Madam Prime Minister, where are you taking us?
Zahid Zamir
After a long wait the army-backed caretaker government held election on 29 December 2008. The Awami League and its allies (17-party Grand Alliance) won 259 (two weeks ago parliament declared vola-3 seat vacant and now awaiting reelection) seats in the 300-seat parliament. Of 259 seats, Awami League alone secured 230 seats. The unprecedented margin of this victory surprised many political observers, including Awami League (AL) leadership itself. As the Current Finance Minister and AL's presidium member Abul Mal Abdul Muhit quoted to have told BBC: "We were certainly expecting victory, but perhaps not as big as this. This is clearly a major Challenge for us; we have to deliver."
Surely, winning is one thing but delivery is different. Having won a landslide victory, the Awami League led grand alliance now faces high expectations from voters. A year has passed since this new administration came to power. We know that during the campaign, the Awami League and its allies made a series of populist appeals, pledging to reduce poverty and unemployment, lower prices for commodities specially those are essentials and uplift the lots of the rural poor and above all establishing the rule of law. Recognizing the high proportion of young voters, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina promised to build a "digital Bangladesh" and to improve training, education and job opportunities.
All these promises came in the name of "A Charter for Change".
Can the prime Minister claim that she has brought changes? What people want from any government is the Security of their life and property above everything else. That was the leading reason that people voted AL led grand alliance and brought them to the power with such a majority. People won't accept a regime that fails to provide the security they want, no matter how rosy and fancy promises government makes. How funny and ridiculous it sound When Bangladesh get praised for her active role in the UN peace keeping mission, securing the law and order in other countries under the auspices of UN but fails to provide security to its own people in her own land. What is more ridiculous is when we hear from our home minister that? Since the inception of your Government, Law and order situation in Bangladesh has been deteriorating.
Recent statistics shows that on average thirteen people are getting murdered daily all over the country and of course many more go unnoticed. So we can take no comfort about the law and order situation of Bangladesh. The remarks made by home minister as the daily star editorial on February 11 writes " not only belies the reality on the ground ,they also send wrong signal to the public and business community in particular, who take their decision on investment or its further expansion depending on the trend in law and order. The home minister's recent claim that law and order situation is better than before seems not be borne out by the latest facts and figures on the ground." According to the data published by Odhikar, the year of 2009 saw the death of 251 persons and injury of 15,559 persons through political violence.
In the past 13 months since the Awami League-led government assumed office, the Chhatra League has consistently hogged the headlines, needless to say, for the wrong reasons. Its leaders and activists have run amok in different universities and colleges across the country. In the first couple of months or so, they went after their political opponents in a bid to establish territorial control over the campuses. Later, once their dominance over their political rivals was complete, they turned against each other. The violence perpetrated by BCL elements is, again, needless to say, mostly related to tussle for control over rent-seeking, tender manipulation, 'admission business', etc. Madmam Prime Minister we have seen you, on many occasions in the past warned of disciplinary and legal actions if any BCL leaders and activists were found to be involved in violence or violation of law and order. But unfortunately such warnings, like most campaign promises, have hardly translated into decisive and demonstrative actions.
Worse s till, the government, of late, seems to have softened even its public posture against violence and vandalism on campus by unruly BCL elements. In the wake of the recent intra-BCL clash at Dhaka University, the home minister sought to play it down as a 'stray incident'. The sustained inaction of the government and the ruling party, and the apparent change in their public posture tend to indicate that government is either unable or unwilling to rein in the unruly elements in the Chhatra League. Since the AL-led grand alliance won the December 29, 2008 parliamentary election with a historic landslide victory, it has been reported on many occasions in different dailies in Bangladesh how BCL activists got themselves busy with having violent intra and inter organizational clashes; killing, beating, maiming and chasing out of dorms campuses its rival leaders and activists over establishing hegemony on educational institutions. The recent remark by the Secretary General of Awami League and the LGRD minister Syed Ashraful Islam that shibir men have infiltrated into BCL is to cover up the crimes committed by the BCL. Once does not have to be a rocket scientist to understand that by revealing this fact government is trying to divert public wrath caused by BCL through their continuous unruly activities throughout Bangladesh.
