Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely: Hasina’s Lust for Power-(Part Two)
Wednesday January 11 2012 22:30:49 PM BDT
By Obaid Chowdhury, USA
Sheikh Hasina Wazed, daughter of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, came to be the chief executive of Bangladesh in 1996--- thanks to a section of bureaucracy, media, Awami League supporter Abu Hena's Election Commission and finally Ershad's Jatiya Party. She openly said of her two objectives that she would like to complete in her maiden foray into power: avenge the death of her father and rehabilitate him firmly in public eyes. She performed only that, and nothing else.
An orchestrated election in December 2008 presented an unprecedented victory to Sheikh Hasina, thanks to then army chief General Moeen U Ahmed and his Indo-US backers. As the saying goes, absolute power corrupts absolutely. So it did to Hasina, at times surpassing her father’s reputations.
In the Second Inning to power, starting in January 2009, she stepped into her father’s footsteps firmly. She runs a neo-BAKSAL regime, with all its ferocity and brutality.
Next election is due in 2 years. She had taken, or in the process of taking, a numbers measures to replay the December 29 (2008) saga, if not doing better.
• The arrangement of Caretaker Government (CTG) has been scrapped, with a view to holding the elections under her own administration. Ironically, it was Hasina and her cohorts who created havoc and observed hartals for 173 days in 1996 demanding the CTG.
• She put loyal elements in key positions in bureaucracy, law-enforcing agencies and even in the military.
• Legislature and judiciary became laughing stocks. Kortar hukume korma is the guidelines.
• Dhaka has been sliced into two to favor AL’s election prospects.
• That the military remains partisan and loyal is ensured by family-product Defense Advisor Gen Siddiqui.
• Gen Masood Uddin Chowdhury, a Rakkhi Bahini product and the executioner of 1/11 betrayal, is tipped to be the next army chief. Independent-minded officers have been purged.
• A crushed BDR is now subservient to Indian wishes.
• Rumor has it that the DGFI (Directorate General of the Defense Intelligence) is under control of the RAW, the powerful Indian intelligence agency.
• Following the legacy of her father, Rakkhi Bahini style political killings and abductions of opponents continued.
• Partisan political commissars, styled as District Administrators, will by installed in the 64 districts soon, a la Baksal Governors of 1975.
• A new Election Commission is under construction to bring in loyal elements.
• Indian 'bags of money and advice' are always there to help their protégé.
Prime Minister for Life
Additionally, Sheikh Hasina seems to be obsessed with her father’s last dream: to be Prime Minister for Life. Her sponsors and agents have been working for sometime toward that goal.
Her administration made the trial of war crime a big issue. If she and her sycophants are to be taken seriously, Bangladesh presently has no bigger problem than this trial.
Few would deny the need to punish the criminals of 1971. However, most people object to the partisan way the ongoing trial is conducted. They wonder why the trial had not happened over the past 40 years, when the memory of crime was fresh; why did Sheikh Mujib grant clemency to the Pakistani 195 war criminals in 1972, as well as their local collaborator in 1974?
AL and Jamaat-e-Islam were bedfellows in the anti-government movement. The leaders from the two camps addressed meetings from same platforms in 1995-96. When Jamaat joined BNP to defeat the AL in 2001, it suddenly became the party of war criminals. Today, any movement or opposition to the AL led government is dubbed as conspiracy ‘to save the war criminals’. The intended message is Hasina must be kept in power to ‘hang the war criminals’ of her choice.
For the past 3 years, Sheikh Hasina has been talking of 'Digital Bangladesh by 2021', to be implemented by her son Sajeeb Wazed Joy. Now the goalpost has been shifted to 2025. The paid agents started a campaign crowing that, under Hasina administration, Bangladesh would be a mid-level developed nation in 10-15 years. This is to convey another message that for a ‘prosperous Bangladesh’, Sheikh Hasina must be in power for another 10-15 years, uninterrupted.
The RAW, too, has calculated it well. With its protégé in power for at least another 10 years, India’s integration of Bangladesh with its Seven Sisters will be complete. And, a Sikkim/Kashmir like Bangladesh will then be able to proudly boast of being part of the ‘Shining India’ and ‘enjoy’ status of mid level economy!
I had the opportunity to be part of our liberation war in eastern sector in 1971. During that time, I could notice the pitiable state of development in some of those Sisters. Behind the façade of Shining India, Slums Dog Millions are aplenty in the periphery of its big cities, even outside the Seven Sisters. The New York Times on December 29, 2011 put up an extensive article on this: From Dharavi, Another View of India. Please visit:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/29/world/asia/in-indian-slum-misery-work-politics-and-hope.html?_r=1&pagewanted=1&ref=global-home
There is no reason for me to take solace from Dharavi, because we have worse ‘dharavi’s in Bangladesh. No doubt, India made its name in the world comity in many ways. However, to its neighbors, it could not rise above its hegemonic behavior and petty mindedness. It has multifarious problems with each of its surrounding neighbors. My idea is to open the eyes of those amongst us who live in fools’ paradise thinking our salvation lies in India’s lap or following her dictum.
Are these India-lovers blind to the consequences of Farakka to Bangladesh over the past 35 years? Why Indian Navy is occupying South Talpatti? Do killings of Felani and thousand others by Indian BSF mean nothing to them? How do they concur with Indian assurance that Tipaimukh will benefit Bangladesh? Have they ever asked India why Bangladeshis are wire-caged as animals? Haven’t they noticed the consequences of so-called trial run of the transit/corridor? What more of ‘Indian friendship’ these homegrown dalals need to wake up and face the reality. Sellers of national interest are much more dangerous and bigger enemies than the war criminals of 1971.
