Fresh Thinker

A very funny developing story is unfolding in Bangladesh over last few days. Awami League Wednesday officially turned down the caretaker government's offer for dialogue without its detained chief Sheikh Hasina.

"The Chief Adviser's Office on May 19 sent separate formal invitations to the parties requesting them to send lists of a seven-member delegation each with contact addresses and phone numbers of the members of the teams of respective parties." A local newspaper reported.

They basically said that it is sheik Hasina who own this party. What she says is the law. These "leaders" are just some dogs waiting for our master's command. When master command them, they will start barking whatever masker asks them to bark about. So do you want to have a dialog with some dogs? What do dog say? Please ask their master.

If anyone claims that these dogs are some kind of leaders, he must be joking. Don't these folks have any shame? How could they talk about anything related to democracy? Do they even know the very definition of democracy? If I take their words, it looks like the party is running by a queen who inherited the party from her father.

A local news paper reported "As Information and Research Secretary Nuh-ul-Alam Lenin proposed sending the government a letter containing names of the AL delegates to the talks with Hasina's on top, Organising Secretary Abdur Rahman suggested that only the AL chief's name should be in the letter."

"On release, she (Hasina) will select the other representatives in consultation with party leaders, otherwise we should not participate in the dialogue," a proposal was accepted unanimously in party meeting.

It is only Hasina who can select the AL delegates to the talks. All other leaders are there only for "consultation". What do the people of Bangladesh do with these jokers? People can just consult with them. That's funny. Why aren't they opening a consultation firm instead of political party?

Acting general secretary Syed Ashraful Islam announced "We'll not participate in any dialogue without our leader Sheikh Hasina. We will consider whether or not we will join the dialogue after unconditional release of Sheikh Hasina." He also told the reporter that if Hasina command them to join the dialogue, they will.

Again, forget democratic process, I don't even see a human being with dignity here. If Hasina command them, then they will join the talks. They will just follow the command. If you just want to follow the command, why follow Hasina? Why choosing a person who is holding the party's president position for over 25 years. She is the daughter of late president Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, so she inherited the party as a family property. She is now facing extortion, corruption and criminal charges in several cases under proceeding by courts and very likely to be convicted. Why would these so called leaders put their head upon her?

Their unconditional support goes into her feet, because they are just headless. They have no brain, no self respect, and no dignity left in their body. These so called leaders are chosen by Hasina. Only Hasina will decide who gets party's nomination in upcoming election. So, how can they have a say? They don't.

If you read the constitution of Awami League, you will see how funny it is. There is nothing democratic in it. All the power is given to the President. Its president is a dictator by the constitution. Everybody else is there only for "consultation". Everybody else is just brainless, powerless, and shameless jokers. They are there just to give compliments to the Queen or King, just like how it used to be in medieval monarchy.

Will these folks be civilized any time soon? We will see.

[GM Solaiman writes from Silicon Valley, California. He can be reached at gm.solaiman@gmail.com]

I read news and opinion piece in Bangladesh newspapers related to corruption
and people's perspective toward it. I read with a great amusement how some
people stay cool and not even bother by the mountain of corruption. If media
reflect any percentage of views in real ground, it is almost shocking how
they show tolerance toward corruption. Some people took it as part of the
life very well. Now that's a compliment. One probably will go crazy if he
would not or can not take this as business as usual. Isn't Bangladesh a part
of this civilized world? Is there any respect for justice in any part of the
society in Bangladesh? Actually, there is. It is for the little people who
must obey the law. It is the little people to whom justice is served. It is
the little people who, with all the hardship in life, keep Bangladesh a part
of the civilized world. Well, at least as of now.

Let me bring your attention to a recent court verdict. Md Shahid Mia, a
technician from Titas Gas Transmission and Distribution Company, was
sentenced to three years in jail for taking Tk 5,000 in bribe. Few local
newspapers reported this in May 22, 2008.

"A special Dhaka court on Wednesday sentenced an official of Titas Gas
Transmission and Distribution Company to three years in jail for taking Tk
5,000 in bribe."

"Convicted Md Shahid Mia will have to serve one more year in jail in failure
to pay a fine of Tk 1 lakh. Judge Md Sirajul Haque also issued an order to
confiscate the cell phone of Shahid."

