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Friday, August 21, 2009

[ALOCHONA] Ending the Legacy of Murder: Interesting Article



Ending the Legacy of Murder


Former prime minister Sheikh Hasina was the target of the August 2 grenade attacks on an Awami League rally in 2004.

Our political history is riddled with tales of conspiracy and murder. Most unfortunate, however, is the precedent that has been set over the decades, of killers getting away with impunity.

 

Kajalie Shehreen Islam

 

Four years ago on August 21, 23 people were killed in a series of grenade attacks at an Awami League (AL) meeting being held in front of the party office at Bangabandhu Avenue. Though the prime target, former prime minister and the then leader of the opposition Sheikh Hasina, survived with ear injuries, a number of central AL leaders, including Women's Affairs Secretary Ivy Rahman, were killed, over 200 people injured. Injuries ranged from splinter wounds, loss of eyesight and limbs. Some of the victims still carry the splinters, which could not be removed, inside their bodies.

 

Less than six months later, on January 27, 2005, former finance minister Shah AMS Kibria and four other AL activists were killed in another grenade attack on an AL rally in Habiganj; about 70 others were injured. Despite allegations of a controversial investigation, the trial began in May 2006 but was halted due to a High Court (HC) stay order. The case is now pending at the Sylhet Divisional Speedy Trial Tribunal.

 

Of the 10 accused in the Kibria case, eight are in detention and two absconding. All 10 are Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) men, one of them is the district BNP vice-president AKM Abdul Quayum, who was later expelled from the party. Links have also been made to the Harkat-ul Jihad al-Islami (Huji), but Kibria's family and party members claim that the masterminds behind the killing have been left out of the investigation and have urged the caretaker government to fairly investigate the murder.

 

As for the August 21 attacks, case proceedings finally began last month after police filed a chargesheet against 22 people, including former deputy minister for education in the BNP-led alliance Abdus Salam Pintu and eight absconding Huji members. This came out after an intense and long drawn out drama surrounding the investigation. The initial probe was carried out under the direct supervision of Lutfozzaman Babar, state minister for home affairs at the time. The 20 persons arrested following the investigation, which included a student and an AL leader and ward commissioner, however, were not found guilty in the later investigation. Another twist was brought about with the confessions of Joj Miah and two others who claimed that a criminal gang had carried out the attacks. These confessions were later found by the present administration to have been obtained by force, and by paying Joj Miah's family a few thousand taka monthly. At one point, even a "foreign enemy" was implicated in the incident. Even after the usual blame game and all the twists and turns in the investigation process, doubts still remain as to whether the real culprits behind such a well-planned and deadly attack have been identified.

 

In a nation that has witnessed the killing of its national leaders, including its founding father, almost from its birth, these killings do not come as a shock. The trend of killers getting away with impunity has been set early in our history. The same killers who on August 15, 1975 murdered Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and 21 members of his family and household, including children and pregnant women, also assassinated four national leaders -- Syed Nazrul Islam, acting president of the government-in-exile, prime minister Tajuddin Ahmed, finance minister M Mansur Ali and minister for home affairs, relief and rehabilitation AHM Qamruzzaman -- inside a prison cell, on November 3, 1975. The latter massacre was a part of a contingency plan in the event that a counter-coup occurred, basically, to wipe out a whole leadership whom the killers did not see fit to govern the nation. Not only were the perpetrators not punished for their crimes, but they were actually allowed to escape and even rewarded by the State with promotions and diplomatic postings abroad.


Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, who was assassinated along with most of his family on August 15, 1975.

 

On May 30, 1981, President Ziaur Rahman, who ultimately came to power after the coups and counter-coups of the 1970s, was assassinated by a faction of army officers, in approximately the 20th coup attempt against Zia himself. The killing of Brigadier Khalid Musharraf, Colonels Huda and Haider in November 1975, as well as the execution of Col. Abu Taher by Zia and the hasty trial and punishment of Zia's own killers, were also said to be politically motivated.

 

But the culprits of the Bangabandhu and jail killings were, for 21 years, covered by the Indemnity Ordinance passed by the government under president Khandaker Moshtaque Ahmed, which was later legalised in parliament. Only in 1996 after the AL came to power was the ordinance repealed and a murder case filed on October 2 of that year. In November 1998, 15 former army officers were awarded the death penalty by the trial court in the Bangabandhu murder case. The HC later upheld the death sentences of 12 -- Syed Farook Rahman, Bazlul Huda, Shahriar Rashid Khan, Muhiuddin, AKM Mahiuddin, Khondaker Abdur Rashid, Shariful Haque Dalim, AM Rashed Chowdhury, SHMB Noor Chowdhury, Abdul Majed and Muslemuddin. The first five are currently in custody. The latter six are absconding (Muslemuddin is rumoured to be dead), while Aziz Pasha, who was also on the run, died in Zimbabwe.

 

On October 20, 2004, Muslemuddin, Marfat Ali Shah and Abdul Hashem Mridha (all absconding) against whom charges "were proven beyond doubt" in the jail killing case, were sentenced to death. Syed Farook Rahman, Bazlul Huda, Shahriar Rashid Khan, AKM Mahiuddin, Khandoker Abdur Rashid, Shariful Haque Dalim, SHMB Noor Chowdhury, Abdul Majed, AM Rashed Chowdhury, Ahmed Sharful Hossain, Kismat Hashem and Nazmul Hossain were sentenced to life for abetting the murderers. Five people were acquitted in the jail killing case, the verdict of which the slain leaders' families and the AL rejected as being "farcical" and for which even the judge blamed the investigation officer for faulty investigation.


Syed Nazrul Islam, Tajuddin Ahmed, M Mansur Ali and AHM Qamruzzaman -- the four national leaders killed in a prison cell on November 3, 1975.

 

The Bangabandhu murder case is currently awaiting hearing in the Appellate Division. According to the State Counsel for the case, there are not enough judges in the Appellate Division to hear it. Out of the five judges, three cannot hear the case -- two were embarrassed and one passed a verdict on this case in the HC. A minimum of two judges is required for hearing cases in the Appellate Division.

In the jail killing case, the defence lawyers and State defence lawyers had already argued their cases while the State Counsel completed its arguments last Thursday.

****

The perpetrators of the Bangabandhu and jail killings were self-proclaimed. In an interview with the Sunday Times on May 30, 1976, Syed Farook Rahman, said to be the mastermind behind the killings, said, "Let the Bangladesh government put me on trial for the assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. I say it was an act of national liberation. Let them publicly call it a crime." He even cited five reasons for which he "ordered" Mujib's killing.

