[chottala.com] De facto chief advisor - Barrister Moinul Hussain

De facto chief advisor - Barrister Moinul Hussain
By

S.U.S.Choudhuri

Weekly BlitZ

                                                
 And, this is possible only here in my loving country, where rulers never looks backs at the past and never learns from the history. Conviction of four Rajshahi University teachers – Moloy Kumar Bhowmik, Dulal Chandra Biswas, Selim Reza Newton and Abdullah al-Mamun – on charge of instigating student protests on the university campus on August 21 and 22, in violation of the Emergency Power Rules is by now known to most of the conscious citizen of Bangladesh.

Conviction of teachers of the highest educational institution in the country made me shocked, annoyed, stunned. The military backed interim government has thus far shown little tolerance to any kind of dissent , however genuine the reasons are and whoever it comes from. When the farmers agitated against unavailability of fertilizer during peak cultivation season, the law enforcers were sent in to disperse the 'unruly' crowd. When the students at Dhaka University protested against the manhandling of students and a teacher by some members of the armed forces, the law enforcers once again intervened, indiscriminately charging batons, lobbing teargas shells and spraying rubber bullets. And recently, it did not even hesitate to have the police detain 12 persons for demonstrating against shoddy relief operation in the cyclone Sidr-hit areas in the coastal district of Barguna. Then, of course, cases were filed against the protesters on charge of violating the Emergency Powers Rules.

Awful! Isn't it? Well, it will be naïve to expect a government, which operates under a state of emergency, to appreciate criticism. However, in case of the government of Fakhruddin Ahmed, the expectations were a bit different. After all, it did assume power with the self-professed objective of upholding and consolidating 'the democratic system through ensuring a congenial political and social environment.' The chief adviser has also waxed eloquence when urging 'the people to carry forward the beloved motherland toward the path of peace and progress by working shoulder to shoulder.' In a televised address to the nation on August 22, he said: 'You [the people] are our [the government's] source of inspiration. Your spontaneous and absolute support and blessings are our driving forces.'

The Chief Advisor's words are inspiring to any of the sensible citizen. But, what we witness from the actions of the members of the advisory council of Dr. Ahmed? For example, Law and Information advisor Barrister Moinul Hussain, who is no doubt a man of controversy, has recently threatened to cancel declaration of Weekly Blitz and harassing its editor [me] through the Task Forces. It may be mentioned here that, the advisor is annoyed with Weekly Blitz for publishing a number of investigative reports on him and members of his family and team. What we published are all facts and the advisor has no guts to protest any of our news items in the court of law. So, now he is trying to use his official power to repress a newspaper and its editor. As to his threat of harassing the editor through Task Force is worrisome indeed. Why? Because, Task Force is certainly not under his command. But, he is possible hoping that, everything within the interim government is under his command. How? Is he a de-facto Chief Advisor?

Although released a couple of days back with Presidential amnesty, conviction of university teachers will remain as a prominent black spot on the fate of each of the members of the interim government and all of its driving forces. And, of course, Barrister Moinul Hussain shall remain liable for convicting the teachers, as he holds the post of Law Advisor. The government has more often than not gone about addressing public grievances the wrong way would be stating the obvious. Its take on the August 20-22 protests, which started from the Dhaka University campus and later spread across the country, could not have been any farther from reality. The protests were an explosion of pent-up public grievances. Period. Of course, it started over what the government termed a 'trivial matter.' When the people are forced to bottle up their resentment and frustration for so long, even the faintest of provocation is enough to trigger a wildfire-like protest. In this case, the provocation was anything but negligible. Then, to even suggest that it was part of 'a plan to destabilize the situation and undermine the government' is an affront to the people's inherent urge to be heard in general and the students' inherently dissenting nature.
What the people in the corridors of power seemingly refuse to acknowledge is that a university – any educational institution for that matter – is a space for freethinking. Here, teachers are expected to instill in their students the sense of individual independence and collective freedom. Naturally, therefore, teachers are expected to rebel when the space for freethinking is being infringed upon, be it in the name of a state of emergency or otherwise. In fact, they would have been doing injustice to their profession had they not taken a stance against the sustained infringement on the space for freethinking during the campus protests between August 20 and 22. Also, teachers are custodians of their students. It would have been morally unjustifiable had all of them looked on as the law-enforces and security forces went about indiscriminately beating up the students, spraying rubber bullets and lobbing teargas shells on them. The convicted and just released teachers of Rajshahi University and the detained teachers of Dhaka University may have done just that.

