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Friday, March 18, 2011

[ALOCHONA] Dr. Hossain Zillur Rahman on Yunus episode



"The government's mentality is reflected in its dealings with Prof. Yunus and Grameen Bank"

 

– Dr. Hossain Zillur Rahman, Executive Chairperson, Power and Participation Research Centre (PPRC) and former Advisor of the caretaker government

What do you say about the Dr. Yunus and Grameen Bank controversy?

It is a totally unfortunate incident. There are times when a strong moral stand exists behind certain incidents, but I can't find this in this instance. Grameen Bank has about 82 lakh members. This is a huge community. This is an inspiration. Everyone would have wanted this institution to be strengthened further, even the government. Narrow logic and administrative arguments may have been used to remove Dr. Yunus from Grameen Bank, but I do not find any clear stand of the government in this regard.

So who will benefit from this and who stands to lose?

Firstly, Grameen Bank will be harmed as an institution. Some feel that if Prof. Yunus, as a person, moves away, Grameen Bank will be harmed. My response to that is the person Yunus is not being removed through any transparent process. I see a huge media campaign against him. Important persons within the government are making such comments that it is obvious that there is a plan to remove him. Grameen Bank has thus fallen into deep risk. We must understand that micro-credit is basically a system of trust. It depends wholly on trust. If that trust is gone, the entire system will collapse. Some people talk about the rule of law, but it is clear that these are the persons least interested in the rule of law.

The rule of law isn't simply a series of steps. There has to be an objective. There are problems with the objective in this instance. I feel that Grameen is being placed at risk by the removal of Yunus and the entire country's image is being threatened.

As a researcher of social change, I feel that Bangladesh in the midst of poverty and a difficult situation, has used a development model and that is the effort to move ahead in a united manner. I see the current event as an attack on the multifaceted Grameen model. This does not bode well and the government should take this into consideration.

Prof. Yunus should remain at the helm for some more time in Grameen Bank. He has to exit in a manner that does not put the bank at risk.

What sort of risks would Grameen face if Prof. Yunus is removed?

It is not as if Grameen will not be affected with Yunus' removal. A former Grameen officer has been made the Chairman of Grameen Bank. His present activities make the risk all the more clear. The aggressive attitude and statements of certain responsible persons in the government have made this risk all the more potent. Their attack on Grameen is quite open and this is really an alarming matter.

What could the government's motive be behind this action?

The year 2011 is a difficult time for our economy. The fact that one crore 20 lakh families are direct members of Grameen and BRAC is significant. This is an important matter in rural economy. If the trust is put at risk, the situation can turn serious. People have already begun withdrawing money from the bank. If by removing Yunus from office on grounds of his age was a great instance of establishing the rule of law, people would deposit even more. Why would they withdraw their money?

What could the international repercussions be?

The donors may not interfere in our internal affairs, but at the same time, providing us with assistance and facilities is their internal affair. They will definitely evaluate our performance. Grameen's micro-credit is an international recognized model. This is unnecessarily being attacked and put at risk. They will certain take note of this. They may feel that democracy isn't being practiced here.

The entrance of our readymade garments in their markets is a matter of their political decision. A bill has to be passed in this regard. If they feel that democracy isn't functioning in Bangladesh, they just might say, block their garments. So they may poke their nose into our internal affairs, but in a roundabout manner. That is a matter of their internal decision and we can do nothing.

We are not an isolated country. We are a mid-income country and cannot simply be set apart in one corner. Our target is to strengthen various international relations to climb higher in this global world. We must lay stress on this. The government could have avoided messing around with Grameen and Prof. Yunus.

Why did the government enter into this controversy?

I can't say why it entered into this, but it does not bode well for anybody.  It is not good for our efforts at poverty alleviation.  More important than the government's objectives is the fallout of this action. Will this help the country in any way? Will it help the people in any way? Will it benefit Grameen, will it benefit the government? The answer is negative in all cases.

What is the future of Prof. Yunus?

It will be painful for him to see this institution, which has grown over the year, fall flat on its face. He has always striven to strengthen Grameen and to keep it unified. That is why he wanted a dignified exit.

The government has taken a very colonial attitude in saying it is in their jurisdiction to take a decision regarding Grameen. Yet the real owners of Grameen are 80 lakh poor members. The government is not looking into the rule of law here. The government's mentality is reflected in its dealings with Prof. Yunus and Grameen Bank

Times ahead are difficult for Prof. Yunus. This is a sad chapter for us indeed. This will not have good consequences. I can only hope for an amiable solution and that we will not proceed towards unfortunate consequences.


http://www.probenewsmagazine.com/index.php?index=2&contentId=6922

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[ALOCHONA] Rail Transit to Nepal :Delhi yet to respond about Rohanpur-Singabad point



Rail Transit to Nepal :Delhi yet to respond about Rahanpur-Singabad point

India is yet to respond to Bangladesh's request for rail transit to Nepal for fertiliser export as was agreed between the two countries in January 2010.Communications ministry officials said about two months ago Dhaka asked for New Delhi's nod to shipment of 50,000 tonnes of urea from Bangladesh to Nepal by rail through Indian territories.But the Indian mission in Dhaka has not yet sent any reply to the two letters in this regard.Bangladesh, India and Nepal signed a tripartite agreement in 1997 on export of goods from Bangladesh to Nepal by rail.

"We wrote two letters in February and March, requesting our friendly neighbour [India] to allow shipment of fertiliser to Nepal via Indian territories. But we are yet to get their reply, Bangladesh Railway's Additional Director (operation) Mohammad Shahjahan told daily sun on Thursday.The Indian High Commission official dealing with the press, however, said he is not aware of the matter.

Sources in the communications ministry and railway said Bangladesh Railway sent the letters to the Indian government after Desh Trading requisitioned railway wagons for exporting 50,000 tonnes of urea through Rahanpur-Singabad rail link.Bangladesh Railway then requested the Indian government to allow the shipment as per the Bangladesh-India joint communique signed on 11 January 2010 during Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's visit to New Delhi.

Hasina and her Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh signed the joint communique, agreeing on railway transit through the Rahanpur-Singabad point to Jogobani on India-Nepal border via India's Malda, Kumetpur and Katihar stations.

Sources in the communications ministry said the Indian officials informally gave hints of their position on fertiliser export to Nepal in 2005.India allowed Bangladesh Railway to export 35,000 tonnes of fertiliser to Nepal through the Rahanpur-Singabad point, instead of the Birol-Radhikapur route, in 2005. It, however, rejected shipment of another 10,000 tonnes the same year.Bangladesh has since been unable to trade with Nepal by rail.