"Ebadullah al Mamun, managing director of Quality Re-rolling Mills, filed
the case against him with Shyampur police station on May 6 last year.
According to case details, Shahid demanded Tk 5,000 for a utility
connection. The Rapid Action Battalion arrested him."

Shahid Mia's wife was present in the court room. Shahid Mia hugged his wife
to give her some comfort after the verdict. His lawyer Rehana Alam told him
that this is the list possible punishment for the crime. It can not be
reduced. This is for just taking 5000 taka (73 dollars) bribe. No other
crime, corruption or illegal property involved.

There is nothing surprising here. He did the crime, so he got the
punishment. It could have been any other civilized country. The criminals
would get similar punishment.

Now I want you to take a moment and rethink this. Just 73 dollars of corrupt
money can put you 3 years in prison. Even in Bangladesh, it can. Does people
in Bangladesh realized it? I am sure some people do realize it. Shahid Mia
and his family realized. Many more people like Shahid Mia realize it every
day.

What about big fishes, do they realize? I am talking about those people who
have taken millions of dollars in bribe along with other crime, corruption
and illegal property. How many thousands years of imprisonment would they
get in punishment? Well, they never did. Punishment is reserved only for the
little people in Bangladesh. Those who acquired millions of dollars in
corruption never faced any punishment. Shouldn't they get the punishment?

Is it too unfair to say that this punishment, as justified as it is, would
be an insult to the justice system if the top criminals of the nation wonder
free?

I read some opinion articles in few daily newspapers with lot of amusement.
I don't really understand this. How could an educated person argue in favor
of those corrupt criminals? How could they do it in a civilized society?
Don't they have any shame at all? Apparently they don't have any shame. What
could be the reason?

Could it be that these so called intellectuals are not belongs to this
civilized world? Could it be that they some how lost the sense of what is
wrong and what is right? Or, is it because that these so called
intellectuals are beneficiary of the corrupt officials and politicians? Is
it because that these so called intellectuals are the creation of the top
corrupt circle of Bangladesh? Isn't it true that those who support the evils
are indeed part of the same evil?

Is it possible that the people of Bangladesh can come out of the box of
wrong doers and their evil intellectual propaganda machine? I certainly hope
so.

[GM Solaiman writes from Silicon Valley, California. He can be reached
at gm.solaiman@gmail.com]

The head of the caretaker government in Bangladesh disclose the plan for
general parliamentary election in December of 2008. Voting was due in
January last year. It was postponed until late 2008 after months of
political violence and weeks of bloodshed in the streets. The political
parties ran into a deadlock and the country was headed to a civil war.

There has been much talk about reform inside political parties to avoid
the situation like this in future. The interim government undertook a
long overdue war on corruption. A band of criminals have gone under
justice. This is pretty unprecedented for Bangladesh.

Now what is the point of election if all you do is reject the results?
Who needs a parliament, if the opposition would remain absent most of
the times? This has been happening for last 15 years by both big
parties. When Ershad's government fell in 1990 after a long public
unrest, a care taker government was set up to hold a free and fare
election. Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) won the election and formed
the government. Khaleda Zia, wife of late president Ziaur Rahman, became
the first female prime minister in country's history. Awami League (AL)
became the main opposition party lead by Sheikh Hasina, daughter of late
President Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. Hasina claimed irregularity in the
election and rejected the results, but soon decided to play along and
attended the parliament. In inauguration, she declared that she would
not let the government to be in peace for a single day. She kept her
promise and called strikes for hundreds of days. BNP officials told us
about how the country is loosing millions of dollars in every workless
day of strike.

In following term, after some initial hiccups of February'96 election,
AL won the June'96 general election and Sheikh Hasina became the second
female Prime Minister of Bangladesh. However, things hardly changed as
Khaleda Zia stole few page of AL's book and maintained the political
unrest in the street. As a result a failed parliament hanged over the
poor nation for one more term of five years.

In all these 10 years, while opposition was engaged in all possible ways
to ignite a public unrest in the street, the ruling parties were engaged
in all kind of corruption. It was in fact a rat race to see who can grab
more and how fast. Corruption was institutionalized in Bangladesh by
then. Upon coming into the government, the ruling parties dismissed all
corruption cases filed by previous government and interim government
proclaiming those were politically biased case. Criminals arrested by
previous government and interim government were released proclaiming
they all were political detainee. So everyone knew for sure that there
will be no consequence even if your party loose the next election. You
just have to survive next five years, and then your party will be back
in power again. You will be able to erase all your bad deed and get
fresh start in doing more corruption again. The opposition was not in
the streets to say that ruling ministers are doing bad and needs
correction. They are in the street to ask the ruling party to resign, so
the opposition can become ruling party to do the corruption. It was
like, it's okay to do the corruption, but why you? I can do it better.
With no surprise, Bangladesh claimed the title of the most corrupt
country in the report published by Transparency International for the
first time.