 

But the chain of reactions which Farook and his accomplices set in motion did not end there. The struggle for power, the coups and counter-coups and killings continued, so much so that veteran journalist Anthony Mascarenhas, who followed the liberation struggle of Bangladesh and the chaotic years which followed, has termed it Bangladesh's "legacy of blood", beginning from the partially flawed leadership of Sheikh Mujib which set off the killings in the first place. When the killers were finally forced to face up to their crimes, however, albeit 21 years later, the bravado faded despite all the evidence to the contrary, they denied responsibility.


Ahsanullah Master, Ivy Rahman and Shah AMS Kibria killed in 2004 and 2005.

Clear crimes, identified killers -- why then did it take so long for the process of justice to be started? The most obvious reason is that those in power after the crimes did not care to have justice delivered.

 

"In most of the political killings in our history," says Advocate Shahdeen Malik of the Supreme Court (SC), "a part of the State was involved. Thus it was difficult for the other parts of the State to take on these issues even if they wanted to. It would be difficult to turn around and strike at their own roots, saying that the killings from which they had benefited were illegal. It would have made the legitimacy of those who came to power after the killings very questionable. "

 

"Ideally," continues Malik, "the trials would have taken place immediately after the crimes. But those who were in power right after were the beneficiaries of these crimes -- if you are the beneficiary of a crime you won't be the most enthusiastic prosecutor of that crime." He points out that President Ziaur Rahman's killers were tried and punished not because it was an issue of right and wrong, but because someone derived the benefits, whereas in the former two cases, it was beneficial not to prosecute the culprits.

 

"The case and killing of Bangabandhu and his family was for all intent and purpose a


Advocate Anisul Huq

murder case," says former prosecutor and current State Counsel for both the Bangabandhu and jail killing cases, Anisul Huq. "But unfortunately, none of the governments that succeeded until 1996 lodged a case. Those who were in power between 1975 and 1990, 1991 and 1996, and 2001 and 2006 were the beneficiaries of the murder of Bangabandhu. They didn't want to bring to justice and punish the killers of Bangabandhu and his family, because if it happened then maybe many unknown truths would have been revealed. This actually means that they have endorsed the killings and by so doing thwarted justice. This position was corrected in 1996."

"We crossed a lot of hurdles and finally arrived at a verdict," continues Huq. "Again, those who were the beneficiaries of this murder created obstacles by denying our consistent request that the Appellate Division hear this case, that an ad hoc judge be appointed, which is permitted by the Constitution. Our principal reason for such a demand was that these two cases needed to be finished for establishing the rule of law."

 

"What we have seen after the murder of Bangabandhu and his family," Huq goes on, "is a sequence of political murders which culminated finally in the killing of Ziaur Rahman. Had this trial been held earlier, then at least the message would have been conveyed that the perpetrators of such killings are brought to justice, which would put an end to such political killings. It would have conveyed a message to the populace that nobody is above the law, everybody is equal in the eye of law, which is the sine qua non for establishing the rule of law."

****

What does it say for the legal and justice system of a nation and what example does it set for its people, when murder after murder goes without investigation, trial and the meting out of justice?

 

As far as the people's faith in the judicial system is concerned, Advocate Shahdeen Malik does not think the consequences of the above cases play a very important role.

"People have still not accepted our formal justice system," he says. "If you catch a mugger, beating him up is most people's idea of justice." Not more than 30 percent of normal murder cases get formal justice, according to Malik. In the other 70 percent, settlements are made through compromise. The conviction rate in criminal cases is less than 10 percent. "There is a big disjunction between formal justice and people's notion of justice. In the prevailing notion, the latter is the better justice where it is ensured 80 percent."

 

Extra-judicial killings extract a high price from society, however, believes Malik. "Fast forward to crossfire, where a significant part of the State machinery is involved. The same story has been repeated 600 or 700 times, that the criminal was shot while escaping. These are clear instances of extra-judicial killings. What worries me most," says Malik, "is that once extra-judicial killings become an accepted way of dealing with a problem in a society, however small a number, things can get out of hand. Most societies in the last 50 years which have tolerated this as a quick solution have ended up suffering tens of thousands of killings. It's just a matter of time. Now the number may be 500 or 700, but for many societies the figures very quickly escalated into the thousands. The transition was very quick."

 

"The basic rule of thumb," says Malik, "is that you don't keep those who have fought a war in the army. The US demobilised those who fought in Iraq within two years. A person with a gun is a dangerous person, one who has used a gun randomly, whether in war or elsewhere, is dangerous. With a person who becomes used to killing, however justified, however legal, there is always the fear of their using the gun again illegally. We didn't understand this in 1972 and those who fought in 1971 continued to battle amongst themselves."

***

Decades after the crimes, the process of justice has begun, but obstacles still remain. Firstly, there is the question of investigations and their validity after such a long time has passed. How foolproof are probes carried out decades after an incident?

"With regard to the jail killings, a case was filed on November 4, 1975, but it was stopped by the successive governments," says Advocate Anisul Huq. "This is unheard of. What these successive governments have proved or left for posterity is that this was actually a crime sponsored by the successive governments. They have taken the onus of being a party to it. By their conduct in the jail killing case they have only substantiated the fact of being beneficiaries of both the killings."


President Ziaur Rahman, killed in around the 20th coup attempt on his life on May 30, 1981.

 

As for the Bangabandhu murder case, Huq says there were problems due to the delayed investigation. "It was difficult and I'm not saying it was foolproof, no investigation is foolproof. What I am saying is that as much as was possible after 21 years was done."

 

Not only is delayed justice a problem, but also the state of the judicial system itself, says Huq. "There are seven to eight judges of the HC division embarrassed to hear this case. That speaks of the pitiful state of our judicial system. If we are looking for accountability, if we are working for transparency, then I think these issues of the embarrassment of judicial officers and judges should also be resolved."

 

Despite all the hurdles, however, the State Counsel is confident about its case. "I'm quite confident that we have been able to prove the charges of murder of the accused persons in these cases. We faced difficulties in certain areas and those difficulties were actually created by the party in power at that time. But from the time 2001 to 2006, the BNP made positive contributions towards the end of thwarting justice." Huq believes that the cases will be resolved "soon enough, without setting a date".

 

The long drawn out process, however, is not the only problem. Even after the cases are resolved, the matter of finding and punishing the culprits remains. Almost half the culprits in the cases are currently absconding. With many, there is the issue of extraditing them from the countries in which they now reside, including the US, Canada, Libya and Pakistan.

 

M. Aminul Islam, high commissioner of Bangladesh to Canada between 1998 and 2000, explains the problem of extraditing Nazmul Hossain and Kismat Hashem from Canada after they were convicted and sentenced to death in the Bangabandhu murder case in 1998. Nazmul Hossain was posted at the Bangladesh High Commission in Canada and later married a Canadian woman and became a citizen of that country. Kismat Hashem also settled in Canada, started a business there and became a Canadian citizen.