The 1997 tripartite agreement refers to Birol-Radhikapur as the railway transit point, but the route was closed as India converted its tracks into broad gauge, which became incompatible with Bangladesh's metre gauge lines.Railway sources said Bangladesh and Nepal used to carry at least 500,000 tonnes of goods by rail every year through the Birol-Radhikapur point.To resume the transit trade, the 2010 joint communique said the two countries could use the Rahanapur-Singabad point for rail transit.Both the countries have broad gauge lines at the point.

http://www.daily-sun.com/?view=details&type=daily_sun_news&pub_no=160&cat_id=1&menu_id=1&news_type_id=1&index=1&archiev=yes&arch_date=18-03-2011


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[ALOCHONA] Book Review :My love is for the country, said Mujib



Book Review :My love is for the country, said Mujib

Yahya Khan has stated, "Mujib is a traitor and he has declared war against the government. He wants to completely separate East Pakistan. He has challenged the lawful authorities of the country to run a parallel government. This man and his party are enemies of Pakistan. He must be punished."

He was picked up on March 26 and taken to West Pakistan. There he was kept in solitary confinement, sentence to death by a military tribunal. Sheikh Mujib remained silent and strong. He said, "My bond with the people had never been broken and remained strong. I believe Bangladesh would rise out of the rubble of Pakistan."

Researcher and former state minister Prof. Abu Sayeed, in his recent book, Ekattore Bondi Mujib, Pakistaner Mrittyujantrana, reveals many hitherto unknown incidents and events about Sheikh Mujib's arrest, his time in solitary confinement, the military tribunal and his release.

The writer says that Mujib was accused of being a traitor and of declaring war against the country. During the military trial, Mujib said, if these are the charges against me. I don't need any lawyer. However, the state appointed AK Brohee on his behalf. Mujib said, "All this is not required.

The court had been appointed by the Chief Martial Law Administrator Yahya Khan. This was a camera trial. The trial would be a farce. The grave had been prepared. And then there was pressure from around the world to release Mujib.

The book has a long chapter on how Sheikh Mujib was released by the Pakistan military forces. The dramatic events are truly startling. The move that was made for his release, involving Britain, the US, Soviet Union, China, India and other countries of the world, was a rare event.  The US wanted Pakistan to remain intact and in this regard felt it was imperative that Mujib be kept alive. The world conscience stood up against the military trial of Mujib.

In another chapter of the book Abu Sayeed writes, "Another questions which mystifies me is, who wanted Mujib to be hanged? Was it Bhutto or General Yahya Khan? Everyone knows that Bhutto was forced to release Sheikh Mujib. Yet a recently released affidavit of Yahya Khan says that on the eve of his departure for Iran, Bhutto had instructed him to finish off Mujib. His logic was that the world leaders meeting him in Iran would pressurise him to release Mujib. That was why Mujib should be hanged before he reached Iran. Which account is true?

I leave the responsibility to future researchers to resolve this mystery.

The book also speaks of the Pakistan-India war centered on Bangladesh. Pakistan was defeated, Yahya Khan interned, Bhutto took over power.  The book has an interesting description of how jailor Habib smuggled Mujib from the solitary confinement cell to his house.

A most interesting part of the book is the transcription of Mujib's secret conversation with Bhutto which had been taped. They had two conversations in two phases and this was secretly recorded on tape. Some of the tape was lost and the damaged tape was later repaired in Germany. This is a rare revelation for the readers.

The seventh chapter is also an interesting one. The sound of artillery had stopped and there was silence. He was taken from the Lyallpur jail to Mianwali by helicopter. A woman's ward in the Mianwali jail was vacated and he was housed there. The other convicts near him been throwing anything they could at him, angrily calling him an Indian spy. Some even hurled stones at him. The jail super said he had been brought there to be hanged.

Much later when renowned British journalist asked Mujib who he had thought of when he saw his grave being dug, Mujib answered that his first thought as of his country. He said he loved his country more than his relatives. After all, he said, the people of my country love me so deeply.

Ekattore Bondi Mujib :Pakistaner Mrittyujantrana
by Prof. Abu Sayeed

Published by Sucheepatra
First published February 2011
Proce: BDT 295.00

parvez1966@yahoo.com

http://www.probenewsmagazine.com/index.php?index=2&contentId=6921

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[ALOCHONA] A PROBE report : Hasina vs. Hillary



A PROBE report : Hasina vs. Hillary

It would be a mistake to consider the Yunus dismissal and ensuing controversy just from the standpoint of these recent events or the family relationship that exists between Yunus and Hillary Clinton.

The story should start from the 1/11 episode when an American/British initiative brought in an extended caretaker administration under Dr. Fakhruddin Ahmed backed by the military under Gen. Moeen U Ahmed.  There exists opinion that the sponsors of this enterprise were under the clear understanding and impression that free and fair elections would usher in an Awami League administration which would be democratic in nature and respect human rights and would practice clean and transparent governance. It was also hoped that key energy deals involving US and British companies would be finalized and exploration in the Bay of Bengal permitted, once disagreements with India and Myanmar on the maritime boundary were resolved. Foreign quarters, analysts state, had probably assumed that once the democratic government was installed in power, there would be no obstacles or political difficulties in the country.

There were also strategic considerations of more than one foreign power with interests in Bangladesh. Certain regional and international analysts are of the opinion that the US had perhaps expected that India would adopt a policy of containment in reference to China, and this would suit them well. The US had indeed increased cooperation with India on several fronts and it was felt that this was on the basis of understanding that India would "permit" the US greater role in the region. Again, analysts perceive this as a move to counter Chinese penetration and influence. 

However, once Awami League came to power in January 2009, all these hopes and expectations were soon dashed. It took the US a quite some time to realize that things were not going as planned. The goods were not being delivered. The US had probably believed the Pilkhana mutiny and massacre to be an aberration in which internal conflict within the BDR exploded into the open. But then again there existed the opinion, among certain keen observers of the situation, that this tragic incident may have been part of a larger plan to undermine the armed forces and hobble the BDR. This was entirely lost on the Americans.

Again, the chaos and anarchy created by Chhatra League was a troubling trend but the US assumed that with time this may be subdued. The US started to become concerned with developments when Khaleda Zia and the BNP began to be directly targeted by the government for harassment. It was only when the government became serious in pursuing war crimes that the US government may have felt something was amiss. It had been hoped that the Awami League would not dig up past issues and divide the country but this is exactly what it was doing first by erasing the name of Ziaur Rahman and then going after the alleged war criminals. The US still remained hopeful that the energy deals would be completed and exploration blocks allocated to ConocoPhillips and Tullow as well as open pit mining permitted in Phulbaria. Two years passed with no sign that the government was ready to move on any of these deals. Instead the US saw the government sign deal after deal with Indian companies (in the energy and infrastructure sectors) and sometimes even in conjunction with state-owned Russian energy companies. It was becoming apparent that US entry into Bangladesh was not going to be a cakewalk and was not fully in tune with America's perceived aims in regard to China.

