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TO THE EDITOR
A freedom fighter speaks
Much to my gnef. 1 write through your daily to let the people of ^Bangladesh know that my fight or *ihe freedom of Bangladesh was in vain.
The reasons are: people who directly opposed the Liberation War held highest seats in the Administration of the country, and, were patronised by the authorities. Asad-uz-Zaman
Dhanmondi (North) Dhaka
Remittance
Foreign remittance is increasing day by day. It is one of the major sources of our foreign currency earning. It’s playing a vital role in 'oiir economy as well as GDP .
growth. As a key resource of our economy, banks as well as our central bank should take care of the customer service needed by those sending money from abroad. It is very poor at present AbuM Shoyeb
Livingston
Scotland
BNP and 'doctrine of necessity'
* it is unfortunate that the BNP has fallen into the trap set by an internal feud.
The Awami League President Sk Hasina went to prison appointing senior party leader Zillur Rahman as acting president of the AL. The Election Commission invited Zillur Rahman for a dialogue.
We do not know the reason why the BNP Chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia did not appoint senior party leader Saifur Rahman as acting chairperson when she went to prison. Begum Khaleda Zia appointed Brig (Retd) Hannan Shah as chairperson's advisor and Khondkar Delwar Hossain as acting general secretary of the BNP
The Election Commission did not invite Hannan Shah or Khondkar Delwar Hossain for a dialogue.
Saifur Rahman did not raise any objection when Begum Khaleda Zia appointed Hannan Shah and Khondkar Delwar Hossain.
But all of a sudden in the midnight of October 29, 2007, Saifur Rahman in a dramatic move
declared himself as acting chairperson of the BNP and Major Hafizuddin (retd) as acting general secretary.
Under the extraordinary circumstances the Election Commission invited Major Hafizuddin (retd) for a dialogue. The Chief Election Commissioner said that the 'doctrine of necessity' guided them in inviting the BNP reformists.
We are surprised if the anti-corruption officials could visit and meet Sk Hasina and Begum Khaleda Zia in prison, why the Election Commission officials failed to do so and discuss the dialogue issue with Begum Khaleda Zia in prison?
It is very interesting, important and significant that both 'Hannan Shall- Delwar Hossain' and Saifur Rahman-Hafizuddin' equally accept, respect and honour Begum Khaleda Zia as the BNP Chairperson.
Our Election Commission is pledge-bound to hold a free and fair general election in 2008. It is imperative that all concerned maintain the image, entity, activity, neutrality and integrity of the Election Commission.
OH Kabir
Dhaka
Trial of razakars
The growing public demand from all quarters for trial of war criminals in Bangladesh has finally yielded some positive results. The present government has decided to enact some laws which would prohibit the razakars or war criminals from contesting the national elections. One of the Election Commissioners conveyed this good news in his recent press briefing. He further said that the EC's new law would bar the razakars who were proven to be so.
We do not need any references or anybody's certification about the creation of razakar force during the War of Liberation because many of us who suffered and witnessed the activities of razakars are still alive. We saw how Razakars were associated with many of the atrocities committed by the Pakistan Army during the 9-month war (see 1971 Bangladesh atrocities).Initially. the razakars were under the command of local pro-
Pakistani committees. But through the East Pakistan Razakar Ordinance (promulgated by General Tikka Khan on 1 June 1971) and a Ministry of Defence, Pakistan, ordinance (promulgated on 7 September 1971), razakars were recognised as members of the Pakistan Army.
History cannot be made or erased by anyone. I quote some examples here. Following the liberation of East Pakistan most of the leading razakars, including Ghulam Azam, fled to Pakistan. Although Ghulam Azam maintained that he went to Pakistan to participate in the Annual General Meeting of his organisation Jamaat-e-Islami. he remained overseas until General Ziaur Rahman allowed him to return to Bangladesh. Many of thb lower ranking razakars who remained in Bangladesh were killed in the course of reprisals immediately after the end of fighting while as many as 36,000 were imprisoned.
I am sure there are plenty of evidences against the collaborators. I suggest the govt get some help from the Website "Wikipedia'’ where a short list is available.
In 1992, after restoration of democracy, an unofficial “Court of People" (Bengali: Gonoadalot) “sentenced" Ghulam Azam and his ten accomplices to death for war crimes and crimes against humanity The Jamaat-e-Islami was already a part of the ruling four-party alliance in Bangladesh and so the “verdict" was ignored. Moreover, the then BNP government returned Bangladeshi nationality to Ghulam Azam, as it had been taken from him after the war. Subdued during the rule of Awami League from 1996-2001, the Jamaat returned in full force after the next election in October 2001 in which a four-party alliance led by BNP won.
The razakars are still working in this country. They are helping extremists to grow.
They want to make Bangladesh a failed state. Time is ripe to hit now while the whole nation is demandingwarcriminals' trial.
Shafiqul Islam One-mail
First NRB conference
It was a vivacious conference organised by Scholar Bangla and
attended by 1000 expatriate Bangladeshis being called by the CA with a view to helping the country to become a middle-income state by 2021 with their long term contributions. From State Senator to scientist, many prominent NRBs participated in the conference and exchanged views with locals over specific issues like education, health, infrastructure, energy, etc in light of their expertise.
Another special event that touched me more was the award session where, eight individuals, four each from residents and the NRBs, were selected as scholars of the year for their contributions in different fields.
So, this conference should be the start of a process instead of an event that would strengthen the ties the NRBs have with Bangladesh. Last of all, I also urge the NRBs to establish a forum through which they can formally engage in activities with the local administration and organisations for building our dream Bangladesh.