If Sheikh Hasina were to continue in power, I doubt if the people of Bangladesh can call themselves Bangladeshis much longer.
Obaid Chowdhury
New York, USA
E Mail : alaldulal@aol.com
An orchestrated election in December 2008 presented an unprecedented victory to Sheikh Hasina, thanks to then army chief General Moeen U Ahmed and his Indo-US backers. As the saying goes, absolute power corrupts absolutely. So it did to Hasina, at times surpassing her father’s reputations.
In the Second Inning to power, starting in January 2009, she stepped into her father’s footsteps firmly. She runs a neo-BAKSAL regime, with all its ferocity and brutality.
Next election is due in 2 years. She had taken, or in the process of taking, a numbers measures to replay the December 29 (2008) saga, if not doing better.
• The arrangement of Caretaker Government (CTG) has been scrapped, with a view to holding the elections under her own administration. Ironically, it was Hasina and her cohorts who created havoc and observed hartals for 173 days in 1996 demanding the CTG.
• She put loyal elements in key positions in bureaucracy, law-enforcing agencies and even in the military.
• Legislature and judiciary became laughing stocks. Kortar hukume korma is the guidelines.
• Dhaka has been sliced into two to favor AL’s election prospects.
• That the military remains partisan and loyal is ensured by family-product Defense Advisor Gen Siddiqui.
• Gen Masood Uddin Chowdhury, a Rakkhi Bahini product and the executioner of 1/11 betrayal, is tipped to be the next army chief. Independent-minded officers have been purged.
• A crushed BDR is now subservient to Indian wishes.
• Rumor has it that the DGFI (Directorate General of the Defense Intelligence) is under control of the RAW, the powerful Indian intelligence agency.
• Following the legacy of her father, Rakkhi Bahini style political killings and abductions of opponents continued.
• Partisan political commissars, styled as District Administrators, will by installed in the 64 districts soon, a la Baksal Governors of 1975.
• A new Election Commission is under construction to bring in loyal elements.
• Indian 'bags of money and advice' are always there to help their protégé.
Prime Minister for Life
Additionally, Sheikh Hasina seems to be obsessed with her father’s last dream: to be Prime Minister for Life. Her sponsors and agents have been working for sometime toward that goal.
Her administration made the trial of war crime a big issue. If she and her sycophants are to be taken seriously, Bangladesh presently has no bigger problem than this trial.
Few would deny the need to punish the criminals of 1971. However, most people object to the partisan way the ongoing trial is conducted. They wonder why the trial had not happened over the past 40 years, when the memory of crime was fresh; why did Sheikh Mujib grant clemency to the Pakistani 195 war criminals in 1972, as well as their local collaborator in 1974?
AL and Jamaat-e-Islam were bedfellows in the anti-government movement. The leaders from the two camps addressed meetings from same platforms in 1995-96. When Jamaat joined BNP to defeat the AL in 2001, it suddenly became the party of war criminals. Today, any movement or opposition to the AL led government is dubbed as conspiracy ‘to save the war criminals’. The intended message is Hasina must be kept in power to ‘hang the war criminals’ of her choice.
For the past 3 years, Sheikh Hasina has been talking of 'Digital Bangladesh by 2021', to be implemented by her son Sajeeb Wazed Joy. Now the goalpost has been shifted to 2025. The paid agents started a campaign crowing that, under Hasina administration, Bangladesh would be a mid-level developed nation in 10-15 years. This is to convey another message that for a ‘prosperous Bangladesh’, Sheikh Hasina must be in power for another 10-15 years, uninterrupted.
The RAW, too, has calculated it well. With its protégé in power for at least another 10 years, India’s integration of Bangladesh with its Seven Sisters will be complete. And, a Sikkim/Kashmir like Bangladesh will then be able to proudly boast of being part of the ‘Shining India’ and ‘enjoy’ status of mid level economy!
I had the opportunity to be part of our liberation war in eastern sector in 1971. During that time, I could notice the pitiable state of development in some of those Sisters. Behind the façade of Shining India, Slums Dog Millions are aplenty in the periphery of its big cities, even outside the Seven Sisters. The New York Times on December 29, 2011 put up an extensive article on this: From Dharavi, Another View of India. Please visit:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/29/world/asia/in-indian-slum-misery-work-politics-and-hope.html?_r=1&pagewanted=1&ref=global-home
There is no reason for me to take solace from Dharavi, because we have worse ‘dharavi’s in Bangladesh. No doubt, India made its name in the world comity in many ways. However, to its neighbors, it could not rise above its hegemonic behavior and petty mindedness. It has multifarious problems with each of its surrounding neighbors. My idea is to open the eyes of those amongst us who live in fools’ paradise thinking our salvation lies in India’s lap or following her dictum.
Are these India-lovers blind to the consequences of Farakka to Bangladesh over the past 35 years? Why Indian Navy is occupying South Talpatti? Do killings of Felani and thousand others by Indian BSF mean nothing to them? How do they concur with Indian assurance that Tipaimukh will benefit Bangladesh? Have they ever asked India why Bangladeshis are wire-caged as animals? Haven’t they noticed the consequences of so-called trial run of the transit/corridor? What more of ‘Indian friendship’ these homegrown dalals need to wake up and face the reality. Sellers of national interest are much more dangerous and bigger enemies than the war criminals of 1971.
If Sheikh Hasina were to continue in power, I doubt if the people of Bangladesh can call themselves Bangladeshis much longer.
Obaid Chowdhury
New York, USA
E Mail : alaldulal@aol.com
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