Bangladesh Today the Chaos, should Democracy be the goal? Is corruption really to blame?

Question

Kemon Achho
I am stunned ay how the spiral downward began and ended with the present day state of affairs in Bangladesh.
Of course I do not live there and read only what I seek online regarding the things that are happening with the parties and the people.

After such elation over the Nobel Prize going to a philanthropist , I was stunned at how quickly things unfolded.

How many people can the jails hold. What is the limit to how far things can go? Is a military take over at hand? Democracy is not for all?

I know some wonderful people from Bangladesh and feel their anxiety and pain from worrying about relatives who might be accused of corruption and or other actions against the people and government.

Give some input. I appreciate other perspectives and all opions are welcome.

I live in the US and we have corruption on the grand scale as you know.
Why are even retired party members being accused, and what is the benefit of arresting so many?

Answer 1

Hello and Sala'm, Aami Bhalo Aachhi, Dhannobad! Aaponi Kemon Aachhen? Asha Kori Bhalo Aachhen!!

Now coming back to the question raised by you, please find my a bit lengthy response in the following lines:

The spiral downward began right from the day the then Bangladesh Nationalists Party led by Khaleda Zia won majority seats in the first free-and-fair general election held after the ouster of notorious General Ershad back in 1991. The AL started conspiring against the government led by BNP right from the Day-1 of its formation and Sk. Hasina said it on-record in the first session of the parliament that she would not let BNP and its government rule the country peacefully. What can we make out from such naked and uncivilized official statement on the inaugural day!

The defeated party Awami League (AL) could not stomach the defeat in good spirit both in 1991 as well as in 2001 when BNP got the majority, the way one can see Western Democracies work where the defeated party chief would accept the outcome of the verdict and congratulate the winning party and its head. Ironically, the same Sk. Hasina of AL was in all praise when her party won majority seats in the general election of 1996!

This jealousy between Sk. Hasina of AL and Khaleda Zia of BNP was the root cause of the debacle of Bangladesh till 11th January 2007 when the State of Emergency was declared by the President as per the constitution of Bangladesh. You may have seen unfolding of the drama from the 'surface level' that ended with the present day state of affairs in Bangladesh when ultimately both of these so-called democratically elected leaders are cornered by present government, to weed out corruption and nepotism from our life, due to their own follies and now their beloved leaders and lackeys are languishing in the jail awaiting trial for their misdeeds.

AL is basically a party now-a-day manned (also women-ned!) by militant activists, meaning they would sort out problems by using 'muscle force' and they have set-up of very well organized hierarchy in almost all the strata of our national as well as international circles. These hirelings would orchestrate any sort of 'campaign' to do mudslinging and defamation of their opponents as well as to their own country, if that would suit their strategy.

Look what they tried to do with Dr. Md. Yunus after he was honored with the Nobel Peace Prize. These traders-of-politics (both BNP and AL) smelled their doom in Yunus's success and if he would float a party of 'civilized' minds and the dirty-politicians would get a back-seat in national politics.

The newly formed Neutral, Non-party Caretaker Government headed by its Chief Advisor Dr. Fakhruddin Ahmed with 10 of his Advisors from the middle of January-2007 have been doing an extremely delicate job of pulling Bangladesh out of the mess created by these dirty politicians at the sweet whim of AL leader Sk. Hasina, who would not cooperate with BNP leader Khaleda Zia at any level at any meaningful way till the BNP is drop-dead party, as per her wishful thinking. Now that Hasina saw her foolishness of non-cooperation with BNP within the gambit of the constitution, she has toned down her attack on BNP for her mare survival.

This lady – Sk. Hasina would be remembered in our history as the grand spoiler for her numerous acts both overt and covert to malign and destroy Bangladesh, particularly its economy and constitutionally sanctioned institutions like Election Commission, Supreme Court and Office of the President of Bangladesh. Meaning, she helped in destroying the Judiciary, legislative and administrative organs of the state in the name of restoring Democracy of her likings.

So, please do not get distracted by “How many people can the jails hold” if the corrupt persons are eliminated after due process of Justice then chances are, we may not get place on the dubious-honor list for the 6th time as published in Transparency International – Berlin for 100+ of most corrupt nations on the earth.

When we the Bangladeshi people started seeing ray of hope we can see many in Western countries are asking same thing like “What is the limit to how far things can go? Is a military take over at hand? Democracy is not for all?”.

Please do not worry much about our Democracy now, as our people were living with indignity and without food, clothing, water, electricity, medicines, education and bare minimum shelter to live with their near and dear ones during the past years under to so-called democratically elected Leaderships (read Cheat) who were shedding crocodiles tears in the name of public (Janagan) when they were making frequent foreign tours with large numbers of their lackeys in the tow and amassing wealth inside as well as in foreign lands which are now being investigated and unearthed.

I myself underwent lots of anxiety and pain during the last ten years (5 years under the BNP and 5-years under the AL) so-called democratic rule whereby my business and livelihood has been snatched by these so-called politicians and their draconian rules which made us poor even though we did not take any loan from Bank nor were any types of defaulters. The so-called Party men (also women) had their days in winning or ruining anybody they had animosity and they used their ‘power’ ruthlessly.

There were no transparent forum where we could narrate our owes to the Government and get redress, except the High Court Division of the Hon’ble Supreme Court of Bangladesh, from where on our filing Writ Petition we got interim Orders, Rules and Injunctions issued upon the 5 different Government machineries (total 8 Rules and 2 Stay Orders) who wanted to ruin us on false allegations lodged by our competitors and estranged relatives; those timely interventions by the Judiciary ultimately saved us from the clutches of these Hyenas - doglike flesh-eating mammals, from getting us and our Company having completely ruined and bankrupted!

By the way, our these so-called politicians of both AL and BNP are also getting benefit of the Rule of Law when they are out of power and getting some recourse from their perceived injustices being done by the present Caretaker Government by moving their grievances in High Court Division of the Hon’ble Supreme Court of Bangladesh, whom they would despise and pass sneer remarks against the Justices and their Rulings during their heydays. This is particularly true for the clever AL and its old-fashioned leaderships headed by megalomaniac Sk. Hasina, who was cautioned by the Highest Court of Bangladesh as being a 'wrong headed' person when she was the sitting Prime Minister of Bangladesh and would pass comments on why bails were granted to her opponents and such matters.

Sorry for making the input a bit lengthy and would like you to read “Weekly Holiday” at www.weeklyholiday.net and such publications whereby you may get to read the facts, which are otherwise tarnished by the partisan newspapers and electronic media controlled mostly by the AL and its sympathizers.

PS. Very well said 'Angry C" above.

Answer 2

Doesn't it all boil down to control? Whichever faction has the momentary upper hand, aren't they going to institute whatever policies, procedures, rules and regulations they deem appropriate?

Even in a so-called democratic society such as the United States, are we not also being controlled by the powers that be? Granted, we're not exposed to widespread genocide because in this country we still have the 2nd Amendment that gives the people the right to keep and bear arms against all aggressors, foreign or domestic.

Your last sentence asks, "...what is the benefit...?" The benefit is to instill fear (in the citizenry), gain absolute compliance, and ultimately have total control.

But let me play devil's advocate. If Germany, Japan, Mexico and Canada got together and decided they don't like the way things are in the United States, do they have the right to try and change what's going on in this country? Just some food for thought.

plrr