A fight we can’t afford to lose

Last December, I attended the first event organised by a newly created Bangladesh Government agency whose creation was long demanded by progressive activists.  Not unexpectedly, the programme started a bit later than the scheduled time.  A fellow Drishtipat writer -and I were sipping tea in one corner when an elderly gentleman walked up to us and introduced himself.  I greeted him and introduced myself.  He returned my salaam, and completely ignoring my friend, walked away.  

I was totally taken aback.  My friend has extensive experience in the field, with field experience in places like Gaza, Afghanistan, and Nepal.  I was there only because another friend got me a pass.  But the gentleman completely ignored HER, as if SHE wasn’t even present.  My friend saw the reaction in my face, and said how this was nothing new to her.

Perhaps I shouldn’t have been surprised.  After all, that male chauvinism is deep rooted in Bangladeshi society was nothing new to me.  Imagine my surprise then to see the gentleman sitting in the stage, as the chairman of the agency that is supposed to fight precisely this sort of disdain for half the humanity! 

Independence Day

Today we observe the 38th birth anniversary of our People’s Republic.  This post marks this occassion in two ways.

First, it notes ten milestone events in the preceding half century to that got us to 26 March 1971.  History does not begin with the speeches and declarations of that month.  Our Liberation War didn’t happen overnight, in a vacuum. We do ourselves an immense disservice if we fail to mark those events.

Then it updates a 2-year old list by Rumi Ahmed.  The list compiles achievements that, written from the vantage point of a quarter century ago, would seem fantastically optimistic.  And yet, everything in that list is true.  We have beaten the odds many times.  And we will continue to do so.  Tomorrow will be a better day.

Out of Pakistan

I’d really like to watch these Pakistani classics.

 International Gorillay.  A criminal mastermind sets out to destroy Islam by luring Pakistanis into gambling, dancing, and all manner of sundry sins.  He tortures his prisoners by reading to them aloud from his blasphemous novel.  The brave mujahedin out to stop him are disguised in Batsuits; and in the end, a quartet of levitating Qurans shoot laser beams into the nefarious villain’s head, causing him to explode.  Oh, the villain is named Salman Rushdie.

Zinda Laash.  A black and white thriller from 1967, sort of Dr Jekyll and Mr Dracula.  The first and only Pakistani film to earn the label “For Adults Only,” after the board of censors accused the film of being “corruptive and evil.”

Aurat Raj.  A group of women discover a bomb that switches gender roles and seize power by setting it off.  In this brave new world, women wield machine guns and flick their cigarettes with an easy flair, while men twirl in slow motion and swing their hips coquettishly.

Zibahkhana.  Five teenagers set out to watch a concert, but find their van break down and get set upon by flesh eating zombies, a ghoulish hitchhiker, and a blood-soaked, burqa-wearing killer.  The writer-director’s next project is apparently a genre-busting women-in-prison meets porn-factory meets monster-spectacular named Jhabarjhilla.

(Cross-posted at A-A-A.  More here.  Hat tip Robin bhai).

Airbrushing, personality cults, birthday thoughts

Had he lived, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman would have been 89 today.  I have never had much time for those quibbling over his contribution to the creation of Bangladesh.  One can play parlour games of ‘what ifs’ until the ocean rises to Dinajpur, but Mujib’s central place in our freedom struggle is undisputed.

Or it ought to be.  Sadly, for many in my generation, it hasn’t been that straightforward.  When I grew up, under martial law, Sheikh Mujib was never mentioned.  I recall one of my teachers, in the Air Force run Shaheen School, being heavily reprimanded by someone in uniform for referring to Bangabandhu during a school function.  I remember my father’s excitement when he came across an Indian magazine in Calcutta because the particular issue was banned in Bangladesh for running a cover story on Mujib (along with Indira Gandhi and ZA Bhutto).

Even though he had already been been dead for a decade, and even though the people ruling Bangladesh at that time has walways maintained an on-again-off-again relationship with his party, Mujib’s wagging finger still sent a shiver to the powers-that-be.  That’s why Mujib was being airbrushed out of history.

The youtube farce

Marxs is said to have quipped that history repeats itself, first as tragedy, then as farce.  Farce is the word that came to my mind when I heard that the government has banned youtube in Bangladesh.  According to the officials, the ban is in national interest.   Retired brigadier general Zia Ahmed, now the chairman of the state telecommunication regulator BTRC, told BDnews24, “The government can take any decision to stop any activity that threatens national unity and integrity.” 

So, how exactly was the national unity threatened?  I am guessing this has something to do with the recording of a confidential meeting between the PM and army officers at Senakunjo on 1 March.  These recordings have been widely distributed over the net.  It has been printed by a number of newspapers.  The recordings should never have been leaked.  But it’s rather stupid to ban youtube (and esnips) because of the leak.  

The right approach would have been to find and punish those who leaked the recording.  Given our practicalities, perhaps the right approach couldn’t have been taken.  But the 2nd best approach would have been to ignore the recordings altogether.  The reader/listener can judge for themselves, but the impression I got from the recording was that the PM handled a very delicate situation extremely deftly.  Maybe I am in the fringes with that reaction.  But consider this.  For every person who heard the recording, there will be many more who will hear about the banning of youtube (which cannot be enforced anyway) and wonder what the government has to hide.  Simply ignoring the recording could actually work to the government’s political benefit.  Banning it, in addition to being a stupid policy decision, looks like bad politics.

Of course, it could be that the BTRC acted on its own without the government’s prompting.  If that is so, then the government cannot reverse the ban fast enough.  Again, the ban is a stupid policy decision that is also bad for the government politically.

Either way, the decision is a farce.  And what has this to do with history repeating?  Well, the first government to start banning things in Bangladesh was also a government with massive majority.  The tragedy was when its successors continued to ban things.  But banning youtube, that’s a farce.

Beyond grief and conspiracy theories, there is a real crisis

(This piece contains reference to violent material that may offend.  Also, the tone may come across as callous to those who have lost near and dear.  Apologies.)

A random message from facebook about the Pilkhana tragedy: KILL EM ALL … i can only say that and i am totally for blood.  I am abstaining from fecebook because I don’t want to lose friends over messages like this.  Maybe I should stop calling home, because I don’t want to listen to absurd conspiracy theories: why didn’t the PM attend the BDR dinner, where was the opposition leader for

two days, you get the idea. 

 

But I don’t want to give into escapism.  To paraphrase Edmund Burke, evil wins when good people do nothing.  I will make two points here: 

1. ours is a very violent society, and tragic as these events were, they were not all that uncommon ­— it’s time we put our own monsters to sleep; and 
2.  beyond the human tragedy, we have a national security crisis that is not being addressed because of the crazy conspiracy theories going around.

Welcome back, partisan division

I am not going to talk about the tragedy.  We are all aware of what happened.  We have all grieved, or are still grieving.  I am also not going to talk about the ramifications of the event in this post.  They deserve a separate post, which I will write shortly.  This post covers the following: the return of partisan division, why it’s a good thing, and within that paradigm of division, some unsolicited advice to our leaders.