My Secret Box

John William Waterhouse-Pandora(1896)

Lessons are learnt, but not before paying price.

Secrets are meant to be kept secrets, once you reveal them, a Pandora’s Box opens… which can neither be closed, nor denied.

I knew things won’t be the same. But I had no idea what can happen when I told her some of the secrets of my life. Actually it was she who made me tell this. I was never interested. She was bit surprised, you never know someone’s mind.

Things went Ok for some days. I know as a friend she shared the most with me. I also shared some words… it feels great sharing some unshared words.

Like what I said… when a Pandora’s Box is opened, events after events start to unlock. You will be quite surprised!!!

Friendship is such a feeling! True friends are ready for many sacrifices. She wanted my best.

Was I too selfish? Many be! May be I was selfish in revealing the secret. I have already lived with it two and another half years; I should have spent another couple of years as well. After all, I’m used to it.

I had no choice. Hope things will be fine as early as possible…

Timely Words, Rightly Said

Today our classes have started… after so many days. Anyway, situation is bit different in our department compared to other larger departments. We are only 13 and we all had contact with each other…

Two or three days into State of Emergency and look at our beloved country!!! I have never seen such peace and calmness… The only reason is, ” Politics is now banned.” Poor politicians! they can no longer mess up with people’s life.

I was going through The Bangladesh Today and found this good article:

“

Walking backward into the future
M. Asafuddowlah

A state of emergency has been declared in Bangladesh. Some passionate politicians may however argue that our journey of democracy has faltered. Before we choose to answer that question we must analyse the kind of democracy that governed us in the recent past. The post-Ershad era saw the emergence of two dominant political polarisations. One was the BNP and the other the Awami League. Whether one was a businessman, or a bureaucrat, a military officer or a university teacher, a judge or a doctor, an engineer or a cultural activist, a musician or a football player, a banker or a shopkeeper——-he had to announce silent or vocal allegiance to either of the two parties. The entire nation was made to stand in an identification parade and made to announce allegiance to either BNP or Awami League. Those who would refuse to do so were denied what was otherwise due to them——- a businessman would lose his business, a judge would be superseded, a secretary or a general would be compulsorily retired, a musician would be disallowed to perform in TV channels. And what were the parties ? They cannot even remember when the party had held its’ last internal election. The parties , barring Jamaat, are run most undemocratically. They are not registered. There is no transparency of their incomes and expenditures. They have huge income and yet not liable to pay a single farthing of income tax. Their manifestoes are hardly any different. Their pattern of leaderships also reflect surprisingly similar designs. Personal loyalty to the party chairman and her family remains the sole criterion of relationship. Nominations are publicly auctioned and sold. Both the two dominant families have descended from modest backgrounds but graduated into the richest houses during their brief days in office—–by abusing their power and influence.
BNP’s elaborately cunning election arrangements now stand in rubbles. Awami League’s blockade programmes are no longer necessary. People have got a peaceful respite after a long time. An election is never more important than the peaceful stability of a nation.
People are sanguine that left to the political parties, there shall never be meaningful but absolutely urgent reforms in the constitution because the existing laws have encouraged the practice of monarchy in the guile of democracy——-which has served their leaders well over the past years. We will never have constructive debate as long as article 70 remains in tact in the constitution. We will never be able to protect the dignity of our citizens against police excesses until we say farewell to sections 54 and 167 of the Cr.PC. The clouds of dark money and goon-keeping still persist in our system. The entry of decent, honest and brilliant people into national politics is still impossible. The parliamentarians still remain busy in the corridors of secretariat and chief engineer’s offices for ‘tadbir’ incomes, while the parliament gets adjourned for want of quorum.
The first Caretaker govt. failed the nation. The second caretaker govt. should be able to bring about some basic reforms in our governance system through referendum, reconstitute and restructure the Election Commission, introduce voters’ ID card with photograph, totally eliminate the influence of money and threat from the electoral system, create an equal opportunity ambience for the national poll, arrest and punish all those politicians who have made private fortunes at public cost and then hand over reins of governance to a fairly-elected government. Let us not walk backward into the future that belongs to 145 million people of Bangladesh.

“

(M. Asafuddowlah is the Editor of The Bangladesh Today.)

Timely words, rightly said.

Politics, Election and State of Emegrency

0932 BST (12-01-2007)

That’s why I hate politicians and I prefer not to be a voter.

The story started with Justice K M Hasan and Justice M A Aziz. Personally I found it fallacious when the media and a group of politicians declared them unacceptable for the duties the Constitution gave them. Justice K M Hasan was immediate retired Chief Justice. If you have no problem with someone being the Chief Justice, then there is no point of doubting his impartiality. None is unbiased, that’s impossible. But it is important they act unbiased when they are given a duty and none can be trusted more than the Chief Justice. I think if politicians had problem in accepting someone as Chief Advisor of the Caretaker Government, then they should have had rejected him as the Chief Justice… In this country, politics make little sense!!!

Justice M A Aziz, well, he was even a greater victim of Media. In a country where media have the ultimate freedom, you can virtually make anyone unacceptable. But I’ve asked many, what’s the point against Him? Like me they didn’t know the answer even though they didn’t spare a single opportunity to stage personal attack on him. But there is a spot in his Judicial life. Once he Jailed Prothom Alo, Jugantor, Manob Jamin and some other newspaper’s editor in a case. Since then he is widely disliked by the media-men.

