Shadeshi Bondhu: 22 September 2008

AL, BNP have their games, but you have the power force a trial of war criminals.

Are you willing to excercise that power now? Or you want to postpone it for later? Whenever you decide to do, that could just be the start of making a new order for Bangladesh, we believe.

This is just an assessment of what we want to make happen with greater support of people. Also, we propose something for the readers to respond by replying to the message, if you agree with the proposal. The demand is very simple and clear. Form a commission NOW to try the war criminals of 1971 Liberation War of Bangladesh. And we think that is necessary to heal, establish rule of law and work toward a economically developed Bangladesh.

We usually call upon the readers to forward the articles to different persons, agencies and authorities so they can have a direct measure of support in favour of the issues raised in different articles. However, this article is a direct message to you, the reader. Please take your time to read through the article and reply to your forums/groups to convey your consent to the specific proposal in this article. We would look forward to see the final tally of number of replies to this message. Before we make the actual proposal, let us take few moments to share some thoughts first. You have the power to make it happen. For now, just reply to the message. Our advance thanks to the moderators to approve all those replies, even if the reply messages are blank, since many of our busy readers might just want to reply with a blank message. Just a blank reply will be counted as senders' consent to the proposal.

Its a shame that AL today plays with the honor of the heros of 1971

We have mentioned it elsewhere that the issue of war criminals is something that AL wants to keep unresolved since it helps their politics - thay have no intention to actually try the war criminals. So they did what is helpful for their politics. Trying the War Criminals was not worth the cost for BAL - it seems. So they did not make any attempts to do that when they eventually got to power. Moreover, they are likely to sabotage the issue again if it ever come to the agenda of the government seriously. What's the proof for that allegation?

Well, they have already declared that they will try the war criminals if they go to power. See, "if they go to power" only then they will consider trying the war criminals. Its the known gimick that we have been watching during last two decades.

What we can't understand is what is the reason behind this political unwillingness of AL. Is it possible that the big-wigs of AL are also on payroll of Anti-Bangladeshi lobby? It can't be true that Hasina is reluctant to try those criminals only to save Putul's father-in-law (for his alleged involvement with Razakars). Or it is also not conceivable that Hasina is afraid of those culprits. Rather see the result of not trying them, they still try to do what they couldn't do in 1975 i.e. kill Hasina herself as it is now clearer from the events of August 21.

So, there is only one conceivable answer to this riddle. It is rather a political calculation for the party. They are playing game with the in the name of liberation war. Since AL knows their hollowness of their current leadership who are completely taken over by corruption, they think war-criminal game will give them some extra mileage. They want to be identified with the politics of liberation war which should really be a settled issue by now. But they will not let the nation to resolve the issue, since it helps them to get vote. Shame on AL.

Its a shame that Khaleda's politics is now tailored at Mujahid's shop

Khaleda is really a riddle to many of us. Like many of Mujib's work that has been questioned by many analysts, many often wonders whether Bongobondu did a right thing to force Zia to accept her back after 1971 liberation war. Though its a very personal matter, but we can not but analyze this because both Zia and Khaleda are public personalities and people's everyday life is affected by what she does, what company she keeps.

Take the example of Salauddin Kader Chowdhury - her political adviser. He once said that 'Ek somoi jantam kukur lez narai, ekhon dekhi lez e kukur narai'. In his blunt style, this person was certainly questioning Khaleda's judgement and level of intelligence. However, Khaleda surprised the nation when she appointed the same commentator as her political advisor just few days after the infamous comment. Ironically, this same Khaleda tries to project an image of strong woman. What a joke! Its time for Sa. Ka. Chowdhury like people to stop acting like "kukur er lez" if you really what you try to project to be one, that is, be a leader for yourself instead of demeaning a house-wife of a liberation war hero.

Lately, she has shown her latest tail - that will control her in coming days. That is none other than Mujahid - the Secretary General of Jamatis. So, Mr. Sa. Ka. Chowdhury, you may try to find a new host. See, if Hasina needs any political advisor, after all it has been reported that she lately do not take the advise of Mr. Saber Hossain Chowdhury.

Fakhruddin will go out of his way to (........), but wouldn't establish a commission to try the war criminals, but why?

