Bangladesh has changed

A production by Zanala Bangladesh.

New president, renewed hope for democracy

Abdul Hamid, a career politician who worked his way up to the top from the grassroots, has been installed as the 20th President of Bangladesh.

Acting Speaker Shawkat Ali administered the oath-taking ceremony at the Bangabhaban on Wednesday. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and several of her Cabinet members attended the programme. The President’s term is for five years which means he will be in office during the term of the next government.

A seven-time Member of Parliament from Kishoreganj, Hamid has been discharging duties of the President since the second week of last month when 19th President Md Zillur Rahman had been hospitalised.

The two-time Speaker was made the Acting President after the demise of Zillur Rahman.

No representative of the BNP was present at the programme. Ganaforum President Dr Kamal Hossain was present.

Read more at bdnews24.com.

Japanese envoy upbeat on Bangladesh

Japanese ambassador in Dhaka Shiro Sadoshima is ‘frustrated’ over the recent political violence and strikes, but he he feels Bangladesh will overcome.

“Please sit and talk,” he urged political parties while addressing diplomatic correspondents in Dhaka on Saturday. “ Your street violence is scaring off Japanese companies.”

The ambassador said he is finding less and less Japanese companies willing to invest here.

“When I came here a year and a half ago, my mission was to expand trade and businesses. But in the last six months it had plateaued. "

He said last month he missed a business delegation comprising Japanese giants Sony and Toyota. “They just flew off after staying in hotels in Dhaka and Chittagong,” he said, “They were scared of strikes.”

He, however, said he had no plan to talk directly to the political leaders in Bangladesh as it’s not 'our style.’

“We don’t discuss internal politics. But this time we raised those issues as a good friend of the country,” he said.

Sadoshima said he was worried that Bangladesh's development may suffer as ‘the opportunity costs would be more now than before’ due to the unrest.

During his talks organized by the Diplomatic Correspondents’ Association of Bangladesh (DCAB), the ambassador of the Bangladesh’s largest bilateral development partner stressed on working together in the development process of the country.

Source: www.bdnews24.com

Where Do We Go From Here?

Where Do We Go From Here?

Part 1- The Belgian Incident

by Shafiq Rahman

A few days ago Afsan Chowdhury, one of our best commentators on Bangladesh history and politics, posted a question on his Facebook wall, “So who thinks national governance will improve through the next election?” (April 9).  This is a very important question to ask even in the middle of the apocalyptic battle that is now raging in the national arena. But as usual, in the comments thread following his question, attempts to take a stab at the question soon descended into who did what in 1971. What is the equivalent to Godwin’s Law in Bangladesh?

To any longtime outside observers of Bangladesh, our national course in the last quarter of a century may seem to be eerily following a macabre perennial calendar, a plot that is a staple to many science fiction and fantasy novels.  After many years of happy sunshine, a thousand days of darkness falls on the land and creatures of the dark come out. Winter has come! Every time after the pall of darkness is lifted, an election ushers a thousand years of peace and prosperity and most people are deliriously happy. But the dark clouds of Mordor bid their time behind the mountains knowing that their time will surely come again.  Right now we are deep into the season of dark days and lot of messianic warriors around us is fighting their dream ‘final battle between good and evil’.  But rest of the people are thinking that surely this cannot get any worse, surely we have reached the bottom, and surely this mad cycle of events cannot go on for ages.  Perhaps most of the sane people in the country think that if nothing else, surely nature will take care of this deadly curse upon the nation when the twin ghosts of Sinbad shuffle off their mortal coil in the near future.

R.I.P Mr. President

President Md Zillur Rahman has died at a Singapore hospital after fighting for life for 11 days.

He breathed his last at the Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Singapore at 4:47pm Bangladesh time on Wednesday. Mohammad Shafiul Alam, the Secretary to the President, told bdnews24.com's Moinul Hoque Chowdhury.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina condoled his death and said she was sad at his demise, her Press Secretary told bdnews24.com at 5pm.

The President was 84. Read more here.

Bangladesh at transition

If you are slightly interested about Bangladesh, you know the current situation there. Some call it political situation but I beg to differ. You can have a political situation when legitimate political parties participate in a democratic process and do what ever is necessary within legal boundaries to represent their people, their interest. But right wing extremist terrorist group Jamaat and its youth wing is going beyond breaking the law and order to save their leaders who are war criminals in 1971 liberation war. Recently they are in a killing spree which includes police, minority Hindus, civil servants, innocent civilians and even children's. Ofcourse Jamaat control media and social network is labeling these as govt autrocity.

Since the Shabag movement started in Feb 2013, I didn't think Jamaati terrorist are just going to walk away. Their existence as a political force in Bangladesh is at question. So they are doing what is expected from them which is terrorizing the people of Bangladesh and try to get sympathy from international community to save their rajakar leaders from war crime tribunals. Strong will of people of Bangladesh will not let this happen this time. War crime criminals will see justice no matter how big of an scholar he is. If you kill someone or rape someone you will see jsutice. If someone didn't believe in Bangladesh liberation war in 1971 I can respect their choice but if they aided Pakistani military aggression against innocent civilians and killed and raped thousands of women and children, Bangladeshis has the right to ask for justice even if it is after 42 years of independence.

Anti liberation force plotting against the state - Information Minister

Bangabandhuke Jemon Dekhachi

By Major General (Retd.) Shubid Ali Bhuiyan, MP

Find the eBook here: Bangabandhuke Jemon Dekhachi

Symbol of hope for Bangladesh

She is a symbol of hope for Bangladesh. Corrupt politicians from any parties, watch out. Your time will end soon.

40 Years of Independence

Today is Dec 16th, 2011. Forty years ago in 1971, Bangladesh was born. Many people sacrificed their lives, their honor, and their dignity to achieve independence from West Pakistan. Because of the sacrifice of many brave souls, we can call our ourselves Bangladeshis, we can call Bangla our language. Today, we take a moment to remember all those who sacrificed and risked their lives for us. To the brave ones, we thank you for your sacrifice.

As a relatively new nation, we have achieved a lot in last forty years. And we have a long ways to go to become a leader among the nations of the world. I am very optimistic about the future of Bangladesh. We have great people working really hard every day to make Bangladesh a better place to live. We have business leaders who are taking a risk and creating jobs for the people. We have a great military who are carrying the green and red flag of Bangladesh in many nations in turmoil.
They are helping to keep piece in the world.
We have every day farmers producing food for us.
We have many things to be thankful for.

On this day, I urge all political leaders not to exploit the people of Bangladesh. Do not create divisions among the people for your own political benefit. Be a political leader for the right reasons, to serve the people and not to exploit them. People voted for you with a great deal of trust that you will solve our problems. Please do not break that trust. If you do, history says there will be a payback in some way or other. Work for the country, work for the people. Otherwise get out and let others with good intensions to lead Bangladesh.

Lastly I want to thank my father, Major General (Retd.) Shubid Ali Bhuiyan, MP for his fearless contribution in 1971. I want to thank my beloved mother, Mahmuda Akhter for her sacrifice during the liberation war. Abba joined the fight to liberate a nation and Amma didn’t know if she would ever see him again. Amma was pregnant at that time with my older brother, Major (Retd.) Mohammad Ali. I am proud to be the son of a freedom fighter.

Our parents sacrificed a great deal, so we could grow up in an independent country, in a free society where we could achieve what we wanted with hard work and dedication and no one to dictate what we could or couldn't do because of the religion we practice or the language we speak.

Today, I am very thankful to everyone who sacrificed their lives, so we can live in a free nation called “Bangladesh”.