I believe that Sharmila Bose has questioned the narrative of people like you and Farida Majid and that can only be a good thing. As such I am morally obliged to take her side against blind party loyalists like you even though she could have done a much better job and has made mistakes in her approach. I was not around in 1971 - so I'm confident I'm not a rajakar.
Lets dance.
I shall probably visit NY this summer. I invite you to reserve any venue in Astoria, Woodside, Jamaica etc. Book it for a 100 people including dinner. I will pick up the bill. We will have a frank debate - just you and me. I will come alone but if I can get a local youth organisation to attend I will do so. Please bring your fellow AL doctors, professors, advisors and committee members. I have the following non negotiable conditions:
1. At least 20 young people over the age of 18 must attend. At least 10 must be children of AL committee members. You must introduce me to each one before the discussion.
2. We each speak for 2 sessions of 30 minutes each - ie 2 hours in total.
3. If I am interrupted by your members you pay me $1,000. And vice versa.
4. Two subjects: 1) the 3 million dead of 1971 and 2) the difference between your politics and my politics.
5. You can choose any elder to be the conductor as long as he has a beard.
I will take any number of questions. There is no winner, just a free discussion. You are welcome to bring local Deshi tv. I will also try. The transcript of the discussion will be edited by a dignitary agreed by both of us in advance of the discussion. The edited transcript will be available for reproduction without permission from you or me.
Lets see if you know my real face or if I know your real face.
I am waiting for your reply.
Ezajur Rahman
Kuwait
--- In alochona@yahoogroups.com, "Dr. M. Mohsin Ali" <drmohsinali@...> wrote:
>
> SO, MR. EZAJUR, YOU BELIEVE THE STORY OF MS. SHARMILA BOSE WHICH IS THE STORY OF THE PAKISTANI MILITARY ABOUT OUR GREAT LIBERATION WAR. YOU ARE SIGNING WITH THE PAKISTANIS AND THE RAZAKARS. THAT'S WHY YOU NEVER LIKED SHEIKH MUJIB AS HE BROKE YOUR BELAOVED PAKISTAN. THAT IS YOUR REAL FACE.
>
> --- On Sat, 5/14/11, ezajur Ezajur@... wrote:
>
>
> From: ezajur Ezajur@...
> Subject: [ALOCHONA] Re: A response to Myth-busting of Bangladesh war of 1971 by Sarmila Bose in english.aljazeera.net
> To: alochona@yahoogroups.com
> Date: Saturday, May 14, 2011, 10:25 AM
>
>
> Â
>
>
>
> Sarmila Bose has made a stand against the myth of 1971 and the dominant post war narrative and those who have profited from it.
>
> The myth of 1971 is that 3 million people Bengalis were exterminated. As proven by the lack of any meaningful effort to measure the number of deaths by successive governments of Bangladesh.
>
> The dominant narrative of 1971 has been that the myth of 1971 is real and that those who shout about it are those who are fit to govern best. As proven by the behaviour of every successive government.
>
> Those who have profited are those who have publicly promoted the myth and privately benefitted with power and money. As proven by the behaviour of every successive government.
>
> What Farida cannot abide is that anyone can question anything about 1971 because it is the myth of 1971 that, in her mind, empowers her and her politics, to focus on what they want, ignore what they want and rule as they see fit. Screw them.
>
> The creation of the myth of 1971 was the first step in the ruination of our country. We have been on our knees ever since. Bridges and export earnings cannot measure our people. Our people deserve better. And as AL and BNP and Jammat relish the orgy of their gross self indulgence they ignore the future at the nation's peril.
>
> If BNP of JI thugs commit rape, murder and extortion, as they do, the Farida Majids of our country will protest. If AL thugs commit rape, murder and extortion, as they do, the Farida Majids of our country keep quiet. There are Farida Majids in BNP and JI.
>
> Screw all these bloody hypocrites. They believe they are true to their dead leader, their dead father and their dead values.
>
> They, and the rest of us, will soon enough return to the soil of our country, in which lies buried the truth and best spirit of our people and our beautiful country.
>
> Just look at the condition of our country! You know why there is no class war in Bangladesh? You know know why our guitarists can't bend their knees?
>
> May our soil accept our flesh and bones as payment for the truth and may that truth embrace the next generation.
>
> To all hypocrites - ££££ you!
>
> Ezajur Rahman
>
> Its so loud, inside in my head
> With words that I should have said.
> As I drown in my regrets
> I can't take back
> the words I never said.
