Fresh Thinker

Bangladesh: The Return of the Pharaohs

2008-09-10T16:02:00.001-07:00

By GM Solaiman

I guess, by now you all have enjoyed much of the getting out of prison cell rat race in Bangladesh. The accused are getting into free air one by one. Were you surprised? I was not. We all knew that court was able to give them a bail, and they would have easily got a bail in normal condition in any civilized country. The only obstacle was state of emergency. That was the only reason court had to deny the bail. Well, the state of emergency could only go so long. It has to end at some point, otherwise that state of emergency itself would became normal and you loose the power of emergency.

Of course, the justice itself has nothing to do with bail. Just because they got bail, does not mean they are out side of the law now. The justice can go as usual and verdict will be given. If court rules them innocent, they are! They should be free to whatever laws of the land allow them to do. If they are guilty, they should be back in the jail. That is not troubling at all, even though many folks seem to cry aloud based on their party affiliation.

What is very troubling is the feel in the air. In recent local elections, same old and crooked faces have been emerged. Violent protest has claim one innocent bystanders life in Dhaka University. There has been report of clashes between student wings of different parties. It is not a deja vu anymore. It is very real. The Pharaohs of the two family owned parties are coming back in business. The perspective of the every day people in the street of Dhaka has changed.

Bangladesh is back on the old track. Old culture is back. It is now clear that the chance of reform in Bangladesh is fading. Some would say there is zero chance now. The old leaders are coming back to street and very hopeful to be back in power. The reform of the political culture and the cure from the corruption will not happen now.

I guess the old junkies are back in business. It is the return of the pharaoh. In the land of Pharaohs, who else would come to rule you think. I believe firmly that a country gets the leaders it deserved. I have no other choice but agree that this is what Bangladesh deserved.

We can argue for another 37 years whether the 'khaliphas' were qualified to reform. I am sure that we will have an argument whether intend to the reform was genuine or not. I am not saying that these arguments are not valid. However, regardless of that, it was indeed a wild ride. It was truly unprecedented in BD's history. I have enjoyed that. It was the closest we ever gone to a reform, a much needed reform.

Failure is never good. It is always painful. Do not believe anyone who says participation is the big thing, not the pass or fail. It is not true. You are in the game to one and only one goal. It is to win. Failure always hurt. Should we cry on it? If you are among those who share the pain, by all means, cry it out. However, the question may come to the face, was it worth trying? Be sure that it was. It was definitely worthy of trying regardless of the out come.

My thanks are to those who had a real intention of reforming Bangladesh. My thanks are to those who supported the effort. My thanks are to even those who simply clapping their hands giving nothing but encouragement. My thanks are to all those who believed on it. My thanks are to all those who share the pain. It was a wonderful journey. At least, now we can say some one did tried. Some folks at list tried. They failed because it was not to be reformed. It was simply impossible. If your children ever ask you, now you can say, yes we tried!

There was a reason why God asked Moses to migrate out of the land of pharaoh. It is because the land of pharaoh does not deserve to be cured. I am not asking for a divine intervention and expecting the same fate that follows. I am just trying to accept that thing that we cannot change. Well, may be it is good in this way. After all, it is their land. Pharaohs are the rightful rulers. What can you do? Good thing is that now we know.

Give a big hand to "The Return of the Pharaohs".

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

Kuwait's inhuman labor practice : we can't afford to ignore

2008-08-05T13:44:00.001-07:00

By GM Solaiman
August 5, 2008

Last week in a rare development in Middle East, thousands of Bangladeshi workers went to strike protesting poor living conditions, serious abuse and human rights violation.

I hope you were not surprised with the aftermath of this. Instead of addressing the human rights abuse issue that has been happening for years, the complainers got hammered. Why would we surprise? This is Middle East after all. No one has a right to complain. If you do complain or try to raise the issue to long over due attention, all you get is yet more abuse and rampage. Well, for thousands of poor legal employees, you got a force deportation.

Asia News reported on August 05 "Kuwait has expelled a thousand workers from Bangladesh, believed to be responsible for violent protest demonstrations, but at the same time it has announced a law against "visa merchants" and the exploitation of foreign workers, the factors that unleashed the workers' protest."

It also reported "Last week, hundreds of employees of Kuwaiti businesses unleashed a series of demonstrations to ask for better labor conditions and fair pay. The motives of the protest include forms of sexual violence suffered by women who act as domestic workers. This phenomenon, together with that of forced labor, was denounced in June in a report from the U.S. state department on the condition of workers in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Oman, and Qatar".