We left some blank spaces (........) in the sub-headline so that you can fill in your favourite thing that Fakhruddin government did during the last 20-months tenure. To be fair, this is a government in emergency time so he is supposed to go out of their way to fire-fight with many issues that has created the emergency situation. Moreover, two years is a long time for a government to be at the helm and not take many policy decisions. And rightly so, they are taking many policy decisions - though not enough has been done yet. They have even inserted a provision that envisions to stop the war criminals to vye for any public office. However, he is not willing to establish a mechanism that will ensure that this provision can actually be applied in the upcoming elections. Why would he want to do that? We don't know. May be he thinks he can't go in direct conflict with US policy - after all, handling war criminals from 1971 will eventually put the policies of US during that time on trial, too. Moreover, the war criminals of 1971 are now favourite politicians of US diplomats stationed in Dhaka. We don't know whether its Saudi influence OR some stupid policy of Mr. Moriarty's bosses in Wahington. If that is the real reaon, Dr. Fakhruddin, we couldn't disagree more with you.

More importantly, once you have passed the new provision, holding an election will make trial of those elected officials more difficult if government allows the alleged war criminals to contest in polls this time. Do you see the point? There is a law which prohibits war-criminals to contest in the polls. So, if a war-criminal contest a pool and wins an election, there would a lot of Barrister Rafiqul Haque to argue in any future tribunal against it.

If Mujahid was a war-criminal in 1971, he still is and will always be a war-criminal. It has not been ascertained yet. Govt. has a responsibility to take step in that direction. If it does not willingly, people has a responsibility to force it to act.

They think the people all are stupids. But are you?

With this analysis, the only conclusion that can be reached is that Hasina, Khaleda and Fakhruddin - all think that we all are a bunch of stupids!

Hasina won't sit down in any talks with those alleged war-criminals - even if that dialogue or talk is planned to ease some of the difficulties of our daily life. Her party is however happy to contest in elections alongside with those culprits. Why? Because, they are certainly hoping that they will get to power in the upcoming elections. Afsos! She has no idea how playing with this issue is going to hurt AL politics this time around.

Politically speaking, you have only one option and stop playing game with this issue and do what your electorate wants you to do. Voice your demand to try the war criminals, NOW. Form a coalition of political forces that will enforce justice. Otherwise, just as upholding people's aspiration during the late 60s gave AL a position in history, playing with people's aspiration now will force the party to oblivion.

Khaleda will not stop the stray dogs to stop harrassing the people whom she is supposed to protect (Remember, she was the PM for 10 years in BD). She got her family life back through the intervention of Sheikh Mujib, however, she doesn't have minimum decency not to joke with the Mujib's unfortunate demise on August 15 which her puppet (kukur er lez) claim to be her birthday (the third one). Why would she allow that?

She would do that because she doesn't have any self-respect, she is driven by her tails - always - as was succinctly described by Mr. Salauddin Kader Chowdhury. What is the problem, you may ask. It is not a new thing for political leaders to be advised and influenced by her advisers. Thats true, but the problem with her is that she also needs to change her tail very often. Now, the latest tail of her is Mujahid. Shame on you, Madame Prime Minister!

[A side note: Now that we the people, specifically the younger ones are coming to the terms with proper historical perspective, the farce of Khaleda's birthday on August 15 will fade away soon. But be sure that the defeated forces of 1971 will come up with some other story that will enable them to celebrate on August 15 - to keep using the sad event to polarize the nation. Just like AL wants to keep the issue of war criminals alive and unresolved. They feed each other and that way they keep the real issues out of the discussion table. These are exactly the kind of mess that the war criminals envisioned when they planned the killing of intellectuals on December 14, 1971. It's long overdue to deliver justice to them. If you start to analyze any problem on the national level, you will find that one of most important roots of many our problems lies with this issue of justice that is unserved for the few war criminals that still breathes among us. They are very numbered, in some count, it was only 11,000 living culprits back in 1976. Now, it should be much lower if you count the living ones. Current government should no longer hesitate to create the War Crimes Tribunal to try these few that can resolve this very important national issue once and for all.]

Nothing will stop Dr. Fakhruddin to take steps that will ensure the economic uplift of the nation, he tries to make the burecracy dynamic, he made the judiciary free and many more. In doing so, he is not always sure whether the nation and the system is ready for the change. Its important for the system to be ready, otherwise, your good work will back-fire even if that was a good move. All in all, this bureacrat, who was handpicked by Khaleda, is willing to take the risk of making pre-mature changes, arrest two ex-prime ministers and many more. However, he is not ready to initiate the process of identifying the war criminals whom his administration has barred from running for office. More importantly, there are signs abound that says that the nation is ready to tackle the problem NOW.