Analysts of the situation say that while India feared Chinese military growth and economic might, New Delhi was to oppose these through its own military, intelligence, economic and diplomatic arrangements and seek US assistance from a distance and much preferred Russian cooperation in this regard. But it was apparent that India was not adhering to these plans and the Obama administration apparently adopted a go-slow policy in regard to New Delhi. FDI in India decreased significantly and the much touted Nuclear Deal hit one brick wall after another. It was increasingly felt in New Delhi that Obama was treating India with far less respect and importance in comparison with the Chinese. That this may have been a reaction to Indian behavior seems to be conveniently ignored in policy making circles in New Delhi.     

It was amidst all this that the Yunus controversy suddenly erupted. In fact, Yunus had been a target for government smear tactics right from the start. This was, however, subdued in nature just to keep Yunus on the defensive and his foreign friends guessing. When it was becoming clear that the western quarters had seen through the game of the Awami League government and its outside ally, the government became more aggressive against Yunus. It was probably the rebellions in the Middle East that triggered the Awami League government to finally act against Yunus. Concerned that Yunus could become the symbol for an anti-government movement and protest organized and sponsored by his friends overseas, the Awami League government decided to eliminate him as a threat.  The fact that Yunus is a close friend to the Clinton family is largely irrelevant in how the US will react if at all. That Yunus is a Nobel Prize winner gives him symbolic significance but it is unlikely that the US will put its interests at risk for one man. That Yunus is also a Congressional Gold Medal holder is of greater import for America making his removal as MD of Grameen Bank a direct slap in the face. The complicating factor for any American response is the fact that this is a democratically elected government in Dhaka which is acting according to law with the judiciary consistently finding in favor of the government. 

It is unlikely that the US will act immediately as these developments will take time to digest and a more assertive policy towards Dhaka formulated. Comparisons may be made with the crisis created when Sheikh Mujibur Rahman incurred US displeasure for exporting jute products to Cuba. However, at that time the world was neatly split between the US and USSR. Today's world is moving inevitably towards multi-polarity but with the US remaining far ahead of other countries for the foreseeable future. A problem for the US could arise if a combination of countries such as India, Russia and China were to align together against American interests. It might be such a concern that would spur the US to act against the Awami League government and also put India in its place. It is now obvious in Washington that in many respects Indian and US interests do not always converge and this has to do with Indian special interests in South Asia. India also may eventually perceive the US as a rival and a competitor in the region and a provocation to China.

If the US were to react to the humiliation it is facing at the hands of the present regime then it will be based on preexisting grievances amongst the population of the country. This could emerge from the garments sector, share market debacle, power crisis or due to food price inflation. Most likely there will be a combination of these factors at work that could tilt the public violently against the government.

At the same time India and Awami League realize they are both running out of time. India needs the infrastructure projects related to transit to begin immediately so that some of the work will be completed before the 2013 general elections. It appears however that almost nothing will be done in time to meet the deadline. Awami League, on the other hand, cannot give too much to India as this will be viewed with disfavor by the electorate and could be exploited by the opposition parties before the next elections. Awami League also fully knows it cannot do anything to reduce food price inflation or add more power to the national grid. The situation could turn acute during the summer months of 2011, 2012 and 2013. All indicators suggest that the public are now irate to no end with the government, but BNP and other opposition parties are weak organizationally.

Thus the situation over the micro-finance guru has more connotations that meet the eye. He may be a personal friend of US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, but the reverberations of the treatment being meted out to him by the Awami League government go much further. Will Hasina tone down her tirade against Yunus or will Hillary let it pass? It will be difficult for either of them to simply sit tight, things have gone too far for that.

http://www.probenewsmagazine.com/index.php?index=2&contentId=6919

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[ALOCHONA] Kader Siddiqui says...



Kader Siddiqui says...



http://www.sheershanews.com/?view=details&data=Hotel&news_type_id=1&menu_id=5&news_id=7663


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[ALOCHONA] Western Response to Japan



Western Response to Japan

The real crime against humanity.
commentary by Tony Cartalucci

The Anglo-American multi-trillion dollar global military machine has been defended ad nauseum as essential to protecting free humanity and its progress into a promising future. In reality, it is a criminal facilitator obsessed with pilfering the world's resources, consolidating power in the hands of feckless feeble minded, short-sighted degenerate financiers, and fostering an unprecedented level of interdependence and vulnerability in every nation brought within their sphere of influence.

One must wonder what sort of world we might be living in today if the trillions of dollars and hundreds of thousands of lives squandered in the last 10 years of war profiteering in the Middle East, were instead used to push real education, technological research and development, and real tangible technological progress. Not only would we have sources of power that could replace dangerous and antiquated power plants like the 40 year old Fukushima reactors, but we as Americans might have a naval fleet actually capable of protecting the "free world" from real threats like the one unfolding off the east coast of Japan's Fukushima prefecture.

Instead, the US fleet is stretched globally involved in a myriad of meddling geopolitical gambits, many of which were intentionally engineered and initiated by corporate-serving policy wonks in Washington and London. Even as Japan drowns, burns, melts-down, evacuates, and workers engage in suicide missions to mitigate the unprecedented disaster unfolding, Washington and London leadership obsessively pursue their pet projects worldwide.

The globalist International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) has been obsessing over Libya, and how to allocate military and civilian resources to aid the perpetuation of the US-backed Middle East conflagration, wringing their hands over the fact that their assets are already so thinly stretched between Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, and Pakistan. Considering the US State Department's global network of recruiting, training, funding, equipping, and supporting contrived revolutions worldwide on behalf of globalist corporate interests, it shouldn't surprise us how incompetent and ill-prepared it is to deal with its real duties - maintaining formal relations with foreign nations.

IISS policy wonks exhibit the entirety of their feckless unwarranted
authority and gives a glimpse into an unprecedented misappropriation of
the "international system's" priorities. If you have resources, influence, and
authority, and aren't using them to solve real problems, you belong behind
bars for criminal negligence:
http://www.youtube.com/embed/t5AEEbuV8Hg

In this case, Japan, mired in a catastrophe that very well endangers the US itself is in dire need of any and all assistance, an effort the Secretary of State Hillary Clinton should direct her entire, undivided attention to. Instead, Secretary Hillary Clinton is wasting time in Paris consorting with foreign backed Libyan rebels trying to overthrow the government of a sovereign nation.