Wait a minute. Are we talking about "sexual violence" toward female workers? Is this happening in an Arab nation? I believe Islam forbid that and abusers are supposed to get stoned to death punishment. Apparently, that does not apply for our oil-rich Arab friends there.

My twelve-miles-a-gallon ML350 is literally making these guys rich. Every mile I drive, that money is enabling these inhuman being to bring more women as "domestic workers" from poor nation and sexually abuse them. I feel morally responsible, don't you? We must intervene and take action.

According to a report there are about 200,000 workers from Bangladesh in the Gulf countries, mostly employed for cleaning services or as security guards.

"The Kuwait Authorities have already directed the companies to pay the minimum wages and warned them of tough actions in case of any failure" New Nation reported yesterday. Funny as it sounds! The poor workers have been arrested, but the abusing companies were only "warned". Why is the double standard?

"But similar promises were made following protests in 2005. Three years later, Nazrul and his fellow workers are still waiting for a change" Raymond Barrett reported from Kuwait City. Make no mistake that it is just a kick in the air this time as well.

"Kuwait has $39,300 per capita income. Poor workers there get $75 per month? What type of culture is this?" a friend of mine has asked. Compare that with USA which has $45,800 per capita income and $8.00 per hour (in California). Does any civilized human being live in Kuwait? Or are they all animals running the show there?

This is even worse than slavery. Each of these workers is possibly one of the poorest people in world. Yet they paid as much as $3,500 to middleman in Bangladesh and agents from Kuwait to get legal papers and come here. People don't sell there home and pay that much money to get into slavery. They sold there home or whatever they had to get a job. Now they lost both the job and the home. What a cruel justice to them.

Where are the human right groups? What are they doing? Are we too afraid to ask tough questions to our oil rich "friends"?

We have to start looking at these severe injustices and evil practices if we are looking for real friend in Muslim world instead of extremist. These gross injustices are what create the breeding ground of extremism. When are we going to learn and start acting?

Bangladesh: Are the ghosts of 2006 coming back? Not a chance

2008-06-08T07:47:00.001-07:00

By GM Solaiman

Last few days, I was somewhat unsettled by the news coming from Bangladesh. It seems like we went back to 2006 era. At least that's what the news headline suggested. For a moment I thought, all the newspapers are running old headlines to celebrate some kind of anniversary. But in reality, these are not old headlines. They look like old headline, because these are coming from same old heroines Khaleda Zia and Sheikh Hasina. Two begums are brought in front of justice and given their chance to defend themselves. But they are nicely abusing the freedom of
speech to give us the glimpse of an era that ended by 1/11.

Once again Bangladesh is back in the medieval era, at least in the words of two former prime ministers who were more like queen or princess than people's representatives. They were more like dictators than any democratic leaders. The funny thing is that they never deny it. They may argue differently about their tenure as prime minister. But there can not exist any argument about their position in there party. As a chairperson or president of their parties, they are dictator by the parties' constitution. They captured those positions for more than a quarter-century.

My grandma used to tell us that some bad people and some bad things in life never change, they just won't change. It is like a dog's tail. Even if you put the tail in a straight tube for hundred years, you let it go one day; it will come out as crooked. Here we see a stunning example of that. So many things have changed in Bangladesh in good way after 1/11. But their two leaders of all the crooked in the land are just come out as crooked. They just wouldn't come out straight and realize their faults.

So why are these begums so vocal all of a sudden? The people of Bangladesh knew all along about their crooked dynasties, but they could not do anything about it. Now that they are brought to justice, thanks to 1/11, how dare are they showing the same old attitude? It could be two things in there mind.

First one is suggested by many. Current anti-corruption drive has put many criminals behind the bar. But many more are still running away from justice or in there hideout in overseas with all there corrupt money. Since the current government's two years term is near ending, an election seems very imminent. Removal of emergency power seems very imminent. All the left out hyenas will be back with their corrupt money and muscle power to reclaim the kingdom. Just like the smell of fresh meat brings all the hyenas from their hiding, these corrupt hyenas will be back when time allow them. These two leaders of all hyenas in the land know that. They are now excided about the fact that the time of hardship is coming to an end. They are trying to give this signal to all hiding hyenas that their time is near. Get ready to reclaim the kingdom and back in business for corruption and lawlessness.

Second one is just the opposite. Lot of time has passed by after 1/11. After waiting all these days, they may finally realize that their time is over. Bangladesh is strictly committed to justice. Bangladesh is determined on not to go back to before 1/11 era of corruption, injustice and lawlessness. Bangladesh is determined to end the era of kings, queens, prince and princess. As these champions of corruption realized the end time, they are throwing in a hollow roar just like the hyenas give from inside the cage. This would change nothing.

