COMMENTARY
Media is The Real Culprit :Ashraf's great revelation
Mahfuz Anam
The general secretary of ruling Awami League must be thanked by the people for having discovered the most heinous side of the media in Bangladesh. Other astute politicians before him revealed many of our dark sides, but Ashraf's revelation takes the cake. The media is creating the ground for PM's death!
Over the years we have been accused of spoiling the image of the country by writing about human rights abuses, weakening democracy by criticising elected governments, destroying the image of politicians by revealing their corruption, damaging the image of the judiciary by reporting on miscarriages of justice. Our crimes have been many.
The latest revelation by Ashraf is that a section of the media is helping to create the ground for the assassination of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. How? By exaggerating the government's failures. Yes, he admits there have been some failures which the government is trying to correct. So why does the media still carry on and on? It must be to topple the government!
Since he did not specify which media outlets are the culprits, we must all plead guilty by association. Now that we have been "caught in the act", what can we do but bow our head in shame and apologise to the nation for our heinous act.
The commerce minister many a time pointed out that the media was responsible for the turmoil in our market. What he missed was that we actually were behind the price rise of commodities, being in league with the traders to hike up the prices. We also confess that for a long time our reporters were deployed to dig holes in the streets of Dhaka so that they become unusable. It was our sub-editors who clogged the drains so that our streets should get waterlogged. We convinced the truck and bus drivers to cease their services on some important routes. In fact it was the media that convinced all the ruling party MPs to speak out on the floor of the parliament the other day, against a select number of ministers who have miserably failed the government.
Take the case of our shipping minister. He is such a kind person who, out of genuine concern for our poor, recommended dishing out 28,000 driving licences to untrained and uneducated drivers. But we, the anti-national media, taking advantage of just a few thousand annual deaths from road accidents, have started a campaign against it. So what if now Bangladesh's roads are termed as among the most dangerous in the world. Accidental deaths are mere accidents. Did not the famous home minister of the BNP government, in response to a child's death, say, "God has taken back one of His creations."
Bangladesh's media never understood the value of land in this land scarce country. They have ruthlessly prevented the filling up of rivers, lakes and ponds. But for them there would be so many more housing projects, shopping complexes and apartment buildings, not to mention roads, schools, universities, etc. Just imagine what we could have built on spaces used up by our rivers. Even the foreshore use is prevented by these backward, environment-freak and anti-development media. How unpatriotic.
In the name of protecting forests, the media in Bangladesh is preventing cutting of trees that can give us both land and wood for furniture, which can become new export items for us, earning valuable foreign exchange. Shame, shame.
Topping all our crimes is the latest that AL General Secretary Ashraf has accused us of -- namely creating an environment for Sheikh Hasina's assassination. Syed Ashraf did not mention any particular media outlet of being a part of this conspiracy. So, some AL ministers or leaders may ask, why this paper or this writer is writing about it? This, they may say, proves we are a part of the plot. Case proven beyond doubt. So let the condemnation begin.
The jocular mood of my writing ends here, when we consider what Ashraf was talking about -- possible assassination of our prime minister. We cannot go on talking in a light vein any more. So let us look at things with the seriousness of the statement.
We are commenting on this topic from our own sense of patriotism. We strongly feel that possible assassination of an elected prime minister is a very serious matter, and a matter of grave national concern. We believe that it is not something to be trivialised, and to be used for any political propaganda. It is a matter of national security, and should be dealt with utmost seriousness. This is especially true for Sheikh Hasina who has been a subject of such a plot in August 2004.
We regretfully notice that some AL leaders, of late, have been repeatedly talking about a possible attempt to kill our PM. Nowhere in the world would such a topic be subject of public speeches. If such a possibility remotely exists, national security agencies should take prompt action, and nip the conspiracy in the bud. If there are suspects then they should be under round the clock surveillance, and arrested the moment there is evidence. Common sense suggests that utmost secrecy should be maintained in such a case.
Would Syed Ashraf please explain how is the security of the PM increased by repeated public speeches being made on this possibility? In fact Sheikh Hasina is being seriously harmed by such statements, she is being made to look weak, vulnerable, and incompetent. If after two and a half years in power, the PM is unable to make her own situation secure then how can she make her people and the country secure? Such speeches directly corrode the PM's prestige and stature as a leader. By talking about such an eventuality AL leaders are giving currency to something that must not only never happen, but not even be ever thought of. Do not AL leaders, particularly one of the stature of Syed Ashraf, understand that?
On the one hand his speech trivialises a serious matter, and on the other it acts as a veiled threat against the free media. He accuses us of exaggerating, and yet does not specify where we have done so. About prices of essentials, law and order, and road condition he admits that the government has failed, but claims it is trying to solve those. We have reported both the failures and the attempts to fix those. Never have our roads been in such a dilapidated state, in so many places, and at the same time. Did we exaggerate here? About prices of essentials -- just talk to middle and low income people and it will be clear whether we are exaggerating or not.
There is a regrettable and unhealthy tendency to look for motives behind the media's professional duty. When we point out genuine weaknesses of war crime trial, the media is accused of trying to protect the war criminals. When we point out corruption, then we are accused of spoiling the image of politicians. When we criticise the government for its failures, we are accused of weakening democracy and trying to bring unelected forces to power. If this logic is to be followed then we cannot do any writing other than propaganda. Is that what the government wants?
The fashion of the present ruling party is to accuse the media of having brought the emergency and 1/11, and to say that the same conspiracy is on again. Ironically BNP also says the same, that it was the media that brought 1/11 to deprive it of power and to ensure AL's election.
Hawa Bhaban's abuse of power and corruption, manipulation of the retirement age of judges, the voter list with 13 million false voters, appointment of justice MA Aziz as the chief election commissioner, subversion of the caretaker system by appointing the president as the chief adviser were among the latest reasons for 1/11, along with patronisation of extremism exemplified by Bangla Bhai.
So why is the media being implicated with it? The answer is simple. It is to hide the present government's own failures. Learn from your mistakes and take corrective measures. That is the only way forward. Blaming the media will not help.
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