The amount of extra-legal, unwarranted, un-Constitutional aid the US is rendering to pro-globalist projects around the world is almost as astronomical as America's debt incurred through the criminal activity of the Federal Reserves' economic-alchemists. A nation with the potential, population, and resources of America, led by what amounts to murderous-bullies, degenerate gamblers, and myopically obsessed megalomaniacs is a crime in and of itself.

The globocrats' negligence over the decades, the squandering of the American people's resources, human and otherwise, and the incessant meddling geopolitical social engineering has intentionally produced a world dependent on their "international system" and has doomed us to needlessly suffer disasters like the one in Japan. These are disasters that responsible, honorable men and women leading our nations could have prevented and most certainly could have ensured entire navies and armies would be on hand to deal with if all else failed.

The "international system" is a cancer of incompetence, self-destructive greed, that is leaving all of humanity naked and vulnerable to the real challenges of the future. It is a cancer that desperately needs to be excised with the utmost expediency. The twisting feeling we have in our guts when we wake up each morning, realizing the horrors unfolding in Japan and spreading in the winds off their coast is what a real humanitarian disaster looks and feels like, these are the challenges we as humanity face - not contrived rebellions in Libya, not climatology statistics cooked up by Belfer Center's corporate sponsored shaman, and not fake wars funding 10 years of war profiteering.

These are real challenges that require real leadership, leadership we do not have, but desperately need. Each day these impostors remain in power the effects of their crimes become irreparably more profound. These are men that invent crimes and the criminals allegedly carrying them out to detract from the reality that they are the biggest criminals on earth - their crimes the most grievous against humanity. Their fumbling over Japan, while prioritizing their murderous pilfering and meddling across the Middle East, Central Asia and Northern Africa are unforgivable affirmations we must take to heart and act on now, today. The winds of change are literally coming and we are all about to pay the price for the globalists' "misleadership."

The answer is simple. Boycott and replace these corporations with local solutions, stop listening to their lies, stop voting for them entirely in their contrived version of "democracy" and write in names of men and women who truly deserve to be behind the levers of power no matter how unlikely their chance is to win. Become self-sufficient in food, water, power, security, media, and entertainment - pursue the education you were denied within the globalists' sabotaged school systems. Our lives literally depend on moving on, and doing so without these parasites feeding off of us, posing as the source of civilization when all they do is feed off of civilization.

For more information on alternative economics, getting self-sufficient and moving on without the parasitic, incompetent, globalist oligarchs:

The Lost Key to Real Revolution
Boycott the Globalists
Alternative Economics
Self-Sufficiency

http://landdestroyer.blogspot.com/2011/03/western-response-to-japan.html


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[ALOCHONA] corruption





"Corruption has spread like cancer in our country and society," said Mahabub Hossain, executive director of Bangladesh's biggest NGO and leading micro-credit agency, BRAC.

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 2009

Corruption in Bangladesh
In a country where 40 percent of the population lives less than a dollar a day, corruption is keeping the Bangladesh economy from improving. People have to pay bribes to get jobs, shop keepers raise their prices to keep up with bribes they have to pay and there are many more examples. Foreign investment dollars will not come into the country until corruption is cleaned up, but do government officials really want to clean it up?

From this great analysis from Reuters, reporter Anis Ahmed details how corruption keeps Bangladesh's economy from moving up.

Global watchdog Transparency International rated Bangladesh the world's most corrupt nation for five consecutive years from 2001. Subsequently the rating improved, to 10th in 2008, after a military-backed interim government took tough anti-graft steps.

However, TIB says its latest research confirms widespread corruption remains, and some others say it is getting worse again. The authories deny that, saying the monitors base their judgment mainly on often inflated media reports.

But people struggling day in and day out to make a living blame corruption for many of their problems.

"You will face it everywhere," said Shahadat Hossain, a teacher at a government primary school.

"I had to pay 100,000 taka ($1,430) as bribe to get this job. But the poor salary I get covers only a part of my expenses," he told Reuters.

"Grocery sellers ask higher prices every next day, doctors at government clinics won't treat my child without money or give me medicine supposed to be a free handout."

The government admits efforts to contain prices and introduce graft-free practices have largely failed, even though populist Prime Minister Hasina, who took office in January following a widely acclaimed democratic election, promised to address them.

"Corruption has spread like cancer in our country and society," said Mahabub Hossain, executive director of Bangladesh's biggest NGO and leading micro-credit agency, BRAC.
POSTED BY KALE AT 9:11 AM   EMAIL THIS BLOGTHIS! SHARE TO TWITTER SHARE TO FACEBOOK SHARE TO GOOGLE BUZZ
LABELS: BANGLADESH, CORRUPTION AND GRAFT


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[ALOCHONA] The mystique of PM’s son



The mystique of PM's son

March 19, 2011

hasina joy

Arshad Mahmud

In early 2009, only days after the Awami League-led alliance returned to power with a thumping majority, a Bangladeshi lobby group organised a seminar in collaboration with Johns Hopkins's University's South Asia division here in Washington.

I covered the seminar not so much for its title "Future challenges for Bangladesh", but mostly out of interest to learn from a young panellist — Sajeeb Ahmed Wazed.

You guessed it right. Yes, he's the prime minister's only son, commonly known as Joy. Most of the 50 or so audience also appeared to have turned up to hear from Joy. I do not even recall who the other two panellists were and what they said.

Walter Anderson of the Hopkins, the seminar's moderator, introduced Sajeeb Wazed as an adviser to the Bangladesh prime minister. Joy spoke for about 15 minutes. He appeared smart, articulate and confident. After the presentation of all three panellists, the floor was opened for Q/A.

I stood up and asked for a clarification of Joy's identity. "The new government appointed six advisors to the prime minister with the rank and status of a cabinet minister. Nowhere did I see the name of Sajeeb Wazed among the advisers. Could you please clarify when you became an adviser," I asked.

Joy replied that he was not an adviser to the prime minister but to Sheikh Hasina. When I pointed out that Sheikh Hasina also happened to be the prime minister of Bangladesh, he mumbled.

I then followed up with my actual question. I asked him whether he would publicly say that he would not in any way get involved in running of the government, especially in business dealings as did Tarique and Arafat Rahman, the two sons of former prime minister Khaleda Zia.

"You're perhaps aware of the ignominious departure of Khaleda Zia largely blamed for her sons' naked involvement in almost all the major business dealings," I added.

