Banner Advertise

Sunday, January 15, 2012

Re: [chottala.com] Daily Star's Commentary



Daily Star's editor's commentary commending Sheikh Hasina's step for war crime trial
is commendable. But words do not always sound exactly in tune with reality. The Daily Star had already exposed its hidden face during the recent years we have passed through agony and tribulation. Their cry for democracy and humanity at this moment is in contrast with their advocacy justifying minus two formula during unconstitutional CTG after 1/11 episode. They have not bothered to bluster even publicly for the so-called change after 1/11. A prestigious newspaper like Daily Star should always raise its voice against tyranny, misrule, undemocratic practices; their change in tune and colour in favourable and adverse situation is not expected by the conscious readers. Opportunism is always looked down.

--- On Sat, 1/14/12, Abdul Mannan <abman1971@gmail.com> wrote:

From: Abdul Mannan <abman1971@gmail.com>
Subject: [chottala.com] Trial of Ghulam Azam
To: "KMS Alam" <kms_alam@yahoo.com>, "shahid mahmud" <shahid6609@yahoo.com>, "Subehuddin Khan" <subehkhan@yahoo.co.uk>, chottala@yahoogroups.com, alapon@yahoogroups.com, EMEDCH-L@usc.edu, "diagnose" <Diagnose@yahoogroups.com>, khabor@yahoogroups.com, "Helal Ahmed" <huahmed@yahoo.com>, "Lawrence Lifschultz" <lawrence.lifschultz@gmail.com>, "Peter Daae" <peter.daae@impactnorway.org>, "Arnold Zeitlin" <azeitlin@hotmail.com>
Date: Saturday, January 14, 2012, 3:33 AM

 


Saturday, January 14, 2012  (Daily Star)
Front Page

Commentary

Underlying meaning of war crimes trial

Giving Sheikh Hasina her due

Mahfuz Anam (Editor, Daily Star)

The arrest of Ghulam Azam marks a significant step forward in the trial of those accused of crimes against humanity. It is our hope and expectation that the trial will meet the highest standards of law and fairness. For this, as a Bangladeshi, as a Bangalee, and as someone who had the honour of being one among millions to have joined the Liberation War in 1971, I am, and I am sure millions like me, are most deeply grateful to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, and proud of what she has done.

Those of us, who had the singular privilege of being involved in the independence war, are witness to the fact that with the assassination of Bangabandhu in 1975 a deliberate deconstruction of the history of our independence war was set afoot.

To justify Sheikh Mujib's assassination, what he stood for and what he achieved -- the biggest of which was founding the state of Bangladesh -- had to be destroyed, or at the minimum, distorted. As dismantling the new born state was neither possible nor would it be acceptable to the people, so a state sponsored campaign was launched to distort the history of the greatest moment of the nation's existence, and the most treasured moment of the lives of those who participated in it -- namely our Liberation War.

Perhaps the most painful distortion was to deprive ourselves and our children from knowing about the great mass struggle that led to our birth, and about which country and whose army carried out the most heinous genocide of our people. So the name of Pakistan simply disappeared from the narratives of Liberation War. The soldiers who killed our people were termed "hanadar bahini" (attacking army) without any identification of who they were and where they came from. As if they dropped from the sky without any cultural, national, or political identity. Not only the identity but also the full description of what the so-called "hanadar bahini" did was removed from the accounts of the 1971 war. This we sight as a concrete example of how deep the attempt was to prevent our knowing of the truth.

Similarly those who opposed Bangladesh's liberation war were depicted as actually opposing Indian aggression, and not the legitimate aspiration of the Bangla speaking people of the then Pakistan. According to this version of "history" Jamaat-e-Islami was not a party holding the hands of killers who butchered the people of future Bangladesh, but protectors of the sovereignty of Pakistan. In this narrative the brutal suppression of the Bangla speaking people of the then East Pakistan, the genocide, the rapes, the destruction of homes and properties, stories of hundreds of bodies with hands tied at the back floating in rivers were totally removed, and replaced by stories of how the Indian army waged a war against Pakistan and took over its eastern wing.

