Mahfuz Anam and the Daily Star are hugely overrated.
What purpose does journalism serve in Bangladesh anyway? Frankly, what purpose has it ever served? We like to kid ourselves that a free press will be the harbinger of so much good. Maybe....but not in Bangladesh.
The media are irrelevant. They should focus on entertainment only. That's what we need - whether to spend our black cash or to escape from our wretched lives. Both equally in the gift of our divine mistress.
Might I suggest the clowns at the Daily Star put their comedic talents to better use? Perhaps a comic with satirical cartoons.....
......or perhaps not!
Joy Bangla!
Emanur Rahman | m. +447734567561 | e. emanur@rahman.com
-----Original Message-----
From: "ezajur" <Ezajur@yahoo.com>
Date: Tue, 01 Jun 2010 10:44:45
To: <alochona@yahoogroups.com>
Subject: [ALOCHONA] Re: Their bad politics, their dismal record - Syed Badrul Ahsan
And in addition the Daily Star has taken up this weird editorial style whereby it seems to be deliberately neutralising or diluting anything which should really damage the government. Instead of outrage at crimes committed by AL cadres and demanding action against them the DS seems to intellectualise and whimper.
So you get unbelieveable flavouring best described by a sentence such as : We urge the government to ask its cadres not to kill poeple (not from the DS but you know what I mean).
The New Age seems to be more robust in its editorial line. What is unacceptable is clearly defined as such. May be the Daily Star is taking this tone because it does not want to destabilise or hurt the government - in the national interest.
But at some point it has to act in the interest of journalism.
Just look at its editorial line on the Facebook ban! Unbelievable! It portrays the ban as a misguided attempt to protect our values! What! At this rate no politcian needs to read the Daily Star because there is nothing to worry about in its pages!
Come on DAILY STAR!
Show some character please!
--- In alochona@yahoogroups.com, "Mohd. Haque" <haquetm83@...> wrote:
>
> The Editor is a brilliant narrator, I used to read most of his articles until I learnt he is head to toe a Mujib worshiper. I happened to talk to him over phone few times (I urged and encouraged him to write in international media, but in vain).If BNP's past blunders and mistakes disqualifies them from talking against Awami League who happen to be only opposition party in our kind of democratic system, who would speak up then.It is the writer's ploy to shut all dissents against Awami League. He represents our todays writers and intelligentsia who champions democracy, human rights and can not see any undemocratic practice and  crime committed by current government. Country could not breed a group of writers who would only write in favour of our people. This is our biggest tragedy.
> Considering his writing ability, what and how he exercise it, is a complete waste.Â
>
> --- On Mon, 24/5/10, ezajur <Ezajur@...> wrote:
>
> From: ezajur <Ezajur@...>
> Subject: [ALOCHONA] Re: Their bad politics, their dismal record
> To: alochona@yahoogroups.com
> Date: Monday, 24 May, 2010, 8:44 AM
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Â
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> The Editor condemns BNP but seems rather forgiving of AL. I would not reduce the worst events under this government to 'mistakes'! The breakdown of law and order, as sponsored by this government, empowers the BNP with each passing day. BNP is under no obligation to reform when the ruling party is under no obligation to reform either. Adn if the shoe was on the other foot there is nothing that AL would say differently - or do differently.
>
>
>
> --- In alochona@yahoogroups.com, Isha Khan <bdmailer@> wrote:
>
> >
>
> > Their bad politics, their dismal record
>
> >
>
> > Syed Badrul Ahsan
>
> >
>
> >
>
> >
>
> > BEGUM Khaleda Zia would like a change of government in Bangladesh. And to
>
> > make sure things happen in line with her desire, she stands ready to lead a
>
> > movement, spearheaded by her party, that will bring about the fall of the
>
> > Awami League-led grand alliance government.
>
> >
>
> > All of this sounds rather strange, for quite a few reasons. Go into that
>
> > matter of a movement first. The Bangladesh Nationalist Party is not quite
>
> > the vehicle you envision as a symbol of popular uprising. We will not waste
>
> > words on this point here, but do go into the history of the party since its
>
> > formation in the late 1970s and nowhere will you find an instance of it
>
> > leading a mass upsurge in defence of democratic rights in the country. Yes,
>
> > yes! You will be sorely tempted to point to the struggle against the Ershad
>
> > autocracy in the 1980s. Do not forget, though, that had the Awami League not
>
> > been there as the leading voice of the fifteen-party alliance, not much
>
> > would have happened.
>
> >
>
> > The difficulty with the BNP is the tradition it has come wrapped in. Its
>
> > rise in the late 1970s, per courtesy of Bangladesh's first military
>
> > dictator, was made possible through bringing together an assortment of
>
> > elements whose sole objective was to keep the Awami League at bay.
