Poor love, she brooks no dissent, criticism or challenge. Tells us so much about BAL supporters and how emasculated and opportunistic they all are - after all, none of them are as patriotic as their nethri!!
Emanur Rahman, UK
Emanur Rahman | m. +447734567561 | e. emanur@rahman.com
Prime Minister and the National Committee to Protect Oil, Gas, Mineral Resources, Power and Ports
Recently our Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina criticized heavily the `National Committee to Protect Oil, Gas, Mineral Resources, Power and Ports', saying she thinks most for the country's welfare and nobody else in the country.
"My question; who is more patriot and look after the interest of the country more than me?" Hasina said while laying the foundation stone of the head office building of the Board of Investment (BoI) at Agargaon in the city on Sunday.
A Prime Minister of a country is of course a political head, if she clams herself as the best patriot of the nation and other should keep shut their mouth, than it sounds like a kingdom doesn't it? Can you think of any other country where a Prime Minister would seek to enhance his reputation by an inaccurate and imprecise attack on one of the few great institutions left standing? This is how debased we are.
The `National Committee to Protect Oil, Gas, Mineral Resources, Power and Ports'is doing the right things and his way of approach is the right way; because, a society cannot be guided by only political parties. We need sociologist, social reformer, civil economist as well as philosophers to build a healthy public society.
According to the German sociologist and philosopher Juergen Habermas - the public sphere has a number of interlinking functions. Through dialogue, particularly through critical discussion and debate, the public sphere generates opinions and attitudes and is a foundation for "emancipatory social thought". Ideally it is a mediator between society and state, the source of public opinion needed to affirm and guide the affairs of state, and challenge and legitimize governments and authority.
PM Hasina criticized Professor Annu Muhammad and the `National Committee to Protect Oil, Gas, Mineral Resources, Power and Ports' which is opposing the government's signing of a production sharing contract (PSC) with the American oil company 'ConocoPhillips'. The US oil company won the two deep-sea blocks - DS 08-10 and DS-11 - after taking part in an international tender floated by Petrobangla in 2008.
The prime minister said these groups often cry out loud in the name of protecting the interest of the country. "Where were they when there was no production of electricity and no gas exploration? Investors were waiting for years to go into production as there was no gas and electricity supply." She argued: "These groups were silent when the previous governments did not do anything for the development of the country. When we are moving forward they are opposing us."
PM Hasina should know that the `National Committee to Protect Oil, Gas, Mineral Resources, Power and Ports' doesn't have the executive responsibility of Bangladesh; it is she and her coalition government. But the national Committee is more or less a public forum; this public forum serves not only to form public opinion but also designates an ideal of how public opinion ought to be formed. It sets as its goal a sphere that is open to all citizens, where information is unrestricted and where free, critical and self-critical discussion goes on.
Professor Annu Muhammad and his forum took the position that the public sphere in its simplest and ideal form is a realm where opinions particularly focusing on the needs of society are freely and openly exchanged between people, unconstrained by external pressures.
-Mir Monaz Haque, TUV-Academy, Berlin