 

"After the judgement in the Bangabandhu murder case," says Islam, "they could not be sent back as Bangladesh did not have an extradition treaty with Canada. Thus efforts were made to conclude an extradition treaty and drafts of treaties which Canada had with other countries were sent to Bangladesh for examination."

 

A major problem, however, was the sentence itself, says Islam. "After the judgement, the Canadians pointed out that the men had been sentenced to death. There is no capital punishment in Canada and neither Canadian nationals nor citizens of any other country would be extradited from Canada to countries where they would face the death penalty. Thus it was felt that even if an extradition treaty were to be concluded, the two accused would not be extradited until and unless the Bangladesh government gave a guarantee that the death sentence would be commuted to jail terms." As Nazmul Hossain and Kismat Hashem have been acquitted in the Bangabandhu murder case and now only face life terms in the jail killing case, that problem is gone, says Islam, but the extradition treaty is yet to be completed. The former ambassador also points out that when many years ago a Canadian citizen of Bangladeshi origin had fled from Canada to Bangladesh, Canada was very interested in signing an extradition treaty with Bangladesh but the latter country was not so keen at the time.

*****

The Indemnity Ordinance passed in 1975, giving Sheikh Mujib's killers (Below) immunity from prosecution.


According to Advocate Shahdeen Malik, most political killings in our country have not been addressed and it is unlikely that they will be. "The Bangabandhu and jail killing cases will probably be completed," he says, "and something might be done in the August 21 case, the really high-profile ones. But at the next level, such as the killing of local leaders like AL's Manzurul Imam, for example, it is unlikely that much will be done. Even the Kibria murder has not made much headway."

 

Indeed, there have been scores of political murders over the decades. Some have wiped out a whole leadership. Others have stifled opposition and thwarted differences. From the killing of Salim and Delwar, Raufun Basunia and Nur Hossain, among others, during the Ershad era, to the bomb blast at a Communist Party of Bangladesh (CPB) meeting in 2001 which killed seven people and injured over a hundred; from the killing of Jaityo Samajtantrik Dal (JSD) leader and freedom fighter Kazi Aref in 1999 to the violent deaths of AL leaders Mumtazuddin Ahmed and Manzurul Imam in 2003 and AL lawmaker Ahsanullah Master in 2004 -- the cases are endless, but justice has been served in few.

Throughout our history, violence has been seen as the way to eliminate opposition and rise to power. Because of the number of unsolved or unresolved cases, the unfortunate example of doing so with impunity has also been set. The politicisation of these crimes against not political but national leaders, has created further obstacles in the path of justice. With the most high-profile cases taking decades to be resolved, little hope can be held for those in lesser positions of power. Yet the fact that they are at long last being addressed is a step. If dealt with fairly and swiftly, it could work towards mitigating the unfortunate precedents set in our history, which promised the perpetrators of such brutal crimes immunity and impunity.

 

A Nation's Shame

In spite of a Section 144 declared in Dhaka, five lakh people from 72 different political and cultural organisations gathered together in front of the Shaheed Minar on 26 March 1992. With Jahanara Imam at the helm, Ekatturer Ghatak-Dalal Nirmul Committee (Committee to Exterminate the Killers and Collaborators of 1971) held a Mock Trial of the war criminals of 1971. The massive public support to bring the war criminals to justice still exists. But little has been done to try these men and they have only gone on to gain political recognition. If they are allowed to participate in the forthcoming elections they will move to a heightened space of impunity.

 

Hana Shams Ahmed

Among the many memorable comments made by Barrister Mainul Husein during his tenure as an adviser to the caretaker government was the one he made about the trial of the war criminals. The law adviser said that some quarters were trying to obstruct the activities of the caretaker government by raising the issue of war criminals. He also went on to say that the governments who were in power before them, but did not try war criminals, should themselves be brought to trial for their inaction.

 

Marking a change in tone, Foreign Affairs Adviser Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury spoke to the UN Secretary General two months ago about 'a growing demand for the trial of the war criminals' and 'popular sentiment' for involving the UN in the process. Although the Army Chief and Chief Adviser both expressed the need for trials to begin, there has been nothing in the way of actual steps from this government.

 

This July, a group deceptively called 'Jatiya Muktijoddha Parishad' held a convention of freedom fighters at the Engineers Institute in Dhaka. When a freedom fighter Sheikh Mohammad Ali Aman (Sector 11, First Bengal Regiment, D Company, led by Colonel Taher) arrived there he found out that it was actually organised by supporters and activists of Jamaat-e-Islami and its student wing Islami Chhatra Shibir. Sheikh Mohammad was giving an impromptu interview to an ETV reporter where he protested such a farce. Shibir's goons swooped down on this freedom fighter, attacked him in front of cameras, and held him and the reporter captive for an hour until the media intervened.

 

These are members of the same group of people who said last October that there were 'no war criminals in the country' and Bangladesh's war of independence was nothing more than a 'civil war'. Jamaat's secretary general Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid said to reporters that the charges against Jamaat-e-Islami were 'false' and 'ill-motivated'.

The UN Human Rights Commission in its 1981 report on the occasion of the 33rd anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UNHRC), stated that the genocide committed in Bangladesh in 1971 was the worst in history. An estimated three million Bangalis were killed by the Pakistani army with help from local collaborators (Razakars). The UNHRC report said, even if a lower range of 1.5 million deaths was taken, killings took place at a rate of between 6 to 12 thousand per day, through the 267 days of genocide. There were around 50,000 Razakars who opposed Bangladesh's independence. To abort the birth of Bangladesh they carried out a systematic cleansing operation of freedom fighters, students, teachers, intellectuals and religious minorities. a Quarter million women were raped.

 

War Crimes Facts Finding Committee (WCFFC), a research organisation, recently unveiled a list of 1,597 war criminals. Of those on the list, 369 are members of Pakistan military, 1,150 are their local collaborators including members of Razakar and Al Badr and Peace Committee, and 78 are Biharis. Jamaat's former Amir Golam Azam, present chief Matiur Rahman Nizami, Secretary General Ali Ahsan Muhammad Mojahid, Assistant Secretary General Muhammad Kamaruzzaman and AKM Yusuf, central committee members Delawar Hussain Sayedee, Abdus Sobhan, Abul Kalam Muhammad Yusuf and Abdul Quader Molla are among the high-profile Jamaat leaders on the list. Former BNP lawmakers Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury and Abdul Alim, and Anwar Zahid, a former minister during Ershad rule, are also on the list.