Whatever is in these crooked leaders mind, the choice to Bangladesh is clear. Corruption must be root out. Reform of political parties must go on, no more party of queen or princess, no more black money. Commitment for establishing justice for all must be intact. Commitment for establishing rules of the people must be solid. Commitment for equal opportunity must be upheld. Commitment for establishing a culture of following rules must be put forward. Commitment for establishing a culture of negotiation and compromise rather than destruction must be agreed upon.

It is not surprising that crooked, corrupt and lawless dark force will never be able to bring these into table. Let these dark forces fall behind and be forgotten. But Bangladesh must go forward.

Bangladesh: Awami League boycotts talks

2008-05-29T14:29:00.000-07:00

By GM Solaiman

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]

Bangladesh: Justice is only for the little people

2008-05-27T20:38:00.001-07:00

By GM Solaiman

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]

Bangladesh: A rush to the election, then what?

2008-05-16T23:27:00.001-07:00

Bangladesh: A rush to the election, then what?
By GM Solaiman
May 16, 2008

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]

Democracy in Bangladesh: of the criminals, by the criminals, for the criminals

2008-05-12T13:19:00.000-07:00

Democracy in Bangladesh: of the criminals, by the criminals, for the
criminals
By GM Solaiman
May 12, 2008

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 is showing a brilliant performance in a difficult time

2008-05-06T14:49:00.001-07:00

Bangladesh is showing a brilliant performance in a difficult time
By GM Solaiman
May 6, 2008

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]

Justice must be served in Bangladesh for two Ex-PM

2008-05-05T14:13:00.001-07:00

Justice must be served in Bangladesh for two Ex-PM
May 5, 2008
By GM Solaiman

In Bangladesh constitution, it is said that every one is equal in the eyes of the law. Bangladesh has been ruled by two democratically elected women for last 15 years. However, both of the former prime ministers have accused the other one for serious corruption. In every meeting they attended, in every press conference they attended, both of them have said that the other one took billions of dollars in corruption. They also have said that if they were elected, they would prosecute the other one. Well, both Hasina and Khaleda got their chances. But they never kept their promises to either prosecute the other one or stop accusing the other. Mean while Bangladesh had been named as the most corrupt nation in the world on their watch. Apparently, all these talks were for one goal in mind. It was to get more votes, to get to the power, and to do more corruption.

Two former prime minister of Bangladesh, Hasina and Khaleda, have been arrested by Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) under anti-corruption drive. The ACC yesterday pressed charges against detained former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia and 10 others for abuse of power and graft in awarding a gas exploration and extraction deal to Canadian company Niko. It is also processing formal charges against another former Prime Minister Sheik Hasina.

In Bangladesh constitution, it is also said to uphold basic human rights. We would like to believe that every one is innocent until proven guilty by a court of law. The case now under proceeding by Bangladesh courts. The due process will revel if they are indeed guilty or not. As a bystander, I am also eagerly waiting for the decision. This would also tell me if they have been telling us the truth when they accused other one to be corrupted. Like any other thing in life, you can use your glass half full or glass half empty scenario here. I believe Hasina should be happy to know that finally charges had been pressed against Khaleda. Can you imagine, for all these years, she have been telling us that Khaleda is corrupt and must be punished. Now it is beginning to happen. Similarly, Khaleda was also telling us that Hasina is corrupt and must be punished. So, here we go, both of them have been charged. Both of them must be very happy. All the inhabitant of a country called Bangladesh now can live happily ever after.

Not so easy. Let us see what is happening in the ground. Today's headline says "Release Hasina soon for polls". This is a demand made by her party leaders. No need to do the court proceeding. No need for justice, just release her. We will take her guilty or not. Same goes for Khaleda's party. They demanded Khaleda's release. Otherwise, they say, they will boycott the upcoming election. They neither have time nor have appetite for any justice what so ever. Just release them! Give the election and hand over the power to one of them. I am not saying they are criminals, at least not before the court rules as so. But how could a major political party demands unconditional release of an accused personal? Don't they have any respect for justice? Don't they have any respect for the constitution? Why don't they demand the same unconditional release for every one held behind the bar? Why don't they demand to dissolve the courts and justice system in the country? Why don't they demand to dissolve the constitution? Wait, if they do, why do we need an election again?

I don't see this type of demand in any other democratic country. Can you imagine this in United States? Say trial is going on in federal courts, but Democratic Party or Republican Party is demanding the immediate release of that person. I believe governor Spitzer of New York must have made a big mistake. He should not have resigned. His party could have always demand that no action should be taken by court. That’s all. Wait, this is united state and it is not the most corrupt country of the world.