It was even propagated that the killing of intellectuals on December 14, 1971 -- just two days before Bangladesh was to be born -- was carried out by Indian spies to intellectually dominate the new country.

However, the distortion of Bangalee culture started much earlier, from the very birth of Pakistan, when attempt was made to impose Urdu as the only national language. It was propagated that Bangalee culture and music, Bangalee dress, Bangalee traditions, in fact everything that had to do with our Bangalee identity, were all Hindu in origin. All of those needed to be shunned if we wanted to lead a pious Islamic life.

I remember hearing from my father how every attempt to demand our cultural, linguistic, economic and social rights were depicted as attempt by Indian agents to weaken Pakistan. As young students we remember hearing them also. As freedom fighters we used to hear the same thing over Pakistan Radio and in the speeches of the leaders of Jamaat and the so-called Peace Committees during the nine months that the war lasted.

In our wildest of nightmares we never thought we would hear it in post liberation Bangladesh. However, with greatest of pain we had to listen to such narratives in independent Bangladesh following the killing of Bangabandhu. From 1975 till 1996 this narrative, this falsehood, this distortion, this outrage continued.

We are justly proud of the defeat of autocracy and restoration of democracy in 1991. But even the democratically elected government of Khaleda Zia did not restore the proper narrative of our Liberation War. To the best of my knowledge even during 1991-1996, when BNP was in power, mentioning Pakistan and its army as the perpetrators of genocide was not permitted and the "hanadar bahini" narrative continued.

One does not have to hate Pakistan (in fact this writer only hates the Pakistan of 1971 and not the Pakistan of today) to mention that it was its army of 1971 that carried out the most heinous crime against our people. Do the French, the Poles, the Czechs, the English, other Europeans, or the Americans not mention the Nazis being Germans, and write history and make films of what atrocities they committed? This they did and do, in spite of their closest of relationships with Germany in the post Second World War era. So why did the regime of Gen Ziaur Rahman, HM Ershad, and Khaleda Zia shy away from acknowledging what was a fact of history, and matter of tragedy on one hand and pride on the other? Why did they continue to subscribe to the distortion of the greatest moment of our history? What sort of inferiority complex, and slave mentality made them disown the proudest moment of our history? We will wait for experts to give us the answer.

But meanwhile we know that it was only after the election of Awami League government, and Sheikh Hasina becoming the prime minister that Liberation War and the narratives of 1971 found their proper place. There are distortions in the AL narratives also -- like Tajuddin, Syed Nazrul Islam, Mansur Ali, and many other war heroes not being given their due honour. But that is a different debate and we will argue it separately.

Today, as a national of an independent Bangladesh and as a freedom fighter I am proud that we are able to put on trial those people who opposed our freedom, and our right to be ourselves. And in trying to deprive us of that right they did not hesitate to kill our people including women and children, and burn our homes and properties. What they were fundamentally trying to do was to destroy our very essence of being. Even after our birth as a nation, these people carried out international campaigns to prevent our recognition, so that we could not receive the support and assistance for our growth and prosperity. In fact they never gave up trying to destroy us.

As we know from our recent past, under no other leadership would we have the trial of war criminals and of those who committed crimes against humanity. For this we thank you, Sheikh Hasina.



--
_________________________________
Abdul Mannan
Professor
School of Business
University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh
House # 56, Road # 4/A
Dhanmondi R/A, Dhaka-1209
Bangladesh.
BDT=GMT +5
Working Days Sunday-Thursday
E-mail: abman1971@gmail.com
abdul.mannan@ulab.edu.bd
 http://www.ulab.edu.bd



__._,_.___


[* Moderator�s Note - CHOTTALA is a non-profit, non-religious, non-political and non-discriminatory organization.

* Disclaimer: Any posting to the CHOTTALA are the opinion of the author. Authors of the messages to the CHOTTALA are responsible for the accuracy of their information and the conformance of their material with applicable copyright and other laws. Many people will read your post, and it will be archived for a very long time. The act of posting to the CHOTTALA indicates the subscriber's agreement to accept the adjudications of the moderator]




Your email settings: Individual Email|Traditional
Change settings via the Web (Yahoo! ID required)
Change settings via email: Switch delivery to Daily Digest | Switch to Fully Featured
Visit Your Group | Yahoo! Groups Terms of Use | Unsubscribe

__,_._,___

[chottala.com] Lack of Patriotic Activism in Bangladesh: Bengali Nationalism to blame!