Every time there is a violence, killings, skirmishes in a college/university campus, we see reports and news in every electronic and print media. Very often we also see a high powered inquiry committee is formed to bring the perpetrator(s) in justice. After sometime every one stops talking about that and the report submitted by the committee gets evaporated. Yellow journalism is not new in Bangladesh. Many reporters of both the electronic and print media write or make report in their own way to cover up the real story in the Goebbels's style. Goebbles was Hitler's Minister of Propaganda and one of the most important and influential people in Nazi Germany once said "If you tell a lie, tell a big one."
Any conscientious person who has been observing the recent political development and law and order situation in Bangladesh will acknowledge this fact that how some media through their concocted and fabricated reports divert the attention and pave the way for the real perpetrator to escape. People of Bangladesh wants all the killers and their god fathers specially those who are involved in the violent death of Abu Bakr, Faruque, Shahin, Mohiuddin and others to be brought to justice. Violence will never stop if government punishes those who are involved in the violent death of anyone who belongs to BCL. Death of every student is a great loss for the entire nation. Parents do not send their children to College or University just to be killed or injured by the opponent forces be it inter party clash or intra party clash. Education institution is to be treated as a sacred place where students come to build up themselves so that they can help the nation move forward.
To stop violence, commotion and infighting once and for all, this is the time for the government to ferret it out the root cause of that and it has to be done in way that does not raise any question in the mind of the people. We have to treat each and every murder victim equally; all steps must be taken in this regard. Just because one student from government backed student wing died and student who have different viewpoints and believe in different philosophies must be put to jail indiscriminately, this mentality will lead the country into chaos and anarchy. If we look at only the University of Dhaka, then the statistics tells that since independence 74 students have been murdered and the real culprits were never brought to justice.
Every time there is a clash between government backed student organizations with its arch rival, it is always the opposition that gets harassed and tortured as a result.
The present combing operations in the name of uprooting or obliterating one opposition party and its student wings will destroy the democratic process in a country. We have seen in Bangladesh those who use state machineries to stop opposition movement or to oppress opposition political parties in the past has not been successful at all. Now is the time for a complete paradigm shift in our political landscape. Now is the time for the political parties to analyze and assess the costs and benefits of having student wings. If costs outweigh benefits then it is the time to ban political parties having student wings. Although According to Bangladesh Election Commission, political parties must not have any student wings, it has not been materializes as yet. If the Political parties in Bangladesh do not show any regard or interest in disbanding student wings, then the violence will never stop on college/university campuses.
Major political parties in Bangladesh use their student wings as weapon to fight and meet their demands. Violence takes place not only because of student politics but mainly because of teacher's politics. Political parties not only patronize student politics but teacher politics as well. Teachers at out public universities do not have time and resources for research because they are busy with teachers' politics all the time. One does not have to be a rocket scientist to understand the reason why the quality of education in our public universities and colleges is on the ebb and. It is so upsetting that those who should set a model for their students to follow in every aspect in life, bring that political vendetta in the faculty lounge also. Unless we stop teacher politics on campuses and appointing administrators in all the public universities based on political affiliation rather than merit, there is no way we can contain student violence on college/university campuses.
Political bickering and vendetta is nothing new in Bangladesh. But it has reached a new height in the recent time. No government in the past took any initiative to stop this political madness and introduce and instill a culture of civic discourse among all political parties. Whether the criminals belong to BCL, Chattra Dal, Shibbir or any other parties, they must be brought to justice. Justice should fall on the high and the low, the noble and the poor, the ruler and the ruled. To materialize the dream of Digital Bangladesh, we need knowledge workers and educational institution is the place where Knowledge worker can be produced. Unless government provides conducive environment for our students in all the educational institutions that are free from violence, commotion, and infighting to prepare themselves to face all the challenges of the world, Digital Bangladesh will remain a dream in true sense. Let me end this with a quote from the 42nd president of the United States of America William Jefferson Clinton (popularly known as Bill Clinton) who once said " There is nothing wrong with America that can not be cured by what is right with America" by echoing his words… I would like to say " There is nothing wrong with Bangladesh that can not be cured by what is right with Bangladesh".
