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From: abid.bahar@gmail.com
Date: Thu, 17 May 2012 01:50:57 -0400
Subject: [chottala.com] The Country Belongs not to the Sheikh Family
MUST READ ARTICLE:
The Country Belongs to 16 Crore Bangladeshis……………
The new generations have been continually fed with misinformation about our history. Bangladesh did not start on March 7, 1971, nor did it end at 32 Dhanmondi Road. Its independence has a much glorious—even though struggling—past. Not all the supposed 3 million shaheeds were Awami Leaguers, nor did all the 300,000 active freedom fighters belong to Awami cadres.
The country does not belong to an individual, a family or a party. No coterie has the sole authority to call themselves freedom fighters or shwadhinotar shopokker shakti, while branding all others as collaborators or anti-Bangladeshis.
Blind following or blind faith and hero-worshiping are one thing, but reality is another. More often than not, facts are stranger than fiction.
Frankly, I fail to comprehend, in my humble understanding, a few things:
• After declaring "ebarer sangram muktir sangra, ebarer sangram swadhinotar sangram…" on March 7 how could Sheikh Mujibur Rahman sit on the negotiating table with Yahya and his jallads from March 15 to 25, 1971?
• Why was it difficult for Sheikh Mujib to understand the game plan of the Military junta? Landing of plane and shiploads of troops and armaments in Dhaka and Chittagong was no secret. Was then Mujib a party to the whole game?
• Why Sheikh Mujib, in his lifetime, or the AL has not yet revealed what really went at Bangabhaban in those days? To the reporters, Mujb always boasted of making progress, even on the morning of March 25, without giving details. Dr. Kamal Hossain, a member of the AL team, is still alive and can clarify. (Richard Sisson and Leo Rose of the US Barkley University published in 1990 a much researched book titled 'War and Secession: Pakistan, Indian and the Creation of Bangladesh' in which they gave some details about the points of agreements between the two parties, aimed at keeping Pakistan united).
• Why did Sheikh Mujibur Rahman decline to sign, according to some accounts, the declaration of independence when approached by Tajuddin Ahmed, ASM Abdur Rob and others on the night of March 25, 1971, AL's claim to the contrary notwithstanding? (Rob is still alive to speak on it). According to Dr. Kamal Hossain, Mujib was keenly waiting for a promised declaration from President Yahya Khan to handover power to him forthwith. In reality, the president had something else in mind. He ordered the Operation Searchlight to "teach Bengalis a lesson" that massacred seven thousand innocents in Dhaka alone in just two days, as quoted by International Herald Tribune on March 30, 1971. The Time on April 12, 1971 compared the Pakistani brutality with that of Chengis Khan. Two days later, the confused and disoriented public heard a declaration of independence by an unknown Major Ziaur Rahman form the Kalurghat Radio in Chittagong. Had it come on March 25 or near around, lives of thousands could have been saved.
• Why did Sheikh Mujib call US Ambassador Joseph Farland in Islamabad on the night of March 25, 1971, and who facilitated that link? (Please see 'Witness to Surrender' by Siddiq Salek)
• How can Sheikh Mujib avoid responsibility for his failure to give direction at that crucial juncture to the people who had to pay a heavy price as a result? I wonder, one day, researchers may find it difficult to ascertain who would be guiltier—Gholam Azam or Shiekh Mujib?
Sheikh Mujib's Bangladesh (1972-75)
Upon return from the Pakistani custody on January 10, 1972, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman saddled himself in the helm of Bangladesh, which won independence in his absence at a great cost. There was no dearth of international goodwill and assistance—in cash and kind—yet the new country failed to take off. Belying the stories of Japan, Germany and Italy, who experienced much worse devastations of war 25 years earlier, Bangladesh turned itself into a 'bottomless basket' in just 3 years. The reasons are not far to seek. (Please see New York Times of December13, 24, 1974 and January 26, 1975; the Washington Post of November 8, 1974 plus other media sources.)
Nearly half a million lives lost in the 'man-made' famine in 1974/75. The dreaded Rakkhi Bahini that was under Sheikh Mujib's personal command killed 40 thousand dissidents. Emergency was clamped in 1974, politics banned and media gagged. Thousand of political opponents were sent to jail to rot and be tortured. Please open the pages of newspapers of the time and see that I am not talking of myths.