Farhad
BBA( 10th batch) Un iversi ty of Dhaka
Lifting of emergency
The disgraced politicians of the country are once again clamouring for lifting of emergency imposed earlier to save the country from destruction. The intention of the politicians is obvious which is to draw the country back to 1/11 situation and thereafter to fish in the troubled water. We have seen the activities of these politicians in the last thirty seven years and therefore are fully aware of their sinister motives. At present the process of holding an impartial election is on and nothing should be done which may encourage the interested quarters to disrupt the process. The government has time and again announced that emergency would be lifted at opportune moment to pave the way for holding the election scheduled to be held by the later part of2008. There is no reason whatsoever to doubt the intention of the government for timely holding of the election announced earlier.
Only very recently wc have seen how political unrest and anarchy led to the assassination of Benazir
Bhutto in Pakistan making the holding of election uncertain. We cannot afford to let the politicians to take the opportunity to create such a situation in our country. Even now they are threatening to resort to movements to secure release of their leaders by force disregarding country's legal system thus creating a law and order situation. To them movement means arson and destruction which we cannot allow them to engage in any more.
The political parties under their present leaderships do not enjoy confidence of the people. The nation demands new and honest political leadership with mission, vision and goal for the betterment of the country and its people. To this end the prime and foremost initiative should come from the existing party leadership. They should retire from politics, paving the way for the younger, educated generation to enter the political arena.
MohammadAtaul Hoque On e-mail
Looming danger
Since September 11, 2001, the world seems to be a chaotic place to live in. A particular group of the enemies of Islam is trying to destroy the true image of this great religion and establish their so-called “freedom to people” system of society. According to these extremists, their "freedom to people" system of society is such where women will be kept at home doing only house-hold chores, where there will be no education for women, where education regarding science and technology will be considered as Satan's work, where committing suicide will be the only way to eliminate their rivals, where torturing, beheading and killing those who resist their freedom will be a daily activity.
The terrorists' vindictive attitude will only lead us to an abject situation if the leaders of the free world do not take stringent actions to disseminate messages to people saying how dangerous and ruthless these extremists are.
The extremism must be stopped before it gets too late. Our lovely Planet is indeed in peril!
Minhaj Ahmed
Uttara, Dhaka
Main issues
Advisers to the present government, especially Law and Information Advisor Barrister Mainul Hosen, very often warn that they would not let the country go back to the situation that existed before 11 January 2007. I think none of the conscious people would disagree with them in principle.
At first, I need to clearly recall what the main issues of the pre-1/11 situation were and what the present government have done so far in order to prevent the country from going back to that situation. We know that it was a fierce row between the Awami League and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) over the process of next election. The political corruption ahd crimes of those days that resulted in the so called pre-1/11 situation included increase in the retirement age of the Chief Justice, appointment of President lajuddin Ahmed as Chief Advisor to the caretaker government, appointments of Chief Election Commissioner M.A. Aziz and some other election commissioners, appointments of JCD cadres as election officers, preparing a faulty voter list, etc.
Now we should have a look if the present government has taken measures enough to fight such political corruption. So far, the present government has done some big jobs that include fight against financial corruption by politicians. Undoubtedly, these will have a positive impact on the future activities of the politicians, especially ruling party leaders, but the question is, if these steps will prevent the country from going back to the pre-1/11 situation. I think the answer is 'no', because no steps have been taken to punish those involved in 'political corruption' that had created the so-called pre-1/11 situation.
Another important endeavour of the present government is to keep AL President Sheikh Hasina and BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia, out of politics. And it seems the government thinks if the two leaders are out of politics, the country will not go back to the pre 1/11 situation. At this point, two questions may arise: First, everyone should understand that the two leaders' political images are based on their ancestral popularity that could be inherited by any of their close family member in the absence of the two. Second, why will an un-elected government impose its wishes on such a big issue? People are the owner of the state in a democracy and, as per democratic norms, only their elected leaders can handle such issues.
If the government continues to do such 'command politics’, today or tomorrow it would face stronger opposition that could lead the country to the same situation as witnessed before 1/112007. Kalam?\zad Auckland NeivZcaland
NRB conference
In the NRB conference 2007 die President of US-Bangladesh Advisory Council Sabbir Ahmed said, “At present there are 400,000 vacant posts for nurses in the US, and Bangladesh can export skilled human resources against those posts". I could not agree more. I believe that management and entrepreneurs in that sector should pay serious attention to this matter. Until recently, I did not think of nursing as being comparable to high tech jobs. But now America is hiring foreign English speaking experienced nurses from all over the world, especially from South Africa since2003.
There is a risk of losing our existing nurses to serve the country. I am not proposing to export them and have our hospitals and nursing homes emptied. This is why this is a very sensitive venture. We have to plan and execute it keeping in mind that we only pursue the winwin projects. We may follow some specific guidelines:
Hospitals and schools that train nurses could create additional capacities. Students, who are good at English from universities or colleges, should be trained with a commitment of serving 1,-2 years at nursing homes or hospitals. This should not be free. They should get paid for their job. This is a win-win
situation for them . Students who are not good in English may improve their skill and also get the opportunities to participate in such programmes.
The job opportunities for Resident Nurses are expected to grow by more than 36% through 2010. This field has been rated “grow faster than average" by the US Department of Labour. For more information on that, please visit the US Department of Labour, Bureau of Labour Statistics on Internet. I hope to write more on the Nurse Training and Education requirement in future. I would like to give another piece of information: the median annual earnings of RN were $44,840 in 2000. Please keep in mind that a significant part of that salary goes to taxes (about one„ third).
Abu Abdullah
Portland OR 97229