Democracy does not mean an election only. It is not a means of getting into power regardless of guilty or not. In a democratic world, people elect their representative to be the law makers. Elected law makers make laws, but what for? So that the law is executed, isn't it? We must execute the law to find and punished the wrong doers. That is the whole point of election. Every political party has to understand and upheld this. If the political party leaders don't obey the law and do not have respect for the law and constitution, why would we need to elect them? What would they do after getting elected?

Justice must be served for these two former prime ministers along with others who are accused. If the court ruled that they are innocents, by all means, they should be free. If the court ruled that they are guilty, they must serve prison time like every body else. We must see that law has been followed. We must see that justice has been served. Only then we need to elect more law makers to make yet more laws. If we do not need any law, we do not need any law makers either.

Two fallacies: Why not catch them ALL? Are YOU good enough to catch?

2007-09-04T16:24:00.000-07:00

Two fallacies: Why not catch them ALL? Are YOU good enough to catch?
Tuesday, September 04, 2007
By GM Solaiman

Two fallacies:
1. Why not catch them ALL?
2. Are YOU good enough to catch?

Some people are not happy about current crack down of corruption in Bangladesh aka war-on-corruption. They “see” lot of problems with it. Most of the folks tell me about two problems.

First one is that why pick and choose? They say that if you arrest and punish them for this or that violation of law, then how come you are not punishing others? They laugh (showing there 32 teeth or 36?) about punishing some of our dons on tax violation? They are like, well, every body defy tax laws in BD. If you can not punish ALL of them, you should not punish ANY.

Second complain I hear is that, WHO are these folks to punish? They are doing the same mistake. They are violating this and that law themselves, they will give some examples. Folks get some how angry at this point, and say CG is not dhowa-tulshi-pata themselves either. They all are same, so no one should punish our corrupt leaders. Let them be free!

Say an officer stop you in the road and give you a speeding ticket. Does it mean that every one that have crossed speed limit also have to get a ticket. Hmm…. May be I will use this excuse next time. Tell the judge that, since law is equal to every one and you have not fined every one who speeds, you can not punish me. Interesting, huh? This is a fallacy I see many of my fellow Bangladeshi for some reason believe. Don’t ask me why, I have no idea.

Here is another fallacy. Think about the officer that gave you the ticket. Is he a perfect man/woman? Didn’t he ever violate any law? How come then HE give me the ticket? What if he get arrested the next day for some sin that he did? Will that make ME any less guilty? I don’t know how this fallacy comes into us either. It’s not between YOU and the OFFICER. It’s between YOU and the STATE. It is between YOU and the LAW.

On a second thought, may be I do have a hypothesis on why we have these fallacies. May be it’s because we have been ruled by our masters for centuries. Masters are not like us in any way (by the skin). And of course masters don’t have any fault, what they DO is the LAW. Problems start to pile on when we are in the arena of self-govern. Now, why the hell you deserve to punish me or judge me, huh? You are almost just like me. The masters were different at least by the skin, you are not. So YOU must have to be some kind of angel to deserve to judge me.

Yeah, I know. May be, there is very weak logic behind this hypothesis. Well, do you have a better one?

“Bangladesh Army”, total leadership and a basket full of rotten apples

2007-09-01T16:30:00.000-07:00

“Bangladesh Army”, total leadership and a basket full of rotten apples
By GM Solaiman
September 01, 2007

I see some people some how love to hate “Bangladesh Army”. They laugh with showing their 32 teeth to see its humiliation. That’s interesting.

If you are still carrying a Bangladesh passport, you must love “Bangladesh Army”. That’s a must do for a citizen of an independent nation. If for some reason, you can not do that, dissolve the army or toss your passport.

Shocked?? Let me explain.

When some of us jumping up and down and saying “Houston, we have a problem” and “we need to fix it, NOW”, we meant the collapse of total leadership in Bangladesh. The state itself is NOT failed (even though some of us are very excited to label it so, where are the inspiration, well, we can understand), but its TOTAL LEADERSHIP has definitely failed. We need to turn it around.

If you are long enough in free air, you probably realized it by now that leadership of a country is not just few ex-PM (aka don makers) and their chamcha ministers (aka dons). The leaders in the business organization, the leaders in the professional organization, the leaders in the arm forces, the leaders in the intellectual community etc are all part of this TOTAL LEADERSHIP of the country. And guess what? They all have failed. They ALL have brought us in this mess of today while we are trying so hard to get out of.

