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Hasina assures better life, seeks cooperation from Khaleda
Special Coprrespondent
Winning a landslide victory in the general election of December 29, Awami League President Sheikh Hasina said her government's first tasks would be to bring down the prices of essentials within people's reach and alleviate poverty. And in this mission, she sought cooperation from her political archrival BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia.
Sheikh Hasina also vowed to turn the country into a prosperous, peaceful, modern and information technology- based 'Digital Bangladesh' and also ensure rule of law and good governance in the country. ..[ FULL STORY ]
Absurd poll result deepens political crisis
M. Shahidul Islam
It was too good to believe. Observers were stunned, victors themselves dismayed, and the world around lost language to mutter comments or analyze the event's contours. The only news in the global media about the latest Bangladesh poll is the news itself. No elaboration, no analysis.
The reasons are obvious. From a vibrant multi-party democracy that Bangladesh was until the declaration of emergency rules in January 2007, it has suddenly relegated into a democratic dictatorship. The outcome of the December 29 polling has virtually reinstated a one-party-system in the country, as did the election of 1973 in which the Awami League (AL) won 293 seats...[ FULL STORY ]
BNP goes on soul-searching, revitalising the party organisation
Abdur Rahman Khan
BNP, the big looser in the parliamentary polls, have started a soul searching terming the general elections of December 29 as a stage managed game.
It has asked the contesting candidates and the grassroots organizers to furnish the report about the irregularities and the election engineering at their local constituencies. It will help the party establish its claim against the election commission.
Although a large section of BNP leaders and workers are favouring a total rejection of the election results and an extreme move like refraining from taking oaths as parliament members, BNP policymakers are still reviewing the situation in consideration with the changed political scenario and the pro-active suggestions from well-wishers...[ FULL STORY ]
Post-polls violence flares up: Opposition supporters targeted
Special Correspondent
Despite call to her party workers from the grand alliance leader Sheikh Hasina to stay calm and show tolerance and the Caretaker Government's precaution against post-poll violence, reports of violence, attacks and arsons in different parts of the country are pouring in to the newspapers.
In the violent acts, supporters of BNP, the defeated party, are the victims...[ FULL STORY ]
New govt likely to face tough challenge
to fulfil promises
Faruque Ahmed
The landslide victory of Awami League (AL) led grand alliance has sparked the people's expectations that it will be able to bring economic benefits to the common people in the hills of the surging prices of essentials.
The alliance leader and AL chief Sheikh Hasina in her first post election press conference re-iterated her promises to drastically reduce the prices of essentials. In the electioneering campaign, she spoke of bringing down rice prices at Taka 10 per kg and free distribution of fertilizer to farmers...[ FULL STORY ]
Israeli attack complicating Obama's plans
Jim Lobe in Washington
Israel's massive three-day aerial assault on Gaza is likely to complicate President-elect Barack Obama's hopes of aggressively pursuing Israeli- Palestinian peace negotiations, and risk inflicting greater damage to Washington's standing in the Arab world, according to most analysts here.
Indeed, if the current campaign goes on much longer and the Israelis launch a major ground invasion of Gaza as they now appear to be preparing to do, Obama could face a major international crisis-comparable to Israel's failed 2006 war against Lebanon's Hezbollah-just as he takes office in three weeks' time...[ FULL STORY ]
DELHI HAS GOT NO GREAT EXPECTATION
Hasina invites Pronab Mukherjee to oath taking ceremony
Moinuddin Naser in New York
Kolkata's largely circulated Bengali daily newspaper Anandabazar Patrika (ABP) has reported on December 31 that Sheikh Hasina has invited Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee to remain present in her oath taking ceremony in Dhaka.
According to the ABP report, the grand alliance leader and Awami League President Sheikh Hasina has made a phone call to the Foreign Minister of India Pronab Mukherjee requesting him to remain present at the oath taking ceremony of her next government...[ FULL STORY ]
GLIMPSES OF THE GREAT
Bahadur Shah Zafar
K. Z. Islam
Kitna hai bud naseeb, Zafar, dafan ke lieye,
Do gaz zameen bhi na mili koo-e-yaar mein
At 4 p.m. on a hazy, humid winter's afternoon in Rangoon in November 1862, a shrouded corpse was escorted by a small group of British soldiers to an anonymous grave at the back of a walled prison enclosure. The bier of the State Prisoner - as the deceased was referred to - was accompanied by two of his sons and an elderly bearded mullah. The ceremony was brief. The British authorities had made sure not only that the grave was already dug, but the quantities of lime were on hand to guarantee the rapid decay of both bier and body...[ FULL STORY ]
SAMM warns South Asian media
against jingoism
Jonaid Iqbal in Islamabad
The media in South Asia have been invited to promote the ongoing peace efforts that would open up the South Asian region to progress.
"Media people should refrain from scuttling the peace process", was the bottom-line of the executive summary of the South Asia Media Monitor (SAMM), 2008, launched by South Asia Media Commission here on December 29...[ FULL STORY ]
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