>
> >
>
> > So-called leftists happy to identify themselves as pro-Peking; old Pakistan
>
> > followers, whose collaboration with the Pakistan army in 1971 disqualified
>
> > them from enjoying the fruits of Bengali liberation; and communal elements
>
> > not quite happy about Bengali nationalism banded together to form the party,
>
> > which in truth was a platform arrayed against the fundamental principles on
>
> > which the War of Liberation was waged in 1971.
>
> >
>
> > In more ways than one, the BNP was a reminder of what the Convention Muslim
>
> > League used to be in Ayub-era Pakistan -- a happy gathering of men and women
>
> > whose future was assured by association with the army. Such a happenstance
>
> > is at variance with talk of a movement.
>
> >
>
> > The bigger problem with Begum Zia and her party is somewhere else. And that
>
> > is the corruption typified by the BNP in the years between 2001 and 2006.
>
> > Let us make no mistake: the government of the BNP-Jamaat alliance is the
>
> > worst example of a political administration in the history of this country.
>
> > You only have to recall the tales of the simple men who had nothing in 2001
>
> > but by 2006 were the owners of newspapers and television channels.
>
> >
>
> > The tales of the sons of the Begum and their associates still put us all to
>
> > collective shame. The indignities that respectable men like Muntasir Mamoon
>
> > and Saber Hossain Chowdhury were put through, the search for a scapegoat for
>
> > the August 21 explosions in the person of a naïve Joj Miah, the mass arrests
>
> > of citizens day after day, the farce of an Election Commission under Justice
>
> > Aziz, the brazen attempts to replace the Proclamation of Independence with a
>
> > fictitious account of reality into the constitution are a measure of the
>
> > sufferings we went through as citizens in the years when Begum Zia presided
>
> > over the fortunes of this country.
>
> >
>
> > And now these very people who would not let us out of the deep, dark woods
>
> > speak of their desire to topple a legally, constitutionally elected
>
> > government. You do not do that in a political condition where the nation has
>
> > chosen the men and women who will preside over the state for five years. And
>
> > you especially refrain from doing that when your own reputation is not
>
> > something to be proud of. Ah, but who listens? Begum Zia, having remained
>
> > absolutely silent for weeks and months on the matter of the war crimes
>
> > trials, now decides that speaking out on the issue is in order.
>
> >
>
> > Sheikh Hasina's government, she proclaims vociferously, is set to divide the
>
> > nation through these trials. Give your memory a little jog. Wasn't it the
>
> > military regime of the BNP's founder which sliced through Bengali national
>
> > unity in the 1970s with its ham-fisted treatment of the fundamental
>
> > principles of this people's republic? "Bangladeshi nationalism" was never an
>
> > invention of the Awami League, if you would care to remember. Secular
>
> > Bengalis did not protect the assassins of 1975 for decades on end.
>
> >
>
> > The Begum is indignant about the war crimes trials and would first like the
>
> > war criminals in the Awami League to be put in the dock. That is a bit rich
>
> > coming from one in whose party and government known collaborators of the
>
> > Pakistan occupation army have cheerily run the show. It was a shame for the
>
> > BNP to have allowed war criminals into it in the first place. It was a
>
> > scandal when it co-opted two known associates of the Pakistan occupation
>
> > army in the government it formed in October 2001.
>
> >
>
> > Begum Zia and her party have got their priorities all wrong. It is not
>
> > enough for them to hammer away at the Awami League government's putative
>
> > incompetence and corruption. They will be doing themselves and the country
>
> > much good if they go for a degree of introspection, acknowledge the blunders
>
> > they made in the years in office and inform the nation that they are ready
>
> > to reform themselves. Sheikh Hasina's government has been making mistakes,
>
> > yes. Begum Zia's party, given its dismal record in government, is not quite
>
> > qualified to pronounce judgment on it.
>
> >
>
> > Syed Badrul Ahsan is Editor, Current Affairs, The Daily Star.
>
> > Email: bahsantareq@
>
> >
>
> > http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=138019
>
> >
>
------------------------------------
[Disclaimer: ALOCHONA Management is not liable for information contained in this message. The author takes full responsibility.]
To unsubscribe/subscribe, send request to alochona-owner@egroups.comYahoo! Groups Links
------------------------------------
[Disclaimer: ALOCHONA Management is not liable for information contained in this message. The author takes full responsibility.]
To unsubscribe/subscribe, send request to alochona-owner@egroups.comYahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/alochona/
<*> Your email settings:
Individual Email | Traditional
<*> To change settings online go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/alochona/join
(Yahoo! ID required)
<*> To change settings via email:
alochona-digest@yahoogroups.com
alochona-fullfeatured@yahoogroups.com
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
alochona-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/