 

So what gives this group, which are internationally identified as war criminals (even in a recent issue of The Economist), so much impunity? From the public trials by the Nirmul Committee to the Sector Commanders' Forum and 37 years of general public demand and all the changes in government, this group seems to have gone from strength to strength and ultimately to the country's parliament and government cabinet. The CEC has declared that war criminals will not be allowed to take part in the election this year. But who will decide who are the war criminals ineligible for elections? The list made by the WCFFC is not considered official. The government has not produced or even endorsed any such list. That would mean that once these war criminals are allowed to participate in the elections they might automatically become immune from any further charges against them.

 

Dr Shahdeen Malik, an Advocate of the Supreme Court and Director of the School of Law at BRAC University, doubts that the present caretaker government will take any steps to bring the war criminals to justice but believes that if they do set up a platform it will become difficult for the next political government to stop the process. The legal process of trying the war criminals, he thinks, is fairly straightforward. "Two fundamental aspects make this law different from all other laws," says Malik, "the procedural safeguards and the fundamental rights safeguards for an ordinary accused are not applicable for war criminals."

Dr Shahdeen Malik
Shahriar Kabir

 

Unlike other criminal trials, the International Crimes Tribunal Act 1973 says that hearsay evidence will be admissible in case of war crimes trials, or in other words, one can be convicted based on secondary evidence. In the rules of evidence section it says, 'A

 

Tribunal shall not be bound by technical rules of evidence; and it shall adopt and apply to the greatest possible extent expeditious and non-technical procedure, and may admit any evidence, including reports and photographs published in newspapers, periodicals and magazines, films and tape-recordings and other materials as may be tendered before it, which it deems to have probative value' (section 19.1). It also goes on to say 'A Tribunal may receive in evidence any statement recorded by a Magistrate or an Investigation Officer being a statement made by any person who, at the time of the trial, is dead or whose attendance cannot be procured without an amount of delay or expense which the Tribunal considers unreasonable' (section 19.2) and 'A Tribunal shall not require proof of facts of common knowledge but shall take judicial notice thereof' (section 19.3). These in effect make the trial of the war criminals for the War of Liberation possible to carry out.

 

Malik believes that the seriousness of the crime and the seriousness of the implications for the society may not have been fully realised which has delayed the initiation of the process to try the war criminals. "It is the same way with corruption cases," he says, "it is only now that we are understanding how damaging the corruption cases were. Our notion about corruption is more pronounced now than it was five years ago."

 

As to why the caretaker government has so far been unwilling to undertake the responsibility of the trials Malik says, "Those who don't want the trials, as small as there number is, are in a position to turn it into a difficult and contentious issue for the current government and the nature of the current government is such that it does not have any political support, so it's not in a position to confront or take on political challenges. It would have been in a stronger position a year ago to take on this challenge, but at the very end of its tenure, it is unreasonable to expect it to be able to do it."

 

Unfortunately, Malik says that not too many political parties will take up this issue, if they come to power with the support of Jamaat-e-islami or similar groups which were heavily involved in war crimes. "And it's not unlikely that the next government might depend on the political support of such groups," says Malik, "if this government did start the ball rolling, then it would be very difficult for the next government even with support from the criminals to stop the process."

 

Journalist, filmmaker, human rights activist and the current convener of Ekatturer Ghatok Dalal Nirmul Committee Shahriar Kabir says that public opinion for the demand for the trial of the war criminals has not diminished ever since the mock trials at Shaheed Minar in 1992 to protest the granting of citizenship to Golam Azam. "Instead of trying Golam Azam the government placed sedition charges against 24 members of Nirmul Committee," says Kabir, "unfortunately Jahanara Imam died two years later with the sedition charges on her head."

 

"It is a shame," says Kabir, "that despite Ziaur Rahman being a freedom fighter himself repealed the Collaborators Act and the BNP government came to power after forming a coalition with the war criminals." Citing the 1972 Constitution as the most progressive he says Ziaur Rahman introduced Islam as the state religion and repealed the Collaborators Act. "The freedom fighters and the families of the martyrs have been demanding the trial of the war criminals over the years," says Kabir, "AL, which has been the biggest political party supporting the committee's work, never took any steps to start the trial process."


Unlike other criminal trials, the International Crimes Tribunal Act 1973 says that hearsay evidence will be admissible in case of war crimes trials, or in other words, one can be convicted based on secondary evidence.

 

When freedom fighters like Sheikh Mohammad Ali Aman can be humiliated and abused by the same group that term the War of Independence 'a civil war', it shows how strong this group's political foothold is. There has been a steady public demand for the trial of the war criminals, and although this demand is reflected in a ceaseless stream of newspaper headlines, they give a false impression that a trial is in the offing. Unfortunately, public pressure has been limited to seminars, symposiums, human chains and high-level meetings. The sector commanders and other groups are established in society and do not have the same confrontational attitude as grass root level freedom fighters and their families. The subaltern freedom fighters helped to free the country but do not enjoy the fruits of independence. But they are the only ones reminding the nation of unfinished business. Will Bangladesh see a resolution of the war crimes issues, or will it just wait for the last obstinate freedom fighter to perish.

 

Courtesy of Star Weekend Magazine

Story Link: http://www.thedailystar.net/magazine/2008/08/04/cover.htm




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[ALOCHONA] The Largest Wave of Suicides in History



The Largest Wave of Suicides in History

By P. SAINATH
 
The number of farmers who have committed suicide in India between 1997 and 2007 now stands at a staggering 182,936. Close to two-thirds of these suicides have occurred in five states (India has 28 states and seven union territories). The Big 5 – Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Chattisgarh– account for just about a third of the country's population but two-thirds of farmers' suicides. The rate at which farmers are killing themselves in these states is far higher than suicide rates among non-farmers. Farm suicides have also been rising in some other states of the country.
 

It is significant that the count of farmers taking their lives is rising even as the numbers of farmers diminishes, that is, on a shrinking farmer base. As many as 8 million people quit farming between the two censuses of 1991 and 2001. The rate of people leaving farming has only risen since then, but we'll only have the updated figure of farmers in the census of 2011.

 

These suicide data are official and tend to be huge underestimates, but they're bad enough. Suicide data in India are collated by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), a wing of the Ministry of Home Affairs, government of India. The NCRB itself seems to do little harm to the data. But the states where these are gathered leave out thousands from the definition of "farmer" and, thus, massage the numbers downward. For instance, women farmers are not normally accepted as farmers (by custom, land is almost never in their names). They do the bulk of work in agriculture – but are just "farmers' wives." This classification enables governments to exclude countless women farmer suicides. They will be recorded as suicide deaths – but not as "farmers' suicides." Likewise, many other groups, too, have been excluded from that list.

