Your Right To Know
Friday, October 12, 2012
Attack on Buddhists
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has once again blamed the local BNP lawmaker for "fanning communal violence" in Ramu of Cox's Bazar on the night of September 29.
"We have reports that when the attack began, he (local MP) was sleeping at his house. It is like Nero fiddles while Rome burns," she said.
Hasina, also president of the ruling Awami League, was addressing a view-exchange meeting with leaders of Rajbari district unit of the party at the Gono Bhaban in the capital.
Referring to the statement of the leader of the opposition (on Ramu incident) that one should not blame others without knowing the fact, Hasina said she (opposition leader) had blamed the government on the very next day of the incident. Then, did she have the moral ground to say this? asked the premier.
Hasina said it was the AL activists and supporters who stood by the minority people (Buddhists) on that fateful night.
She alleged that the attack on the Buddhist community began after a demonstration by motorbike riders led by the local BNP lawmaker. And when police, Border Guard Bangladesh and army personnel, and AL activists were busy to quell the violence, the lawmaker was "sleeping" at his house.
Everything will be clear when investigation into the incident is completed, the PM said. "We want peaceful co-existence of all sections of people in the country," she added.
Meanwhile, briefing resident diplomats in Dhaka about the Ramu incident, Foreign Minister Dipu Moni assured all the foreign friends aggrieved by the incident that the government would leave no stone unturned to ensure justice and protection for the affected Buddhist community.
The prime minister said that whenever in power in the past, BNP resorted to torture and repression on the minorities as well as on the AL workers.
But the AL does not believe in revenge, she said, adding that BNP would have vanished had the AL been vindictive after coming to power in 2008.
“We have set an example by not going for revenge against them [BNP men]. Instead, our government has been working relentlessly to change the fate of the people and for overall socio-economic development of the country.”
Asking the AL men to work for welfare of the people, the party chief alerted them that conspiracy against the party is still on, and vested quarters are out to mislead people.
MOKTADIR, FARUK REMANDED
Meanwhile, a Cox's Bazar court yesterday placed Abdul Moktadir and Omar Faruk each on a four-day remand in a case filed for provoking the September 29 violence on the Buddhist community in Ramu, reports our Staff Correspondent from Chittagong.
Meanwhile, a Cox's Bazar court yesterday placed Abdul Moktadir and Omar Faruk each on a four-day remand in a case filed for provoking the September 29 violence on the Buddhist community in Ramu, reports our Staff Correspondent from Chittagong.
The two friends played a key role in displaying and distributing some Facebook images insulting to Islam, Faruk had told The Daily Star on October 3.
Faruk was detained on October 6 while Moktadir, also known as Alif, on Tuesday night in connection with a case filed on September 30 over the torching and damaging of Buddhist temples, said Basu Dutta Chakma, investigation officer of the case.
The duo was not initially named in the case but was shown arrested yesterday, added Basu.
Charges in the case include creating enmity between the Muslims and the Buddhists and displaying and distributing among locals some Facebook images derogatory to the Quran, he said.
Detectives produced Faruk and Moktadir before the Senior Judicial Magistrate Towhidul Haque's court, seeking 10 days' remand for each. But the court granted four days' remand for each, court sources said.
Moktadir is a sixth semester diploma student of computer engineering department of Shyamoli Ideal Polytechnic Institute in Chittagong.
Faruk owns a mobile servicing shop at Fakirabazar in Ramu.
It was from Faruk's shop that the two friends showed and distributed those Facebook photos among locals, Faruk told The Daily Star.
It is said that when a drunk loses something, he wants to find it under a streetlight. On September 29 this country had a rare glimpse of that absurd moment when 25,000 rioters descended on fifteen Buddhist villages in Ramu and
terrorised their inhabitants. Going by press reports, it seems the ruling party cadres led rallies, BNP men supplied petrol and kerosene, and a Jamaat leader arranged vehicles to bring in the frenzied mob. If this country has been looking for the long lost unity amongst the politicians, its apparition flickered in the glow of fire when homes and temples went up in flames.
For centuries religious hatred has divided the world, but it united those politicians on that fateful night. Charred houses, defiled statues, and wounded victims left behind spine chilling trails of their devious connivance. Our national leaders are engaged in their characteristic shouting match to blame each other. The newly-minted home minister fumbled in his comments like a blind man groping in the dark. But there is an uncanny silence in Ramu where local party bosses have sealed their lips. Like the three monkeys of Mahatma Gandhi, they are seeing no evil, hearing no evil and speaking no evil.
Which alone is a tell-tale sign that what happened in Ramu was collaboration in crimes. It was an all-party teamwork, which is why despite so much clamour at the national level, the local leaders haven't opened their mouths. If not, we should have heard the national discourse replicated on the local stage. Local leaders should have been naming names by now, each to undermine his political opponent. Instead, they appear to be purportedly shushed into an orchestrated silence.
Omertà is an Italian expression for the popular honour code amongst the Mafia-type criminal organisations, which maintain silence, do not cooperate with the authorities and avoid interference in illegal actions of others for overall protection. Ramu has been the latest playground for collective guilt in this country in strict adherence to what looks like an outlaw version of Rousseau's social contract. Everyone is safe so long as all forfeit the same amount of right to speak and impose the same duties on all to cover up.
