Showing us that all sorts of dynasties can coexist and flourish side-by-side in Bangladesh, Zafar Sobhan has very capably taken over the defense of Dr. Yunus (here and here) from his illustrious father. Mr. Sobhan's main point is that this witch-hunt against Dr. Yunus hurts Sheikh Hasina's international standing abroad, and detracts from what should be the Awami League's real mission: the destruction of Tarique Rahman.
I absolutely defer to Mr. Sobhan on the ups and downs of our prime minister's international standing. However, I am still left with some disquieting thoughts. Dr. Yunus is arguably the most accomplished Bangladeshi alive. He is certainly the most well-connected Bangladeshi alive. If all Mr. Sobhan is left with is appealing to international sentiments, one has to ask, is there no domestic constituency left in Bangladesh that can dissuade or counsel Hasina from this disastrous policy? The fifty-plus cabinet, the half a dozen advisers, too many MPs to count, the much-vaunted sushil brigade, and no one to tell or show Hasina that you can't sink Dr. Yunus?
Instead, Mr. Sobhan is left appealing to the prime minister's international standing. It's not a completely futile threat. Joseph Stalin once asked, "How many divisions has the Pope?" Sheikh Hasina isn't likely to be quite as flippant; she knows better than any of us the path that took her to Gono Bhaban in 2007 – 2008. However, it'd have been nice to be able to solve this one mess by ourselves.
Speaking of 2007 – 2008, we have fond memories of the glory days when the unbeatable troika of Messrs. Sobhan, Wahid, and Ahsan used to regale us with grand tales and lofty ambitions from the rarified perch of Daily Star's op-ed page. However, as they say, all good things come to an end. Mr. Sobhan is no longer at Daily Star, and Mr. Wahid now graces Shah Alam's Daily Sun. Syed Badrul Ahsan alone is left to educate and inspire us. But he has switched into over-drive recently; there are only so many rags that pro-AL tycoons will be able to publish in the next three years, and the plum editorial jobs aren't going to land themselves. Thus, we got this gem:
Khaleda Zia's vow of nullifying every act of the Awami League is a patent threat to all of us. If the threat comes to pass, the sunlight will go fleeing from our lives, the moon will lose its luster, poetry will die, politics will be no more, rivers will not run and good men and women will be fugitives in the wild woods.
Everything will pall. Everything will pale. Everything will fall.
If Mr. Sobhan is sending a message from the Awami League base to its leadership, Mr. Ahsan's message is from the Awami League leadership to the people, and especially those who make up the readership of the Star: Yes, we are proving to be quite bad, and we have also started losing elections, but stick with us, otherwise, dum dum dum…
Yes, those currently in power have started thinking about the next elections. Which is good, because our opposition seems to find it difficult to focus on a time-window past the next two weeks. They should take a leaf from Sajeeb Ahmed Wazed Joy, the eminent computer scientist "with graduation from Texas University at Arlington, USA" who, like many before him, has discovered the convenient advantages of one-party rule, as long as it's his party doing the ruling. Another message from AL, and perhaps the most significant one yet.
http://rumiahmed.wordpress.com/2011/01/09/messages-from-the-faithful-to-the-faithful/
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