Mr X
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Yes he is
Opinion: Future governance system of Bangladesh
- Thread starter AbuShalehRumi
- Start date
Hope the best for BD but this is still early days and so we will have to see how it all plays out in the end.
Here is what should happen to future governance of BD:
1. Both AL and BNP parties banned and all those above a certain level that were involved in thuggery or corruption banned from ever holding office again. Of course "clean" BNP and AL members are free to go and join another party or form their own.
2. As mentioned by @BananaRepublic , BD new political system must have a PR form of government to prevent one party from causing too much damage and so the smaller party/parties will moderate it.
3. Whatever can be digitised should be as soon as possible for efficiency and lessen the opportunities for corruption.
4. It may be a good idea to entend elections to every 7 years in order to at least allow some decent period of time for an incoming government to get major projects like power stations and large bridges completed within a single term. This would reduce investor uncertaintly and give them more confidence to lend large amounts of money to an incoming BD government.
Here is what should happen to future governance of BD:
1. Both AL and BNP parties banned and all those above a certain level that were involved in thuggery or corruption banned from ever holding office again. Of course "clean" BNP and AL members are free to go and join another party or form their own.
2. As mentioned by @BananaRepublic , BD new political system must have a PR form of government to prevent one party from causing too much damage and so the smaller party/parties will moderate it.
3. Whatever can be digitised should be as soon as possible for efficiency and lessen the opportunities for corruption.
4. It may be a good idea to entend elections to every 7 years in order to at least allow some decent period of time for an incoming government to get major projects like power stations and large bridges completed within a single term. This would reduce investor uncertaintly and give them more confidence to lend large amounts of money to an incoming BD government.
gbrchplndpjri
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So the new Hindutva cope is that Hasina engineered the protests so she could get forced out of power, ONLY to return as a "sawior" in a few years! 3D chess saar!
Mullahs are too stupid. Bangladesh will be a basket case once more. I never said she engineered it, she used it as a way out. Her leaving was too drastic and too simple. I guess my surmise is too complex for mullah mind. Take it easy beta.
Joe Shearer
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Vijay Prashad is a well-known Marxist historian with a storied family legacy. He is the youngest son of one of the most well-known corporate bosses in India, Pran Prashad, the Chairman of the Bird-Heilgers group headquartered in Calcutta. His father's cousins are prominent Indian politicians or noted social figures. His aunt, Brinda Karat, is a very well-known leader of the CPI(M), and the youngest of his three aunts, Radhika Roy, was one of the founder-promoters of NDTV, before it was wrested away from her and her husband Pranoy Roy, by Modi's crony capitalist, Gautam Adani.This writer although Indian is not entirely wrong and seems mostly right but I have little sympathy for the AL politicians, officials and supporters but it is clear CG is already betraying the revolution and has merely changed the masters of the country
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Will Bangladesh Be Another Egypt?
By Vijay Prashad -August 24, 2024025
The day after former Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina left Dhaka, I was on the phone with a friend who had spent some time on the streets that day. He told me about the atmosphere in Dhaka, how people with little previous political experience had joined in the large protests alongside the students—who seemed to be leading the agitation. I asked him about the political infrastructure of the students and about their political orientation. He said that the protests seemed well-organized and that the students had escalated their demands from an end to certain quotas for government jobs to an end to the government of Sheikh Hasina. Even hours before she left the country, it did not seem that this would be the outcome. Everyone, he told me, had anticipated more violence from the government.
These protests in Bangladesh this year are not unique. They are part of a cycle of protests that started at least a decade ago, with the issues (an end to the quotas, better treatment of students, less government repression) being similar. These are not simple protests around simple demands that can be easily addressed. The demands—such as quotas—return Bangladesh to what the elite has tried desperately to repress: the ugly history of the country’s origins. The quotas are for freedom fighters who risked life and limb to battle the Pakistani military in 1971 and who won independence for Bangladesh. While it is true that such quotas should not be sustained over generations, it is also true that the issue of the quota is caught up partly with the problems of employment for educated, young people, and partly with the reassertion of the Islamist forces in Bangladesh who had been compromised by their association with the Pakistani violence. After the 2018 anti-quota movement, Sheikh Hasina’s government decided to cancel the system. The decision went to the courts. The High Court argued that the quotas had to be reinstated, but the Supreme Court—in June 2024—decided that the quotas would not be fully reinstated, but only partly (7 percent for freedom fighters’ children, and not 30 percent). This was the spur for a renewed protest movement. It targeted Sheikh Hasina’s government rather than the courts.
