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EDITORIAL
Enayetullah Khan: Editor par excellence
How time flies! Two years have elapsed after the passing away of AZM Enayetullah Khan, the founder editor of HOLIDAY. By all means, he was a larger-than-life figure. In essence and spirit, in vision and philosophy he was an editor par excellence. In November 2005 he said goodbye to this Earth of the mortals forever after a protracted illness in Toronto, far away from his beloved motherland Bangladesh to which his commitment as well as dedication was absolute, pure and unalloyed. He has departed in Nature's way, but a few persons earn immortality by means of their exceptional qualities in their deeds and actions that had far reaching influence on the body politic, the elite, politicians, and policy makers at tremendously hazardous times.
A crusader journalist as he was, Enayetullah Khan, a nonconformist, an enfant terrible appeared on the print journalism scene with a bang in November 1965 with his brainchild Holiday, the first political weekly in English from the then East Pakistan which had been languishing consequent upon Pakistan government's repressive brutal rule and economic exploitation.
It required an enormous amount of unrelenting bravery to continue the onward voyage. His guts emanated from resolute determination guided by inner strength and virtues that dictated him to defend the right cause of his fellow people who were subdued by a formidably dictatorial brute force. In the face of overwhelming odds in the quasi-colonial rule of Pakistan, he with his mighty pen kept on his unceasing battle -- his imperative moral task.
Holiday commenced its journey as a vehicle of vox populi and champion of the radical left with Maulana Bhashani as the mentor-philosopher, the statesman who had estranged himself in the mid-fifties from the very party (Awami League) he had founded in 1949 with great stalwarts in the subcontinental politics as his comrades; but most of whom parted their ways, forsake the pioneer of opposition politics and the first robust and vigorous voice of conscience and dissent in Pakistan. A fearless fighter of Enayetullah Khan's stature needed an undaunted commander and mentor like Bhashani who was a living inspiration and moving spirit of all progressive streams of the day. In next to no time ensued Holiday's diatribes -- very often vitriolic -- against the redoubtable central government of Pakistan and its studied and calculated machinations and misdeeds. Thus the enemy was identified and exposed through Enayetullah's fiery editorials and commentaries.
True, he was critical of Awami League's programme, which he interpreted from Marxist and socialist perspectives, but not as much its leader Shiekh Mujib. This is evident in his article of Februrary 23, 1969 entitled Mujib's release: A triumph of the people in which he expected an alliance of Mujib's AL and Mujib's former leader Bhashani's NAP for political and economic emancipation of the people of East Pakistan.
Meanwhile, apart from political analyses, he warned the government of the dire consequences of Farakka Barrage on the economy of this country in 1969. In his article written after the editor's death, a pro-Moscow Communist Party ideologue and columnist, out of his utter ignorance, heaped scorn on Enayetullah and termed him almost communal.
As Bangladesh won freedom, the AL Government began a witch hunting of sort condemning and victimising innocent people as collaborators whose only fault was that they had not migrated to India in 1971. It was at that crucial time when Holiday headlined the famous special report to protect the powerless: "Sixty-five million collaborators?" The Editor in his column (They also fought) assertively underscored, "It was a total attack by the occupation army on the people, and not a selective onslaught on a section of people or a particular political party." But the AL regime did not spare him: Holiday editor was imprisoned.
Enayetullah Khan was a Titan among the media people here, a colossus who brought rare dignity in Bangladesh's journalism. By all means, he was a larger-than-life figure. In essence and spirit, in vision and philosophy he was an editor par excellence.
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'Black Saturday': Musharraf's second coup
Barrister Harun ur Rashid
President General Musharraf executed a second coup on 3rd November as a desperate action to cling to power. Two days earlier, his Attorney General had denied publicly declaration of emergency rule in Pakistan. It shows that the President kept his proposed action very close to his chest.
The Dawn newspaper, established by the founder of Pakistan Mr. Muhammad Ali Jinnah, stated that all the gains over the years have gone down the drain and "the people have been cheated."
