption, writes Mahtab Haider
The home ministry’s recent directive to the law-enforcement agencies that cautions them on deaths of detainees in their custody, though it may well end up being empty rhetoric, deserves praise. Praise because it is this government’s first open admission that the phenomenon of extrajudicial killings is not only continuing unabated but also that a senior adviser in the military-controlled interim government, former general MA Matin, finds the trend significant enough to discuss it with top officials from the law-enforcement agencies, and then issue a directive to this effect...............................

The blood on your hand

The blood on your hands
Fakhruddin Ahmed’s government – which incidentally promised accountability and decency in governance after its assumption of power – has seen at least 176 deaths in custody, some of them so terrifyingly gruesome that even a written account is too graphic for consumption, writes Mahtab Haider

The home ministry’s recent directive to the law-enforcement agencies that cautions them on deaths of detainees in their custody, though it may well end up being empty rhetoric, deserves praise. Praise because it is this government’s first open admission that the phenomenon of extrajudicial killings is not only continuing unabated but also that a senior adviser in the military-controlled interim government, former general MA Matin, finds the trend significant enough to discuss it with top officials from the law-enforcement agencies, and then issue a directive to this effect...............

Elections unlikely in 2008

Elections unlikely in 2008
Despite the much-touted Road Map, the feasibility of holding the parliamentary elections in 2008 is in question: A PROBE report

Rangs Bhaban, in its dilapidated state, has attained iconic status. The caretaker government, in its tirade against corruption, saw fit to pull down this tall structure as it had been illegally constructed and that too on the site for a new road. Unfortunately, the job remains half done. The building has been broken to the extent that it cannot be used, but it still stands there, making mockery of the lofty intentions. This, indeed, has come to symbolise the state of the caretaker government in its entirety...................

Govt. Should Explain alegations

Govt should explain allegations of torture in custody
The allegations of harassment and torture in custody made by the detained Dhaka University teacher, Anwar Hossain, once again indicates the military-controlled interim government’s utter disregard for human rights and lack of commitment to due process and the rule of law. Anwar’s allegations come hot on the heels of similar allegations by Tarique Rahman, senior joint secretary general of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party and eldest son of the detained BNP chairperson and former prime minister Khaleda Zia....................

I am Angry......

I am angry… I am angry too at the frequent display of ‘moral and ethical superiority’ by the magnificent eleven of the present regime. To them the businessmen are corrupt, the politicians are corrupt, the civil bureaucrats are corrupt also are the shopkeepers, you name it. Silent intimidation and coercion appears to be the key element of their administration and administering. One has to understand that actions based on mere good intentions backed by sheer enthusiasm in complete disregard of the resources available on hand may not only backfire but could very well be counterproductive,

writes Shamsher Chowdhury..................

RMG Worker's Right

RMG workers doubly denied The state’s overt bias towards the moneyed, protecting the garment factory owners, citing emergency power rules, discipline and damage to private property, would hardly benefit the overall condition of the industry or improve its competitiveness in the long run. It is foolish, shameful and imprudent, from a regime that intends to establish the rule of law and equitable justice, especially when it is the owners who are the principal offenders and violators of law and not the workers, writes Tanim Ahmed
THE conspiracy theory of external forces instigating garment workers into agitation resurfaced recently as thousands took to the streets at Mirpur in the capital. Such theories, almost always spun off by owners of readymade garment factories, indicate that they are in a state of denial about severe problems vis-à-vis compensation and facilities for workers............