So, what conclusion could be reached from all these?

A proposal to take back the country - let us start the process by sending a small message to all

We are asking you to support an initiative to force all of them, specifically, how to force Dr. Fakhruddin Ahmed to initiate the process of identifying war criminals so the newly created law can be applied correctly in the upcoming elections.

We want to stop the Dhaka City Traffic for 15 minutes in support of establishing a War Crimes Tribunal. If there is enough interest, we will declare a specific date for the programe. If you are in favour of the idea, reply to the forum with your support and comments.

You can support the initiative in two ways:

1. If you currently live in Bangladesh: On the day of the program, you will have to take your vehicle (own or rent) to one of the major road of Dhaka city and stop the vehicle for 15 minutues (12:30 - 12:45 PM on the designated working day). During the stalled 15 minutes time, you will be asked to show a poster, banner or some other sign that calls for trying war criminals.

2. If you do not currently live in Bangladesh: You will have to convince at least one person to proxy for your support. On the day of the program, your designated person will rent a vehicle and take it to a major road in Dhaka city and stop the vehicle for 15 minutues (12:30 - 12:45 PM on the designated working day). During the time, your supported person will be asked to show a poster, banner or some other sign that calls for trying war criminals. Please make sure that you convince a person who is at least 18 years of age. You should also help pay for the taxi, preferably for the whole day (about 2000 taka).

There should be no for-hire taxi, CNG or Rickshaws left soon after 11 am on the designated day. You hire the vehicle of your choice for two hour and ride it. As soon as the clock hits 12:30 PM, you should stop your vehicle on the middle of the road and show the poster or the banner that you are carrying. However, we emphasize that you should not do anything else but just show the placards demanding trial of war criminals for 15 minutes. Once the clock hits 12:45PM, the event should be considered over. And everybody goes back to their home or offices or school or college or universities or factories to do whatever they are supposed to do and commence a normal day.

3. If you are an artist or designer: Please help us design some good posters, banners in support of the cause and share the designs as attachments so people can print them early. Also, upload the electronic files to the forums' files sections so that everybody can use those designs on the day of the programe. We will announce an appropriate date for the showing, if there is enough support from the readers. So, keep replying to the message with your support.

The demand is very simple and clear. We urge the government to form a commission NOW to try the war criminals of 1971 Liberation War of Bangladesh. We also want to inspire both Hasina and Khaleda to urge the government to do the same, if that is a possibility at all (So far, you two have competed with each other for rubish sentiments while forgeting the main duty of a leader which is to serve. Lets see if you have any heart left at all! That is if you have any intelligence in the first place!!). If the government is unwilling to do that for some reason, you must resign so others who has the will power to do that can come in. We do not want BAL or BNP to play with this issue anymore.

On a different yet relevant note, we want to point out that this would also give us an opportunity to create some more time that will allow for Making a new order for Bangladesh as Farhad Mazhar details in a recent article (see the following attached article).

While we agree with many of his historical points regarding constitutional continuum and the need for creating a new order, we however, want emphasize that the creation or existance of Bangladesh does not depend on a piece of paper - rather it is the people of Bangladesh who thinks they are the proud citizens of a free nation - they constitute the nation. Moreover, anyone could point to some strong developed countries (e.g. UK) without having a formal constituion. We might have a faulty one at the moment, but the current circumstances gives an opportunity to fix that if we are upto it. You have to just read the constituation. During next three years, a socially acceptable, more diverse collective leadership can fix as much as possible and the collective leadership can also decide to relinquish the authority and go for another vote as soon as our institutional reforms are in place and working with a reasonable stability. At the same time, the collection leadership would exclude any person who is alleged to be a war criminal and a commission will work simultaneously to exonerate or punish those who are being castigated as war criminals. That way we would put this issue to rest and not allow it to be a matter of play by the hollow-speaking politicians.

If we accept the argument that the fault in the structure is responsible for creating the problems, which culminated into the 1/11 events, than the current situation gives us the opportunity to fix that. Without going into too much details and too many forecasting, it can be safely said that this particular call for action could just be the start of that Making a new order for Bangladesh ! Just speak up your heart and that's what your country needs from you.