Lack of Patriotic Activism in Bangladesh: Bengali Nationalism to Blame!
(A working Paper on Bangladesh's Nationalism)
Abid Bahar

True, Bangladeshis are still defining their identity after 1971. While Bangladeshi nationalists protests against Falani murder, Farakka dam, Tipaimukh dam by India, and giving transit to India without a national referendum, Bengali nationalists says in all these India is actually helping Bangladesh develop. To the Bengali nationalists, what is more important is the trial of the anti Indian, anti Bengali liberation war razakars and anti Mujib AL forces and personalities.To the Bengali nationalists,  we shouldn't be against India, West Bengal and Tagore- the "touchstone of Bengali nationalism." To them if you are not a Bengali nationalist, you must be a razakar. From this perspective "Zia was the biggest razakar." Zia is accused of inventing Bangladeshi nationalism to include all the Bangladeshis including the tribals. So the benefits of Bengali and Bangladeshi nationalism came face to face with a head on collision through AL BNP debates that now divides the nation.

So Bengali nationalists celebrates Tagore in Dhaka and elsewhere as one of us. An unknown Indian however wrote about Bangladesh's Tagore mania.  "Tagore is a touchstone for their new Bengali identity which raises heated passions and debate amongst them as they set out to prove that due to their
numerical "superiority" they are the true "Bengalis" and guardians / inheritors of  Bengali culture and language. What they forget is that they are the dregs of Indian society who converted to Islam (through greed, fear  or force). Rabindranath held no illusions about the potential of Bengalis and their propensity towards self-destructiveness, and commented on this in a letter to Leonard Elmhirst " [Pandit Vidyasagar] did good to others and received ingratitude and lack of cooperation in return. He saw day after day that we [Bengalis] begin but never finish; we make a show but do nothing concrete; we do not believe what we set out to do; what we believe we do not carry out; we spin out words without end, but cannot make the smallest sacrifice; we feel pleased with ourselves by exhibiting our pride, but never think it necessary to be worthy; we depend on others for everything and yet rend the skies finding
fault with them. We take pride in imitating others, we feel honoured to receive their favour, yet we throw dust in their eyes and call it politics; and the main object in our lives is to make clever speeches that fill us with intense admiration. *Vidyasagar had infinite contempt for this weak, mean, heartless, lazy, arrogant, argumentative race of men [Bengalis].*"

Mujib was truly" the greatest Bengali of all times." He delivered a great speech in 1971 then surrendered to the Pakistani army, when returned back claimed to be the father of the nation, then established one party rule and killed more than 30,000 of his own people and turned Bangladesh into a failed state and within a little more than 3 years of his Bengali nationalist rule through his cadre politics and Indian Rakhi bahini help his regime killed more than 30,000 of his own people and he was brutally killed by Bangladesh's freedom fighters,he must be the "greatest Bengali of all times" for accomplishing so many things in such a short period of time. About Mujib's famine and death of a million people it is noted, "by the end of 1974 almost all the foreign biscuits, blankets, clothes, etc.were seen in the Calcutta bazaars and foot path shops. India never imports any such foreign goods." The Bengalis of oper Bangla were eating the biscuits of aper Bangla. "These items crossed the border by the bosom friend of Bangabandhu -Ghazi Gholam Mostafa, the leader of the Red Cross (or Crescent)." The entire country was then passing through the famous man-made famine for which Amartya Sen wrote a book in 1974-1975 eras. Mujib administration never admitted such a famine while people ... of Rangpur or Dinajpur were arriving Dacca in search of job, food, clothes, shelter, etc. It was a painful scenario in those days throughout Bangladesh. What is the problem if we do not have Bangabandhu ( as the father of the nation ) who originated such mismanagement?"
 