----------------------------
•Zahid Zamir teaches in the School of Business and Information Systems at York College of the City University of New York. He can be reached at E Mail : zzamir@york.cuny.edu
http://newsfrombangladesh.net/view.php?hidRecord=305945
Surely, winning is one thing but delivery is different. Having won a landslide victory, the Awami League led grand alliance now faces high expectations from voters. A year has passed since this new administration came to power. We know that during the campaign, the Awami League and its allies made a series of populist appeals, pledging to reduce poverty and unemployment, lower prices for commodities specially those are essentials and uplift the lots of the rural poor and above all establishing the rule of law. Recognizing the high proportion of young voters, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina promised to build a "digital Bangladesh" and to improve training, education and job opportunities.
All these promises came in the name of "A Charter for Change".
Can the prime Minister claim that she has brought changes? What people want from any government is the Security of their life and property above everything else. That was the leading reason that people voted AL led grand alliance and brought them to the power with such a majority. People won't accept a regime that fails to provide the security they want, no matter how rosy and fancy promises government makes. How funny and ridiculous it sound When Bangladesh get praised for her active role in the UN peace keeping mission, securing the law and order in other countries under the auspices of UN but fails to provide security to its own people in her own land. What is more ridiculous is when we hear from our home minister that? Since the inception of your Government, Law and order situation in Bangladesh has been deteriorating.
Recent statistics shows that on average thirteen people are getting murdered daily all over the country and of course many more go unnoticed. So we can take no comfort about the law and order situation of Bangladesh. The remarks made by home minister as the daily star editorial on February 11 writes " not only belies the reality on the ground ,they also send wrong signal to the public and business community in particular, who take their decision on investment or its further expansion depending on the trend in law and order. The home minister's recent claim that law and order situation is better than before seems not be borne out by the latest facts and figures on the ground." According to the data published by Odhikar, the year of 2009 saw the death of 251 persons and injury of 15,559 persons through political violence.
In the past 13 months since the Awami League-led government assumed office, the Chhatra League has consistently hogged the headlines, needless to say, for the wrong reasons. Its leaders and activists have run amok in different universities and colleges across the country. In the first couple of months or so, they went after their political opponents in a bid to establish territorial control over the campuses. Later, once their dominance over their political rivals was complete, they turned against each other. The violence perpetrated by BCL elements is, again, needless to say, mostly related to tussle for control over rent-seeking, tender manipulation, 'admission business', etc. Madmam Prime Minister we have seen you, on many occasions in the past warned of disciplinary and legal actions if any BCL leaders and activists were found to be involved in violence or violation of law and order. But unfortunately such warnings, like most campaign promises, have hardly translated into decisive and demonstrative actions.
Worse s till, the government, of late, seems to have softened even its public posture against violence and vandalism on campus by unruly BCL elements. In the wake of the recent intra-BCL clash at Dhaka University, the home minister sought to play it down as a 'stray incident'. The sustained inaction of the government and the ruling party, and the apparent change in their public posture tend to indicate that government is either unable or unwilling to rein in the unruly elements in the Chhatra League. Since the AL-led grand alliance won the December 29, 2008 parliamentary election with a historic landslide victory, it has been reported on many occasions in different dailies in Bangladesh how BCL activists got themselves busy with having violent intra and inter organizational clashes; killing, beating, maiming and chasing out of dorms campuses its rival leaders and activists over establishing hegemony on educational institutions. The recent remark by the Secretary General of Awami League and the LGRD minister Syed Ashraful Islam that shibir men have infiltrated into BCL is to cover up the crimes committed by the BCL. Once does not have to be a rocket scientist to understand that by revealing this fact government is trying to divert public wrath caused by BCL through their continuous unruly activities throughout Bangladesh.
