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Third time's a charm

 

Human Rights Report
The new cabinet that was sworn in on January 7 represents a mixture of youth and experience, although most of the attention was drawn by the new members. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, in this run of three consecutive terms, had already displayed a flair for choosing the right person for the job by the time of her second cabinet. Her third cabinet would seem to continue in that vein.
Awami League general secretary Obaidul Quader said members of the new cabinet must deliver as per the election pledges of the party to retain their positions in the cabinet.
"Our Prime Minister is very serious about performances of the cabinet members. Her decision will be strict in this regard. Those who will fail to deliver will lose their positions," he said while talking to reporters at the secretariat.
While forming the new cabinet, the Prime Minister gave emphasis on those districts from where there had been no minister for a long time and the new faces have been picked from those districts, he said.
"The people of the country have taken the new cabinet positively. The cabinet involving new and old ones will be more dynamic," said the AL leader.
Responding to a question about the cabinet size, Quader said it might be expanded in the future.







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BHRC & IHRC Human Rights Report on January 2019 in Bangladesh

Total 185 persons killed in January 2019

Human Rights Report:

The documentation section of Bangladesh Human Rights Commission (BHRC) and International Human Rights Commission-IHRC jointly furnished this human rights survey report on the basis of daily newspapers and information received from its district, sub-district and municipal branches. As per survey it appears that 185 peoples were killed in January, 2019 in all over the country. It proves that the law and order situation is not satisfactory. Bangladesh Human Rights Commissions extremely anxious about this situation. In the month of January, 2019 average 6 people were killed in each day.
The Law enforcing agencies and related Govt. departments should be more responsible so that percentage of killing January be brought down to zero level. To institutionalize the democracy and to build human rights based society the rule of law and order must be established everywhere. Through enforcing rule of law only such violation against human rights can be minimized.
It appears from documentation division of BHRC:
Total 185 persons killed in January 2019
Killing for dowry 6, killing by family violence 17, Killed due to social discrepancy 64, Political killing 9, Killed by Law enforcing authority 18, Killed due to BSF 5, Killed due to doctor negligence 5, Abduction 8, Assassination 5, Mysterious death 36, Women & Chilled killed due to rape 10, Killed by Acid throwing 2.
Killed by several accidents: Killed by road accident 263, Suicide 19.
Besides victims of torture: Rape 40, Sexual Harassment 3, Torture for Dowry 5.



 

Rakhine's troubles spill over

AKM Moinuddin

Human Rights Report:
A Rohingya refugee boy in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh. File photo
Despite Bangladesh's "serious efforts" to resume the halted repatriation process, the recent deteriorating condition in Rakhine State of Myanmar has brought "much worries" among all concerned, clouding the repatriation prospects.
More Rohingyas, not in a big number, entered Bangladesh territory in recent days amid the further deteriorating scenario in Myanmar.
In recent weeks, the intensification of violence between the "Arakan Army" and the Myanmar Army has led to increased humanitarian consequences for the civilian population and caused displacement of nearly five thousand people in Rakhine and Chin States.
"The situation is fragile there where Rohingyas were supposed to go back. We'll certainly want to start the repatriation process," Refugee, Relief and Repatriation Commissioner (RRRC) Mohammad Abul Kalam told our sister newsagency UNB.
At the same time, he said, it is right to say that it is a matter of worry to see the deteriorating scenario instead of significant improvement in the place of origin of Rohingyas. "So, there's reason to be worried about."
Responding to a question, RRRC Kalam said they have heard about few new entry but they are yet to verify it fully to determine the numbers. "It's under verification process."
Neighbours' role important
Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen has said the Rohingya issue will remain a priority one for the government mentioning that there should be an "obligation" for all neighbouring countries to make sure that the regional stability is protected. "I think this problem won't be solved easily. So, we've to overcome many hurdles," he said.
Emphasising the importance of stability and development in the country and beyond, the Foreign Minister said if stability prevails, development will take place and everyone will be benefited from it (stable atmosphere).
Minister Momen also urged all the neighbouring countries to work together for ensuring regional stability.
Asked whether the government will move ahead to resume the halted repatriation process in line with the already signed bilateral agreement with Myanmar or there will be new mechanisms, Momen said he needs to study it further in details.
He supported Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's five-point proposal placed at the UNGA over finding an amicable solution to Rohingya crisis but noted that the international community could not play its due role on those very good proposals.
The Foreign Minister thinks the international community did not perform their responsibility properly though Bangladesh showed its generosity giving Rohingyas shelter on humanitarian ground.

 

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Is it a good time to be middle-class in Bangladesh? 
 

Afsan Chowdhury

The people especially the youth of the country motivated by secular ideologies came out to Shahabagh Square in Dhaka to demand justice for the victims of the 1971 liberation war (Internet)
Is it a good time to be middle From 1947 to 1971, politics was largely dominated by middle-class leadership and issues. The most iconic one was the Language movement - 1947-1952 - which mixed two of the greatest middle-class concerns - elite text culture and economics particularly access to salaried jobs.
The decision by the Pakistan government to make Urdu the only state language was one of the most self-destructive decision ever. It ignited the already unhappy middle class of East Pakistan into large scale protests with no options left. Their job markets were about to be severely slashed by excluding Bangla as one of the state languages.
Their entry into the civil service, media and even the education sector would be almost all gone. It's not an accident that the greatest explosion of the Language Movement happened at the Dhaka University campus, the centre of graduates who would be affected most by the decision.
But the decision was not manifested through economic arguments but cultural motifs and the right to language semiotics which became political in nature very soon. So cultural issues are always the box in which economic issues are packaged. It doesn't matter whether its language or faith identities. Often both combine to produce a third identity which is territory as it happened in case of the Bangladesh movement.
This issue was built around disappointment and aspirations, both social and economic. It allowed the Awami League, a party led by the middle class to construct its core and branch out to cover all other space. But key leadership always belonged to the middle. It's the ultimate middle class party and is often a mediator of various other streams. Once all lines could meet and ultimately become a rainbow in politics as it happened under Sk. Mujib. That rainbow catcher was the middle class in Bangla politics. But is that changing?
Shahbagh, Hefazat and the quota movement
The Shahbagh movement is often described as an initiative intended to renew the spirit of 1971. It was a declaration of rage against the war criminals rooted in Pakistan and essentially on the surface a cultural movement to uphold the ideals of the Liberation War. It was almost a reformist cultural imitative, an attempt to strengthen the identity of the class that led the war but felt at bay.
It was explosive and full of symbolisms and it's no accident that it was led by the young. It was even physically located near the Dhaka University, the centre of all beginnings. For the middle class, defined by their education, cultural nuances and a lifestyle often codified by their traditional social values, "Shahabagh andolon" is the closest we have seen to the "Bhasha andolon".
 