Tagore wrote about Bengalis as a bunch of sissies ("shatkoti shontaner mugdho jononi, rekhecho bangali kore , manush koroni")

So what is better for Bangladesh? Let's make a choice between whether we would like to be Bengalis or Bangladeshis. Whether we would like to be Indian parrots or Bangladeshi patriots. When we see Tagore himself abandoned Bengali nationlism in favour of becoming an Indian,even when he worked against the establishment of Dhaka University. He composed his celebrated piece "Shivaji's Utsav" at that time and was inspired by the Shivaji Festival introduced by Maharashtra's Balgangadhar Tilak. Now Bangladesh is an independent nation, we would like to be the Indian domestic parrots like the Indian Bengalis celebrating Indian imperialism in Bangladesh through Tagore mania or we want to be Bangladeshis recognizing him as a great poet of humanity who hated the narrow spirited Bengali nationalists. 
References:
(1) Chatro League http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUC5qix6xpE

(2) Tagore Exposed in Dalia
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/brahmoconferenceorg/message/122


__._,_.___


[* Moderator's Note - CHOTTALA is a non-profit, non-religious, non-political and non-discriminatory organization.

* Disclaimer: Any posting to the CHOTTALA are the opinion of the author. Authors of the messages to the CHOTTALA are responsible for the accuracy of their information and the conformance of their material with applicable copyright and other laws. Many people will read your post, and it will be archived for a very long time. The act of posting to the CHOTTALA indicates the subscriber's agreement to accept the adjudications of the moderator]




Your email settings: Individual Email|Traditional
Change settings via the Web (Yahoo! ID required)
Change settings via email: Switch delivery to Daily Digest | Switch to Fully Featured
Visit Your Group | Yahoo! Groups Terms of Use | Unsubscribe

__,_._,___

Re: [chottala.com] Muntasir Mamoon



All University Teachers need to be honest to learn honestly the truth for teaching the students to establish humanity and human right to establish justice of law to establish economical justice for all people under lawful administration system of lawful democracy in Bangladesh.
It is very important
(i)                  For justice of law
(ii)                For justice of humanity
(iii)               For justice of democracy and
(iv)              For justice of human right 
To do lawful trial in lawful judicial procedure of activities
(a)      People killing and student killing in Bangladesh educational institutions
(b)      Corruption doing in all over Bangladesh Administration
(c)        False speaking and neglecting duty and not taking classes and not teaching the student properly in Bangladesh educational institutions.
(d)        People misleading by writing any matter misinterpreting in Bangladesh.
It should be condition for justice of law and humanity in Bangladesh for doing trial against them who did oppose creation of Bangladesh

 

From: Abdul Mannan <abman1971@gmail.com>
To: alapon@yahoogroups.com; khabor@yahoogroups.com; chottala@yahoogroups.com; EMEDCH-L@usc.edu; diagnose <Diagnose@yahoogroups.com>; Helal Ahmed <huahmed@yahoo.com>
Sent: Sunday, 15 January 2012 6:30 AM
Subject: [chottala.com] Muntasir Mamoon

 
Link to Dr. Muntasir Mamoon's column on Chatra League.

Mannan

http://www.dailyjanakantha.com/news_view.php?nc=16&dd=2012-01-15&ni=83302

--
_________________________________
Abdul Mannan
Educator-Researcher-Writer-Analyst
Dhaka
Bangladesh





__._,_.___


[* Moderator�s Note - CHOTTALA is a non-profit, non-religious, non-political and non-discriminatory organization.

* Disclaimer: Any posting to the CHOTTALA are the opinion of the author. Authors of the messages to the CHOTTALA are responsible for the accuracy of their information and the conformance of their material with applicable copyright and other laws. Many people will read your post, and it will be archived for a very long time. The act of posting to the CHOTTALA indicates the subscriber's agreement to accept the adjudications of the moderator]




Your email settings: Individual Email|Traditional
Change settings via the Web (Yahoo! ID required)
Change settings via email: Switch delivery to Daily Digest | Switch to Fully Featured
Visit Your Group | Yahoo! Groups Terms of Use | Unsubscribe

__,_._,___