For an example, look at our leaders in shikkok samiti. Yeah, I am talking about those god-makers who some how fall in love with loud speakers. I mean, hey, teachers and loud speakers? Asking students to hold on to the fort and fight like a ……. well, god. That’s just too much, isn’t it? But on a second thought, they are no teachers. They may be in the class room (I am not sure what they were up to in the class room, textbooks or propaganda; I will give them benefit of doubt) they are teachers. But they are actually leaders of a professional organization (teachers association in this case). They are part of total leadership of the country that I was talking about. And just look at them, how pathetic they are. No wonder we are in this mess.

If you just become little less lazy and look around, then you will see that the same pathetic scene in every branch of leadership. If you are with me up to this, we can draw two very important points and I will give my take on these. You probably won’t agree with me, but that’s okay.

First point: If it is the failure of total leadership, why then we (well, some of us) are so mad with our don-makers and their dons? Why them? Good question. My take on this is that I believe very firmly on a saying “first rule of leadership, every thing is YOUR fault”. Who do you think put these clowns in the leading position of teachers association? Who mastermind the choice leaders of bankers? Who mastermind the choice of leaders in FBCC? Who mastermind the choice of leaders in armed force? Who mastermind the choice of leaders in …….well, say ……. beggars union? You got the idea. It all points to our don-makers, isn’t it? So yes, everything is in deed their fault.

Second point: You say, okay okay I got the point. But wait, what about those khaki dictators? I say, what about them? You mean they are BAD. Of course they are! But why are you blaming “Bangladesh Army” for that? Just because they are part of army, is it? Well, please think hard. They are not just member of Bangladesh army. They are the “leader” of army. Just like our loud speaker teacher, they are leader of armed force. They are in deed just few more rotten apples from the basket of TOTAL LEADERSHIP. Of course they are very pathetic too, like the leaders aka rotten apples of other branch of TOTAL LEADERSHIP. No wonder we are in this mess. Just like we should not hate our teachers just because of few rotten apples (leaders) in teacher community, we should not feel negative toward our brave sons in “Bangladesh Army” just because of some rotten apple (leaders) in it.

Bonus point: You say, wait a minute. If I have taken your previous two points, then these saviors of 1/11 are rotten apples too. Why would we support them? What good that will do? I will tell you a secret; don’t tell any one ….shhhhh….. I KNOW. But if one fine morning, few rotten apples from the basket of rotten apple jump up and say enough is enough. Let’s do some clean up. I am smart enough to shut up my mouth. I hope you would be too. This is a game we can’t loose, talking about win-win situation. Because even if they fails in total make over, we will have less rotten apple in the basket to worry about in the day out than in the day in. It’s not the very best, but it’s better at least. If they do succeed, then voila! I can see your fear though. What if these dudes stick around like a pain in the neck like other appear to be good fellow that we have seen. That is a legitimate fear, I don’t disagree. But you see, as long as they keep doing what they are doing i.e cleaning up, I am okay to take that risk. We will have less and less rotten apple in our basket, the TOTAL LEADERSHIP basket will change its label from a basket full of rotten apple to a basket full of fresh apple with FEW remaining rotten apple. Eventually these FEW remaining rotten apples will definitely be over run by all the fresh apples. Right now, what we have is full basket of rotten apple. We just simply can’t accept that. No way.

It would take courage to love the flag and its protector

2007-08-23T22:32:00.000-07:00

It would take courage to love the flag and its protector
By GM Solaiman
August 23, 2007

Before I jump into any discussion, let’s just say I am a very believer of the saying “a nation gets a leader it deserves”. That’s the bottom line. So, no need to get over board. At the end of the day, it will all be fine. If not, at least it will be well justified, as that’s what we deserve any way.

No savior will fall from the sky to give us a golden country. “We the people” have to build one. For that we need to learn how to behave. No nation in today’s world became prosperous because their teenagers go to street and burned some cars. Not in the planet earth. Some other planet; may be, who knows. This is the curse we get from centuries of ruled by foreigners.

Burning down the system, just simply will not works. How many times we have to try it? It is like those smart folks in centuries ago, who were trying to build a divine machine that will give output of energy with out any input. They had no clue what’s they are up against. It’s the thermodynamics law that they had to break, and of course they were no match for it. Likewise, we are no match for law of physics and it’s no different for Bangladesh. The sooner we learn it the sooner we will be free.