Some of the most corrupt ministers of Sheikh Hasina's government were
running from justice and went into hiding as soon as the interim
government was setup to hold the election. Police raid their home to
find weapons and all kind of illegal stuffs. But you can do only so much
in three months. The criminals knew it.

In 2000 election, the parties switched there respective position once
again as BNP's four-party alliance got a landslide victory of more than
two-third majority. As the people of Bangladesh were fed up with
corruption, Khaleda Zia took oath to be the prime minister of
Bangladesh. She took office with a huge mandate and a promise to end
corruption. But she blew it. Or is she? All indicators suggest that her
government has accelerated the corruption. While the ministers and their
associates bag millions of dollars, Bangladesh named the most corrupt
country of the world three times in a row. The degree of their
corruption was an open secret. Every one knew it and no one was ashamed
for this anymore. We saw the horrific description of their corruption in
their own words in recent months, thanks to current interim government's
war on corruption.

In the eve of 2006 election, all old ministers came back from hiding.
Everyone knew the stakes were huge, more than ever. If you win the
lection, you get to hand billions of dollars of corrupt money. If you
don't win, you get nothing. This time no one wanted to be in the side
line for five years. This is a must win election for all. Both BNP and
AL hand out nomination papers to the corrupt criminals. It was reported
in all major local newspapers that millions of dollars were exchanged
hand behind the closed door in picking the nominee for political
parties. With those many, BNP and AL started an open auction to get the
third big political party Jatio Party and its leader former dictator
General Hossain Mohammad Ershad. It was interesting to read local
newspapers in anticipation of where General Ershad will go and for how
much.

Finally AL got him. General Ershad joined AL's grand alliance. However,
BNP's residual force in election commission dismissed General Ershad's
candidacy. As a result Ershad's Jatio Party boycotted the election and
soon AL with its grand alliance boycotted the election. Live videos of
people being murdered in the street started to come into local
television. The whole country was heading for a bloody civil war.

It was everyone's anticipation to when the army will come out in the
street to stop the bloodshed. Then it happened in January 11, 2007 and a
new interim government was setup. In Bangladesh the event is called
one-eleven. The expectation was to heal the divided country, root out
corruption, reform political parties, and then hold a free fare general
election so the country would not go back to pre-one-eleven situation.
Two years seemed to be a reasonable time frame to do just that. I am
happy to see that Fakhruddin Ahmed, the head of current interim
government, is committed to that time frame. But all the pieces of this
puzzle have to be fall in place to do the magic. The question is: are we
there yet?

I am not saying to halt the election, or not even to delay the election.
I believe the election should be held by end of 2008. Two years should
be enough time. But the point is, enough time for what?

I am not seeing Bangladesh political leaders are saying anything to
assure either the people of Bangladesh or the international community.
They are not saying yet that what happened in December 2006 and early
January 2007 was a big mistake and that won't happen again. They are not
saying it was mistake to be absent in the parliament for last three
terms. They are not saying that they would not hand out nomination in
close door to country's top criminals anymore. They are not assuring us
that they would establish a fare and transparent procedure to give out
party nomination. They are not assuring us that they would establish
democracy in their own party. They are not saying they would remove
dictatorship from their party's constitution. All major political
parties in Bangladesh are virtually run by dictators and all set to pass
down as a property to be inherited. How one, who is a dictator by one's
party constitution, will be able to show any sort of democratic behavior
upon getting the entire state in hand to run?