Another newspaper, The News, dubbed the declaration of emergency "Black Saturday."
Emergency rule
The emergency rule is basically a martial law under its guise, otherwise how could he sack the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court?
Under the Constitution, the President had no powers to sack the Chief Justice. The Chief Justice is now under house arrest. A new Chief Justice known for his strong links with the military regime, Hameed Dogar, has been sworn in.
Since the Constitution is suspended, this rule is extra-constitutional and the Supreme Court seven judges had the guts to declare the Provisional Constitutional Order (PCO) illegal. It is reported that only 5 out of 17 judges of the High Courts signed the oath of allegiance to the PCO.
Media freedom ends
The decree banning criticism of General Musharraf spells an end to media freedom that had seen blossoming of independent television stations, blamed by the regime for many of its ills.
The decree also banned mass demonstrations of the type that greeted former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto on her return from exile last month.
Many political leaders including the eminent lawyer who argued the case challenging Musharraf's election have been arrested. Among political leaders, Imran Khan and Javed Hashmi, the head of the Nawaz Sharif's Muslim League. Imran Khan was able to slip away from house arrest. Imran Khan accused the President of committing treason.
Benazir's opportunism
Hopes for a power-sharing deal with Bhutto are now dead. Ms. Bhutto's ill-considered judgment to share power with a military president demonstrates her political opportunism and she seems to be the greatest loser in political terms under the new changed situation.
The question is: will General Musharraf survive politically?
Some of the reasons may deserve mention as follows:
First, he has been found as greedy for political power as anybody else. His first coup was tolerated by Pakistanis because of bad governance of the civilian Prime Ministers -Benazir Bhutto and Sharif -- due to their incompetence and corruption. This time he has no possible excuse for his second coup because he has been in power since October 1999.
Second, after eight years of military rule both as a President and Army Chief, his statement that "Pakistan's sovereignty is in danger unless timely action is taken" rings hollow to almost everyone.
Credibility lost
If he was unable to stabilise Pakistan during his long eight-year rule, what hope one has that he will be able to shore up Pakistan's stability when his popularity is at the bottom? His credibility has been lost among most of people in Pakistan.
Third, most people believe that his second coup is against the independence of judiciary, the Supreme Court, which would have probably declared his Presidential election illegal.
On 3rd of November, he simply pre-empted the judgment of the Supreme Court which was scheduled to deliver its verdict on 6th November.
Fourth, it is believed that far from enhancing his fight against Islamic extremists, who have regrouped in Pakistan's tribal belt, emergency rule is likely to strengthen their cause and increase the attacks.
Rudderless
Fifth, this time political parties will not be silent. Already Benazir Bhutto lambasted the emergency declaration, saying her Pakistan People's Party would work with other democratic parties to oppose it. General Musharraf, according to observers, is riding a rudderless ship in a big and unpredictable political storm.
Sixth, the big powers are very concerned about the development in the country. The US wanted Benazir Bhutto to share power with the President so that a secular democratic government could fight the extremists with the people's support. This aim has been dashed. The US Secretary of State has reportedly stated that aid to Pakistan could be reviewed and urged to restore the constitutional rule by holding general elections, scheduled in January.
Finally and seventh, the newly appointed Deputy Army Chief of Staff General Ashfaq Kiyani is known to be close to Bhutto and who is reportedly in favour a return to democracy. Rumblings of discontent in the Pakistan army were reported after General Musharraf adopted emergency powers. If the army does not support General Musharraf, he may survive politically for a short time.
Conclusion
It is a totally wrong move for General Musharraf. The action has put the US on the spot. While it advances the cause of democracy across the world, Musharraf's action kills democracy in Pakistan, the US's close ally in its fight with terrorism.
What he could have done is to contest the Presidential election under the new elected assemblies as a civilian with the support of Bhutto. Now he has closed this chapter. Time will tell how far General Musharraf succeeds in his attempt to cling to power by any means.