Every time there is a violence, killings, skirmishes in a college/university campus, we see reports and news in every electronic and print media. Very often we also see a high powered inquiry committee is formed to bring the perpetrator(s) in justice. After sometime every one stops talking about that and the report submitted by the committee gets evaporated. Yellow journalism is not new in Bangladesh. Many reporters of both the electronic and print media write or make report in their own way to cover up the real story in the Goebbels's style. Goebbles was Hitler's Minister of Propaganda and one of the most important and influential people in Nazi Germany once said "If you tell a lie, tell a big one."
Any conscientious person who has been observing the recent political development and law and order situation in Bangladesh will acknowledge this fact that how some media through their concocted and fabricated reports divert the attention and pave the way for the real perpetrator to escape. People of Bangladesh wants all the killers and their god fathers specially those who are involved in the violent death of Abu Bakr, Faruque, Shahin, Mohiuddin and others to be brought to justice. Violence will never stop if government punishes those who are involved in the violent death of anyone who belongs to BCL. Death of every student is a great loss for the entire nation. Parents do not send their children to College or University just to be killed or injured by the opponent forces be it inter party clash or intra party clash. Education institution is to be treated as a sacred place where students come to build up themselves so that they can help the nation move forward.
To stop violence, commotion and infighting once and for all, this is the time for the government to ferret it out the root cause of that and it has to be done in way that does not raise any question in the mind of the people. We have to treat each and every murder victim equally; all steps must be taken in this regard. Just because one student from government backed student wing died and student who have different viewpoints and believe in different philosophies must be put to jail indiscriminately, this mentality will lead the country into chaos and anarchy. If we look at only the University of Dhaka, then the statistics tells that since independence 74 students have been murdered and the real culprits were never brought to justice.
Every time there is a clash between government backed student organizations with its arch rival, it is always the opposition that gets harassed and tortured as a result.
The present combing operations in the name of uprooting or obliterating one opposition party and its student wings will destroy the democratic process in a country. We have seen in Bangladesh those who use state machineries to stop opposition movement or to oppress opposition political parties in the past has not been successful at all. Now is the time for a complete paradigm shift in our political landscape. Now is the time for the political parties to analyze and assess the costs and benefits of having student wings. If costs outweigh benefits then it is the time to ban political parties having student wings. Although According to Bangladesh Election Commission, political parties must not have any student wings, it has not been materializes as yet. If the Political parties in Bangladesh do not show any regard or interest in disbanding student wings, then the violence will never stop on college/university campuses.
Major political parties in Bangladesh use their student wings as weapon to fight and meet their demands. Violence takes place not only because of student politics but mainly because of teacher's politics. Political parties not only patronize student politics but teacher politics as well. Teachers at out public universities do not have time and resources for research because they are busy with teachers' politics all the time. One does not have to be a rocket scientist to understand the reason why the quality of education in our public universities and colleges is on the ebb and. It is so upsetting that those who should set a model for their students to follow in every aspect in life, bring that political vendetta in the faculty lounge also. Unless we stop teacher politics on campuses and appointing administrators in all the public universities based on political affiliation rather than merit, there is no way we can contain student violence on college/university campuses.
Political bickering and vendetta is nothing new in Bangladesh. But it has reached a new height in the recent time. No government in the past took any initiative to stop this political madness and introduce and instill a culture of civic discourse among all political parties. Whether the criminals belong to BCL, Chattra Dal, Shibbir or any other parties, they must be brought to justice. Justice should fall on the high and the low, the noble and the poor, the ruler and the ruled. To materialize the dream of Digital Bangladesh, we need knowledge workers and educational institution is the place where Knowledge worker can be produced. Unless government provides conducive environment for our students in all the educational institutions that are free from violence, commotion, and infighting to prepare themselves to face all the challenges of the world, Digital Bangladesh will remain a dream in true sense. Let me end this with a quote from the 42nd president of the United States of America William Jefferson Clinton (popularly known as Bill Clinton) who once said " There is nothing wrong with America that can not be cured by what is right with America" by echoing his words… I would like to say " There is nothing wrong with Bangladesh that can not be cured by what is right with Bangladesh".
----------------------------
•Zahid Zamir teaches in the School of Business and Information Systems at York College of the City University of New York. He can be reached at E Mail : zzamir@york.cuny.edu
http://newsfrombangladesh.net/view.php?hidRecord=305945
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