Saturday, July 21, 2012
[chottala.com] Which Country is this?
Imagine, You live in a Country, your Neighbor is a Buddhist Racist called Ko Ko Gyi: Which Country is this?
Abid Bahar
Which Country is this? If you live in this country through generations and you are a Muslim Rohingya, you might be one of the unlucky persons on earth, because you have your neighbor, a racist named Ko Ko Gyi, who travels to the West but keeps his hoodlums in his neighborhood in Arakan to drive you and your family out of your ancestral home. The hoodlums already destroyed the ancient mosque in your neighborhood built in the 14th century. After living for centuries on this land, they think you are a person who have entered their country illegally. Your neighbor Ko Ko Gyi and his buddy Ko Myo Thein claims they are democrats, but in Ko Ko Gyi's speech he informs his followers: "...it has been a long-standing problem; this isn't a problem that exists only recently. For decades, the illegal immigrants have been flowing into Myanmar, ...the rate these Bengalis give birth, the rate of giving birth is massive and overtime the local Rakhines feel threaten by the sky-rocketed birthrate of these Bengalis. With these birthrates, it's only the Rakhines who feel threaten." Another racist named Aye Chan who became a Japanese citizen came to Arakan to say to his Rakhiine people: "These So-called Rohingyas are illegal people and are influx Viruses" needed to be exterminated. The police, security force, NaSaKa (the border guard) and the military, all are there to help them destroy you, and your family. This is all in the name of you being a "foreigner." So you realized that it is not because you have entered the country illegally, but that these people are Buddhist racists and working on ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya.
More alarming is that lately, you have been observing young people distributing leaflets, and hoodlums gather in street corners with machetes, sticks and with them security forces with revolvers. Among them you also see some monks. Being a Rohingya Muslim you realize that this is a religiously motivated racism.
At night suddenly you hear in your Rohingya neighbor's house the cry of a woman asking for help. Followed by a group of Rakhine young people in short pants setting fire on your Rohingya neighbor's house and next is yours. You have no time to spare, you leave behind your possessions. You took your family in your boat anchored on the river and you found out you are the luckiest ones, you got shelter in the neighboring country. You came to tell people what happened. On your way though you saw many man and women especially children dead, especially a dead child you couldn't forget who couldn't get up from the mud to catch up with her parents, during the stampede, the unfortunate Rohingya will not have her stories told to her future generation. ( Please see the references for details).
This seems like a story of Hitler's Germany in the last century. No, it is in Asia, in a Buddhist country, in the remote corner of Arakan, of Burma.
You are a peace loving Buddhist. You don't approve of this inhumanity especially after you heard Chris Lewa saying:
"Nationality in Burma should not be based on race, but rather on descent and birthplace." You heard Lewa saying: State-sponsored abuse of the Rohingya started on June 25, and she accused the army, thenasaka (border security forces), police officers and riot police of conducting mass arrests of Rohingyas, and raids that involved looting, robbery, rapes, beatings, torture and killings."
You heard Lewa saying: "Hundreds have died, many more have been injured, thousands of properties have been destroyed and an estimated 100,000 people have been displaced.
She adds that "There have been many attempts to block aid from UN agencies and international NGOs, said Lewa, even by Buddhist monks who are playing a leading role in rejecting aid and exhorting their communities not to do business with the Rohingya."
But as a democrat, and a peace-loving Buddhist,you realized, these Rakhine ultra nationalists also have hijacked the peace-loving Burmese people through anti Rohingya hate propaganda. To your utter surprise , Thein Sein, the President of the country who was a former military General declared: "We will take responsibility of our ethnic nationals but it is impossible to accept those Rohingyas who are not our ethnic nationals who had entered the country illegally. The only solution is to hand those illegal Rohingyas to the UNHCR or to send them to any third country that would accept them." You realized the President to be an old military wolf in the civilian sheep's skin. You wonder, whether the President is in his right mind to be a reformer because his statement shows he is an out-ride racist.
You know you are a democrat Bumar, you see the West is watching Thein Sein whether he will really favor the Western business in Burma or else what? In the mean time, you see many human rights groups in the West observing the recent "June 2012 machete massacre of the Rohingyas" now are supporting Rohingya's citizenship and strongly opine, "Enough is enough," " Burma is Rohingya's ancestral home and it is about time that the President and his local provocateurs should be brought to the International Criminal Court in the Hague for justice especially after his open acknowledgement of his direct link in the ethnic cleansing and the crime against humanity.
References:
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=144658129003777&set=a.135378839931706.25621.100003787733026&type=1&theater
http://www.rohingyablogger.com/2012/07/rohingya-dictators-and-democracy-in.html
Tell Me What is Rohingya Genocide.