 

The spate of farm suicides – the largest sustained wave of such deaths recorded in history – accompanies India's embrace of the brave new world of neoliberalism. Many reports on that process and how it has affected agriculture have been featured right here, on the Counterpunch site. The rate of farmers' suicides has worsened particularly after 2001, by which time India was well down the WTO garden path in agriculture. The number of farmers' suicides in the five years – 1997-2001 – was 78,737 (or 15,747 a year on average). The same figure for the five years 2002-06 was 87,567 (or 17,513 a year on average). That is, in the next  five years after 2001, one farmer took his or her life every 30 minutes on average. The 2007 figures (detailed below) place that year, too, in the higher trend.

 

What do the farm suicides have in common? Those who have taken their lives were deep in debt – peasant households in debt doubled in the first decade of the neoliberal "economic reforms," from 26 per cent of farm households to 48.6 per cent. We know that from National Sample Survey data. But in the worst  states, the percentage of such households is far higher. For instance, 82 per cent of all farm households in Andhra Pradesh were in debt by 2001-02. Those who killed themselves were overwhelmingly cash crop farmers – growers of cotton, coffee, sugarcane, groundnut, pepper, vanilla. (Suicides are fewer among food crop farmers – that is, growers of rice, wheat, maize, pulses.)

 

The brave new world philosophy mandated countless millions of Third World farmers forced  to move from food crop cultivation to cash crop (the mantra of "export-led growth"). For millions of subsistence farmers in India, this meant much higher cultivation costs, far greater loans, much higher debt, and being locked into the volatility of global commodity prices. That's a sector dominated by a handful of multinational corporations. The extent to which the switch to cash crops impacts on the farmer can be seen in this: it used to cost Rs.8,000 ?($165 today) roughly to grow an acre of paddy in Kerala.

 

When many switched to vanilla, the cost per acre was (in 2003-04) almost Rs.150,000 ($3,000) an acre. (The dollar equals about 50 rupees.)

With giant seed companies displacing cheap hybrids and far cheaper and hardier traditional varieties with their own products, a cotton farmer in Monsanto's net would be paying far more for seed than he or she ever dreamed they would. Local varieties and hybrids were squeezed out with enthusiastic state support. In 1991, you could buy a kilogram of local seed for as little as Rs..7 or Rs.9 in today's worst affected region of Vidarbha. By 2003, you would pay Rs.350 -- ($7) -- for a bag with 450 grams of hybrid seed. By 2004, Monsanto's partners in India were marketing a bag of 450 grams of Bt cotton seed for between Rs.1,650 and Rs.1,800 ($33 to $36).

 

This price was brought down dramatically overnight due to strong governmental intervention in Andhra Pradesh, where the government changed after the 2004 elections.. The price fell to around Rs.900 ($18) – still many times higher than 1991 or even 2003.

 

Meanwhile, inequality was the great man-eater among?the "Emerging Tiger" nations  of the developing world. The predatory commercialization of the countryside devastated all other aspects of life for peasant farmer and landless workers. Health costs, for instance, skyrocketed. Many thousands of youngsters dropped out of both school and college to work on their parents' farms (including many on scholarships). The average monthly per capita expenditure of the Indian farm household was just Rs.503 (ten dollars) by early this decade. Of that, 60 per cent roughly was spent on food and another 18 per cent on fuel, clothing and footwear.

 

Farmers, spending so much on food? To begin with, millions of small and marginal Indian farmers are net purchasers of food grain. They cannot produce enough to feed their families and have to work on the fields of others and elsewhere to meet the gap. Having to buy some of the grain they need on the market, they are profoundly affected by hikes in food prices, as has happened since 1991, and particularly sharply earlier this year. Hunger among those who produce food is a very real thing. Add to this the fact that the "per capita net availability" of food grain has fallen dramatically among Indians since the "reforms" began:  from 510 grams per Indian in 1991, to 422 grams by 2005.

 

 (That's not a drop of 88 grams. It's a fall of 88 multiplied by 365 and then by one billion Indians.) As prof. Utsa Patnaik, India's top economist on agriculture, has been constantly pointing out, the average poor family has about 100 kg less today than it did just ten years ago – while the elite eat like it's going out of style.  For many, the shift from food crop to cash crop makes it worse. At the end of the day, you can still eat your paddy. It's tough, digesting cotton. Meanwhile, even the food crop sector is coming steadily under corporate price-rigging control. Speculation in the futures markets pushed up grain prices across the globe earlier this year.

 

Meanwhile, the neoliberal model that pushed growth through one kind of consumption also meant re-directing huge amounts of money away from rural credit to fuel the lifestyles of the aspiring elites of the cities (and countryside, too). Thousands of rural bank branches shut down during the 15 years from 1993-2007..

 

Even as incomes of the farmers crashed, so did the price they got for their cash crops, thanks to obscene subsidies to corporate and rich farmers in the West, from the U.S. and EU. Their battle over cotton subsidies alone (worth billions of dollars) destroyed cotton farmers not merely in India but in African nations such as Burkina Faso, Benin, Mali, and Chad. Meanwhile, all along, India kept reducing investment in agriculture (standard neoliberal procedure). Life was being made more and more impossible for small farmers.

 

As costs rose, credit dried up. Debt went out of control. Subsidies destroyed their prices. Starving agriculture of investment (worth billions of dollars each year) smashed the countryside. India even cut most of the few, pathetic life supports she had for her farmers. The mess was complete. From the late-'90s, the suicides began to occur at what then seemed a brisk rate.

In fact, India's agrarian crisis can be summed up in five words (call it Ag Crisis 101): the drive toward corporate farming. The route (in five words): predatory commercialization of the countryside. The result: The biggest displacement in our history.

 

Corporations do not as yet have direct control of Indian farming land and do not carry out day-to-day operations directly. But they have sewn up every other sector, inputs, outlets, marketing, prices, and are heading for control of water as well (which states in India are busy privatizing in one guise or another).

 

The largest number of farm suicides is in the state of Maharashtra, home to the Mumbai Stock Exchange and with its capital Mumbai being home to 21 of India's 51 dollar billionaires and over a fourth of the country's 100,000 dollar millionaires. Mumbai shot to global attention when terrorists massacred 180 people in the city in a grisly strike in November. In the state of which Mumbai is capital, there have been 40,666 farmers' suicides since 1995, with very little media attention.

 

Farmers' suicides in Maharashtra crossed the 4,000-mark again in 2007, for the third time in four years, according to the National Crime Records Bureau. As many as 4,238 farmers took their lives in the state that year, the latest for which data are available,?accounting?for a fourth of all the 16,632 farmers' suicides in the country. That national total represents a slight fall from the 17,060 farm suicides of 2006. But the broad trends of the past decade seem unshaken. Farm suicides in the country since 1997 now total 182,936.

To repeat, the five worst affected states?– Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and Chattisgarh?– account for two-thirds of all farmers' suicides in India.

