Commentary
Awami League's moral defeat: Government holds Dhaka city hostage
Mahfuz Anam
http://amardeshonline.com/pages/details/2012/03/13/135903
When does a government strangulate its capital city by preventing almost all modes of transport from reaching it? When does a government bring to a virtual halt almost all internal city movements? When does a government create such a panicky situation that traders do not open shops out of fear of vandalism? When does a government prevent its own citizens from carrying out their day to day activities? When do government leaders tell blatant lies on television while the truth is clearly the opposite? When does a ruling party let loose its goons upon normal citizens on suspicion that they might attend the opposition rally? When does an elected government adopt the most oppressive measure to prevent the opposition from holding a public rally?
http://www.thedailysangbad.com/?view=details&type=gold&data=News&pub_no=1007&menu_id=13&news_type_id=1&val=95083
Only when it is unsure of itself. A party confident of its popular base, sure of its public support, certain of the efficacy of its policies and surefooted about its public record would never have done what the ruling Awami League did yesterday to prevent the BNP from holding its public rally. What the ruling party did over the last two days to prevent mass participation in the opposition rally reveals a political party frightened of the strength of the opposition and loath to allow it to show it. In its massive show of strength the Awami League looked its weakest.
http://www.samakal.com.bd/details.php?news=13&action=main&option=single&news_id=243754&pub_no=990
A party that only three and half years ago came to power with a massive four fifths majority in parliament should today be so frightened of a discredited (in the last election) opposition that it uses all, save the military, coercive machinery of the state to prevent its mass rally. What is it, if not a moral defeat?
http://jugantor.us/enews/issue/2012/03/13/news0706.htm
The tragedy for the AL is that in attempting to suppress the opposition it has suppressed the citizens. Ordinary people were subjected to indescribable sufferings just to prevent the BNP from holding its rally. People who had nothing to do with the opposition's programme were searched, harassed, verbally abused and prevented from coming to Dhaka for their personal work on suspicion that they might join the rally. We have reports of job seekers scheduled to reach the Middle East not allowed to travel to Dhaka even after showing their tickets and passports. We have eyewitnesses to the fact that most launches were stopped at the point of origin and the few arriving at Sadarghat were prevented from reaching the shore and forced to go to far away jetties to let their passengers disembark, who then were stranded without any means of reaching their destinations. And we are not even talking of people arrested on suspicion and held in jails all over the country.
http://amardeshonline.com/pages/details/2012/03/13/135899
We published photographs of stick wielding ruling party goons attacking passengers of buses and launches in order to prevent them from reaching Dhaka. What mindset, what myopia, what perverted logic, what disregard for ordinary people could have allowed a government party to permit its activists to attack ordinary passengers whose only "crime" was to want to come to Dhaka. Seldom can we find examples of such disrespect for the fundamental rights of the people. Is this the ruling party's example of democracy?
http://www.dailykalerkantho.com/?view=details&type=gold&data=Soccer&pub_no=820&cat_id=1&menu_id=13&news_type_id=1&index=5
We also condemn the fact that the mass media, especially the electronic media, were prevented from fully carrying out their professional duties during yesterday's opposition programme. Several TV stations were barred from airing uninterrupted live coverage of the rally. A few channels that were covering stories of public sufferings during the course of the day were visited by intelligence people and told to tone down their coverage. In other cases the cable operators were partially prevailed upon to take some channels off the air during the peak hours of the opposition's rally. Such blatant interference in the media's function amounts to suppression of the freedom of the media and public's inalienable right to know.
http://sonarbangladesh.com/blog/post/98962
The oppressive measures the ruling party resorted to in order to prevent the BNP rally has shocked us all. The use of police, the intelligence agencies, and late last night, the BGB stunned the ordinary citizens are to why such a massive show of states repressive machinery was necessary. The government's apology of an explanation that it was only trying to prevent the opposition from creating chaos was neither credible nor acceptable in the absence of any proof. The more the government leaders repeated this narrative the more they sounded hollow and more their real intention became clear.
The question today is not what BNP did or how big was its rally, but what the ruling Awami League did. It showed a most ugly repressive face. It demonstrated that it would not hesitate to take any measure, however harsh, use any coercive instrument of state, impose any amount of sufferings on ordinary people, tell their fibs regardless of what the truth is, impose needless restrictions on public movement to prevent the opposition from carrying out protest activities permitted in a democracy. It may not realize that by its actions of the last two days the AL's image as a party that believes in democracy stands seriously damaged and its claim that it wants the opposition to play its legitimate role stands questioned.
We are sorry that Khaleda Zia has called a hartal on the 29th of this month, which we are opposed to in principle. But the issue of some sort of neutral body presiding over the election period and allowing the Election Commission to function freely is a legitimate question that AL cannot wish away. Here the opposition is right and the ruling party is wrong. The latter will have to concede on this point if it wants an election participated by all parties. Terming all BNP's actions as attempts to subvert the war crimes trial is a misconceived strategy and may have the opposite effect than intended. It is true that the BNP's position on the war crimes trial is condemnable (we will write separately on it) but its demand for an interim government for free and fair elections is justified.