Reply to this email to support the proposal. A concrete programme will follow in due time.

If you thought some of the ideas are worth of your reading time, please forward it to others who might be interested in the proposal. B4 we finish, let us convey the greetings of Holy Ramadan. May Allah allow us to use this holy month to purify our soul so that we can undo the long overdue unjustice.

Thanks for your time,
Innovation Line

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Note: This is a freelance column, published mainly in different internet based forums. This column is open for contribution by the members of new generation, sometimes referred to as Gen 71. If you identify yourself as someone from that age-group and want to contribute to this column, please feel free to contact. Thanks to the group moderator for publishing the article as Creative Commons contents.

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Making a new order for Bangladesh

By Farhad Mazhar

1
MAKING a new order for Bangladesh implies remaking Bangladesh politically. If we decide to continue with a state which is thoroughly undemocratic, dictatorial and dangerous for our life, liberty and prosperity, we are destined to be ruined. So, simple common sense can guide us to realise that we can neither continue with the present or nor could we go back to the order that was prevailing before January 11, 2007. For the same reason we cannot subscribe to the idea of 'constitutional continuity'; it implies that all we need now is an election with the participation of all political parties for a parliament to pass a bill in order to retroactively provide constitutional legitimacy to the present unconstitutional government, including all their acts and decisions that are far beyond their jurisdiction. To make a new order, we must start contemplating a new but authentic democratic state with a new democratic constitution. Running the wheels backward will take us nowhere. Whether we are able to change the course of politics is not the point now. In the context of the present reality, the idea must arrive first, before we can start thinking about the strategy and tactics to realise the idea.

An election in order to indemnify the present regime and to re-elect corrupt politicians is not on the people's agenda. Popular sovereignty is the major concern and people want change; instead of partisan rule of anti-people and anti-democratic elite political parties, they want popular and democratic power with corresponding institutions to exercise the right to participate in the decisions of the state at all levels. People are against the present regime because it is against politics in general and destroying the very fabric of the polity. But people are also against the political parties because they are still refusing to act politically and still dreaming to act as economic syndicates to plunder Bangladesh as soon as they come to power through election; they may end up bringing anarchy and violence rather than resolving genuine political difference that exists among people.

Authentic political transformation is not only necessary to enjoy the sovereignty as a member of the political community and liberty as citizens, but the major precondition to prosper in a highly competitive global economy. To act responsibly with dignity in the regional and global affairs, Bangladesh must be constituted as a new state based on popular will and determination. An authentic political transformation of Bangladesh is in the interest of the global community as well, if they are indeed concerned about security, anarchy, violence and the failure in governance. But they cannot deny the right to resolve political problem by the people themselves, which they have already done by installing and supporting a regime that has no legitimacy or capacity to resolve the crisis.

People of Bangladesh are aware that 'sovereignty' of the states in the era of globalisation is undergoing radical transformation. No one in the global community is an island or independent of others. Nevertheless, the concern is whether we should submit ourselves to the logic of the world market and dictates of other stronger states or determine our interests by ourselves. We need a position in the international division of labour that ensures our economic prosperity and security and safeguards our natural, biological, social and knowledge resources. We must address threatening challenges of food shortages, precarious situation of health and nutrition, environmental and ecological destruction and unequal distribution of wealth and resources.

People are not against election, they are against the farce that might take place to provide legitimacy to the present regime. This is the crucial site of the political contention. If Bangladesh intends to move forward the only meaningful option is to find ways to constitute Bangladesh to effectively deal with popular concerns: protection of life, livelihood and dignity. The present state is already a threat to the life and livelihood of the people. Global and regional realities are reinforcing this threat.

How could we go about to constitute popular sovereignty, is a question that must be addressed, but for the sake of brevity, we will dwell mainly on the idea of an authentic republic. The sovereign will of the people may be mobilised in the streets through demonstrations and various forms of resistance against undemocratic and unconstitutional forces by the people; they are constantly fighting against fascists, communal and anti-people elements, anti-democratic classes, forces and tendencies. History teaches us that this is the path people generally take. This is the brewing period, when all other liberal spaces are exhausted and the culmination usually takes form of popular insurgency. Popular will and determinations are formed through public meetings, workshops, and seminar or even in popular discussions known as adda. Popular media plays very important role in this regard. Election may be one of the tools to constitute democratic polity; for example, if people succeed in their endeavour to overthrow the undemocratic order, they convene a constituent assembly elected by the people. The authentic polity usually emerges through radical break from the existing undemocratic order.