 

Together, they saw 11,026 in 2007. Of these, Maharashtra alone accounted for?over 38 per cent. Of the Big 5, Andhra Pradesh saw a decline of 810 suicides against its 2006 total. Karnataka saw a rise of 415 over the same period. Madhya Pradesh (1,375) posted a decline of 112. But Chattisgarh's 1,593 farm suicides mean an increase of 110 over 2006. Specific factors in these states nourish the problem. These are zones of highly diversified, commercialized agriculture where cash crops dominate. Water stress has been a common feature, and gets worse with the use of technologies such as Bt seed that demand huge amounts of water. High external inputs and input costs are also common, as also the use of chemicals and pesticides. Mindless deregulation dug a lot of graves, lit a lot of pyres.

 

Maharashtra registered a fall of 215 farm suicides in 2007. However, no other state even touches the 3,000 mark. And AP (with 1,797) and Karnataka (2,135) – the next two worst hit states – together do not cross Maharashtra's 4,000-plus mark. A one-year dip of 221 occurred in 2005 too, in Maharashtra, only to be followed by an all-time high of 4,453 suicides in 2006. The state's trend shows no turnaround and remains dismal.

 

Maharashtra's 2007 figure of 4,238 follows one and a half years of farm "relief packages" worth around Rs.5,000 crore ($1 billion) and a prime ministerial visit in mid-2006 to the distressed Vidharbha region. The state has also seen a plethora of official reports, studies and commissions of inquiry over 2005-07, aimed at tackling the problem. However, the 12,617 farm suicides in the same years is its worst ever total for any three-year period since the state began recording such data in 1995. Indeed, farm suicides in Maharashtra since that year have crossed the 40,000 mark. The structural causes of that crisis seem untouched.

 

Nationally, farmers' suicides between 2002-07 were worse than for the years 1997-2001. NCRB data for the whole country now exists from 1997-2007. In the five years till 2001, there were 15,747 farmers' suicides a year on average. For the six years from 2002, that average is 17,366 farmers' suicides each year. The increase is distressingly higher in the main crisis states.

 

P. Sainath is the rural affairs editor of The Hindu and is the author of Everybody Loves a Good Drought. A regular contributor to CounterPunch,  he can be reached at psainath@vsnl.com.

 

http://www.counterpunch.org/sainath02122009.html




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[ALOCHONA] India plans naval base on Maldives to contain Chinese influence



India plans naval base on Maldives to contain Chinese influence

India is planning to establish a naval base and listening post in the Maldives, the tropical holiday islands in the Indian Ocean, in an attempt to contain growing Chinese influence in the region.
 
Its naval chiefs and military strategists have become increasingly alarmed by China's expansion in South Asia where it has established a series of bases in neighbouring countries.

It is currently developing a deep water harbour for its expanding fleet of nuclear submarines in Gwadar, Pakistan, and is developing ports in Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. Indian strategists have described its growing number of ports as a "string of pearls" around its neck.

Officials are now in talks with their counterparts in the Maldives to boost security for the tiny island, which has been targeted by drug smugglers, terrorists and pirates, and also to develop a new vantage point to protect its own coastal waters.

Under the plan, India wants to develop a former Royal Air Force base on the islands, and integrate the Maldives into its own coastguard system.
The Indian defence minister, A.K. Anthony, visited the islands to discuss the deployment of surveillance aircraft and ships.

The Maldivian government has found it impossible to police its own waters. It has more than a 1,000 tiny islands, only 200 of which are inhabited, with just under 400 miles separating the northernmost island from its most southerly.
"India wants to reinforce and expand its perimeter defence and an active surveillance from a naval base will contribute to that important strategic objective," said Dr Anupam Srivastava, director of the Asia Programme at the University of Georgia's Centre for International Trade and Security.
 
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/india/6061193/India-plans-naval-base-on-Maldives-to-contain-Chinese-influence.html



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[ALOCHONA] BR Army withdrawal from CTG. H. T.: What is next?




 Mr. Delwar> Here is some bad news for you and BNP.  The High Court rejected yesterday two separate Petitions, filed by BNP and its so-called allies--seeking a ban on the army pullout from Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT). That clears the way for the Government to withdraw from the CHT as per the 1997 agreement with the Chakmas. Dear Delwar, the Apex Court observed in the orders that the current phase of troop replacement/relocation/redeployment within the CHT region is a tactical exercise that has been done on several occasions over the last nine years or so and it is a continuous process. How do you like that?  What do you have to say now? You seem to be supporting India's strategic game playing in Kashmir. Now, honestly, in the name of Allah, tell the truth to this forum. Do you honestly support Indian tactics in Kashmir? The CHT was 100% non-Muslim ethnic group with totally different language, culture and food habits. General Zia, in a very unfortunate and divisive move, started to bring Muslim Bengali settlers from all over, with the intention to change the electoral map of the CHT. Now, there is incredible animosity between the settlers and the indigenous peoples. That's why the Bengalis need the Army to protect them from the locals. Is this fair? If you use your brain, you will quickly find out who is really stupid here. All I can say about your rant is that 'Patriotism is the last refuge of the Scoundrel'.
 
 
 
 
SaifDevdas
islam1234@msn.com






To: khabor@yahoogroups.com
From: delwar98@hotmail.com
Date: Thu, 20 Aug 2009 16:55:03 +0000
Subject: RE: [khabor.com] BR Army withdrawal from CTG. H. T.: What is next?

 

Mr. Devdas?

 

Bangladesh does not have a federal system of government like India or USA which gives autonomy to its provinces. If Sheikh Hasina's so called peace accord gives that autonomy to Chittagong Hill Tracts that will be definitely against the constitutions. Learn from India's behavior towards Kashmir and its six sisters states. Comparing Shaikh Hasina with her father is not only dam stupidity, but also deep ignorance. Shailh Hasina has to do thousands years politics to come to her father's level.

 

Let me ask you some questions:

 

Why western countries are so serious about Hill Tracts? Why are they giving millions of dollar to develop CTG. Hill Tracts not other areas of the country? Why some European countries Ambassadors are frequently visiting Hill Tracts and meeting with local leaders without informing government? What is the interest of India? Why India is continuously supporting by providing training and weapons to the Tribal people to kill Bengali people? If you are really intelligent and patriot, you will realize the motive behind that. If you are stupid or criminal and working against the country, you will never realize.



Delwar
 
 


 


To: khabor@yahoogroups.com; delwar98@hotmail.com; veirsmill@yahoo.com; malamgir1@aol.com; alochona@yahoogroups.com; akhtergolam@gmail.com
From: islam1234@msn.com
Date: Wed, 19 Aug 2009 02:00:49 -0400
Subject: RE: [khabor.com] BR Army withdrawal from CTG. H. T.: What is next?




