Moin was not in Pakistan during liberation war and he graduated from the Bangladesh Military Academy in one of the early courses (came out second in his batch). However, Moin was in Pakistan serving as the Military Attache in the Bangladesh High Commission in Islamabad when the illustrious General Pervez Musharraf overthrew Nawaz Sharif's elected government.
To: alochona@yahoogroups.com
From: wouldbemahathirofbd@yahoo.com
Date: Tue, 4 Mar 2008 03:05:35 -0800
Subject: Re: [ALOCHONA] Truthout - Moeen as Bangladesh's Musharraf
__._,_.___I HAVE READ IN OTHER ARTICLES ALSO THAT MOIN WAS IN PAKISTAN DURING LIBERATION WAR.
Zchoudhury@worldbank.org wrote:The author of this article alleges that Gen. Moeen was in Pakistan during the
war of liberation, and states that he is a repatriated army officer from
Pakistan. The truth is that he is the first Army Chief from a new generation of
Army officers who came out of the Bangladesh Military Academy. The author
should have done his research before he penned this article.
Robin Khundkar
<rkhundkar@earthlin
k.net> To
Sent by: Robin <rkhundkar@earthlink.net >
alochona@yahoogroup cc
s.com
Subject
[ALOCHONA] Truthout - Moeen as
03/03/2008 05:17 PM Bangladesh's Musharraf
Please respond to
alochona@yahoogroup
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Moeen as Bangladesh's Musharraf
By J. Sri Raman
t r u t h o u t | Perspective
Sunday 02 March 2008
http://www.truthout.org/docs_ 2006/030208C. shtml
In our preoccupation with Pakistan and its embattled president, many of us have
almost forgotten another South Asian country and another general encountering
another pro-democracy movement. General Moeen U Ahmed, chief of the Bangladesh
armed forces, was in New Delhi for a week since February 24 to remind India and
the region of his role as the other Pervez Musharraf.
Moeen was supposed to be here on a "military-to-military" mission, and met
Indian counterpart Deepak Kapoor and External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee,
reportedly to discuss cooperation in defense. Moeen, however, did not stop
there.
It has been made public on his behalf that that he pleaded with Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh's government to help make Bangladesh safe for restored democracy
by prevailing upon Bangladesh's two most prominent contenders for civilian power
not to return to electoral politics. The reported plea warrants the presumption
that the recent events in Pakistan prompted Moeen's India visit, which was put
off last year on the officially cited ground of floods in Bangladesh.
The Musharraf syndrome is manifestly obvious here. As Pakistan's military ruler,
its present president of uncertain powers had for years tried to prevent the
country's two most prominent aspirants for civilian power from returning home
and joining electoral politics. He was forced, however, to allow the return of
former Prime Ministers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif - and even of the
elections. Musharraf continues to be engaged in a contained confrontation with
Sharif and Asif Ali Zardari - Bhutto's husband who is playing her political role
after her horrible end.
Moeen, of course, is no president, but he is the power behind the throne in
Bangladesh. The army-backed government in Dhaka, too, tried to exile former
Prime Ministers Sheikh Hasina Wajed and Begum Khaleda Zia, but failed. Moeen and
his men also tried to prevent the return of Hasina from a visit abroad, and
failed again under international pressure. The leaders of the Awami League (AL)
and the Bangladesh National Party (BNP), however, have been kept away from all
political activities through a slew of corruption cases and long spells of
under-trial detention.
Indications have been reported of Moeen's possible plans to install himself
eventually as the president in the place of Fakruddin Ahmed, in charge of the
current caretaker regime. It is not known, however, whether something like
Pakistan's National Reconciliation Order, freeing the two leaders from
corruption cases, will precede such a move. But there is another respect,
certainly, in which Moeen is trying to do a Musharraf.
Musharraf may not really have profited by splitting Sharif's Pakistan Muslim
League (PML) and forming a party named after the Quaid-e-Azam (the title of
Pakistan's founder Mohammed Ali Jinnah.) The PML-Q has ended up a distant third,
after Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party (PPP) and the PML-Nawaz, in the recent
general election. The example, however, has not deterred Moeen from making a
similar effort to give himself political legitimacy in the Bangladesh general
election that the caretaker regime has promised to hold before the year end.
Last year, the army-backed government in Dhaka tried its utmost to push
Nobel-winning economist Mohmmad Yunus into politics and help him form a party to
end both main parties. The attempt proved abortive, with Yunus seeing through
the cynical game. Efforts followed to break the both the AL and the BNP. Not
much success has attended these efforts, and the parties as a whole have
remained loyal to the harassed leaders with halos of their own.
Moeen and his men, however, have not given up. According to informed observers,
he would like to be sure of a two-thirds majority in a new parliament to ratify
the 37 ordinances, through which he has ruled the country for the last 13
months. Will two split-away parties give Moeen what a single one could not
provide Musharraf? Few observers will answer that in the affirmative.
Moeen would appear to have no illusions about what a real democracy can do for
him. Even as far back as last April, he caused more than a few political ripples
by declaring at a public meeting that Bangladesh would not return to "an
elective democracy." Days ago, he elaborated on the same theme. Asserting that
the country had tried "Westminster-type parliamentary democracy for the last 15
years," but could not make it work, he called for "a form of democracy that is
suitable for us."
The particular form of democracy he has in mind may suit neither the major
political parties nor the people used to polls. Nothing, however, would suit the
army more, or the religious parties and forces, particularly the
Jamaat-e-Islami, which, as a member of Begum Zia's coalition regime,
distinguished itself by its divisive role in the Bangladesh society. The poor
electoral showing of the clerical parties in Pakistan has not made their
Bangladeshi counterparts ardent partisans of ballot politics either.
Moeen and the army-propped regime were able to delay the democratic process for
quite some time with an anti-corruption campaign that brought some of the
political luminaries of the past to law. The glamor of the campaign, however,
has worn thin, with its perceived excesses hitting the country's economy and
with graft in the army and in select political circles appearing to have been
placed outside its purview. the anti-corruption crusade has lost its attraction
all the more following the recent steep spiral in the prices of rice, pulses and
other essential commodities.
All this has not been lost on Moeen and his mandarins in the caretaker regime.
They crushed a rebellion of campus origin months ago, but they know that popular
discontent can find a dangerous expression again. They have made certain moves
to win over the political opposition. This include official initiatives to
rehabilitate martyred Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, liberator of Bangladesh and father
of Hasina, as the "Father of the Nation," and Ziaur Rahman, former president and
husband of Begam Khaleda Zia as a "patriot," besides a promise to try the "war
criminals of 1971." By most accounts, however, the moves cannot succeed in
stalling the pro-democracy movement.
It is interesting to recall, in this context, that Moeen himself was in Pakistan
during the Bangladesh Liberation War and joined and returned to the country's
armed forces as a "repatriated officer." The past record itself may not go
against his current political ambitions. As in Musharraf's case, however, a
massive democratic upsurge can do so.
A freelance journalist and a peace activist in India, J. Sri Raman is the author
of "Flashpoint" (Common Courage Press, USA). He is a regular contributor to
Truthout.
Is this CTG better than Ershad in case of political party reform and anti corruption drive and dealings with teachers and Students ?--------------------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- ------ Sobhan Allah- Only Allah flawless
Alhamdulillah - All praise to be of Allah
Allah hu Akbar - Allah, the Greatest--------------------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------Would Be Mahathir of BD
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