Anyway, politicians got what they wanted, even though there was hardly any scope constitutionally! But after making the nation ashamed by killing people in front camera showing the utter brutality…

The next thing came up was rejecting President Prof. Iajuddin Ahmed as CA (Chief Advisor). I am not an expert in constitution. Some says, he didn’t explore all the available options before declaring himself the CA. Awami League (AL) rejected Justice Hasan, BNP rejected the next persion. Some other options were unavailable for legal reasons (Actually this is where the legal debate arose, some said there were still other options… while others said, the option were already explored). At the end, President had to take the duty of CA. If someone said, his CA position was unconstitutional, I would disagree with him/her, since the oath ceremony was conducted by the Chief Justice himself and Chief Justice is the ultimate authority in maintaining Constitution. Those who were unhappy regarding this situation should have gone to the High Court seeking explanation. They went there though, but after lots of strikes and blockades, crippling countries economy… Another testimony of nonsense politics.

Then there was the High Court event. I don’t want to comment again in legal affairs, but what a group of lawyers did was a complete violation of their code of conduct and constitution.

Again after lots of fusses, AL and their alliance decided to come in the election, they submitted nomination paper. Things seemed in track. But all of a sudden they withdrew their nomination paper in the last date of withdrawal, which meant they aren’t going to the election anyway.

The reasons they pointed out were present at the time they submitted nomination papers, the only thing added was rejecting General Ershad’s nomination paper. I think Ershad was the hero after both parties attempt to bring him to their group… Both parties (AL and BNP) lost their moral ground (BTW, did they have???), when they approached the once ousted Military ruler and convicted criminal.

I think the voter list wasn’t complete, besides there were lots of flaws. But that’s a rule in this country rather than an exception. As AL pointed out, lots of their supporters went missing. But there was another thing they ignored intentionally (according to BNP and its allies). That’s this voter list contained many fake voters which were added during 1996 AL period. So both the parties had their plus and minus points. Anyway, I think the Election Commission (EC) couldn’t do much. They were out of time. The constitution clearly mentioned that a general election should be held within 90 days of dissolving the previous parliament. I would like to mention another thing here. The BNP led government wanted a constitution amendment where an option was to be added which would give an option to extend the 90 day period to another 90 days. But the amendment was not carried out due to AL’s strong protest. The irony is it would have served AL’s objective if it was done.

The political situations kept worsening with AL demanding the president to step down as the CA of the Caretaker Government and other demands, like voter list, Ershad’s nomination paper acceptance…. blah blah blah.

With the continued blockade and deteriorating situation, I felt like the country was moving towards prolonged instability. Things worsened when UN and EU decided not monitor the January 22^nd election. Well, they can make any decision. But I thought they should have continued and checked whether the election was going on fairly. The problem with these international organizations and 1^st world country is they don’t respect our constitution. What can an interim government do when very little things can be done according to the constitution!!!

But last night’s decision was a surprise move… State of Emergency has been declared. A night curfew has been imposed. The government started to control all the media. News bulletin by private TV channel is suspended. Newspapers are barred from publishing any political news. Political activities have been banned. After that the President has stepped down from the post of Chief Advisor of the government. All Advisors have resigned, the senior most Advisor Justuce Fazlul Huq has been appointed In Charge Chief Advisor until a new Advisory board is selected within a day or two. Everything seems a prelude to under cover military rule. (Well, I don’t know whether I’m violating the Government orders!!!)

Controlling media and restricting freedom of speech is the last thing we expected. That’s the only thing we had in this country for which we were proud of.

The Constitution: Some said it is for the people and it should be violated to serve people’s purpose … At least that’s what the AL led alliance said. But how can you say what I’m saying is people’s voice??? That’s where you need an election. You get elected, you change the constitution. Government institutions like Chief Advisor, Chief Justice, President, Supreme Court…. all are the servants of Constitution, neither you, nor me… neither of any political party. But the Constitution is the reflection of people’s choice… When their choices change, the party or alliance in power changes which is then eligible of reflecting the voice of those who elected them… We should stop voting for a part
y or an alliance; instead vote for our ideas, thoughts, opinion and judgment.

Ignoring constitution has the same effect as taking up the laws in own hand… and it has consequences… like what happened yesterday night.

Hope the country returns back to normality…… the earlier this is done, the better for the countrymen.

NB: Personally I prefer not to write on political stuffs… But sometime you can’t keep your mouth shut indefinitely! Lots of my readers may not agree with me in topics I mentioned, but I believe there are still some topics you’ll agree with me. Please put comment on whatever you feel.

This is the longest entry I’ve posted so far… lolz…

1118 BST (12-01-2007)

Image Courtesy: Yahoo News

It’s Aston Martin

Isn’t it gorgeous?

Aston Martin Vanquish…

Besides it’s black again (One of my friends said, she likes black colour when I switched to red with Mazda RX 8).

Image Courtesy: www.astonmartin.com

Preemptive Strike & Rule of Jungle

Preemptive Strike… The strategy adopted by US and its allies in the war against terrorism.

After the catastrophic 9/11, US government had to come up with a new plan.

I wont comment on the strategy’s effectiveness… But the way the offenses are carried out is a complete violation of international laws and basic human right. Once US used to say proudly they are the nation that upholds Human Right no matter what difficulty has to be faced.

It started with Afghanistan, then Iraq & lately with Somalia. Afghanistan had UN approval. US failed to get green signal from international community in Iraq… Somalia, didn’t even bother!!!

The problem with this strategy is so many casualties and mass murder. Besides, I feel like the world is getting even dangerous place to live… Like a Jungle filled with notorious and desperate beasts who want to take the reign through their muscle (or missile).

Image Caption: US fighter bombing in Somalia.

Image Courtesy: Yahoo News (AFP)

Zoo Tour

Last Wednesday (on 3^rd January) we went to Dhaka Zoo at Mirpur. I was feeling sorry for the animals. My impression was they were starving!!! Lions and tigers were most probably half of their actual size… after all they are in Bangladesh… most probably half of their foods are eaten up by the caretakers there .