Despite the supreme authority he held, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman felt something amiss in the protocol. Through 4th Amendment to the constitution in January 1975, enacted in 11 minutes without any debate, he made himself the President, showing exit door to poor Mohammad Ulla.
Then came his "Second Revolution" in the form of BAKSAL (Bangladesh Krishak Sramik Awami League), the one-party system. As the Chairman of the BAKSAL and the President of the country, he became the unchallenged authority, the Omni-powerful leader, a virtual dictator with all its manifestations.
The process of 'rising above' and becoming a 'god' did not stop. Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was heading towards becoming the Life-long President of Bangladesh. Reportedly, a resolution to that effect was to be taken by the Chatra League on August 15, 1975 at the Dhaka University, where he was to be the chief guest. Once proposed by the CL, it was only a formality for the political leadership to enact it in the rubber-stamp parliament. We know the rest of the story.
Part Two: Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely: Hasina's Lust for Power
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 61 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.
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.
The Arab Spring Uprisings, the Occupy Wall Street/Cities/Towns engulfing the developed word, the Anna Hazare Movement in India, the Imran Khan Rallies in Pakistan—all have one thing in common: root out corruption. It has become a global issue today. Fighting corruption should be BNP's number one goal, as such. Simultaneously, the party should take drastic action against its known and proven culprits, whoever they are. In addition, the party should rid itself of inactive, ineffective and irrelevant leaders. These are imperatives for public confidence building.
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Abid Bahar
Firstly, Dr Yonus’s ideas of Gramin revolution germinated during the time of Bangabandhu’s 1974 famine. Amarta Sen, the Nobel Prize winner from West Bengal called it the “man -made famine.� In contrast the Awami League fondly calls 1972-75 period as the time of Bangabandhu’s “Golden Bengal.� This myth was even written in Bangladesh’s history books manufactured by the Hasina AL.
Thirdly, in anecdotal form somewhere Dr. Yonus acknowledged that President Zia’s financial grant at the crucial time of Gramin’s initial growth helped it to take off from its infancy to its adolescence. To the AL this is a bad news for the Gramin and surely is a sin committed by Yonus because to the AL hero-worshipers, Zia was a “Pakistani razakar.� To Hasina when Dr. Yonus is not with the AL he must be with the enemy. So Dr. Yonus for his perceived association must be a confirmed “razakar� too. That is why the Zia phobic Hasina found it important that Dr. Yonus must be condemned openly even before he was found guilty. See http://www.muhammadyunus.org/In-the-Media/professor-muhammad-yunus-opening-remarks-at-the-press-conference-on-december-12-2010/
Finally, the AL party originally founded by Mawlana Bhasani to fight for democracy but under Mujib’s leadership has ever since turned itself into a hero-worshiping party and not long ago after Mujib’s demise Mujib followers ganged up together on a staged BBC survey to name Mujib as the greatest Bengali of all times. To Hasina, Dr. Yonus’s international fame is a direct challenge to Mujib. To them Bangabandhu Mujib should be the greatest man from Bangladesh.
To Dr. Yonus (as a non political person) this is as if when he has been trying to avoid Bangabandhu in every turn, the shadow of him behind Hasina appears before Dr. Yonus over and over again. Perhaps due to all these reasons why even before Dr. Yonus was proven to be guilty, the Dhaka University branch of marauding Chatro League leaders demanded that Yonus’s Nobel Prize should be rebuked. Perhaps in this whole range of debate the rivalry has to do more with a battle between fiction vs. reality about Bangabandhu or to be sure between Bangabandhu’s BKSAL fascism of socialist repression for the dream of “Sonar Bangla� vs. Yonus’s Gramin social business in a free market economy. Despite all of this,Dr. Yonus proved himself to be too smart.He is like in the joke, An Elephant and Hasina's Dilip Barua in a soccer game!
player Barua was dribbling the ball towards the Elephants' goal; Ashraf was next to Barua. Sadly, the Elephants leader Yunas's' left back came lumbering towards Barua. It trod on the little ant, killing him instantly
and the excited Ashraf seriously injured. The referee stopped the game. "What the hell do you think you're doing? Do you call that sportsmanship, killing and injuring other players?" The elephant replied, "Well, I didn't
mean to kill him; I was just trying to trip him up."