We all get so excited talking about 52 and 71. Every thing we do, some how, some people, would like to link it to 52 and 71. That’s great. But that’s also very immature. Why is that? Shouldn’t we learn from our past? Shouldn’t we feel proud about our past heroes? Make no mistake; we should …… as long as we understand that they are “past”. Confused? Let me explain. The heroism in 52, 69 and 71 (you can even go back as early as 1757 and 1857) was for a freedom-less nation against their foreign masters. Just like any classic heroism. Those were to end slavery and to be free. If we can’t feel free, then all those heroes sacrifice will go in vain. Like I said, it’s hard to remove physical slavery. But it is even harder, if possible at all, to root out slavery form one’s mind. Bringing back 52 is not helping, because along comes slavery (in our mind). All the strategy of getting out of slavery just simply fails when we need to use them to build a nation. That’s why probably; the heroes of freedom movements are often a failed nation builder. A stunning example could be Gandhi vs Jinnah/Mujib. I am not a history analyst, but one could go back and analyze the success of “Gandhi to Nehru transition” vs. the failure of Jinnah & Mujib as a nation builder.

I saw some Bangladeshi columnist aka buddijibi getting so nostalgic. To them, so called jolpai rong is synonymous to Ayub khan. In fact every thing is about Ayub Khan to them, either for or against. This is so funny. But I don’t blame them. I feel very pity for them. What can you do? They have born as a slave. No matters how many independence our brave sons bring to them, their mind won’t be free. It’s a curse they can not get out of. They are still kept inside in the independence war. That makes sense. The 71-minus generation, who born as a Pakistani or Indian, are in constant battle inside their mind. The poor fellows feel like they have to prove that they belong to independent Bangladesh. That’s why every thing is about Pakistan-ponthi or India-ponthi to them. It’s like something inside ask them constantly, which side are you in? Who can blame them? I am like, dude, the war is over long ago. Now, just get over with it. I have born into independent Bangladesh. I got only one side. I don’t need no stupid question, stop making fool out of yourself. Freedom is a blessing, not everyone can feel it.

Comparing our brothers and sons who take the oath to protect us, for whom we can say that March 25th of 71 will not repeat, to those of enemy soldiers are not only silly, it’s also unethical. It’s like comparing your brother with the criminal who have just raped your sister-in-law. After all, both of them do the same. ARE THEY??

Just because you & I earned few degrees, does not necessarily make us better then the soldiers. While I headed to buet after HSC, few of my best friends take the oath. I always look up to them (not down) for their courage. My uncle/mama was a very brilliant student, one of the best that I have seen. He joined the force and now he is flying with a Bangladesh flag and bringing peace to world ahead. Trust me; you are not necessarily smarter than him, neither am I. If we judge our nation’s brave sons by few rotten apples aka dictators, we would be very wrong.

It may take a little brain to find pin holes and criticize. It may take an evil mind to push our teenagers in the street and encourage them on burning. But it would take courage to love the flag and its protector.

Messing with gods…………GOD help us!!

2007-08-22T21:01:00.000-07:00

Messing with gods…………GOD help us!!
By GM Solaiman
August 22, 2007

If a Dhaka University student beaten by a soldier is so XYZ that whole country needs to be upside down, then GOD help us!!

I remember when I was a new graduate student in my school in US. One day, a policeman came to the next door. One of my classmates lives there with his wife. Being clueless we rush after the police left. His wife was crying with tears all over her. The poor girl was all alone just listening music. Well, may be little too loud according to one neighbor, that’s all. Apparently all it took is a phone call. Next thing you know, police was banging your door.

WOW, we said. Boy, are these students stupid or coward? In back home, police in our campus?? Ha ha ha. I remember all those “misil” in BUET campus. You know like “campus a police keno, kortipokhkho jobab chai”. Well, that was just the beginning, words gets ugly after a while and campus become kurukhetro.

I got my first lesson that US is no BD, this campus is not even close to buet or DU campus. Here the university has a police camp of its own. Can you believe that? What? Like you still ruled by “british benia”, or what? I came to know about the police camp after getting a parking ticket for apparently violating “front end parking only” sign. Well, that’s a long story, let’s not go there.

In Bangladesh however, DU students are some kind of god. And no one touch god, especially police. Because when you touch god, you are cursed. Who in the hell are brave enough to mess with god? A god beaten by a soldier, wow! By the way, gods doesn’t go to soldier's superior to complain. They don’t go to court to sue you. They don’t write in the news paper, saying Houston, we have a problem here. Are you kidding me?? Those are not god kind of work, are they? Instead, god will simply crash you. That’s what gods do.

NB: By the way if you are one those folks who haven’t done his undergrad in BD, you would probably not understand what I am talking about. For a start, just take this. Our 12th grade pass kids don’t go to university to learn business, law, engineering, medical. Aaa aaa, that’s a no no. They go there to become gods and save the nation. As if we are still in those era when anyone out side of the campus is just as good as a cow, dog or cat. As if, a nation of cow, dog and cats (often associated with the word “bloody” by Brits) is trying to be human in the classroom. As if we are still in the era, when parents don’t teach their kids, but kids come home to teach their parents.