Indian restaurant cooking is jokingly described as the same sauce on different dishes. Our politics is the opposite of it, which is the same dish underneath different sauces, be it the spirit of Liberation War, Bangladeshi nationalism or religious fundamentalism. Oppression of the weak, disrespect for law, selfish greed and self-serving motives make the seething, throbbing muck of our collective instinct, politics appearing to be an euphemism for organised crime.
It is sad when the prime minister has to identify the local BNP lawmaker as the mastermind of the Ramu tragedy. The local politicians, the local administration, the local intelligence agencies and even the home minister couldn't come up with a definitive name. The only people who spoke up before the prime minister were a truck driver and a couple of police constables present at the crime scene.
It raises more questions about the hewers and drawers of hatred that turned the quiet Buddhist hamlets into living hell. How could an opposition lawmaker act alone to turn his constituency into an open house for madness? What did the local police boss say when he addressed the crowd already straining at the leash?
More questions. Who is to blame for the attack if it happened after the police asked the vigilant Buddhist youths to go home? Where was the district commissioner of Cox's Bazar? How much did the home minister know about the attack? The prime minister is curious about what the BNP lawmaker must have said at 11:30 that night to provoke the crowd. The rest of the country is eager to find what the government was doing before and after that particular hour.
Some people and political parties smell a foreign conspiracy rat in Ramu. According to them, a certain foreign diplomat had visited the area before the incident followed by a government minister. While conspiracy theories have always been the scapegoat for goof-ups, only thing foreign that is apparent right now is the persecution of the Buddhist religion. It never happened before in the history of independent Bangladesh. So, how did it happen now and where did it come from?
Looking for an answer brings us to what I call the Mollah Nasiruddin moment of truth. When his wife asked one day about a sound that came from their bedroom, the Turkish-born court jester replied that it was the sound of his shirt that had fallen on the floor. Then he quickly confessed that he was also inside that shirt when it dropped.
Every time scams, scandals, bungles and fumbles hit us, the government tells us the shirt has dropped. Because, we soon forget to ask who was inside that shirt.
The writer is Editor, First News and an opinion writer for The Daily Star.
Email: badrul151@yahoo.com
Political parties should cooperate in the investigation'
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| Dr. Amena Mohsin |
Dr. Amena Mohsin, Professor, Department of International Relations, University of Dhaka, talks to A.B.M. Shamsud Doza and Zaheen Zaema Khan of The Daily Star on recent communal violence in Ramu, Cox's Bazaar.
The Daily Star (TDS): How do you look at the recent attack on Buddhist community in Ramu?
Amena Mohsin (AM): It is not an isolated incident, rather it falls within a wider canvas where one is observing growing intolerance at the global and state level, and also at the local level, towards different cultures and different religions. So, it is not something which is unique to this country. One has observed the kind of backlash that has occurred among the Muslim communities due to posting of a Youtube documentary titled "Innocence of Muslims." I do not support the kind of violence that has taken place but at the same time I also do not think that freedom means irresponsibility or disrespect to another culture or another religion. Islam is not only about a religion, it is also about an identity, and one can't separate religion from politics. People talk about freedom of speech but any kind of right does not come without a kind of responsibility and duty. If you want a right that does not entail any responsibility or duty then that is an irresponsible act.
Secondly, violence is not the answer to violence, rather there should be more research on these areas. There should be more responsible response from the Muslim community as well. Just by breaking things you add to the Western theory that Muslims are a violent people. But the West has also failed in some ways because I think when you post something on Facebook or you make a film like that, that is also a kind of violence. It is psychological violence. Just by attacking someone violently you don't become violent, you also become abusive and violent when you damage someone psychologically or hurt someone's sentiment. Western leaders should have been more cautious and critical of this. There should have been a general condemnation of this at the UN.
One should seriously rethink the notion of freedom of speech. What does it entail? Does one have the freedom to say just anything in the world? Rights also talk about the dignity of individuals and cultures. If we divide the rights regime there are three generations, the third generation talks about dignity and respect. That should be counted in. So, when one says that if I stop things like that it will be violating someone's freedom one must also keep in perspective someone's right and that right also entails dignity.
I strongly condemn what has happened in Ramu. It should not have happened. There are allegations that the Rohingyas have done it, and the home minister said that it was premeditated. My question is, what were intelligence agencies doing? It means that there was a total failure on the part of the state. The police official said that he had only ten to twelve men at his disposal. Why so few? That is the big question to ask.
It is understandable that for sensitive areas you would have more security enforcement like in the Chittagong Hill Tracts. The government keeps on saying that the army needs to be deployed there because it is a security and politically sensitive area. So, why wasn't there a deployment of more security forces in these areas? It is all the more necessary because Cox's Bazaar is a tourist area, and for the security of tourists and the minorities there should have been more deployment of security personnel over there. So, it's a failure of the state, and unless proper investigation is carried out it can't be said who has done it.