Finally here is the billion dollar question. Well, it may be a trillion
dollar as well. The party leaders are not saying that they would
disclose party financing details, who are giving all these money, how
much, and where are they spending it. This is the mother of all
corruption. If the criminals and corrupts put money in the party, it is
very logical that they would like to get a return. If you practice
corruption in your own party, how could you give the country anything
other than the corruption when you get elected? It's like a stripper is
asking us to give an election so she could be appointed as a nun. In
Bangla, they say it "bhuter mukhe ram nam". To be saved from ghosts, a
good Hindu person calls the name of god Ram. It is believed that the
ghost gets scared by mare mention of the name of god and leaves the
person alone. Well, what will happen if the ghost himself is calling the
name of Ram? That day we all will be deceived. The people of Bangladesh
have been deceived by these types of politicians for a really long time.
The question now remains for the world to see if the people of
Bangladesh can rise out of this deception. We are already seeing the
crack. Call me an over optimistic, but I am very confident that in the
end of all these mess, a bright light of true people's democracy will
shine over Bangladesh. A little passion and a firm commitment is all it
needs.

[GM Solaiman writes from Silicon Valley, California. He can be reached
at gm.solaiman@gmail.com]

Abraham Lincoln has said "Democracy is the government of the people, by
the people, for the people". We were taught this in 7th grade. Little I
realized what that supposes to mean. Is it really possible? Well, may be
in a dream land. A dream land it is! Years later, in a 2003 August
afternoon, holding my wife's hand in front of the gigantic statue of
Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC, I recited those words to myself. I
started to question myself. What does it really mean? Is it mean only to
line up for vote and "choose" a less scary monster? Did Bangladesh have
democracy? Did she ever have a government which is "of the people, by
the people, for the people"?

Let me bring your attention to a latest court verdict. A local newspaper
in Bangladesh reported this in May 8, 2008.

"A Dhaka court yesterday sentenced two men to death, nine to 43 years'
rigorous imprisonment each and a former Dhaka City Corporation ward
commissioner to 13 years' in jail in the sensational Lalbagh
seven-murder case."

"According to the prosecution, a group of criminals led by the defeated
ward commissioner Aziz attacked the victory procession of his rival, the
winning candidate Humayun Kabir, at about 10:30am on January 31, 1994."

"They fired on the procession killing seven and leaving several others
injured. The victims are Delwar, Gazi, Nazrul, Anwar, Hafiz, Aziz and
Shah Alam."

"Humayun Kabir, elected ward commissioner of ward no 59, filed a murder
case against Abdul Aziz and 23 others with the Lalbagh police the same
day."

"In the past 14 years, the case was transferred to three courts for
trial."

If you are familiar about Bangladesh, you probably know that this
incident in 1994 was just business as usual. That is why for 14 years,
no one really bothered with the case. The report did not disclose their
political party affiliation. It is not that important. Same could have
happened if the election result were reversed. Only the attacker and
defender would have switched. In fact, they both are former "elected"
commissioner.

So what do we see here? Bangladesh had election before. People of
Bangladesh were given a "choice" to make. They can "elect" whoever of
these two criminals they want. Political cartels from two family owned
parties selected these two monsters and put their name in the ballot.
Now all you have to do is come and "vote" for one. Is this the democracy
that Abraham Lincoln was talking about?

Two hyenas came in front of you to kill your child. They are not sure
it's whose turn now. Ok, let's be democratic, they say. You choose one
between us. Here you go. Here is a free fare election for you. Can you
vote? Of course you can. Is that any good?

Democracy is not just an election. Election is only a piece of a many
piece structure called democracy. You need many more democratic
institutions to exercise democracy. Otherwise, it would only be the
criminals who own political party like their family property to inherit.
It would only establish a government "of the criminals". The nomination
would be handed out "by the criminals". And of course, if they get
elected, and be sure that one of them would be, they would only work
"for the criminals" themselves.

Will Bangladesh be able to come out of this vicious circle? The
situation that aroused in January 2007, open up a big door for it. I am
very confident that Bangladesh has some democratic visionary leaders.
They may be hiding some where in the closet down sized by political
cartels for all these years. It's about time to come out. I just hope
that this will happen soon enough. The last thing we want to see is
Bangladesh to go down hill on a slippery path of dictatorship. Then all
it will be left with is yet another quest for the false democracy of the
criminals, by the criminals, for the criminals.

[GM Solaiman writes from Silicon Valley, California. He can be reached
at gm.solaiman@gmail.com]

Bangladesh has been victim of devastating flood twice is last two years.
A severe cyclone (Sidr) swept through Bangladesh in November 2007 which
left over 10000 dead and half a billion USD damage. Yet economic data
shows that Bangladesh in on track in its expected growth. That's all
most like a miracle.