Meanwhile, although the government claimed to have released the convicted teachers with Presidential Amnesty, family members of the four Rajshahi University teachers, jailed on charge of instigating the August campus protests violating the Emergency Powers Rules, did not apply for presidential clemency on which they were freed on Monday, earlier requested the government for unconditional release of all the detained teachers and students and withdrawal of the cases.

The teachers are also likely to go ahead with the appeal filed on Sunday against the verdict that sentenced them to two years' rigorous imprisonment on December 4.
The family members said they had not even submitted any petition to the president.
They submitted a petition, addressed to the chief adviser, to the vice-chancellor, Professor M Altaf Hossain. The petition was jointly signed by Swapna Banerjee, wife of management department chair Moloy Kumar Bhowmick, Susmita Chakrabarty, wife of mass communications assistant professor Selim Reza Newton, Sanchita Roy, wife of mass communications assistant professor Dulal Chandra Biswas, and Udisa Islam, wife of mass communications assistant professor Abdullah Al Mamun.
'On behalf of the families of the four convicted Rajshahi University teachers, we are especially requesting you to release the detained teachers of all public universities in Bangladesh and the four convicted Rajshahi University teachers and by withdrawing the cases,' the petition said.
Aslam Sarker, the counsel for the four Rajshahi University teachers, filed the appeal against the verdict with the Rajshahi district and sessions judge's court on Sunday and the judge, AR Masud, accepted the appeal posting the hearing for December 27.

Criminal law experts said the government could withdraw the case and all other cases against other teachers and students of the universities.
A number of former High Court judges told reporters the government has the power to withdraw any criminal case before the judgment is pronounced in the case in accordance with Section 494 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.
Although the judgment has been pronounced in the case against the four teachers, the government may still withdraw the case as they have appealed against the verdict and the appeal is now pending, they said, adding appeal is also a part of the proceedings of the case.
Moreover, they said, the government may release the convicted teachers of their conviction in accordance with Section 401 of the code.
The section reads: 'When any person has been sentenced to punishment or an offence, they government may at any time without any condition, or upon any condition which the person sentenced accepts, suspend the execution of his sentence or remit the whole or any part of the punishment to which he has been sentenced.'
In that case, the government requires opinion of the judge, who delivered the verdict, according to Section 401(2) of the code.
If the whole sentence is remitted in accordance with Section 401 of the code, it may be tantamount to release of the convicts of their conviction, which a presidential clemency cannot do, they explained.
According to the four teachers' family members, they submitted an application to the chief adviser through the vice-chancellor Sunday night.
According to sources, a meeting behind close doors for three hours was held at the vice chancellor's house Sunday evening regarding the release of the four teachers. The meeting was attended by the family members of four convicted teachers, leaders of the Rajshahi University Teachers' Association, Directorate General of Forces Intelligence, army officials and acting mass communications department chair.
At the meeting, the forces intelligence and army officials repeatedly asked the convicted teachers' family members to submit a mercy petition, but the families refused to do so, said sources present.
After a long debate on the issue, the wives of the for teachers submitted the petition to the vice-chancellor, addressing the chief adviser, requesting the government to release all the detained and convicted teachers of all public universities and withdraw the cases, the sources said.We certainly welcome the decision of the interim government of ultimately realizing the fact that playing with the university teachers was not a good decision. Now, may we humbly ask the Chief Advisor of the interim government as well the 'power factors' behind to please take this as an example to learn for future that whatever they are doing are possibly not going to be taken by the people of Bangladesh as correct or righteous. The interim government must identify the 'most enthusiast' who instigated arrest and conviction of university teachers. By now, should Dr. Fakhruddin Ahmed realize that this was a blunder, he should take care of that individual who played key-role behind humiliation of the university teachers. This is very important. Moreover, the government should also realize the fact that this is the very first prominent retreat of the present interim government from any 'bold' step. Should I remind them one very popular phrase? Once you slip from one stair, you may continue to slip.
Posted on 13 Dec 2007 by Root

Source:
http://www.weeklyblitz.net/index.php?subaction=showfull&id=1197558059&archive=&start_from=&ucat=2 &

 

 

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