After concurring with most of what Mr. Rabiul Islam says, Dr. Farida Majid faults him for missing the point that there have been repeated assaults on the constitution by the military or military-backed governments. Dr. Majid also points out the "Islamization" that has accompanied these assaults. I do not fault Mr. Islam for "missing" these points because he has touched many others to present his main thesis that the military is unlikely to be a heralder of a healthy democracy, and that a military backed political system is a poor substitute for a civilian multi-party democracy, however flawed the latter may be. When one presents a view, one is not always able or remember to include every point and every argument to articulate that view, and Mr. Islam cannot be faulted for missing some points, however important they might be.
I also think that both Mr. Islam and Dr. Majid did not mention the important point that the very first major assault on the constitution came in the form of instituting a one-party government in 1975 in complete violation of one of the four principles of the 1972 constitution, namely Democracy (intentionally spelled with a capital D), but I am not going to fault either of them for that.
We can summarize all the views in this thread (Mr. Islam's, Dr. Majid's and mine) by saying that our political process is still going through infancy, albeit a rather exasperatingly prolonged infancy, and that our political parties tend to mess up the process, and then the military takes over to with a claim to clean up the mess, and then they mess it up even more. To use the infant metaphor a little more, our civilian politicians can be accused of criminal negligence and outright abuse of the baby, and our military of directly injuring the baby in their of ill-conceived attempt to punish the dysfunctional politicians. Then, there is a "democratic movement" led by the dysfunctional politicians to overthrow the even more dysfunctional military, and the cycle repeats all over again. There appears to be no solution to this circular problem, and while we all hope to see some light at the end of the proverbial tunnel but this tunnel does not seem to have an end because it might be, in fact, a donut-shaped tunnel.
I am somewhat puzzled and disturbed by the disrespectful and condescending tone at the end of Dr. Majid's post where she asks Mr. Rabiul Islam to "memorize" an opinion issued by two judges. I hope that it was not intentional because I often enjoy Dr. Majid's erudite writings, although I disagree with many of the opinions she expresses.
Best wishes,
M. Harun uz Zaman
__._,_.___
*****************************************
Sign the Petition : Release the Arrested University Teachers Immediately : An Appeal to the Caretaker Government of Bangladesh
http://www.mukto-mona.com/human_rights/university_teachers_arrest.htm
*****************************************
Daily Star publishes an interview with Mukto-Mona
http://www.mukto-mona.com/news/daily_star/daily_star_MM.pdf
*****************************************
MM site is blocked in Islamic countries such as UAE. Members of those theocratic states, kindly use any proxy (such as http://proxy.org/) to access mukto-mona.
*****************************************
Mukto-Mona Celebrates 5th Anniversary
http://www.mukto-mona.com/Special_Event_/5_yrs_anniv/index.htm
*****************************************
Mukto-Mona Celebrates Earth Day:
http://www.mukto-mona.com/Special_Event_/Earth_day2006/index.htm
*****************************************
Kansat Uprising : A Special Page from Mukto-Mona
http://www.mukto-mona.com/human_rights/kansat2006/members/
*****************************************
MM Project : Grand assembly of local freedom fighters at Raumari
http://www.mukto-mona.com/project/Roumari/freedom_fighters_union300306.htm
*****************************************
German Bangla Radio Interviews Mukto-Mona Members:
http://www.mukto-mona.com/Special_Event_/Darwin_day/german_radio/
Mukto-Mona Celebrates Darwin Day:
http://www.mukto-mona.com/Special_Event_/Darwin_day/index.htm
*****************************************
Some FAQ's about Mukto-Mona:
http://www.mukto-mona.com/new_site/mukto-mona/faq_mm.htm
****************************************************
VISIT MUKTO-MONA WEB-SITE : http://www.mukto-mona.com/
****************************************************
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it".
-Beatrice Hall [pseudonym: S.G. Tallentyre], 190
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
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
__,_._,___