https://danyawadi.wordpress.com/2012/05/21/tell-me-what-is-rohingya-genocide-in-burma-by-abid-bahar-phd/
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=144253442377579&set=a.135378839931706.25621.100003787733026&type=1&theater
http://tv.yahoo.com/photos/myanmar-riots-slideshow/buddhist-man-holds-machete-other-members-community-guard-photo-170141758.html
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=506837352666726&set=a.255960174421113.81353.100000213983716&type=1&theater
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jack-healey/western-burma-in-conflict_b_1676863.html?utm_source=Alert-blogger&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Email+Notifications
Del6127781
http://danyawadi.wordpress.com/2012/03/20/%E1%81%83%E1%81%85%E1%81%85%E1%81%8B-burmese-invasion-of-arakan-and-the-rise-of-non-bengali-settlements-in-bangladesh/
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=506837352666726&set=a.255960174421113.81353.100000213983716&type=1&theater
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[chottala.com] Pakistan 72nd in Right to Information (RTI) rating
Pakistan has been ranked 72nd whereas neighbouring India grabbed 3rd position
Sat Jul 21, 2012 2:43 pm (PDT) . Posted by:
"urvashi sharma" rtimahilamanchup
Pakistan stands pathetically low on list of info-sharing states
Umar Cheema
Saturday, July 21, 2012
From Print Edition
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has been ranked 72nd whereas neighbouring India grabbed the 3rd position in the latest Right to Information (RTI) rating conducted in 90 countries about granting access to public record indicting government's denial to the people's right to know.
The study jointly carried out by Canada-based Centre for Law and Democracy and Spain-based Access Info Europe has found that other South Asian countries like Bangladesh and Nepal stand far above in RTI rating in comparison to Pakistan that already has earned notoriety through Corruption Index ratings. While Bangladesh has secured 13th position and Nepal stands at 17th position, Pakistan is among the last 20 countries in the Global RTI rating.
Tall promises made by the federal government and Punjab government to introduce laws granting liberal access to the citizens and media to public information have turned out to be hollow. The Senate Standing Committee on Information and Broadcasting has just woken up and constituted a sub-committee to reconsider ineffective draft bill of former MNA Sherry Rehman and only in the consultation with the Ministry of Information without involving civil society organisations and media.
Again, the Parliament that passed the highly controversial amendment in Contempt of Court Law after only 68 minutes debate is unlikely to proceed with same diligence on Freedom of Information Law. Likewise, provincial governments of Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP) have been sitting on the draft laws since 2010 without making any concrete effort to get it passed from the provincial assemblies. Baluchistan and Sindh framed laws in 2006, a pre-requisite for World Bank loans, but they only copied Freedom of Information Ordinance 2002, again an effective legislation.
In the RTI rating, two nascent democracies in the Eastern Europe, Serbia and Slovenia, secured first and second positions respectively in the RTI rating. Mexico that is otherwise considered very hostile to journalists due to drug cartels has been ranked at 7th position in the RTI rating. Ethiopia, another country unsafe for journalists due to non-state actors, has earned 10th position. Even Yemen boasts of having liberal access to information as it has been ranked at 20th position.
As far as Pakistan's position is concerned, a recent countrywide survey conducted by a Pakistani NGO, Centre for Peace and Development Initiatives (CPDI), to study the effectiveness of the laws pertaining to access to information found that out of 54 departments approached, only two departments provided the required information.
The other 25 departments also responded positively but only after the applicant had to seek the intervention of the federal or provincial ombudsman. Owing to the ineffectiveness ofthe relevant laws, the CPDI demanded of the federal and provincial governments to repeal the existing information laws and enact new ones with strong and effective implementation mechanisms so that the constitutional right to information of the citizens could be ensured.
The CPDI requested the government departments to provide copies of the contracts of the development schemes and projects carried out in financial year 2010-11 along with the details about the utilisation of the development funds. The information requests were submitted to federal, provincial and district government departments in the 1st quarter of 2012 under Article 19-A of the Constitution, Freedom of Information Ordinance 2002 and Section 137 of the Local Government Ordinance 2001.
These findings coincide with a recent decision of the Senate Standing Committee on Information and Broadcasting to constitute a sub-committee for devising a law but only in consultation with the relevant ministry, a move sparking resentment and reservations about the possible outcome of an exercise finalised through bureaucratic input.
The CPDI advocating for RTI has come forward to express its concerns. A press release issued on Friday called for expanding the scope of the sub-committee saying that working with bureaucracy alone at Ministry of Information and Broadcasting is likely to compromise citizens right to information as the bureaucracy is afflicted with the malaise of dilly-dallying whenever information is sought from government departments under the existing information laws.
Therefore, Senate Committee on Information and Broadcasting should actively engage journalists and citizens groups in the process of finalising law of right to information, said the press release. This is vitally important as implementation mechanism envisaged in Sherry Rahman private member bill, the one under consideration of the Committee, is equally ineffective as the one envisaged in Freedom of Information Ordinance 2002 which the proposed Sherry Rahman information law seeks to repeal.
Realising the fact that ensuring citizens right to information is a specialised job, countries of the region like Bangladesh, Nepal and India have entrusted the task of protecting this right to independent and autonomous information commissions. Contrary to this, both Sherry Rehman's private bill and Freedom of Information Ordinance 2002 entrust this task to Federal Ombudsman, a body specialised in solving maladministration related issues, which has proved to be a toothless appellate body as it sees the right to information from narrow prism of maladministration issue, said the press release.
The CPDI urges the Senate Standing Committee on Information and Broadcasting to play its role proactively in enacting an effective right to information law which is at par with those enacted in the region through active involvement of journalists and citizens groups working in the area of right to information in the country.
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[chottala.com] Mushroom growth of Indian business houses in Bangladesh
Mushroom growth of Indian business houses in Bangladesh
http://www.banglanews24.com/detailsnews.php?nssl=5f7201a1e1b0cfc973d4d7cabd240734&nttl=21072012127856
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[* 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]
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