> Lupe Fiasco
>
>
> --- In alochona@yahoogroups.com, Farida Majid farida_majid@ wrote:
> >
> >
> >
> > http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/05/20115983958114219.html
> >
> >
> > Bangladesh war of 1971 Myth-busting Piece by Sarmila Bose in Al Jazeera.net :
> > Farida Majid
> >
> > Here we have Sarmila Bose whining on and on against the `dominant narrative' and pushing her insubstantial book, Dead Reckoning: Memories of the 1971 Bangladesh War, as a scholarly work that is meant to bust the myth of Bangladesh war of independence in 1971. Her book's spin is strung around a few instances of atrocities committed by Mukti fighters upon non-Bengali collaborators of Pakistan at the time. No one denies those cruel acts of retaliation. All wars are cruel and ugly. But by themselves those acts, or her other fieldwork denying widespread rape and murder (questioning the occurrence of any rape by Pakistani soldiers since she could not get figures of exact date, time and place of each sexual assault), have not been able to disprove any of the well-known incidences of crimes against humanity committed by an uniformed, fully equipped with modern arms and ammunition, professionally trained Pakistani army and its Bengali collaborators in 1971. I
> doubt whether any of the `uncomfortable truth' she has unearthed could be presented at a War Crimes Tribunal as legal defense against the charges brought by the Prosecution at such a Tribunal.
> >
> > The harder Sarmila Bose whines about the `dominant narrative' the fuzzier gets her rationale for wanting to debunk it. Her citing of the example of Lara Logan, the CBS correspondent haplessly caught in the melee of Tahrir Square in Cairo in the spring uprising of 2011, shows to what pathetic extent Bose lacks sympathy and imagination in assessing the overall reality of people's struggle for freedom from oppression. Such struggles in the annals of history are messy, never picture-book perfect. Sarmila though is unforgiving, and is too mean-spirited to tolerate "freedom and democracy-loving people rising up against oppressive dictators." She has to take up the arms of a `scholarly study' to bust the myth!
> >
> > What is the 'myth' that she is so anxious to bust?
> >
> > Is genocide in Bangladesh, 1971, a myth?
> >
> > If it is a myth then are we to understand, after Ms Bose's so-called `research' and report, that genocide did not take place at all in 1971 in the then East Pakistan? The "dominant narrative" is all about partisan exaggeration and no one in the international community but her could detect the "uncomfortable truth" in all these 40 years.
> >
> > Who does she mean by those "who have profited for so long from mythologising the history of 1971"?
> > Does she mean the people of Bangladesh, the world's eighth most populous nation? Does `profit' mean gaining the sovereignty and independence as a nation?
> >
> > If so, then all nations who have had to fight for independence from a colonized condition ought to be labeled as having "profited from mythologizing history." And that would include United States of America.
> > Go tell an American that the chronicles of wars and battles fought in the American War of Independence during 1775-1783 are all mythologised history, and hence a `dominant narrative', a myth that is in dire need of busting!
> >
> > Let us remind ourselves of the announcement of Gen. Yahya Khan at a radio interview at the launching of the Operation Searchlight in March, 1971 in East Pakistan: "We will kill three million of them, and they will eat out of our hands!" The number â€"3 million â€" is immaterial, though admittedly there is an irresolvable argument that swirls around it. What is legally relevant here, however, is the clear expression of goal and intent to commit genocide by Pak military apparatus in East Pakistan.
> >
> > New evidences are emerging, not just from the victims of the war crimes of 1971, but from the perpetrators themselves. Eye witnesses and personal encounters from among the Pakistani military personnel are coming up with accounts of General Niazi, General Rao Farman Ali, et al, exhibiting fierce anti-Bengali racism that underscored activities against unarmed, unthreatening civilians. Such activities were regarded as reprehensive by even the soldiers who carried out the orders because they violated the rules and norms of engagement in warfare. Several books have come out over the years by various Pakistani army personnel including one by the infamous General Niazi. They are all replete with quotations and records of utter racial contempt for the Bengalis of East Pakistan on the part of top brass military officers in the Pakistani army who wanted at least a partial destruction of the whole race of Bengalis as a punitive measure for their rebellion.
> >
> > We can then proceed to take a peek at the following U. N. Convetion:
> >
> > Excerpt from the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide (For full text click here)
> >
> > "Article II: In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:
> >
> > (a) Killing members of the group;
> > (b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
> > (c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
> > (d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
> > (e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.
> >
> > Article III: The following acts shall be punishable:
> >
> > (a) Genocide;
> > (b) Conspiracy to commit genocide;
> > (c) Direct and public incitement to commit genocide;
> > (d) Attempt to commit genocide;
> > (e) Complicity in genocide. "
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Let us all work for peace as best as each of us can.
> >
> > Salutes!
> >
> > Farida Majid
> >
>