What Joy said in reply not only puzzled me but also the rest of the audience. "I've a Masters degree in Public Administration from Harvard," he said tersely. But I persisted that I wanted to hear from him an unequivocal reply to my question about whether he would get involved in business dealings.

A moment of discomfort followed. Somewhat perplexed, the Bangladeshi organiser, ostensibly to avoid any further unpleasant question, gestured to the moderator to cut me off. The moderator obliged and gave the floor to another questioner.

The reason what prompted me to relate that episode is the increasing visibility of Joy in Bangladesh affairs in recent months. The readers must have noticed that too. Although he lives in the United States, he often travels to Bangladesh and appears in public forums, especially as the quintessential front man of the government's much-touted 'Digital Bangladesh' programme. (It's hard to imagine how a country can be digitalised without first ensuring uninterrupted electricity supply and access of the vast majority to the Internet. But that's another matter). He's also becoming a permanent fixture in the prime minister's entourage to official visits overseas.

Again, he does all this in the capacity of an unofficial adviser to the prime minister. In plain words, what it means is that he doesn't get any salary from the government and is not entitled to any official perks and privileges. That begs a crucial question. What does he do to make a living in the US and how does he pay his mortgage for the million dollar home he owns and other bills.

Well. The answer is murky. I checked with several people who know him and they all said they were unaware of his job in the United States.

According to Fairfax County public records, Joy is the president of Wazed Consulting Inc., located at 3817 Bell Manor Ct, Falls Church, Virginia 22041. He bought the brand new 4-bedroom, 4.5 bath single family home in 2006 for $996,875 dollar. The record also reveals that he bought another home at 4823 Martin Street, Alexandria, Virginia 22312 for $749,000. It was not clear whether he still owned the house.

Even if he has sold the Alexandria house, it costs a lot of money to meet monthly expenses for the home in Falls Church, a wealthy suburb just outside Washington.

And since there's not much information available about the precise activities of Wazed Consulting, especially what he does as a consultant; who are his clients; and how much money he makes out of the business, it's perhaps legitimate for the people of Bangladesh to demand a clear answer.

Why? Because Sajeeb is no ordinary Bangladeshi. He's the prime minister's only son. And for the sake of Sheikh Hasina's personal reputation as incorruptible, she must do something immediately to defuse the growing discontent against her government, increasingly being seen as lurching towards disaster.

Let's not forget that that it was the perception of widespread corruption in the BNP-led government, especially committed by Khaleda Zia's two sons, which finally led to her ignominious downfall.

I'm not suggesting that Joy is in a race to beat Tarique and Coco. But what is deeply disturbing is that there's growing perception that he is. And, I'm sure Sheikh Hasina being a politician knows very well that perception could be fatal. She's also smart enough to see the red flag and hope she'll do something decisive to turn the tide of anger, even from Awami League supporters, against her family before it's too late.

—————————

Arshad Mahmud is a senior editor and Washington Correspondent for bdnews24.com.

http://opinion.bdnews24.com/2011/03/19/the-mystique-of-pm%E2%80%99s-son/



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[ALOCHONA] Re: [Diagnose] BD concedes Transit Corridor to India?



Shahadat,

 

Withdrawing Indian Forces after liberation ------ Is it normal or abnormal ? ( Can you show any other example of this kind)

 

Dr. Manik




From: Shahadat Hussaini <shahadathussaini@hotmail.com>
To: diagnose group <diagnose@yahoogroups.com>; Bangladeshi American <bangladeshiamericans@googlegroups.com>; alapon yahoo <alapon@yahoogroups.com>; Alochona Groups <alochona@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Fri, March 18, 2011 2:53:17 PM
Subject: RE: [Diagnose] BD concedes Transit Corridor to India?

 

Khalid Hasan:
You may want or pary for whatever you may like but normal neighbor does not put barbed wire fence sorrounding the border of a neighbor. Normal neighbor does not kill people at border just at sight. Normal neighbor does hold all the water source in their advantage. Normal neighbor does not keep tin bigha corridor even after a signed treaty. Normal neighbor does not indulge their nose in it's neighbor's internal affairs like foreign policy. Normal neighbor does not refuse to pay genuine fees for transit. And our 'Maal' shaheb has to say, "Kichhu ekta to neboi."
Wish you good luck.
Shahadat Suhrawardy
 


To: diagnose@yahoogroups.com
From: khalidhasan@hotmail.com
Date: Fri, 18 Mar 2011 00:16:39 -0400
Subject: RE: [Diagnose] BD concedes Transit Corridor to India?

 
Let Bangladesh be a normal neighbor of India as the Canadians and Mesicans are to the USA.  Like it or not millions of Banagladh citizens are in india for a better life.  I dont think India will accept us as a confedaret state of India even if we begg. She, however provides  treatment to our sick, cattle for our meat consumption, electricity when we need it provided that we have required tranmission lines for that, etc. etc. etc.....If india agrees letbus hav joint conomy and an have open market.  Aftr all India is a candidat for UN Security Council( I mean permanent sat).     
 
khalid hasan
To: Diagnose@yahoogroups.com; akhoka786@yahoo.com
CC: diagnose@yahoogroups.com; reform-bd@yahoogroups.com; chottala@yahoogroups.com
From: Oline2@cox.net
Date: Thu, 17 Mar 2011 11:25:59 -0400
Subject: Re: [Diagnose] BD concedes Transit Corridor to India?

 
Dear Mr. Turkman
 
You do not need to be circustic .since I do not know in depth knowledge of the bilateral agreement between India and Bangladesh,  I must not get into the arguments. But the fact remains, India is our neighbor and believe to be a good friend. We share same values and more or less same culture..We both need to help each others for its development and welfare of its citizens. We must keep good relation with India and at the same time with other countries. As far as transit and 1 billion dollar assistance, anything fair and reasonable, beneficial for both nation, we must not be negative at all times. 
 
Just hope for the best .
 
Dilawar Hossain
 
 
 
 
----- Original Message -----
From: S Turkman
Sent: Thursday, March 17, 2011 12:19 AM
Subject: [Diagnose] BD concedes Transit Corridor to India?

 

Oh please forgive me. I had no idea we are at war with Kaafir India just like Pakistan has been since 1948 and had no idea that BD should not have any kind of dealings with our Enemy India. How could I be so treasonous?
Lets talk with Pakistan and declare war at India simultaneously to conquer it ...!