In 1997, during Sheikh Hasina's tenure, under a Peace Treaty the Insurgent 'Shanti Bahini', laid down the arms. Under the agreement 35 makeshift army camps at different areas of the Hills would be closed but over 300 Military Bases would remain in the Hills. Hizbulla Wing of the BNP never tells the Bangladeshi people this vital fact. Is any sensible person in Bangladesh surprised by the Machiavellian politics of BNP? The mendacity, the audacity, the duplicity and sheer hypocrisy with which BNP does politics in Bangladesh---puts even Mr.Machevelli to shame! The twenty five year old insurgency in the South Western Hill Tracts came to an end with 1997 Peace Treaty with the Insurgents. So much blood was shed unnecessarily in the last 25 years. The Chakma's are not Bengalis. They are a distinct and different ethnic group with their own language and religion. What's wrong in acknowledging this reality? They are not asking for separate homeland. They are only demanding more power to rule their own affairs. Is this a national security issue? The Pakistani Military Junta can take a three credit hour class at the 'Sheikh Hasina school of Advanced Military and Diplomatic studies'. Lesson for the Pakis? They can show magnanimity and in a symbolic gesture withdraw their much despised military from the soil of Baluchistan. At least, this will be a giant step towards a peace treaty in the future. With a brilliant strategic move, Sheikh Hasina, saved Bangladesh from further Indian interference in this tribal region. Don't forget—in 1971, our insurgents took shelter in India. Today, the Insurgents from the Hill Tracts are taking shelter in India. I have been warning the Hizbulla faction of BNP and Jammat about the devastating consequences of their Anti-India posturing and its associated dire long term consequences for Bangladesh. I salute the courage and the indefagibility of the brilliant Sheikh Hasina for correcting the historical wrong done by the father of the nation—Bongobondhoo Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
 
SaifDevdas
islam1234@msn.com


To: khabor@yahoogroups.com; dahuk@yahoogroups.com
From: delwar98@hotmail.com
Date: Tue, 18 Aug 2009 16:48:32 +0000
Subject: [khabor.com] BR Army withdrawal from CTG. H. T.: What is next?

 
Dear Readers,
 
Bangladesh has been passing the most critical moment. Deshi and international Hyenas are very active to destroy our country. Current government is playing vital rolls towards that. Pls. read the following eye opening article and wakeup to save the country.
 
http://www.sonarbangladesh.com/article.php?ID=1136
 
 
Delwar
 



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[ALOCHONA] Awami League moves on



Awami League moves on...

 

Council over, Awami League moves on with Sheikh Hasina's position at the helm consolidated once more. How are the new leaders faring and what

of the underlying discontent?

 

by ANWAR PARVEZ HALIM

 

Seven months have passed since the Awami League government has been installed in power and these seven months have been a period of reckoning. Supporters may claim that this period is too short a time to take stock of the party's position, but one thing is for certain. Party president Sheikh Hasina has consolidated her position in no uncertain terms. She has made no mistake this time in identifying her friends and foes and has organised the party accordingly. She has removed the "thorns" from her path and installed trusted persons in key positions.

As leader of this dynamic team, Sheikh Hasina is all set to establish a "digital Bangladesh", say members of the cabinet and others in the party's new committee. These are the Chosen Ones, those who have found place in the expanded cabinet and the new committee. They are being praised and criticised alike; they are the centre of attention. This is only natural where a large and old traditional party like Awami League is concerned.

Certain political observers, considered to be more or less neutral, point out that the Awami League government claims that 1/11 (the intervention of the caretaker government on January 11, 2007) and Fakhruddin's caretaker government are the result of their movement. And that is why the present government remains mum regarding any irregularities of General Moeen or Dr. Fakhruddin Ahmed. If that is so, then why are the reformists in the party, veteran leaders who had hobnobbed with the initiators of 1/11, paying the price for their stand?

The observers say that there are bound to be varied views within a democratic party. Should leaders with different opinions then be cast to one side? They have had, after all, vast contribution to the party and the nation.

As thing stand, the new leaders are still basking in felicitations and flowers. The so-called reformists are down in the dumps. An eye is being kept on the reformists -- leaders like Amu, Razzak, Tofail and Suranjit, along with about 130 MPs and their supporters and followers. A note is being kept on where they go, who they meet, who calls upon them, etc. Even their telephone calls are being recorded. All this intelligence activity has been put in place to ensure they aren't hatching any conspiracy against Hasina.

Analysts say, nothing can be done against the mainstream leadership. It is simply not possible. Dr. Kamal Hossain is living proof of this. So it is not feasible for the sidelined leaders to return to the limelight.

Party sources say that a presidium meeting was held before the new committee was formed. About 80% of the names put forward by the presidium members were not included in the new committee. It was the choices of Matia Chowdhury, Sajeda Chowdhury and Ashraf that found place in the new committee.

Syed Ashraf in particular is a trusted one of Sheikh Hasina. His performance and abilities have given him the status of a true-blue tried and tested leader. His decisions are taken into cognizance. It is no fluke that he was given the coveted post of the party General Secretary.

A certain central leader says that leaders who are presently close to Hasina, including Matia, HT Imam and Faruk Khan, may not always remain in prominence. There is all chance that they may gradually go out of focus. And the senior leaders too are nursing grievances against them; they are biding their time.

Analysts say, Sheikh Hasina's calculations in forming the committee and cabinet may not be all that flawless. There is a simmering unrest, a suppressed sense of dissatisfaction.

Sheikh Selim may have been kept in the new committee, but he is reportedly unhappy at not being included in the cabinet. Abul Hasnat Abdullah, who had formerly been Chief Whip, has hoped to be included in the presidium this time. He was disappointed and paid a visit to Ajmeer to assuage his grief. He has been included in the central committee, though. Bahauddin Nasim is not satisfied with his appointment as Organising Secretary. However, these leaders considered to be all in the family, are not openly expressing their discontent.

Mohammed Nasim was the most active in the opposition during the rule of the four-party alliance government. He had the streets in sway. However, he was not nominated and has not been included in the presidium. The fall of this leader, son of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's close associate Mansur Ali, has surprised many. Nasim cannot figure why he has been given the cold shoulder.

Similar fates have been faced by Sultan Mansur, Manna, Mostafa Jalal Mohiuddin, Mirza Sultan Raja, KM Jahangir, Mukul Bose, Mayor Mohiuddin, Akhteruzzaman Chowdhury Babu, Prof. Abu Sayeed, Omar Ali, Mustafa Rashidi Suja, Talukdar Abdul Khaleque, Saber Chowdhury, Abdul Mannan, etc. These leaders are is dismay and find it hard to accept this consequence. It is not likely that they will be able to rise again.