Shahbag Square
A decade ago, a massive protest took place in Dhaka at Shahbag Square. People gathered there to protest a decision by the courts to give a life sentence to Abdul Quader Mollah, who had been personally found guilty of killing 344 people during the 1971 genocide in East Pakistan. Quader Mollah was a leader of the fundamentalist party Jamaat-e-Islami, which had collaborated with the Pakistani military even in the worst days of the violence in this part of what was then Pakistan. Despite this verdict, Quader Mollah was given life in prison and as he left the court, he flashed a victory sign to the Jamaatis, the members of the Jamaat-e-Islami. Millions of people were angered by Quader Mollah’s arrogance. For a protest that was formed around a gruesome demand (the death penalty), the people there seemed optimistic about their country. The enthusiasm was infectious. “Let’s destroy all evil powers. Let’s continue the momentum of the movement of Shahbag. Let’s play our roles. Let’s build the nation. We know how to defeat our enemies,” said Shohag Mostafij, a development professional in Dhaka.
At Shahbag, I asked people if they had been motivated by the Arab Spring that had taken place two years previously. Aziza Ahmed, one of the young people who helped build the Shahbag protests, said that it was not “an impulse to follow on the footsteps of Arab Spring or Occupy Wall Street.” However, these events provided inspiration, even though the protests started due to blog posts against the verdict (many of these bloggers faced the wrath of the Islamist wing two years later when some of them were murdered). The young bloggers and people like Aziza Ahmed allowed the protests to be interpreted as a youth movement (indeed, Shahbag was often called “generation square” or “Projonmo Chottor” in Bangla in reference to the youth). But, in fact, Shahbag carried within it a deep well of hatred against the Jamaat-e-Islami all the way from 1971. There was harsh language used in the Square against the Jamaatis who had collaborated with the Pakistani army, including calls for their deaths.
Neither the 2013 Shahbag protests nor the 2018 protests for road safety came to any resolution. Anger simmered under the surface, only to reassert itself in 2024 with the new Supreme Court verdict. Large protests took to the streets against the quotas, bringing in social forces such as the students who faced unemployment and those who had no ancestral connection to freedom fighters (including the Jamaatis). Protests of this kind are predictable, even though their consequence is unpredictable. Until the afternoon of Sheikh Hasina’s departure, it was not clear that she would leave. The mood replicated the situation in Cairo in 2011 when President Hosni Mubarak first said he would not seek re-election (February 10) and then when it was announced that he had already resigned and would be leaving the country for Saudi Arabia (February 11).
From Cairo to Dhaka.
After Mubarak left Cairo, the military took charge of Egypt. The people at Tahrir Square, the main protest site, sought protection behind a figure known to the world, Mohamed ElBaradei, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency. The military, however, was forced to convene a constitutional assembly and then hold elections in 2012. This election brought to power the Muslim Brotherhood, which had been the most organized force in Egyptian politics. In 2013, the military overthrew the Brotherhood government, and put in place what appeared to be a civilian leadership. At this time, they brought ElBaradei in as vice president, but he only lasted from July to August 2013. The military suspended the 2012 constitution and put one of its own into the presidency, first in his uniform and then in a suit. This man—General, now President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi—has been in power for a decade. Many of the leaders of Tahrir languish in prison, their generation demoralized.
The ElBaradei of the Bangladeshi situation is Muhammad Yunus, a Nobel Prize winner and founder of the Grameen Bank (a scheme of micro-credit for poor women using ideas of shame as collateral, which has made considerable money for the largely male bankers). Yunus assembled a cabinet made up of neoliberal officials from the Bangladeshi bureaucracy, academia, and the non-governmental organization sector. The finance ministry, for instance, is in the capable hands of Salehuddin Ahmed, former Governor of the Bangladesh Bank, who will reliably enforce neoliberal economic policy. He will be perfectly comfortable in a conversation with Egypt’s newly appointed finance minister, Ahmed Kouchouk, who used to be a senior economist at the World Bank. No progressive agenda can come from these sorts of finance ministries, let alone an agenda to establish the integrity of the national economy.