From: Khoka Mia <akhoka786@yahoo.com>



Mr. Turkman, why it is always that you are fanatically in support of India's interest? Are you an India promoter? What is your share in this deal, will you tell us? If you are brave enough why don't you list all the unsettled issues between Bangladesh and India; and don't forget to add on the list the diversion of all surface water by India, building dams on transboundary rivers.
All the issues brought to light by Zoglul Husain is absolutely correct. These are legitimate concern and poses threat to the existence of Bangladesh as an independent and sovereign nation.
What Bangladesh is getting except the perpetuity assurance of the present government? The present government is buying perpetuity to a tutelage government under India by selling the interest of Bangladesh.
 
-Bangladeshi 

----- Forwarded Message -----
From: "S Turkman" <turkman@sbcglobal.net>


   


Look at Iran ...!
* She is at fault in making money through Bandar Abbas port also because it is providing Transit Corridor to Russia, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and all Central Asian States 2 decades ago.
Iran is so stupid that 2 decades ago, she spent billions to build a Highway connecting that port of Ashkhabad, Turkmenistan and also built a Railway Line going through whole length of the country from that port to connect with old USSR Railway System northeast of her.
What a stupid country ...!
* And then, there is a stupid country, Germany that conceded Transit to Soviet Natural Gas Pipe Line in 1970's to let her Gas be sold to almost all countries in Continental Europe despite US Opposition.
USA is a stupid country. She had also conceded transit of Natural Gas Pipe line to Canada going through whole north-south length of it going to Mexico.
* Pakistan is another example of such stupid concession. She has conceded transit to Iranian Gas Pipe Line despite US Opposition, going to India and our stupid Enemy, India has conceded Transit of that Pipe line to BD after it reaches her. 
What can we do?
This world is full of stupid countries like BD.
.
S U Turkman

--- In reform-bd@yahoogroups.com, Zoglul Husain <zoglul@...> wrote:
>
>
> Equipment from India arrives
>
> http://www.thedailystar.net/story.php?nid=177610

> Comment: We are totally opposed to transit/corridor agreement with India under the present circumstances. Roads constructed for these purposes will almost certainly be used for India's military purposes, which may even be from the very first consignment of smaller items, scheduled from 20 March. (Please see: ODC shipment begins March 20 http://www.bdnews24.com/details.php?cid=2&id=189840 ). This is not only a security risk, it is occupation of our infrastructure, an attempt to subjugate us, which may also drag us between warring parties. 

> I don't know if there would be demos, barricades, etc., but the govt is making a grievous betrayal of the country. They know we were denied transit from/to Nepal, Bhutan, etc. They know the problems between the two countries have not been resolved. The very serious problems of river water, border killings, smuggling in India's favour, enclaves, trade policies, conspiracy and hegemony, military and security, etc., etc. are in the way of developing friendly relations between the two countries. The govt is still behaving like lackeys mesmerised under the spell of a hegemonic power.

> It's all an utter betrayal of national interest and sovereignty. We condemn the govt on Hasina's MoU's with India, in which our national interests have been sold out and our sovereignty surrendered. We must unite to resist these.

   







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[ALOCHONA] Financial Times - Bangladesh at the crossroads by By Tahmima Anam



Bangladesh at the crossroads

By Tahmima Anam

Published: March 18 2011

Financial Times

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/e46b3fdc-4f71-11e0-8632-00144feab49a.html#axzz1GzSGq2q8

 

It is winter and Dhaka is full of lights. Shaheed Minar, the memorial commemorating the Language Movement that led to the independence of Bangladesh, glows a bright orange. In the posh neighbourhoods of Gulshan and Baridhara, entire apartment buildings are illuminated to celebrate winter weddings, but these are overshadowed by the bright lights of new shopping malls. This is the city into which I have just landed – lit up, hopeful and humming with electricity.

 

I am a sheeter pakhi – a bird who has flown east for the winter. Every year I travel home to visit my family and reconnect with Bangladesh. There's something about this country that inspires a deep longing, and whenever I am pulled back, I come home to take stock. This year, on Bangladesh's 40th anniversary, I ponder the great changes that have occurred here, ponder the brightness and vitality of a country that no one expected would succeed. But succeed it has. Its dramatic transformations – imperfect, yet to be fully realised – are testament to the resilience of its people, and to the great power of democracy that is hard-won and home-grown.

 

As always happens when I land in Dhaka, I am immediately struck by the sense that something exciting is about to happen. In early February, the city is abuzz with anticipation because the ICC Cricket World Cup will kick off at the Mirpur Stadium in just a few weeks. People are scrambling for tickets. Municipal elections mean that every available intersection and telephone pole and exposed brick wall is festooned with political posters and slogans.

 

This year the agents of change seem to have raised their voices, and I realise something has shifted in the tone of the country. The stakes are higher, people are restless, poised for even greater transformation. In the meantime, the things that are difficult – that make you avert your eyes – are as apparent as ever. The city is full to bursting, and everywhere there are signs that the changes have not reached everyone: not the children picking through rubbish heaps on the side of the road, not the women who cook dinner over roadside ditches, thin sheets of blue plastic the only thing between them and the bitter winter evenings.

 

. . .

 

Bangladesh was born out of a brutal war of secession from Pakistan in 1971. During those nine months, the Pakistani army conducted a systematic campaign of ethnic cleansing, killing up to three million civilians and forcing as many as 10 million into exile in neighbouring India. Two days before the war ended, knowing they were on the brink of defeat, the retreating army assassinated hundreds of academics, physicians, artists and journalists in order to give the yet-to-be-born country as little chance of surviving as possible. The new prime minister, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, was welcomed by a population on the brink of famine. These are the factors that led Henry Kissinger to peer into the newborn country's cot and declare it a basket case.

 

Since independence, instability has pervaded the political climate. Sheikh Mujibur was killed in 1975, along with 19 others, including 16 members of his family. Less than a decade later, his successor, General Zia, was also assassinated. Coups and counter-coups were followed by the long military rule of Hossain Muhammad Ershad.

 

And yet, somewhere along the way, the tide turned for Bangladesh. In 1990, a popular movement for democracy, not unlike those we've seen recently in Tunisia and Egypt, ousted Ershad's nine-year-old dictatorship. Since then, aside from a brief period of army-backed civilian rule, power has been handed back and forth peacefully between Mujibur's party, the Awami League (led by his daughter, Sheikh Hasina Wajed) and General Zia's Bangladesh Nationalist party (led by his wife, Khaleda Zia), in a series of increasingly transparent national elections.