The question being asked is whether these deprived leaders are really the victims of Sheikh Hasina's displeasure. After all, there are quite a few reformists who have been accommodated in the committee. For instance, a central leader points out, Khaled Mahmud Chowdhury MP has been made Organising Secretary. Amir Hossain Amu was made chief guest at the programme commemorating the death of his father Rauf Chowdhury. Khaled was well aware that Amu was a reformist. Khaled was in good stead of the 1/11 initiators. Another Organising Secretary Ahmed Hossain is a disciple of Tofail Ahmed. He joined each and every meeting of the reformists. Reformist Abdur Rahman is also a central member. All this has raised questions.

Political observers are asking if Sheikh Hasina has deliberately carried out these manipulations on her own accord. Or did certain invisible forces hand down the list to be implemented? Hasina, after all, realises the value of experience. She had made a plethora of pledges to the people before the election. She held up a dream of digital Bangladesh. But how far will she be able to material her dream with this setup? Judging by the mountain of promises made and the performance so far, things aren't looking too rosy.

Critics say that when in the government, it is hard to observe the weaknesses, particularly in the beginning. The administration is wholly involved in implementing party programmes. At the district upazila level, DCs, SPs, UNOs and OCs are ready to serve. As a result, any faults or errors of the new leaders of the party remain unnoticed. However, a time comes when their weaknesses become visible when the opposition political parties pounce upon them. That is when the trouble begins.

Awami League is a traditional party. Its workers and supporters are used to be cared for, looked after and protected by their leaders. Their mindset does not quite match that of the new committee members. One third of these leaders are failing to come close to the workers and supporters. The supporters are unwilling to accept these new faces.

Questions have also arisen regarding the transparency of the new leaders. Rice and wheat are normally allocated through the Food for Work Programme and Test Relief (TR) programme for the construction of small roads, digging canals, graveyards, mosques, temples, etc. But during every government, there has been a lack of clarity in these sectors. Most of the union parishad chairmen and members were elected during the last government and so are mostly of the BNP camp. It is being alleged that the leaders of the present government are forcing these chairmen and members to sign papers for non-existent projects. In some cases, both the sides are in league to pocket the TR and Food for Work funds.

There are also allegations that many of the MPs have been born and brought up in the city and hardly even know their own constituencies. Taking advantage of this, allocations are being made out for non-existent cemeteries, temples, mosques, etc. Sometimes the MPs themselves are involved in these dubious schemes.

Kaiser Hasnat, the Awami League MP of Narayanganj-3 has joined hands with the municipal chairman of Siddhirganj, a BNP man. They are pocketing crores of taka in tender manipulations. The MP is taking commission for various work and this is an open secret. But it is not Kaiser Hasnat alone. This is happening all over the country. MPs and their followers are involved in such corruption all over the country.

In the meantime, many of the cabinet members are displaying inefficiency, failure and inability. The daylight savings programme was launched with much fanfare, but it has not made any difference to the power load-shedding. In the seven months of the government, no tender has been floated for any power station. For the last six months, secretary Nasiruddin has held on to the file pertaining to the coal-based power station. He says that the tender will be a matter of "public hearing". Bureaucrat-Advisor HT Imam has placed six of his close associates in six important posts of the power sector. Even then things aren't moving in the sector. It is alleged that HT Imam is not happy with the new bureaucrats and actually hardly knows them. He wants to control the bureaucracy in his old manner. As a result, things have ground to a virtual halt.

With Ramadan ahead, the prices of essentials are spiralling out of control. Sugar has leapt to 50 taka a kg. Cooking oil has gone up by four to six taka a kg. No vegetable sells for less than 40 taka a kg. Both the Food Minister and the Commerce Minister has pointed to the extortionists for the state of prices. The Commerce Minister has called for RAB to step in to help control prices. But who are the extortionists? The opposition? Militants? The Commerce Minister hasn't clarified this. A central leader of the ruling party tells PROBE, "This is no military government that they will use RAB or the police to control prices. Such a step may just backfire." The leader goes on to say, "Faruk Khan speaks digital, but works analogue. What's the use of telling people that the prices have gone up because of the extortionists?"

Meanwhile, law and order is deteriorating steadily. If the Sohel Taj resignation drama hurt the government's image, Home Minister Sahara Khatun has failed to make it up. She has, admittedly, cut down on her statements.

The new State Minister for Power is going slow. His performance is uninspiring.

Six months have passed and the CID has failed to come up with its report on the BDR tragedy as yet.

After passing the concerned law in parliament, the government had firmly stated that trial of the war criminals would begin within seven days. However, the government hasn't formed a committee to this end as yet. There are many more instances where performance has failed to meet promises.

The government pledged to ensure employment for every household. In fact, two particular ministries have ample scope to create employment -- the Ministry for Youth and Sports and the Ministries for Fisheries and Livestock. However, the respective ministers in charge of these two ministries hardly have the qualification to handle these matters. They are not qualified above the level of UP Chairman and Upazila Chairman. One can hardly expect them to tackle the task.

To make matters worse, of Bangladeshi workers abroad are being laid off and sent back home. No one can really point to any success of the ministry in charge of overseas employment in preventing the loss of jobs overseas or in generating new jobs abroad. The same applies to the young Foreign Minister Dr. Dipu Moni. No one seems to know whether she will follow the old policy in relations with India, Myanmar and the western countries or whether she will present something new. She is yet to receive kudos for her performance..

The State Minister for Law has made it apparent that he is determined to put Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury into jail. Such statements from a man in his post are not deemed very responsible. Then the sacking of two judicial officers and subsequently reinstating them has also not gone down well with the ruling party. The two concerned leaders, after all, were innocent. They had merely gone to the ministry to voice their demands. It is learnt that HT Imam was behind the decision to sack these two officials.

The government is displaying an aggressive attitude in its dealings with the opposition. All over the country, pictures of Zia and Khaleda Zia are being removed from various public places. Instead of tackling the opposition politically, this aggressive behaviour may only provoke a aggressive similar response, analysts fear.

This time August 15 was commemorated in a big way. The Prime Minister was scheduled to visit Tungipara. However, on grounds of inclement weather, she did not go, though the bad weather was short-lived.

The Prime Minister's son Sajeeb Wazed Joy came to Bangladesh recently ahead of the August 15 commemoration. Though it was not officially announced, the media reported that Joy would visit his grandfather's grave at Tungipara on August 15. However, on August 13 he left the country unannounced. Even the media was unaware of his departure.

The reformists were not seen as active as before in the August 15 programmes. How far will Sheikh Hasina's new team manage to fulfill the aspirations of the people? Critics say that the voluble members of the cabinet are more into words than action. They may face the axe. Sheikh Hasina keeps a sharp watch on all. The present setup may not be the final one. Hasina is proceeding ahead with care. She will start sifting the chaff from the grain and then surge forward with a select team to set to the task of building a dream Bangladesh.



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