We want to say in clear terms that the AL's policy towards the opposition, as exhibited in the last two days, is fundamentally undemocratic, legally untenable and practically unsustainable. What if the opposition calls for a similar programme a few months later? Will the government strangulate the country again for days? Will the public accept such sufferings again and again? As a country that proudly tells the world of its democracy such behaviour from its ruling party is totally unacceptable. The quicker the AL learns it, the better it is for its prospects in the next polls.
http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=226110
Further:
http://www.jjdin.com/?view=details&type=single&pub_no=66&cat_id=1&menu_id=13&news_type_id=1&index=5
http://www.samakal.com.bd/details.php?news=13&action=main&option=single&news_id=243754&pub_no=990
http://www.thedailysangbad.com/?view=details&type=gold&data=News&pub_no=1007&menu_id=13&news_type_id=1&val=95083
http://www.dailykalerkantho.com/?view=details&type=gold&data=Soccer&pub_no=820&cat_id=1&menu_id=13&news_type_id=1&index=5
http://sonarbangladesh.com/blog/post/98962
[ALOCHONA] Don't even ignore them!
Don't even ignore them!
Ameer Hamza
Islam-bashing material of such bad taste has been circulating on the internet that one wonders whether the same quarters that have been bent on baiting impressionable young people ---- those born into the faith ---- into reacting with blind anger, are behind this dastardly mal-propaganda. If hard-boiled atheists are out to convert others need they adopt such perverse means? The contents on the net suggest the attackers need to have their heads examined.
Those who don't know better, do indeed go livid with rage, as is evident after every such offending act. Consider the latest, so-called 'accidental' Quran- burning by American soldiers in Afghanistan. Some have commented that the Quran-burning was 'tailor-made,' to trigger violence. It was inevitable, given the raw emotions of believers in general. This scribe would like to tell the offended followers of Islam to exercise the utmost patience vis-vis the miscreants propagating such vile hatred. For these perpetrators are indeed despicable and even noticing them would be equal to honouring such scum. So, as one 'murrubbi' keeps advising, 'Don't even ignore them!' If only the majority of the adherents of Islam were so 'cool'.
It would be quite pertinent to ask, however --- as one cool Muslim does on the net --- 'What conceivable civilised aim can be achieved by denigrating a Prophet of 1.6 billion Muslims?' This scribe for one believes it is likely to be more than just sick fun on the part of those obsessed with the present world's fastest growing religion. Mind you, the western media keeps using the word 'fundamentalist' to describe the fanatic fringe within Islam, although originally it should apply to someone who is an adherent of the basic principles of any given faith. But what does one find in the media? Stereotypical images of intolerant, ignorant and self-righteous bigots, rather than no-nonsense believers in the religion preached by Islam's modest Messenger!
Dispassionate scholars of world religions cannot but find Islam to be one of the most reasonable monotheistic faiths of man. But that does not prevent mal-propagandists from relentlessly portraying it as irrational, misogynistic and regressive, misreading the texts totally out of context. Some groups professing to be Islamic, have unfortunately been promoting such distortions much more than the actual creed. Consider the average 'waaz mehfil' in dear Bangladesh --- the preacher's pathological obsession with the prurient, specifically women's bodies!
High time all these were put right and every prejudicial media onslaught countered sensibly, with the help of informed scholars and seekers of truth. There is hardly any scope for obscurantism if the holy Book is properly comprehended, nor is there much gap between the values that Islam and secular humanism hold dear.
Our secular intellectuals, most of whom feel awkward about professing Islam, need also to delve deep into the nature and purpose of all human religions, in order to recognise, understand and appreciate the diversity and power of true faith. They ought to be fair in their approach to the 'overly religious.'
At the same time it would be wise to watch out for saboteurs in our midst. Consider how much that is anti-Islamic --- such as the Taliban's banning of girls from schools and women from working --- is projected as 'Islamic fundamentalism' despite the fact that the Prophet had declared specifically: 'The acquisition of knowledge is a duty incumbent on every Muslim, male or female.'
Self-respecting intellectuals and genuine Islamic scholars have a duty to resist distortions and fight falsehood with the correct information and interpretation of the Quran and the Hadith. Ignorance and intolerance are both anti-Islamic and must not be allowed to hold sway. It needs no saying that religion can be easily abused just like any other human activity. And traditions too can become ossified enough to prevent spiritual growth, if followed mindlessly.
Some say that the most notorious secret services today are collaborating to make cannon fodder out of the over-fertile Muslims! They are allegedly planting saboteurs of all kinds within bona fide Islamic groups, or even creating factions for 'false flag operations'. Virtually every Muslim-dominated region in today's world seems to be infested with such agents. Everyone knows that chimeras like the Taliban were sponsored by vested powers initially to be used against communism, which was believed to be anti-God. Today assorted fanatic groups have come up, to be used in all kinds of low- and-high-intensity conflicts, psychological operations, as and when required, to safeguard the interests of those vested groups who cunningly created them. So, true followers of Islam better act to educate their brethren properly. For it is the ignorant herd that is open to the risk of being baited, and used and abused.
http://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/more.php?news_id=122111&date=2012-03-03
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