 

Now, four decades into nationhood, there are many things to celebrate in Bangladesh. The economy has enjoyed 5-6 per cent growth for the past three years. The ready-made garments industry is thriving, surpassed globally only by China and Turkey. And last October, Bangladesh was given an award for the strides it has made towards reaching the UN millennium goals in health (notably, in reducing child mortality rates), education and women's rights.

 

Perhaps even more importantly, there are strong movements to restore Bangladesh to its secular roots. Last year, the High Court and Supreme Courts banned fatwas and legally returned Bangladesh to its founding status as a secular republic. Later this year, a war crimes tribunal will begin trying the men who collaborated with the Pakistani army during the Bangladesh genocide. For the past 40 years, politicians have been bragging about their past as war criminals, daring any government to put them on trial. If the tribunal is a success, this culture of impunity may finally come to an end.

 

This is not to say that all is well. Bangladesh has a well-documented history of corruption at all levels of political and civil administration. Opposition forces are often brutally suppressed, and there has been a systematic abandonment of ethnic and religious minorities. Every day, troubling stories emerge about the excesses of the Rapid Action Battalion, the paramilitary police in charge of law and order and anti-terrorism.

 

Perhaps the blackest cloud on the horizon is the threat of climate change. If forecasts prove to be accurate, Bangladesh's coastal lands will be under water in 40 years, creating a historically unprecedented refugee crisis. Already, half-a-million people migrate to Dhaka every year because their rural homes have become uninhabitable due to flooding. For the rest of the world, climate change is a distant fear; in Bangladesh it has already arrived, devastating families and landscapes. Perhaps this accounts for the frantic urgency in the air: we know that we are running out of time.

 

So which way is the country going? Towards progress or peril? Either way, the story lies outside the city. Although Dhaka is the beating heart of the nation, everything that makes Bangladesh what it is lies in the countryside. So, I have decided to travel to Gazipur, 45km north of the capital, to get a taste of what is happening outside the bubbling chaos of the metropolis.

 

. . .

 

It is March 19 1971. Knowing they are about to be attacked by the occupation forces of the Pakistani army, the people of Joydevpur (now part of Gazipur district) begin building a barricade on the railway line that connects the capital city to the army cantonment nearby. They use sandbags, bricks and felled trees. They work all day. Then they wait for the army to arrive, and when – finally – it does, a hail of bullets lands on the crowd. Four young men are killed, and dozens wounded, but the cache of arms that is on its way to the city is halted 45km north of its destination. Officially, the war of independence has not yet begun, but for the people of this district, a small but significant victory has already been won. For the duration of the nine-month war that ensues, the slogan "Follow the path of Joydevpur, liberate Bangladesh" is shouted from all corners of the country.

 

Forty years later, I have come to this district to see whether this spirit of the frontier, of being ahead of the rest of the nation, survives among these people. Somewhere between Uttara and Tongi the buildings get shorter and narrower, the malls become shops, the boutiques are replaced by shops selling toilets and basins; then there are vegetable markets and stalls with hanging cuts of meat, and in the narrow gaps between them I catch a glimpse of the fields beyond. Past Tongi, I reach the Chowrasta roundabout. In the middle is a white stone statue of a soldier, marking the place where the barricade was built, and where those four boys were killed.

 

My ancestral village, Dhanikhola, is several hours north of here, in a district called Mymensingh. My paternal grandfather was the first member of his family to leave the village, get an education, and practise law in Calcutta. He went on to become a journalist, and later a politician, finally settling with his wife and five sons in Dhaka. After the war, my father left Bangladesh for a job with the United Nations. These generational migrations, from village to city, from city across the seas, made my peripatetic, writerly life possible. The other branches of the family remain in that little village, fishermen and farmers and shopkeepers. We spend weekends in Dhanikhola sometimes, fishing in the pond and petting the stray goats, and I am always struck by the great twists of fate that came together to make me a visitor, rather than a resident, of that little village.

 

Gazipur, by contrast, is half-city, half-country. Brand-new factories cluster along the main road, advertising steel sheeting or textiles. Shops cram into every available space. Turn a corner and you will happen upon the startling green of the winter harvest, of men bending over paddy fields with nothing for tools but their bare hands. The region encapsulates the contrasts of Bangladesh: the old and the new, the agricultural economy and the manufacturing, the poor and the recently rich. Among the mud and straw houses, there are new houses of brick and cement, and behind these are farmers, and rice fields, and stories of beauty, and memories of pain.

 

. . .

 

My host in Gazipur is Jimi, a community organiser who has worked in the district for over a decade. Her NGO is housed in a squat, one-storey building with a tiny kitchen. Women of different ages, some carrying small children, crowd the balcony, waiting to go inside. Jimi greets me warmly, but doesn't linger, and soon I am perched in a corner while she asks each woman in turn about her case. They begin by talking about their husbands and in-laws. One woman says her husband has demanded she give him 100,000 taka (£870) or he will divorce her. Jimi listens patiently. There's another girl whose in-laws threw her out of the house when she couldn't bear a son. No one uses the word hit or beat. "If you look behind," a young woman named Rehana tells me, "you find sadness."

 

When they come to the centre, Jimi helps them to find jobs and negotiate with their families. If they want a separation or a divorce, she arranges legal advice. She has persuaded the local police to intervene when she encounters a woman in imminent danger, but the key to change, she tells me, is finding jobs for the women. Rehana works at a beauty parlour down the road. Another girl in a black hijab with perfectly groomed eyebrows tells me she has refused to marry; she wants to save up and start her own business.

 

One of the biggest changes in Bangladesh in the past four decades has been the degree to which women have become the wage earners in their families. Some 97 per cent of borrowers from Grameen Bank's microcredit schemes, which lends small sums of money to the poorest of the poor, are women. The other sea change has been prompted by the ready-made garments industry, which employs 3 million people, the majority women. Wake up early enough in Dhaka and you can see the factory workers – colourful lines of young women walking along the footpaths.

 

Jimi takes me to the village of Burulia, a 10-minute drive from her office, to meet a former freedom fighter called Yusuf Ali Sarkar. His house is at the end of a thin, paved road, beside a grove of sesame trees. At the turning we see a lone man knee-deep in a ditch. He is shovelling, the muscles on his back and arms sharply defined. He doesn't look up as we walk past. We enter Yusuf's compound and find him dressed simply in a half-sleeved shirt, but when he sees the photographer he quickly goes inside to put on his jacket and watch. As soon as we sit down, he starts telling us about the barricade on the railway line. The young Yusuf was shot in the thigh that day and taken to hospital, where the doctors declared him dead. But he survived, spending the rest of the war training for battle and hiding arms in his house. His wife of 40 years – a plump, round-faced woman in a shalwaar kameez – speaks up. When war broke out, Rokeya Begum was newly married and three months pregnant. "But I wasn't afraid of the military," she says. At school, she was used to doing sports. "Now I'm a retired teacher, but I can still beat anyone at jump-rope." Yusuf and Rokeya laugh together. They have been married for longer than the life of Bangladesh. The country is only five years older than me. Its grey hairs have not yet begun to show.