What’s happening and not happening in BUET?

2006-08-14T16:50:00.000-07:00

What’s happening and not happening in BUET?
By GM Solaiman
August 14, 2006

We all know that authorities of the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (Buet) announced the university closed sine die following a violent student movement demanding deferment of examinations. Following that, lot of discussion is going on in all sorts of BUET student and alumni forums all over the world. Here are some points that I believe worth our consideration.

1. Some argue that BUET academic system need to be changed. We need more distribution of marks that reflects in the final grade. Final exam have too much emphasis. It should not be more than 50%. Not that I disagree. But did you remember those all time super heroes in BUET? You know the famous “class test andolon” warriors? How about that? How much time buet students lost for that? BUET teachers knew this long ago but THEY did not let that happen. THEY were proud of that. And oh yeah, we (means you & me) awarded them few seats in BUET “chatra songshod” for that. Did not we? Where are those heroes now? I believe some of them are actually in USA. Let’s draw a line from Silicon Valley to Austin and make them do a nake-khoth? Shouldn’t we? How about those teachers who were making every effort to make them & us understand? Should we make those HEROES eat the shoes of the teachers? I hope that some teachers are saving one of their old shoes for this very occasion. THIS needs to be done FIRST before we go to the teachers and ask for diversify the grade.

2. You think all this is happens because we have 70-80% mark on final exam and BUET student chicken out. That’s funny. There was three months between the end of class and exam date. That was not enough? You guys are right; we must change lot of things in BUET administration. I mean, who admitted these morons in the first place? In my opinion this problem has nothing to do with 70-80% mark on final exam. I don’t go to school anymore, but my wife does. She never had a concept of PL here. She got two 50% weight final exams in the same day, back-to-back or 2 hour apart most of the time. That gives you 50%+50% i.e. 100%. And oh yes, finals are on full syllabus of the class materials. They just had to obey the teachers & school administration. They never thought of an “andolon”. Her American classmates are not as democratic as BUET students are. Are you saying she is far more smatter than me? She will be flattered though. But all those students in USA school are smarter than BUET students? Students all over the world are smarter? Only we are stupid, hah?

4. If you are in Rome, do what Romans do. Well I am in USA. While attending school in USA, I knew and accept that I am in the class room for one and only one reason: get education. All my white, African American, Hispanic who are American citizen were there for the same reason. So I did what American did, which was get my study. American student were not there to change university policy, fix school exam schedule, decide or stop when the next batch of new student should be admitted. Me neither. Hello?? Are those students in BUET trying to be more Christian than Jesus himself? May be my American classmates need to go visit BUET to learn "Democracy". I recently read some students response in Protom-Alo newspaper. They said that they had to do it to stop authority’s decision of admitting a new batch in next semester. Why that is concern of students? That’s none of your business. Students have no business on deciding this. If you like to influence those kind of decision, you batter finish your study as early as possible. Then join BUET as a teacher, get into the decision making body. Who will make decision in a democratic society? Is it some democratic institute and entity with ability and responsibility or is it some kids with stone in their hand? We invested heavily to some how build a democratic society. But did we forget to tell these kids the definition of democracy? As a student in USA, we never have been in decision making of University. Why we should be in BUET?

5. BUET semesters; why can’t they be like any other world class university? Why can’t we have academic year 2006 exam in calendar year 2006? Why can’t we have one semester final in May and the other one in December? You know, like any other University in the world. Final exam of 1992-93 held in 1996? I must be a genius. Otherwise how could I explain this fact? What exactly happened in your country that make your academic calendar screwed for three years?

6. Some argue that BUET is not a distant island. BUET will go the same way education system in Bangladesh go. Well did you ever see that SSC exam of 2005 happened in 2006? How about HSC exam? How come we are okay to complete all the class 1-10 final exam by end of December and start new class in January? Are we were outside of Bangladesh all these time. Suddenly, once we get admission in BUET, we enter in Bangladesh? One current student told me “Hey we never knew that class could be skipped by taking so called auto vacation. We never knew that the final exam date could be changed by mass movement. Who teaches us this? BUET teaches us this, isn’t it?” Well, good argument. But the point is that one batch made a mistake does not mean others have to repeat that mistake over and over. It needs to end, and NOW.

7. How can you explain some students hit and injured a teacher’s wife? How can you explain some students climb up to 4th floor in the teacher residence, kick and slammed the door, and call words like “haramzada”? No jobs after graduation, not enough TA, too much pressure in final exam, father kicked you out home, GF didn’t let you do it, Kala Farooq eloped with your mom, what else? Nothing, NOTHING is enough of a cause. This is beyond any imagination. THIS IS THE PROBLEM. We need to solve this, otherwise all bets are off.