The writer is a former Bangladesh Ambassador to the UN, Geneva.
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VIEW POINT
World War III will be a great blunder
O. H. Kabir
Due to their vanity, jealousy and anger, lack of wisdom, sincerity and statesmanship Adolf Hitler of Germany, Henri Petain of France, Winston Churchill of UK, Joseph Stalin of USSR, Benito Russolini of Italy, Franklin Roosevelt followed by Harry Truman of USA and Tojo Hikeda of Japan went berserk. Their armed forces ran amuck with machineguns, tanks, warplanes, bombs and warships killed millions of people, made millions homeless and die of hunger, wounds and disease in Europe, Africa and Asia.
At the end of World War II Franklin Roosevelt died of cerebral haemorrhage on 12th April, 1945, Adolf Hitler committed suicide on 30th April, 1945. Harry Truman dropped two atom bombs one on Hiroshima on 6th August, 1945 and another on Nagasaki on 9th August 1945.
Benito Mussolini and Tojo Hikeda were summarily tried and executed, Henri Petain convicted of treason and sentenced to life imprisonment, Winston Churchill was defeated in the general election 1945, Joseph Stalin died in 1953, Harry Truman retired from politics in 1952 and passed away in 1972. Thus all the eight so-called villains/heroes of war left for limbo of no return.
On October 24, 1945 the people of the world took the oath: "We the people of the United Nations, determined to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind." We also vowed that we shall settle all international disputes by peaceful means in such a manner that international peace and security and justice are not endangered.
After World War II there have been lots of changes in the international arena. More or less 45 Muslim countries freed themselves from the colonial rule/control of the UK, France, Italy, Netherlands and USSR. The USA created the state of Israel illegally within the state of Palestine. She has been blindly supporting Israel and giving her vast military and economic aid. The USA in collaboration with Israel has been denying the Palestinians of their human rights, democracy, freedom and statehood since 1948. The USA and the USSR became arch rivals and enemies of each other after 1945. The USA fought Korean War (1950-1953), Vietnam War (1954-1973), Gulf war (1990), occupied Afghanistan in 2001, and invaded Iraq in 2003. The USA insists on nuclear proliferation but refuses destruction of her own vast deposits of atom bombs and WMD. US President George Bush threatens World War III if Iran goes with her nuclear energy programme to produce electricity for peaceful purpose.
The history of the world is the record of a man in quest of his daily bread and butter. Have not the world leaders of the 21st century taken any lesson in the light of World War II. How are we going to evaluate the character and conduct of the leaders of the USA, Russia, China, India, Japan, France, Pakistan Germany, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Thailand, UK and Bangladesh?
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LETTERS
What a disgrace
Dear Editor:
A few weeks back two senior most university teachers were picked up from their quarters at dead of night and then were made to parade in front of the nation on the electronic media, while seeking forgiveness from the members of the Bangladesh Army for their alleged offences.
I could not bear the sight of the humiliating, helpless and frightened face of the senior teachers. They were being harassed and treated like ordinary criminals. What is more, no prima facie case was established prior to that.
Initially I had the conviction that some among the rulers will be repentant and try to address their actions in a polite manner. But no, the satellite TV channels repeatedly transmitted the heartrending scene. I am sure some among the powerful, including those in the Judiciary must have been their students. But absolute power makes the powerful blind. The judiciary probably was helpless to grant them any relief because of the ongoing emergency rule in the country and had to approve their remand though the investigation committee yet to finalise their findings.
I appeal to their conscience: please spare the learned and aging teachers from further agony and humiliation. So be it.
An ex-student of D.U.
St. John's Wood
London
SE15 1DG
All that glitters isn't gold
Dear Editor:
For more than a decade I lived in Western countries like New Zealand and Australia. I don't identify myself as an anti-Western or pro-Eastern even after September eleven and Iraq holocaust. But I am sure the East and West can learn from each other by give-and-take policy for better understanding among civilisations.