Election is not an abstract game. Election to constitute a new order, i.e. constituting an authentic republic, after the victory of the people is not the same as elections as we see in an actually existing state. Qualitatively and politically they are different types. The present state of Bangladesh was constituted by people who were elected to the Pakistan constituent assembly. The founding document of Bangladesh is known as 'The proclamation of independence', declared in Mujibnagar on April 10, 1971. It says: 'Whereas free elections were held in Bangladesh from 7th December 1970 to 17th January 1971, to elect representatives for the purpose of framing a Constitution ....we the elected representatives of the people of Bangladesh, as honour bound by the mandate given to us by the people of Bangladesh whose will is supreme duly constituted ourselves into a Constituent Assembly.' Politicians who were elected in 1970 under the constitution of Pakistan, as Pakistanis, are self-declaring themselves as the member of the Constituent Assembly of Bangladesh, sitting in India and at a time when liberation war is only beginning. The people of Bangladesh have been deprived to constitute themselves through their own representative in the liberated Bangladesh. This is the 'original sin' of the founding act of Bangladesh. Time has arrived again providing opportunity to correct the course of history.

Election of the constituent assembly after the victory of the people is to 'constitute' the state; its primary task is to draft a constitution. In the democratic state with a democratic constitution, election is meant to exercise democracy that already exists in the form of the democratic state. Parliamentary or local government election to elect the people's representative to take decisions at various levels and organs of the state is not the founding act of democracy as the election of the constituent assembly. We need to perform our authentic founding act in order to constitute Bangladesh, from which we are deprived till today. We need to have a democratic state first to exercise democracy in elections. If the state is unconstitutional, undemocratic, anti-people and communal by nature, it is irrelevant if election is 'free, fair or inclusive'.

Election is not democracy. The people of Bangladesh want democracy and that is the prime reason why they do not want to go back to January 11, 2007. We do not need a parliament now to stamp unconstitutional acts as 'constitutional', a farce that we must reject. But this is the only constitutional 'exit' that the present regime will seek and fight to avail by all means. So making a new order is indeed on the political agenda of Bangladesh. People may have different perception of the kind of change they cherish and expect. Such perceptions are generated from various class and gender positions. Given the task ahead we can identify the role they might play in the future theatre of our national politics.

   Making new order demands that we start to contemplate to constitute ourselves politically, start thinking about the state to come. Present order must be demolished and we must start thinking what type of state we need, given our experience since 1971. We need a new republic that can defend our lives and livelihood, ensure us freedom and human rights, protect our environment and ecology, reorganise trade and international relations for collective prosperity and install strong and independent judiciary to stand by the oppressed against exploitation and injustice. Making a new order implies initiating a process that can culminate into the decisive political act of founding Bangladesh on the authentic democratic constitution. We can start by claiming the sovereignty of the popular will making the second birth of Bangladesh imminent, transcending the present disorder.

   2
   INTERNATIONAL power is directly responsible for the present unconstitutional order of Bangladesh, not only because some powerful states constantly intervened into the internal political affairs of the country but also because they are lacking critical assessment of the development policies they have been implementing since independence. It is important to wake up to the fact that Bangladesh is an obvious example of blatant failure of development experiment. International power including their donors must take responsibility for this failure rather than blaming (1) 'two ladies' (Khaleda Zia and Sheikh Hasina), (2) conflictual political culture of Bangladesh (arguing often in racist terms as if it is a genetic defect of the people of Bangladesh) and (3) fear of Islamic takeover (without addressing the most critical question of how to engage Islam in democratic state building). The country is still economically surviving because of the domestic and migrant working people and progressive entrepreneurial ethics of people ready to take lead in economic development. While working masses are courageously struggling with their sweat and blood to keep the economy running, the entrepreneurs have to learn diligently from the intense competition and survival strategies in a 'friendless' world. The political survival draws strength from the creative attitude to life and reality and hope in a better future, but most importantly, in the ability to make best efforts to get the bests from the existing political opportunity, such as casting the votes in the right box if scope is provided.

