Not the people’s princess

Naeem Mohaiemen

Published in the Daily Star (14 mar 2008)

Death by assassination confers a saintly halo, especially on this subcontinent with a craving for dynasties, heroes, fathers and kings. Consider the hosannas for Benazir Bhutto in, of all places, the Bangla media. And now will that halo transfer to Zardari as the new emperor-king of the family business known as PPP.

The western Benazir fetish is comprehensible because she wore comforting markers (pitch-perfect English, British governess, convent schooling, Harvard/Oxford degree). A “kleptocrat in Hermes scarves,” but she was still “one of us.” But should we on this side of the border know the Bhutto legacy a little better?

Star Wars and Bangladesh

Jyoti Rahman

Published in the Daily Star (18 Mar 2008)

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…
Thus begins Star Wars, one of the highest grossing movie series in history that also provide powerful insights into political economy, insights that have tremendous relevance to our own time in a country very, very close to our hearts. “No” to a bureaucratic state or any council with extraordinary powers, “yes” to a decentralised democratic republic — that’s what we learn from Star Wars, and they apply very much to today’s Bangladesh.

Before proceeding, let’s remind ourselves about the series.

Swadhin Bangla Betar Kendro and Bangladesh’s Declaration of Independence

Mashuqur Rahman and Mahbubur Rahman Jalal

Published in the Forum (Mar 2008)

Soon after the Pakistan army took over Dacca Betar Kendro in the early hours of March 26, 1971. The Pakistanis renamed the radio station “Radio Pakistan Dacca” and used it to announce martial law orders. The Pakistan army’s attempt at silencing the voice of the Bengalis had begun. Bengalis, however, fought back. The war of Bangladesh’s Liberation had begun.

On the evening of that same day a small radio station started broadcasting defiantly in the face of the Pakistan military’s bloody onslaught on the Bengalis. The clandestine radio station, located in Kalurghat, north of the city of Chittagong, declared to the world: “The Sheikh has declared the 75 million people of East Pakistan as citizens of the sovereign independent Bangla Desh.” The station called itself Swadhin Bangla Betar Kendro.

Handle With Care

Mahmud Farooque

Published in the Forum (Mar 2008)

In late December, our progressive, chattering classes — in political addas, opinion pages and the blogosphere — recoiled almost instantaneously in disgust and disbelief upon learning that 19-year-old Bilawal Bhutto was designated to succeed his assassinated mother at the helm of the Pakistan People’s Party, leaving the leadership of the party in the hands of the third successive generation of its founding family.

However, a comparable outrage by the same group was remarkably absent in considering the implications of a Hillary Clinton candidacy, which, if successful, would mean a Bush or a Clinton has been on the US presidential ballot for 28 years and counting. There is an internet site called Bush-Clinton Forever that charts a possible roadmap of keeping either a Bush or a Clinton in the White House till as far as 2057!

So why does the prospect of a Hillary Clinton presidency not raise as many eyebrows among our progressive opinion-makers as does the prospect of a Bilawal Bhutto prime ministership?