As of now, the Bangladeshi military remains in the barracks. But the attitude of repression has not subsided, only the address for the arrests has changed. Yunus’s government has pursued members of Sheikh Hasina’s government with arrests on charges that include murder. Every day the newspapers in Bangladesh announce new arrests, all on a variety of charges. Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League is being gutted, and she herself has lost the right to travel on a diplomatic passport. Rashed Khan Menon, leader of the Workers Party of Bangladesh, was arrested on a murder charge; Shakib Al Hasan, who is currently in Pakistan playing cricket for Bangladesh and is an Awami League member, faces a murder charge regarding the death of a protester on August 5.
Whether there is any merit to these cases is to be seen, but the avalanche of arrests of members of Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League and of associated parties appears like a tide of retribution. Meanwhile, the Jamaat sees a resurrection as one of its wings—the Amar Bangladesh Party—was registered as a political party and several of its members are likely to be given responsibility for running several universities. For all the talk of a new Bangladesh, Yunus’s government shut down two television channels, Somoy TV and Green TV (which had been previously boycotted by the Bangladesh National Party, the main opposition front) and its authorities arrested Hashem Reza, the editor of Amar Sangbad, as well as senior employees of Ekattor TV, Shakil Ahmed and Farzana Rupa. The liberal sections of Bangladesh’s elite are not discomforted by this wave of repression, which suggests that their liberalism is more political than principled.
The Bangladesh Spring seems to be rapidly escalating toward its Winter.
Will Bangladesh Be Another Egypt?
The day after former Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina left Dhaka, I was on the phone with a friend who had spent some time on the streets that day. He told me about the atmosphere in Dhaka,…southasiajournal.net
Vijay's curious background, from spoilt son of a rich company boss to a Marxist historian with very pronounced views, infuses the note that is published, and that note should be read with this background. Although he himself has no Bengali blood, his aunts are half-Bengali, daughters of Oshrukona Mitra and he has sometimes shown a sympathy for Bengal and Bengalis. His Marxist views trump all, however.
Joe Shearer
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He is not a journalist.
He is an American History professor with an Indian legacy.
AbuShalehRumi
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Indian is the keyword here sir.
MNZGamerX
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Yes I am idiot and fairly well known.
MNZGamerX
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How Bangladesh Can Become a True Democracy
By Sabrina Karim and Muhib Rahman
August 25, 2024
In a historic turn of events in Bangladesh, Gen-Z student-led protests forced the downfall of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who had ruled the country with an iron fist since coming to power in 2009. A brutal crackdown by security forces and activists from her Awami League party and the ensuing violence resulted in hundreds of deaths and thousands more injuries. The swearing in of Nobel peace laureate Muhammad Yunus earlier this month as interim leader—a key demand of the student protesters—has brought enough hope in the strife-torn country that many in Bangladesh are calling it a “second liberation,” half a century after the country won independence.
To ensure that Bangladesh 2.0 is successful, key reforms must not wait for a democratically elected government. The current interim government does not have a vested interest in keeping old and corrupt institutions intact. But in the future, newly elected governments might seek to reform institutions to their advantage. Rebuilding key institutions now will help guardrail against democratic backsliding under any future government. Three areas of reform are key: the police and military, the constitution, and the judiciary.
Reining in the deep state
The security sector in Bangladesh faces a severe legitimacy crisis. The military and the police were implicated in gross human rights violations during the student movement and prior to the protests. Both the police and the military became highly politicized during Hasina’s regime. Most people have lost their trust in these institutions. Moreover, many police officers fled their positions in the wake of Hasina’s departure out of fear of retaliation, leaving a security vacuum.
The first step to increase trust and legitimacy should be to dismantle the police units and individuals involved in violence, particularly the Rapid Forces Battalion (RAB), which has a long record of violating human rights. The individuals should be replaced with a diverse set of recruits, including women and ethnic and religious minorities, as well as by those who achieved merit and were not simply promoted because of ties to the Awami League.