 

Memories of Bangabandhu 

Syed Badrul Ahsan

The very first time I went into a serious study of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was in early 1969, when demands for the withdrawal of the Agartala Conspiracy Case and his release were being made vociferously in what was then East Pakistan. I had, of course, heard my father and his friends sometimes speak of him, especially when news items relating to the 'conspiracy' first began to appear in the media, with deep respect. My father, outraged at what the Ayub Khan government was doing, simply did not believe that Mujib could do what the regime was accusing him of having done. For myself, I had never seen a picture of the man who was one day to lead Bengalis to freedom. I assumed, though, that he was of short stature, like any average Bengali. Or he might quite resemble Sher-e-Bangla A.K. Fazlul Huq. It not until Bangabandhu's photograph (he had a huge moustache and wore dark-rimmed glasses, all of which accentuated the personality in him) appeared in The Pakistan Times one day in February 1969 that I got to know him better, in a manner of speaking.
Late in June 1970, having read in the newspaper that Bangabandhu was to make a tour of West Pakistan as part of his election campaign (I was in school in Quetta, Baluchistan), I wondered if it would not be a good idea getting his autograph. Like many other schoolboys at the time, I was in those days chasing all the famous men and women I could, for their signatures in an autograph book I had bought earlier. I had by then collected quite a few signatures, one being Zulfikar Ali Bhutto's. Since I did not want to miss out on Bangabandhu (my parents were sure he was going to be Pakistan's next leader), I walked down to the Baluchistan Awami League office where, to my amazement, Mir Mohammad Khan Raisani, chief of the party in the province, handed me an invitation to a dinner being arranged for the Bengali leader on 1 July. I danced all the way home. My parents and my siblings were delirious with joy. On the appointed day, in the morning, I skipped school and went to the railway station to see Mujib arrive. When he appeared at the door of the carriage he was in, all those Pathans and Baluchis cheered.
I gaped at the man. I had never known he, a Bengali, could be that tall. But it was dinner that evening which remains an unforgettable event for me. As Bangabandhu walked toward the guests assembled on the lawn (and among those present were Abdus Samad Achakzai and Yahya Bakhtiar), I readied myself to shake hands with him. I was the only teenager in that big crowd of political adults. As Bangabandhu, shaking hands down the line, approached me, I put out my hand to him. Raisani explained who I was. Bangabandhu did not take my hand. He placed his palms on my cheeks and then pulled them. He asked me about my parents, about my school.
 
 

Limited freedom, limited journalism
 

Human Rights Report:
Few media practitioners, be they be, Editors or workers are happy with the state of media in Bangladesh. Current unhappiness is about political freedom and space. Media is also split between those who are actively pro-current Government and those against it. Some of them have such a long record of being activists in one form of other of one party or the other that it's useless to discuss who is close and who are distant from which one.
But the fact is one set thinks that the situation is "terrible' and the other thinks its "terrific" is also a sign post of the issue. Perhaps the problem is not about media even. It's not even about freedom as much as it's about the right to be partisan. What ails media afflicts much of Bangladesh's activist society, bred more by loyalty than logic.
Media components
There are three players in the media world: The owners, the Editors and the workers. However, these are overlapping categories meaning, some wear all three shoes and some wear two and some only one. Interestingly a few wear none at all. But each represent a section which becomes the pot in which all the stakes are kept. The media is not one monolithic world. It's made up of many realities and what means censorship or freedom is not universal. A commitment to freedom of media as a matter of principle probably doesn't exist.
The owners are the one who comes closest to being the principal stakeholder as he is the one who invests money. He makes most of this money from government connections so he is careful not to upset them.

Major parties ignore children in their election manifestos

Both political parties and alliances are very vote focused in their manifesto which is power. And that is why all attention is being paid to the adult voters. Not surprisingly, after years of advocacy, it's obvious that political parties are not very moved by the state of what has been promised and kept as far as children are concerned.
Although , Bangladesh has been "chided" at the UN Child Right Committee for the last five years for failing to finish the agenda promised, political parties that is current and future governments have not recognized children as priorities as per their electoral declarations. While Bangladesh has been quick to sign the dotted lines on many international protocols, they have been less active in keeping the commitments made on the same page.
Bangladesh has certainly made progress but the progress has always been measured in aggregate data and doesn't show how it affects two very vulnerable groups, women and children. While it's true that parties have made promises on improving the life of adult women, fact remains, one of the most at bay group are adolescent girls who suffer from some of the most difficult lives in Bangladesh compared to what has been possible to achieve. And Bangladesh is failing them.
Some major concerns
Some major issues have been pointed out by many agencies which fail to make any media noise. Malnutrition, early marriage and access to rights to education are safety are key issues that has been lost in the electoral noise.


 

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