F R Chowdhury
At the very outset I would like to state that I am not a politician. I am not supporter of any of the political parties in Bangladesh. I have no political dreams or aspirations. I am just one of the many Bangladeshis who left Bangladesh because of utter frustration. The professionals were never evaluated for their skill and expertise. I have seen an Air Commodore serving as Director General of shipping (head of the maritime administration). The political and bureaucratic bosses in Bangladesh know everything and rest of the people know nothing, they are just stupid fools. They are not wanted in Bangladesh. Yet, when these people go abroad, they become genius. They contribute their knowledge and wisdom for their new country and get rewarded. They feel a sense of fulfilment and happiness. Bangladesh remains deprived. It will probably remain deprived for many more years.
I say so because of the state of affairs. The students’ politics in the name of Chatra League, Chatra Dal, Shibir etc. have successfully driven all academic activities out of the campus which have now become the breeding and training ground for criminals. The university professors instead of teaching in the class-rooms gather at Shahbag Square to express their support for the so-called projanma. The political parties patronise all such activities. Education which is supposed to be the backbone of the country is now being totally destroyed. All political leaders, top bureaucrats, judges, generals and the business circle send their children for education abroad and they normally do not return. This is the story of brain-drain both present and future. The future of the country looks bleak and dark. The type of students’ politics that we have in Bangladesh does not exist anywhere else in the world. From Oxford to Harvard, they all have students’ council elected by the students who contribute a lot for the cause of better education. They are role models for others. What we got in the name of students’ politics is all rubbish and it must be immediately finished to re-store academic environment in all universities, colleges and other institutions.
After the 1/11 drama, we were delighted to have a democratically elected government and that also with more than 2/3 rd majority. It could do everything it wanted but it turned out to be missed opportunities. Today we shall discuss some of those.
First of all we have to talk about the BDR carnage. I have never heard of a Prime Minister sitting with leaders of the armed mutiny for negotiation. It does not go to our heads as to why she had to declare amnesty for them. It is also not understood why the Prime Minister was treating it as a political issue. Due to her inept handling of the situation, we lost some of our brilliant officers. Then she showered the bereaved families with money, not her own but from state treasury. What a mockery!
Once in power she wanted to re-write the history of Bangladesh where everything was done by her late father and whatever remaining is now being done by her. All praise on her and her father. She granted posthumous national award to Mr. Hannan of Chittagong Awami League for reading out the declaration of independence on behalf of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. She even went to High Court to get a judicial order to this effect. Despite all that people know the real truth that it was the then Major Zia who proclaimed independence of Bangladesh on behalf of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. Late Dr. Anwar Ali was a good friend of mine. It was Dr. Anwar Ali who risked his life and took the radio technician from Agrabad colony to Kalurghat to fix the transmitter. Those present at the time of declaration were Hannan and Mannan of Awami League, Belal and the technician of Radio and Dr. Ali besides a few others. I personally heard the recorded declaration much later on 6th April, 1971. So, this project (to establish a total lie as truth) of the Prime Minister misfired.
The Nobel Committee in Norway made further trouble for us. Instead of selecting our Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina they selected Professor Doctor Yunus and his Grameen Bank for the Peace Prize. Sheikh Hasina got furious and engaged all governmental agencies to trace out any mishandling of fund or other irregularity. On several occasions she publicly said that Dr. Yunus sucked the blood of the poor through the Grameen Bank. The more she tried to defame Dr. Yunus, more honours he received in international circle eventually leading to Congressional Gold Medal. His concept of social business has now spread over the whole world. People of Bangladesh shall always remember the contributions made by Dr. Yunus and Sir Fazle Hassan Abed and continue to regard them highly, no matter what Hasina and her Government think of them. Another project misfired.
It is ridiculous to trust an unelected government instead of elected government. However, in case of Bangladesh, it is different. Here love for power over-rides all other considerations. Quite a few years back Sheikh Hasina came up with a brilliant idea. She insisted on non-party independent care-taker government for free and fair election and she won that election and that is how she came to power. Now she is against it. She wants the next election to be held under her own supervision so that she can comfortably win the election. BNP opposes the move and threatened to boycott the election. It now appears that perhaps more people think that the system of independent care-taker government should continue for a few more years so that democracy in all its fairness can establish a firm base. Hasina is adamant on her point and she has virtually divided the nation on this issue.