The West has better socio-economic credibility in respect of region like Indian subcontinent for example. Having said that they have done some great mistakes also. End result of materialism is actually horrible and frustrating. We didn't believe introspection of Rabindranath Thakur after his essays came out in 1930s.
I found depression, dementia, divorce, drug, broken families, same-sex marriage etc are destroying the Western society, in comparison with ours -- in the so-called underdeveloped societies. Having said that I can't support also the male-dominated, poverty-stricken, religiously biased societies like Bangladesh or India. To be honest, we are in a dilemma about a near-Utopian society. Western sociologists, politicians and policy makers have actually failed in making a happy society.
So poor people of the subcontinent shouldn't be mesmerised by Western materialism. All that glitters is not gold. High and upper middleclass people of Bangladesh and neighbouring countries will bring chaotic black hole if they imitate and replicate Western values indiscriminately. So be careful my dear policymakers. .If happiness and serenity the is ultimate aim, then we shouldn't cut our tail also like that tail-less fox. If not directly, still Western women are more abused in their non-male dominated society. Well you want proof? Get divorce rate after two years of marriage from Beaureau of Statistics of USA .
So our media and the so-called rootless elite society should stop Hollywood-Bollywood values to be imported to Bangladesh.
In summary ,i want to ask policy makers of cybernatic societies to stop faking to be civilised nation.You may need to come to import values from indian subcontinent and middle east,my dear George Bush rather than exporting your brand of democracy and planning for looting their oil .I also ask Dalailama ,Noam Chomsky ,Deepak chopra and Farhad Mazhar of Bangladesh and other world contemporary philosophers and sociologists to tell the truth. Social terrorism could be more menacing to human civilisation than the so-called political terrorism.
Dr Azizul Karim,
General Practitoner,
Victoria, Australia
mail mounaj@optusnet.com.au
Election Commission, polls
Dear Editor:
Bangladesh is very fortunate for the first time ever to have an Election Commission as it is now with Dr A T M Shamsul Huda as the CEC and two others as the members, everyone is credible to all and sundry in the country. I am sure the people would continue not only to wish them all well for their credible neutrality and also for them to fully accomplish the difficult task they have as the prime goal in holding free, fair, neutral and credible general election in the country by the end of 2008.
The task is critically difficult for them as there are 90 million or so eligible voters who will be enrolled, correctly registered ensuring various criteria, conduct the polls peacefully etc. The real difficulty would be in reconcilement of contending parties over many issues which remained irreconcilable for over three and a half decades now since 1972.
The great difficulty and possibly the impossible task of the Election Commission would be, I am afraid, in trying anything towards such near impossible reconcilement.
There was enough of mud slinging as reported in the media in the three sessions the Es had with parties. It may be a good practice as such for the EC members to keep mum on irreconcilable contentious issues, lest the EC or any of its members is labelled as partisan in one way or the other.
M.T. Hussain,
795/2 Ibrahimpur
Dhaka-1206.
Rajuk and the new law
Dear Editor:
It is undeniable that the CG so far did an excellent job barring a few exceptions. We all expected during the ongoing emergency rule that innumerable irregularities, rules and regulations of the past political governments will be amended and make it pro-people by the CG.
Any new law/regulation ideally should be enacted considering all aspects of public convenience. But they did it without least consideration to the public life. One such law was introduction of new building rules whereby a developer has to construct a house on the 60 per cent of the available individual plot/land. No one probably thought how and what good it will bring to the life of the common people. Even the environmentalists backed the plan outright while some of them like professor A. Syeed of Awami League talked on the electronic media of building new houses as per the pattern of the Singapore city. No one considered the availability and skyhigh cost of lands in this mega city.
Initially the new law was to be effective from 1st July 2006. Those of Rajuk and others who matter in approving building plans made their fortunes in one month of June 2006 since there was a mad rush of people and developers at Rajuk with the old plans. However, with the political blessing, the authority again deferred it till 1st January 2007 only to make quick and easy money.