Bangladesh inherits the political culture of 1971, the culture of forging political unity when moments arrive and unitedly they can stand against the enemy of the people. If people of Bangladesh consider international power as their 'enemy' and primary hindrance in achieving democracy and economic prosperity, it is because of their failure in making honest efforts to understand Bangladesh. The economic, social, cultural and political aspirations of the people of Bangladesh have been systematically ignored and interventionist development policies and programmes have been implemented destroying the very fabric of society. Exploiting poor with high interests from credit money has been touted as poverty alleviation and women's empowerment. The contradictions and antagonisms such exploitation installs in the rural areas, creating conditions for negative political tendencies, have been awarded with 'peace prize'. In the area of environment, ecology, biodiversity, agriculture, nutrition, health – one can pick up any sector, rampant corruption introduced by development agencies, accomplished both by multilateral and bilateral development partners, essentially to serve economic interest of the developed countries. The health policy that has been drafted precisely aims to totally dismantle primary health care and forego the gains of the Drug Policy of 1982 in order to privatise healthcare services only for the rich and allowing pharmaceutical companies to dictate the price of medicine. Health has been turned into a private industry, totally disregarding the need of the people. The task of ensuring food security has been systematically taken over from the farmers and given to trans-national corporations. The systematic destruction of farmer's seed systems to replace with company's commercial seeds is alarming and accelerating destruction of farming by forced introduction of hybrids and GMOs. Recently the concerns regarding climate change has been elevated to a kind of 'development industry'. Rather than addressing the flaws in development policies and addressing the challenge of climate change in social and economic context, a crisis of global dimension, suddenly all problems of Bangladesh are being reduced into a problem of Mother Nature. Bangladesh is going to be inundated with the rise of the sea level and it is argued that to meet this climatic (natural) disasters, the people of Bangladesh must 'adopt' their lives to the dictation of the international donors, so that lifestyles of the rich countries can go on as usual. Such interventionist policies, explicitly intending to shift the debate from the socio-economic, political and lifestyle ground to natural calamities are posing serious national threats to the people of Bangladesh. These examples are enough to indicate the responsibility of the so-called 'development partners' and their countries should immediately stop ridiculous charges and blame games.

A converging position is easily available to the people of Bangladesh and the democratic people of the world. If we are ready to respond to the call of the people of Bangladesh that they do not want to be ruled and exploited by their own corrupt politician and political system and similarly they do not want to fall prey to any form of destructive extremist politics that will throw them into an abyss, permanently damaging their hope to be part of the global community, enabling environment must be created for creative and positive dialogue. To make a new order the people of Bangladesh must also realise that while they have serious contradictions and antagonisms with the international powers and the donor community, particularly their development policies and interventions, and therefore they must oppose the constant political intervention into the internal affairs, they also have a major stake in convincing international community and the citizens of the world that it is the global spirit of friendship and understanding that could keep Bangladesh strictly in a positive track record. Any narrow and closed politics of identity based on religion, culture, language, ethnicity or whatever could displace us from realising our aspiration as a political community. This is the reason why I insist on the notion of 'political community' and prefer to avoid the old and ambiguous notion of nation-state to identify our present task. The notion of 'nation-state' assumes that imagining of a people as nation, defined by ethnicity, religion, culture or language, etc, can inevitably justify their culmination into a political state. In the era of globalisation the life and the conditions of life itself is threatened and intense global competition in the market and constant intervention of the weak by the strong states is a permanent threat that can only be addressed by inaugurating Bangladesh with strong democratic and participatory foundation. Bangladesh needs to constitute into a sovereign power in the form of a political state where people are citizens and their rights are protected by the democratic constitution explicitly stating that it is the constitutional responsibility of the state to ensure protection of life and livelihood not only from external threats and enemies, but also from domestic threats that kills us, most importantly, destruction and erosion of environment, ecology, biodiversity and genetic resources. State must protect the conditions of life as the founding principle of the constitution, such as the security of environment, ecology and biodiversity. New Bangladesh must provide food, water, housing, clothes and health – the basic requirement of life without hindering people's own efforts to ensure these for them. The new state must protect dignity and individuality of persons and all the fundamental rights of citizens. We need strong judiciary capable to take decision without any intimidation from executive or the law makers' organ. All citizens should enjoy these rights irrespective of their religious, ethnic, linguistic or other cultural identities. This is the reason I would always like to insist that we must go beyond the stereotype and poor and imprudent intellectual exercise of framing the political problem of Bangladesh as a conflict between the secularists and the Islamists. Our enemies are those classes and forces who are constantly frustrating our efforts to create an enabling political culture where the necessity of reorganising, rethinking and putting forward a precise and pragmatic futuristic option is accelerated and strengthened. These enemies are present in the so-called 'secularist' camps as well as in the 'Islamist' camps.