Through the government managed Shahbagh Square Projonmo and Hifazat gathering including the burning of Quran, she has again divided the country between so-called “Astik” and “Nastik”. In between she staged another drama to divert attention. It was the fake rescue of garment worker Reshma weeks after the collapse of Rana Plaza. Hasina thinks that with all those divisions, chaos and confusion, she will declare a snap election and get herself elected for another term.
Immediately after coming to power, she declared that all politically motivated cases would be withdrawn. True to her words all BAL leaders and workers including some known criminals got out. I have not heard of any political leaders of other parties being released. Mean time Presidential pardon has been granted to a number of criminals. This is what we call “misuse of power”. There is no better example than that.
Judiciary and administration has been sufficiently moulded to her liking. Debatable characters have been appointed as High Court judges. Competent civil servants have been made OSDs and then retired in so-called public interest. I had been a civil servant in the UK and I have never known of OSD business with the change of government. Some of the highly placed Bangladesh civil servants cannot make any contributions when they attend any global or regional meetings outside Bangladesh because of their deep devotion and love for mother-tongue (they cannot speak English or any other UN language). However, they are considered to be inspired by “mukti judher chetona”. Police has been turned into criminal terror group of the BAL. Besides the active members of BAL, Chatra League and Jubo League have been suitably armed.
Bangladesh has possibly the highest rate of extra-judicial killing including so-called cross fires. No wonder they cannot resolve the killing of labour leader Aminul or journalists Sagor and Runi. They cannot even find any clue with respect to disappearance of Ilyas Ali and his driver. The killing of Biswajeet in broad day-light shows how daring the BAL and BCL have gone. The latest is serial murder of Milky and Tareq. It is all their internal rivalry. It shows that the BAL, BJL and BCL are all criminal thugs with all the fire-arms at their disposal.
With the elections getting closer, BAL has gone all out for last minute purchases and procurement. It started with Prime Minister’s trip to Moscow. She suddenly decides to make Bangladesh militarily most powerful country in Asia and makes huge purchases of military equipment. It is all on credit and Bangladesh will have to pay it back with interest. Some future government will face the financial squeeze. The Prime Minister made another official visit to Europe (UK and Belarus) with her family to attend the wedding of her niece in London. New licences are being issued for more banks and insurance companies. The railway minister hastily imported some coaches and engines that are not suitable for our conditions. The communication minister received his buses. The shipping minister is very eager to buy ships for BSC and ferries for BIWTC. The aviation minister quickly gave order for construction of another runway. He is also keen to buy a new set of radar for the civil aviation/ air traffic control before the end of his tenure and new aircraft for the national airline. The arrangement for carriage of pilgrims was done in such protective manner that High Court had to give an order to allow pilgrims to travel on airline of their choice. The cabinet has already started leasing out various offshore blocks for oil and gas exploration. They have issued new licences for fishing without any study of stock and growth. Hundreds of civil servants have been promoted even though there are no suitable vacancies for them. Things are being done in a way as if there is no tomorrow.
In the mean time, there has been a total collapse of the civil administration. Take the Financial Express of 3rd August and you can read all about the internal state of affairs. A ministry is publicly talking to newspaper about insubordination by a department under it. The minister seemed unaware of the matter. If the minister cannot keep control over his own domain, he should resign.
I have on previous occasions written about corruption and financial irregularities. I do not intend to repeat those. However, there is a new one that I could not avoid. I understand that ACC is going to give a big financial reward to one of the private secretaries of the prime minister for his cooperation and assistance in getting back the money that Khaleda Zia’s son Koko had earlier smuggled to Singapore. This must be a very unique case. However, it reminds me of another unique incident where a minister’s private secretary was caught with car full of money; and later it was clarified that the minister, commonly known as black cat, had nothing to do with it. In Bangladesh it is good to work as a PS or APS to a minister because they are the lucky ones to get Aladin’s magic lamp.
Now I shall draw attention to some alarming facts. Ever since the local election results are known, the BAL officials have gone out of their senses. I was shocked to know that the prime minister said about the leader of the opposition that she drank whole night and then slept up to late afternoon. About the results of the local election the prime minister said that people have voted all the criminals. This clearly shows that she has no trust or faith in democracy. Democracy is not safe in her hands. That is why I say enough is enough. For Heaven’s sake give a free and fair election under a non-party care-taker government and hand-over the power to the elected government.
For the future, I would like to say that we have to change our political culture. We must respect each other. We must shun street demonstration and violence. Parliament should provide the forum for political resolutions. We must get rid of students’ politics and bring back education on the right track. Education will prevent us from speaking rubbish. Education can teach us refinement. Better education means better future.
<fazlu.chowdhury@btinternet.com>