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A softly softly approach at last?
Sadeq Khan
The present attorney-general of Sheikh Hasina's grand alliance government earned a dark reputation already for his habit of brow-beating the judges with veiled "people-power" threats when he is short of convincing legal arguments. Of late he chose to intervene in a most unlikely legal procedure for the state to step in.
A number of frivolous defamation suits were filed in mofussil magistrate courts in different districts against Mahmudur Rahman, the editor of Amar Desh and a former state minister of the last BNP government. The cases of defamation are all based on a report published in the Bengali daily about administrative indecision relating to a directive from the Prime Minister's Office to investigate an allegation of irregularity and corruption in the procurement of a compressor unit by Petrobangla without tender. The procurement order was issued by adjusting the negotiated costs of installing the compressor unit at Muchai (ADB was financing two other units at Ashuganj and Angela) against exploration costs of one of the concessions held by the OIC Chevron under a production-sharing contract with Petrobangla. Such costs are recoverable by the concessionaire from gas produced and sold back to Bangladesh at international price as prevailing in the Singapore market at the time of repayment...[ FULL STORY ]
YEAR IN REVIEW, YEAR IN PREVIEW
2010 dawns with serious concerns for economy, sovereignty
M. Shahidul Islam
The first light of 2010 ushers in the arrival of a new year and a new decade. It, however, comes with legacies of the two-year long emergency rule, a controversial election, and, severe negative impacts on the nation's economy, its armed forces and the sovereignty.
Besides, the year 2009 witnessed further weakening and fragmentation of our major political parties and other institutions like the ACC while the intense sense of pride we so far possessed as a nation of 150 million strong monoliths has begun to waver...[ FULL STORY ]
BNP DEMONISED
Tariq victim of the system
MI Ali
In a recent talk show on a TV channel featuring Lt. Gen. (Rtd.) Mir Shawkat Ali and Barrister Amirul Islam, two important observations were made by them. Mir Shawkat Ali, a valiant Sector Commander of our War of Liberation, wondered if a country with such a low level of literacy was ready for democracy and Amirul Islam, an eminent lawyer aligned with Awami League politics, said the party had entrusted Sheikh Mujibur Rahman with all decision-making power in early 1971 after the then army junta's cancellation of the National Assembly session scheduled to be held in Dhaka. This culture of empowering the party chief, making the position all powerful, continues till today...[ FULL STORY ]
Shiv Sena zealots bashing Bangladesh again
Moinuddin Naser in New York
Prior to the visit of Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to India the Indian Hindu zealots have started bashing Bangladesh again. The Shiv Sena, extreme Indian fundamentalist forces, on December 15, 2009 expressed concern in the Rajya Sabha over intelligence inputs about Bangladesh-based terror outfits planning to target Mumbai and Hyderabad. In this connection they also alleged about increasing influx of Bangladeshi immigrants into Mumbai, which they added "could emerge a major security threat to the metro...[ FULL STORY ]
Maoists demand leaders' release as Indian govt. softens stance
Shamsuddin Ahmed
The Maoist movement is gaining momentum in India, near the west and north of Bangladesh border. The reason is long deprivation of the poor with the widening inequality between the haves and have-nots. About 77 per cent of the Indians are living barely on Rs 22 a day...[ FULL STORY ]
ONE YEAR OF AWAMI RULE
Admin in disarray as party men rule roost
Faisal Rahim
Taking over power on big election promises one year ago, the Awami League-led grand coalition government has largely disappointed the nation; this is the view held by even those people who voted it to power.
The biggest problem which has hit the nation is a deepening destabilisation of state institutions in the guise of putting party leaders and supporters at all levels of the administration. A kind of cleansing operation is in progress in the process in the administration and those people known as previously sympathetic to opposition BNP or Jamaat are chased out, harassed and even coming under physical assault in the hand of the ruling party cadres and supporters...[ FULL STORY ]
Nepal church, mosque bombers funded by Indian groups
Three months after being caught for masterminding attacks on churches and mosques in Nepal, the chief of an underground organisation that persecuted Christians and Muslims says he was funded by India's ultra-right organizations like Shib Sena and armed by the outlawed United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA).
Ram Prasad Mainali, a 37-year-old Hindu, metamorphosed from a ticket booking clerk to a ruthless, menacing shadowy figure who directed attacks that killed at least five people while praying in mosques and a church after he was aided by at least four Indian organisations.
"I was opposed to the idea of Nepal becoming a secular republic," he told IANS, sitting behind bars in Kathmandu valley's Nakhu Jail where he has been transferred since his arrest from southern Nepal on September 5...[ FULL STORY ]
Muslims must use their resources and talents for progress
Abdur Rahman Khan
Muslims, who in their quest for knowledge had excelled in different fields of science contributing significantly towards human civilization for several centuries, must not lag behind in knowledge, science and technology today.
"It is unfortunate that the Muslim community comprising almost 1.45 billion people living in 61 Muslim countries are lagging behind in science and technology", regretted Ali Ibrahim Nik, regional representative of the Islamic Education, Science and Cultural organization (ISESCO).
Bridging digital divide
"Many of the Muslim countries have adequate resources and many of our brothers and sisters have excelled in science, technology and knowledge. These two things should be combined to use our potentials and thus change our fate", said the ISESCO representative in an interview with the Holiday...[ FULL STORY ]
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