8. If BUET authority punishes those who are responsible to those: Will we the Alumni stand farm on that decision? Will we be able to avoid dividing in party line and start criticizing them depending who is in power at that time? Will the current students be wise, and avoid having more loss of time & money with another andolon for reverting that decision?

9. “Campus a police keno, kortipokkh jobab chai”. I don’t know students use this phrase or not, now a days. But I was used a lot when I was a student. This resonated in the response of few students in prothom-alo. They said they only broke some glasses in cafeteria. And then police attack the students with no notice. They also said, VC will have to pay the price for using police. Let me tell you a story. I was doing my MS then. We lived in an apartment just attached to campus. One day, one of my friends wife, a neighbor, was listening to music, may be with little loud volume. Next thing you know, police is knocking her door. Her husband was not at home, and she was crying. She (and we all) had no idea that police can come for this. Or police can come inside a campus in the first place. Later we found that city police department actually put a police station in the campus. Police car are visible in the campus road most of the time. Mostly they trying to catch you in fault and give you driving ticket. So she had to obey the policeman. All of us, the students were stood there; think how different things are hear. Back home, police in our campus? Our BUET? Oh boy. “Jan-ta hate nia ashte hoito”. Does USA have democracy? Is it really the free world?

10. In my opinion, diversifying marks too much is risky for BUET. We do not have infrastructure to support that. Hiring lots of TA will not solve the problem, rather make it worst. Girls (and boys of BUET) are behaving badly even with teachers. What about TA? Good luck on that. Beside, in BUET we are hiring fresh bachelors as teachers and give them lots of classes. They are in no way capable of handling USA style full control over grade distribution. It will leads to a complete disaster. In USA style teaching strategy, syllabus only has an outline and teacher decides what to teach, how he divides the total mark, how the final grade is calculated, when will be the mid term exam, when will be the final exams, even a final exam is required at all or not. Sometimes they make the final exam optional. But to get to that level, all the teachers have to be either has a PhD or pursuing their PhD with few exceptions. BUET is no way close to that yet. Well, having said that, I believe this is where BUET Alumni can lend a hand. You guys need to go back to BUET and teach. I am sure BUET can make to the top 500 lists very easily. Give it a thought.

11. If we have teachers with PhD, than sure, in that case, we can hire graduate student as TA. Note that this TAs will have higher qualification than the fresh undergraduate that we are hiring today. Huge emphasis in the final exam is the only way BUET can survive without ex-faculty coming back with higher degree. (I know the reason & background behind that, but let’s not go there). Well may be we can have a similar style midterm exam. But than again PL for the midterm, movement for extension, oh boy, thing could get ugly down there. We don’t need to solve world’s problem in a school picnic. I am proud with the BUET standard and never felt that I wasn’t ready for higher education with the knowledge that I got from BUET. I like to congratulate our ex and current teachers and authority for maintaining the standard on final grades that a students receive from BUET with very little resource and experience. I am not saying that we should not change the academic system in BUET. In fact, I am for the change. But we need to evaluate the environment carefully and change such a way that we have infrastructure to support and sustain the changes.
And before making any rule, we need to find people who will obey that rule. That is true for any rule. If you not going to obey it, why bother making it? Change is an ongoing process. We always have to make change for making existing things batter. It will never be perfect, and it is okay to have dissatisfaction. But that does not mean we will disobey what ever there is and broke down every thing. There will be a proper way to make changes. There will be a proper responsible entity to make change. That will be part of already existing system. Without that proper channel
(way+entity), rest of the system must follow & obey the existing system. Breaking it will only make your progress slower.

12. You have to listen, in order to speak and expect that other will listen to you. When you are a leader, go ahead and lead. When you are not a leader, follow your leader. If you are in a deciding body, go ahead and decide. If you are not in a deciding body, accept the decision. It is okay to disagree. It is part of democracy. But there is a thing call “disagree and commit”. You express your disagreement with the decision, but than you accept the decision. Chaotic behavior and bring down the system attitude will only destroy what ever you already have. This is not specific to
BUET though. As a nation, we have this problem like cancer. You have to keep the cycle running, it will purify itself one step at a time. You have to keep the system standing, and use only the proper channel to make changes that will make it batter. It will not happen overnight. All the people will not be changed at a time. But it need to be started at some time, someone need to start it. Why can’t that be now? Why can’t that be BUET? After all, we BUET alumni think, we are the best of the best in Bangladesh. BUET is the top educational institute in Bangladesh. So why can’t BUET start it today, and rest of Bangladesh will follow it tomorrow? Am I shooting it too high?