The blame game played by both the government and the opposition is sickening. They are trying to divert attention. Now, that is becoming a major issue for the political parties and the government, and not what has happened. It is like stealing the thunder out of the storm. The point is that it is a national issue and the major political parties should cooperate with each other regarding the investigation. They should condemn the violence instead of pointing fingers at each other. People somehow become the object in it and not the subject. And what becomes clear over here is the sick politics of this country, not the damage which has been done. This was not expected either of the government or of the opposition. One would have expected more restraint and more responsible comments, particularly from the home minister.
TDS: What do you think about the claim of "pre-mediated attack?”
AM: The way things happened it looks like it was pre-meditated. Having said that, I am not ready to point fingers at anyone until proper investigation has been carried out. If pictures of local Awami League leaders in a procession have been published then one needs to first verify whether it is something the government is doing to malign the opposition or whether the opposition was involved.
One is seeing one incident after another in this country. For instance, we had the Yunus fiasco then the Padma issue and now this. It is the last thing we needed, and is like the last straw on the camel's back. We are not projecting a good image of our country to the world. I believe that all the people are peace-loving, like the Hindu community is peace-loving and the Muslims are also peace-loving. So, I would not categorise one community as peace-loving and another as a violent community. I will not go into this politics of labeling. People in general are peace-loving. The politicians use them for various political purposes, and we have seen that the Rohingyas have been used in the past for violence.
People just do not go out and become violent unless there are sufficient reasons for them to become so. Definitely, there have been some provocations from some end. Proper investigation needs to be conducted. Some people are blaming RSO type organisations. Even if they are linked, that does not mean that Rohingyas are there because RSO is not the whole Rohingya people. Al-Qaeda does not represent all Muslims, it is a particular minority group. If any organisation is involved let us investigate the issue very seriously and take stern action against them, but we have to draw the line between refugees and perpetrators. I am skeptical that there can be a tough stand on refugee issue. If that happens, it will be unfortunate, because then we will be nurturing a culture of violence and intolerance.
I want to make it very clear that it is a national issue. In the 2001 election we saw that there was violence against the Hindu minorities in different districts, so even the timing is something that strikes me. Why at this particular point in time? It is very convenient for the government to say that the opposition is doing it and that the Jamaat-e-Islami is involved. It is also a time when everything is being blamed on the opposition, saying that they want to divert attention and do not want the trial of the war criminals. Again I would like to point out that the trial of the war criminals is a national issue and not a party issue. We all want not just justice but fair justice. We can't have a culture of impunity, so I would like to make it very clear and put it on record that there should be fair investigation and there should be no impunity.
TDS: Recently we also saw violence against minorities in Assam and Rakhine. Do you find any link among these events?
AM: I don't see this as an isolated event. I am not saying that there is a direct linkage between the two. All I am saying is that we are moving towards a system which is breeding a culture of intolerance. You see violence at the political, communitarian, religious, and global levels. It is an age when we are losing our basic values and it is also an age of competition, of rising expectations; and rising expectations have positive as well as negative sides. The positive side is that you become competitive but being competitive has its negative side also. You have to know where to stop and how to rein it in, and for that you need a kind of political system that knows how to behave. I think we lack the political system also.
TDS: Can we get rid of these menaces?
AM: Yes, definitely. We have a lot to do, not only at the regional level but also at the national level. We should check these issues. In the first instance, we did not act very responsibly regarding the Rohingya issue. We should have accepted the Rohingyas and then taken the matter to the OIC, UNHCR and the United Nations because after all we are also a nation that has gone through a struggle for freedom, and refugee status was part of it. We were refugees in India. So, one needs to keep that in perspective. At some point in time realism doesn't really work, humanism takes precedence over realism. Bangladesh should have been more humane. In Saarc, we have charters that deal with these issues but the question is giving teeth to these charters. At the international level we should have talked about communalism as a serious issue rather than bashing the opposition. Civil society can play a strong role in this respect, but we are yet to see a strong reaction from the civil society in this regard.
Your Right To Know
Saturday, October 11, 2012
As a tribute to Rabindranath Tagore and Kazi Nazrul Islam, the two prominent bards of Bengali literature, a cultural programme was held at Mymensingh Press Club Auditorium on October 6.
The artistes of Udichi Shilpi Goshthi, Mymensingh unit rendered Rabindra and Nazrul Sangeet, enthralling the audience gathered at the venue.
A discussion was also held on the occasion. President of Rabindra Sammilon Parishad Professor Manjurul Alam Champak and writer Salim Hasan were the discussants at the programme. Mir Golam Mustafa, secretary of the Press Club, delivered the welcome speech. Press Club vice-president AZM Imam Uddin Mukta presided over the discussion.
The speakers were of the view that to ensure communal harmony, the secular ideals of both the bards should be followed.
If we could imbibe the ideals of the bards fully, communal violence at Ramu [in Cox's Bazar] where 12 Buddhist temples and many homes were burnt down could have been avoided, said the speakers.
They also said that both Tagore and Nazrul always raised their voices against oppression and communal forces that create unrest in the society.
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