Is this really practical to build houses leaving 40 per cent of the land instead of 25 per cent as per the old rules? A few houses among the vast number of old pattern houses - what difference it will make to the existing environment? The remark of Prof. A. Syeed only added salt to my injury.
Since the majority people favoured the old rules shoudn't the CG review it and restore the old rules?
I request them to be pragmatic, think about the ground reality and consider the general mass as their fellow citizens of this country.
Hope the CTG will do what the majority of the people want for their own benefit and good as well as for the country.
A.B.Mohammed Zakaria
124 Whitley Close
Stanwell, Staines
Middlesex U.K. tw19 7ey
Indo-US, Israeli plan to divide Pakistan, Iran, China?
Dear Editor:
An article entitled Afghanistan: A Nerve Centre for Global Conspiracy, written by former Pakistan Army chief General Mirza Aslam Beg, was published your highly esteemed weekly on 31st August last. It is a thought provoking article without doubt. I showed the article to my few friends and practically short/brief translation in Bangla as some of them do not understand English. Even, I have discussed with few local Ulema.
So far as I remember another article was published in the daily Naya Diganta (a Bangla daily) in 2006 written by Brigadier (Retd) Shakhawat Hossain (now an Election Commissioner of the Election Commission) about the conspiracy by CIA and Israel for division of Pakistan, Iran, Afghanistan and Syria. We should always keep in our mind that there is a heinous conspiracy of a Zionist plan for creation of greater Israel as the promised holy land for the Jews-only state. Is this an unholy Zionist conspiracy?
From the very dawn of human settlement a constant struggle based on religions is going on between the believers and the non-believers. It seems to me that a great conspiracy is being hatched by C.I.A. Israel, UK, Germany and RAW of India to break Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Russia and China, B.L.A. (Baluchistan Liberation Army) The guerrillas of BLA are equipped with different types of arms and are trained by conspirators for creation of a separate state comprising Iranian Beluchistan and Pakistani Baluchistan. The fighters of B.L.A. are carrying out many insurgent activities within the territory of Beluchistan of Pakistan and Iran.
A group of Poshtu speaking people of NWFP and Afghanistan are seriously engaged in a conspiracy for creation of a separate state comprising Pushtu speaking belt of NWFP (Pakistan) and part of Afghanistan (Pushtu speaking areas of Afghanistan). In many tribal areas of NWFP (of Pakistan) influence of Pakistan rule is minimum and local tribal leaders are practically the virtual rulers. Smuggling of arms and drugs are very common phenomena.
It is also alleged that many arms are manufactured locally in many tribal areas. A.K 47 rifles, M-16 rifles, Stenguns and various other arms are easily available in the arms smuggling market.
CIA and Isreal have a plan to capture Syria to make Syria a part of Greater Israel. Israel has a great plan to capture the whole Arabian peninsula and even Egypt to make a greater Israel as a promised holy land as per Old Testament.
Hence, we may assume that a time is sure to come when open armed conflict is likely to occur between the conspirators and the victims of conspirators. CIA was behind the fall of USSR. The CIA, Germany, RAW and Israeli Mossad are also engaged in a deep conspiracy against China, Russia and Middle Eastern Islamic countries. Side by side the world should not rule out the possibility of breakdown of India as it appears from the activities of different groups operating in India. You have invited to contradict the views expressed by Mirza Aslam Beg and I welcome your idea.
Muhammad Afsar Ali Farajee,
Advocate
Thana Road, Kaunia
Dist: Rangpur.
White papers
Dear Editor:
Corruption or breaking up established public institutions takes centuries to build up.
The public focus is now on anti-corruption studies. There is a deeper, long-term evil- cleaning of the civil service from political corruption. The BCS members are brainwashed robots or neutral "public servants"! Our higher education is moth-eaten. Why the huge smuggling of areas has been covered up?
We need several white papers. So far how many have been published in Bangladesh?
Alfa Ahmad,
Dhaka.
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