Export Promotion Bureau in Bangladesh reported that Bangladesh exports
in March 2008 have increased 21.25 percent from a year earlier to $1.22
billion. In July to March, the first three quarters of the 2007-2008
fiscal year, export earnings grew 12.4 percent to $10.16 billion. Export
volume increased by 13.93 percent. Earnings from knitwear garments in
the nine-month period grew by 17.34 percent to $3.9 billion. Exports of
woven garments increased 7.54 percent to $3.8 billion.

According to the Bangladesh central bank statistics, Bangladesh
expatriates sent home a record remittance i.e. US$6.449 billion in the
first 10 months of this fiscal year. It got a 31.48 per cent growth over
the corresponding period of the last fiscal year. The remittances from
Bangladeshi nationals working abroad were estimated at $800.20 million
in April 2008. In March, the remittance was $808.72 million USD.

At least 295,155 Bangladeshis found jobs in over 100 countries during
the January-April period this year. This is up from 192,725 in the same
period last year, according to the Employment and Training (BMET)
statistics published by Bangladesh Bureau of Manpower.

A recent report indicated that Banks in Bangladesh is allowed to open
small business centers in Bangladesh. It suggested that Bangladeshi
expatriates are now increasingly using banking channels to remit money
as banks have become efficient in delivering such money. Bangladesh
banks recently decide to allow the commercial banks to partner with the
non-governmental organizations (NGO) having branches all over the
country for disbursement of remittances, particularly in the rural
areas.

In another report published in earlier this month, Bangladesh's central
bank said that the economy could grow as much as 6.2 percent in the
current fiscal year, supported by a rebound in agricultural output
following natural disasters and a pick up in exports growth.

In few recent reports on Bangladesh ship-break industries, it has been
emphasized that Bangladesh has emerged as a major ship-breaking
destination in South Asia. An average of 150-200 vessels is being
scrapped in Bangladesh every year according to one report. Bangladesh is
getting a competitive edge over its rival in neighboring countries like
India and Pakistan. Both India and Pakistan generate around 4,000 tonnes
of scrap steel per vessel, while Bangladesh generates 12,000-15,000
tonnes of scrap steel per vessel according to the data provided by the
report. A high official of Ship Recycling Industries Association of
India have confessed that "Indian Ship-breakers are losing business to
Bangladesh" in an interview.

There are some down side as well. Bangladesh has been under serious rice
shortage and price has climb as much as 50% in recent months. Bangladesh
was seriously affected by world wide rice shortage. Being in the list of
top five rice producing countries did not help much. That's because
Bangladesh consumes more rice than it produces since rice is the primary
food here. Bangladesh has to import a large sum of rice each year. Hit
by natural disaster made this worse. Even living in Silicon Valley, I
can feel the heat as my local Costco have run out of rice for weeks.
Other shops have also increase the price and put a limit on how much
each customer can buy. I can imagine the situation in Bangladesh where
35% people live below dollar a day poverty line. Yet the new harvest
season is giving them a hope.

Just yesterday, government of Bangladesh has banned export of rice for
six months except aromatic varieties. Official says that the ban came
after the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) revealed last week that a group
of exporters have cashed in on the government's free rice export policy
by shipping in record amount of the staple this fiscal year.

Bangladesh factory owners and officials have come into rescue by
providing subsidized food to low-paid workers. Workers in Bangladesh
assumed to spend about 70 percent of their income on food. "The
Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association will provide
rice at two-thirds of the market price to a quarter of its 800,000
employees", a local official said to a reporter.

The central bank (Bangladesh Bank) reported that Bangladesh's overall
import grew by 24. 37 percent during the first nine months of the
current fiscal year( July 2007-June 2008) over the same period of the
previous fiscal. "The overall import increased during the period due
mainly to higher import of essential items including food grains,
industrial raw materials and petroleum products to meet the domestic
demand," a senior official of the Bangladesh Bank have said to a news
reporter.

Looking over both pros and cons from the reports coming from Bangladesh,
it seems that Bangladesh have been passing difficult times. But at the
same time all economic data pointers are suggesting that the overall
growth is marching forward in full swing. If only its political leaders
now realize the opportunity that lie ahead, and abandon the path of
corruption and instability like strike, Bangladesh should embrace a
promising future. The real question is, will they realize it and come
clean?

[GM Solaiman writes from Silicon Valley, California. He can be reached
at gm.solaiman@gmail.com]