 

When the war ended in December 1971, only five people in the village had ever gone to school. Now Yusuf's daughter is a lawyer. The family are looking for a bride for their son. "I want a praying girl," Rokeya tells me. They show me around their property, a neat compound with an internal courtyard. Yusuf points to several buildings in mid-construction. "We're making a market here," he points, "and that's my chicken farm." Although his home is simple, he is a very rich man: land prices in the area have doubled every year for five years.

 

As we leave Yusuf's compound we pass the market he's building. There do not appear to be any shops, only a small tea stall. An old woman hovers over a stove, stirring a vat of milky tea. She waves. In the distance, past the paved road, lie a few plots of paddy. When we pass him again, the man who was digging is fully underground, the ditch now as deep as he is tall. He is shrouded in loneliness, a checked cloth wrapped around his head.

 

"This is our migrant worker training centre," Yusuf says, pointing to an empty building. The building is shut, because jobs abroad have temporarily dried up – a consequence of the global recession. Still, it is the ambition of many young men to travel abroad and work in the construction industry. Along with the garment industry, the bulk of Bangladesh's economy rests on the money that the six million migrant workers in the Middle East and Asia send home. These remittances are estimated at $10bn a year.

 

Our final stop is a women's community meeting in a neighbouring village. A group of about 30 women are sitting on a large jute mat. They are all married. I ask them how things have changed in Gazipur. They tell me that most of them did not get an education, but that their children – girls and boys – are enrolled in school. "Also," one of them calls out, "our husbands help out a bit more." "Does your husband cook?" I ask, and hear her gasp.

 

Back at Jimi's centre we eat lunch and meet some local politicians. Salma and Sabiha look like they could be sisters, both tall and heavy, with deep, bellowing laughs. Salma tells me that when she hears of a wedding taking place in the neighbourhood, she makes it her job to find out how old the girl is. If she is underage, Salma goes to the police headquarters, fetches an officer, and shows up at the wedding to stop the ceremony. She has stopped many illegal marriages, she says proudly – sometimes even after the guests have arrived and the bride is about to be given away. "As long as I live," she shout-announces, "no underage girl is ever getting married in this district!"

 

I leave Gazipur on a high, feeling a sense of protean possibility, Salma's proclamation ringing in my ears. It is easy, in moments like this, to ignore the other things I know about the country: the punishing inequalities, the deep strain of authoritarianism that runs through the political system. Instead I say to myself: damn you, Henry Kissinger, for calling my country a basket case.

 

And then I hear about the case of Mosammet Hena. Mosammet was a 14-year-old girl who was whipped for allegedly having a relationship with a married man. The village cleric who ordered the fatwa against her did not believe Mosammet's claim that she was raped by her cousin. He sentenced both Mosammet and her cousin to 100 lashes. The cousin – a known rapist who had married one of his former victims – ran away before his punishment was meted out. Mosammet had no such luck. Two days later, she died in hospital.

 

There are two countries here: the country I saw in Gazipur, and another country, a shadowy other. There is no way to get a definitive answer about which of these two faces of Bangladesh is the real one. Like any country, it is complex, it has its beauties and its ugliness, but I am struggling to get my head around the extremes it seems to straddle.

 

Debopriyo Bhattacharya is one of Bangladesh's finest economists, and a fellow at the Centre for Policy Dialogue, the leading liberal think tank. Debopriyo can't tell me if what I saw in Gazipur was an illusion, but he can tell me that the fundamentals of the country have shifted. In 1971, Bangladesh was an agricultural, aid-dependent nation with an exploding population and almost no infrastructure. It took 20 years for the nation's farmers to dramatically alter Bangladesh's food output, and although the population has doubled, the agricultural sector is now keeping up with its demands. And despite the political instability, there has been a consistent and determined investment in education. The shiny billboards, the swanky factories along the Tongi highway are a result of that. "The fact is," he says, "Bangladesh has proven its social, economic and political viability. We proved that we have something to contribute."

 

Progress, however, is fragile. If I needed a reminder it comes with the government's attack on Mohammad Yunus, the Nobel Laureate and pioneer of microcredit. He, along with others in microfinance institutions, stood accused by the prime minister of "sucking blood from the poor". A targeted campaign is launched to oust him from his position at the Grameen Bank, which he founded. There is reason to believe the motive is political. Yunus launched his own party in 2007, and though he subsequently withdrew from politics, he has been viewed as a threat and potential rival to the establishment. By the time I return to London, Yunus will have been sacked as MD at Grameen. The photographs flooding the airwaves and the internet will show him looking perplexed and deeply wounded. What sort of country vilifies its most devoted and faithful ally?

 

Now, on the 40th anniversary of its birth, if anyone asks me which of these countries is the real Bangladesh, I would have to answer that they both are. It is the country of Jimi, who fiercely protects her small community, and the country of Mosammet Hena, who was whipped for being raped. It is the country that has gone from famine to microcredit to mobile phones, a country whose citizens travel the four corners of the world and send their money home, a country that has overturned years of dictatorship and yet cannot free itself entirely from autocracy. And yes, it is also a country where the floodwaters have yet to come, and if the land goes underwater, there will be no rice to till, no water to drink.

 

It is time to go. At the airport, I wave goodbye to my parents, promising to see them in a few months when they visit me in London. My mother cries. Two weeks or two years, she always cries. All around us, behind the steel bars that keep the visitors from the passengers, women in cheap saris and rubber sandals sob quietly into their hands. They clutch their husbands and sons, then push them away gently. There will be no summer visits, only a patchy phone call every once in a while, and, perhaps in five, 10 years, a voyage home.

 

Soon after I return to London, the World Cup kicks off in Dhaka. Bangladesh lose to India, and are then humiliated by the West Indies. The West Indies' team bus is stoned, when angry locals mistake it for the home team's bus. A week later, there is a nailbiting win for Bangladesh against England. The port city of Chittagong is closed for several hours as people dance in the streets. And so it goes, up and down. Coaster, roll on. Watching the games, I remember Debopriyo's parting words: "We're a 747 sitting on the tarmac," he said. "Engine is running. We just need a runway."

 

Tahmima Anam's second novel, 'The Good Muslim', is published by Canongate on May 19, price £16.99



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