There are a large number of old Cold War allies of the United States among the so-called 'Islamists', faithfully serving the warmongering global power breeding violence, war and death, since cold war legacies are not over, but the international community and the development agencies indulged in bitter campaigns against the people of Bangladesh blaming that we are harbouring Islamist terrorists and accusing that Bangladesh is changing from a secular to an Islamic state. The imperial interventionist powers want us to remain divided as secularists and Islamists in order to play with us with our ignorant obsessions and infantile idiocy, while they can reconfigure Bangladesh into a security state under their dictation to conduct their war against terrorism. The event of January 11, 2007 is not accidental but continuity of the implementing process of this strategy and completion of the process started much earlier to take over national agencies responsible for security and intelligence to serve international security needs.

Rather than letting the toiling masses decide their politics and polity – allowing them to create their own political narratives of democracy and people's power in order to defend their rights as citizens and decide the path to social, economic and cultural transformation – the international power is engaged in a dangerous game of dividing the country between the so-called 'secularists' and 'Islamists'. Their developmental and political intervention, dictated by the paranoia of real or perceived Islamist threat and mobilisation of classes and forces into such stereotype binary opposition will soon throw them into deep and irreversible political and development crisis. It is mainly because the people did not buy this binary antagonism, but rather identified the international power, particularly the development community, as the real threat to realise their democratic aspirations. While it is definitely true that Islam can be abused and used against the spirit of individual freedom and political democracy, it is also true that it has been used as a tool in the Cold War against the progressive and democratic aspiration of the people. Some forms of Islamism, institutionalised and politically strong, are still strong allies of the US not only in the 'war against terrorism', but in opposing popular movements and aspirations of the people. People are capable to identify them. Since the cold war legacy is not over in Bangladesh. Islamists still hate the so-called 'communists' and similarly the so-called 'secularists' or the 'communists' thrive on Islam phobia and hatred against Islam.

So, posing secularists against Islamists is a politics that we must avoid, deny and oppose if we are at all serious in making a new order. These are old legacies and old habits of uncritical mind and politics of imperial war. We must engage with both secularists and Islamists to win them in favour of the present task: constituting popular sovereignty in Bangladesh. People's enemies will be decided by who opposes our present tasks. The world has changed and European religions, values and political ideas are not the only resources available to civilisation. Islam and Islamic civilisation, like other religions, are part and parcel of world history. We are rich and graced not only by Islam, Bangladesh must not give up her right to the grand resources of Hindu, Buddha, Jaina and all religious and spiritual traditions. Constituting popular sovereignty means that people do not recognise any other authority to interpret religious, moral, political, social, economic and cultural texts and histories but the popular will. A separate and independent authority beyond the will and the determination of the people is contradictory to popular sovereignty. As long as we refuse to accept authority of any person to misread or interpret sacred texts to pose them against the interest of people we will be able to absorb our spiritual and knowledge practices into our democratic political culture and practices.

It is time that the people of Bangladesh start thinking how to make the donors and development agencies accountable to them, but in addition and most importantly, to the respective countries' taxpayers. Evidence suggests that local diplomatic missions played crucial role in bringing about the present military-backed extra-constitutional takeover and consequent military-controlled regime. International community now must take the responsibility for the mess they have created. International media and some think-tanks are repeatedly designating this change as 'military rule', despite the civilian facade. Although there is no mechanism available to the people of Bangladesh to make powerful countries accountable for their role, it is important that we must learn to demarcate concerns and tasks in contrasts to their designs and objectives. We will definitely be supported by the people around the world who are committed to democracy and justice.

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Monday, September 22, 2008

[Shadeshi_Bondhu] Fw: How to Sleep in Office Hours?

[Shadeshi_Bondhu] AL, BNP have their games, but you have the power force a trial of war criminals.

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