The military is already purging and reshuffling personnel who were implicated in the atrocities during the protests. These investigations should continue, and suspected personnel must be put on trial. Units such as the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence, which have been implicated in human rights violations and ran a secret prison, should be dismantled or reformed. The military also must commit to a democratic process, disclose all business interests, and support the interim government by ensuring the security of all citizens during the transition.
For both the police and the military, an independent commission should oversee these processes. They should also call on U.N. entities, such as the Office of Rule of Law and Security Institutions, for guidance and oversight.
Implementing constitutional reform
Bangladesh’s recent authoritarian turn is a byproduct of a concentration of power in the Prime Minister and the executive branch. The country has only nominally independent state institutions.
Restructuring the presidency as a purely non-partisan institution should be at the heart of constitutional reforms. The de facto practice of the Prime Minister appointing the President should be discarded in favor of collective voting. Current provisions that force the President to act on the advice of the Prime Minister significantly undermine checks and balances and must also be done away with. Meanwhile, the President should be granted authority to appoint the heads of key state bodies with recommendations from nonpartisan experts. Doing so would curb executive influence and ensure these institutions operate free from political pressure.
The constitution should also introduce more legislative oversight over government. An important first step is abolishing the requirement that members of parliament vote in their party’s favor.
Depoliticizing the judiciary and state institutions
Yunus has already made judicial reforms a priority. Currently, the appointments and promotion of Supreme Court judges are heavily influenced by incumbent preferences. The interim government needs to abolish the controversial two-year extension rule that allows for reappointing retired judges, disincentivizing senior judges to seek favors from the incumbent government.
It is vital to shield all key state institutions—including the Election Commission, the Anti-Corruption Commission, the Public Service Commission, and the Human Rights Commission—from ruling party influence. As Bangladesh approaches an election, an independent and neutral election commission is non-negotiable for a credible rotation of power.
The top-level appointments in state institutions must be done with recommendations from an independent committee representing political parties, the judiciary, and civil society. These appointments should also require parliamentary approval, including a certain threshold of opposition support, so that no single party controls the process.
Ultimately, the success of the student-led movement presents an opportunity for Bangladesh to refrain from making the mistakes of its past. The economy is doing reasonably well and civil society is strong. Yunus can seize this moment. His government must not allow those who marred Bangladesh with political violence from its inception to continue to hold the reins of power.
It is time for a democratic Bangladesh, led by the people, and for the people.
How Bangladesh Can Become a True Democracy
Interim leader Muhammad Yunus must prioritize reforming police and military, the constitution, and the judiciary.
So, you are a fairly well known moron pretending to be smartass? My bad, i should have known.
MNZGamerX
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I am a lot smarter than you. You write like an idiot. you behave like a moron and your comments and analysis are of the lowest quality and something a normal person would be ashamed of. But someone of your quality obviously has no shame or sense. You even pretend to talk like an American 'my bad'.
Try to be original but you are incapable of that and nothing more than a repetitive donkey whose best response is a haha emoji.
Bengal71
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Only 2 terms please.
Few more I would like to propose:
1. Democratic system must be implemented within each political party as well, including 2 term limits to hold the chairmanship of the said political party.
2. After 2 term limits, there must be 2 term ban for all of his/her close and extended family members from holding chairmanship of the party.
3. 2 term limits to become president or PM or MP and then a 2 term limit ban for their close and extended family members from becoming President or PM, MP.
4. Anti-foreign interference law to be created with provisions for server punishment including death penalty for those BDeshis who would collude with foreign powers to influence elections or any policy making of the state. There should be an independent authority to monitor foreign interference.
Last edited:
Bengal71
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More:
1. All treaties with any foreign state must be published before they become effective. All such treatise must be reviewed against anti-foreign interference law by multiple independent authorities and all must endorse them.
2. All treaties must be reviewed and ensured that they were not against BD national interest, then endorsed by multiple independent authorities and all must endorse them.
Bengal71
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More:
There must be a separate independent authority to monitor the justice system. Judges must be answerable.
Circadian Rhythm
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I wanted to ask Bangladeshis living in the West , whether they really think they will be Able to Influence Anything going on inside their country
Because Right now it is a Complete Power Struggle going on , with many players and vested interests at work
Because Right now it is a Complete Power Struggle going on , with many players and vested interests at work
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