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TO THE EDITOR
Vicious student politics
This refers to a news item along with the photograph of a student leader being chopped by his party men on DU campus published in a Dhaka daily on 13.04.2008.
This picture will no doubt appal the peace loving people. They might think that violence-based vicious student politics is going to be revived soon on the campuses. Shuaib Ahmed
Katasur. Muhamrnadpur Dhaka
Petty theft
This refers to the letter on 15 May on the-above subject. The content of the letter is indeed disturbing and is a matter of shame that a high official of the government of Bangladesh could steal hotel items on his departure and was caught at the KL airport, Malaysia. May we expect the government to investigate the matter immediately and take punitive action against this officer-turned-thief. We presume that it is his habit and he may have committed many such offences at home and has now dared to venture abroad with his act'
Dr. K. Maudood El ahi Pro- Vice Chancellor Stamford University Bangladesh
'Aamar Bhalobasha'
Radio Aamar Fm 101.6 Fm is airing a weekly special programme 'Aamar Bhalobahsa' on every Thursday from 12:00am to 2:00am where people get the opportunity to share their untold love stories with the listeners. It is a unique programme, especially in Bangladesh context since for the first time in our electronic media's history, people here are getting the chance to directly express their love related affair. Sometimes people share their sweet love stories, while most of the times people
share their bitter experiences. The host of the show, namely Love Guru gives valuable suggestions to his guests. This programme is helping a vast majority of our population about the true essence of love and how we should keep a relationship in an honest and proper way. These days quite a lot of teenagers of our society are involved in various sorts of crimes after getting rejected by the opposite sex. Sometimes they are even committing suicide because of getting rejected. This programme is motivating those youths to live their life to the fullest. It is inspiring them to take the correct decision which will be beneficial for them and for society. Thus, this programme is helping our society a lot. There is no denying that this programme has gained enormous popularity within a short span of time and therefore some people are trying to stop it. They are reportedly putting pressure on the Radio Aamar authorities to stop broadcasting of the show since according to them, it is not the right kind of show for our country & culture. They feel that people here are talking directly about love which is still a taboo in our society. But I think if Radio Aamar stops broadcasting the show due to outside influence, than it will be a shame for all of us. Our country is keeping pace with the modern world but that doesn't mean that we are not respecting our own culture and tradition.
Those who are talking about the so-called taboo' are actually good for nothing. They always try to find fault with others!
NazmusSaquib Dept, of English Stamford University Dhanmondi
Commuter's rights
On May 12, 2008, I experienced some trouble as a commuter because of the privilege the so-called VIPs have. I was on the VIP
road and soon the road became standstill, because an adviser came from the wrong side of the road, to avoid traffic on the side his car was supposed to be on. I, along with many common people, had to make a path for the adviser's car, coming from tlie wrong side. This is something travellers face each day due to the VIPs. Being a taxpayer of the country and more than that a citizen, I do not want to face these troubles on the road. Why should I make way for a VIP, that too coming from the wrong side of the road?
When millions of people suffer each day, due to the shocking state of traffic, we cannot worsen our sufferings by letting VIPs drive in the most Iditifibtis way at our cdsc
We hope to see the matter being given due consideration by the council of advisers. My last message is for the adviser: Sir, you were also a common citizen a couple of months back and you know how it feels when someone takes away your rights as a commuter.
Arafat A Islam
Gulshan. Dhaka
Women's future
Women in our country are still living in darkness. In our neighbouring country India, it is seen that women are more educated and they have established themselves in some leading sectors such as IT, finance land marketing. These sectors are blooming in our country with lots of opportunities forwomen.
After a long struggle, women have started to come out from the dark barbarian age when female infants were buried alive and women were burnt along with their dead husbands. Now women are much more conscious about their rights and they are getting lots of opportunities to develop their careers through higher education. However, the real situation is that there are many who educate themselves just to be a good wife
and to take care of their husband and children. They are actually wasting the opportunities that they
Suprotap Chaki
Departmen t ofEnglish Govt. Edward College Pabna
State of emergency
Except a few small political parties or groups, all others are demanding lifting of the state of emergency before the next parliamentary election scheduled to be held in the 3rd week of December 2008. Most of them will presumably make this one of the major issues in tlie coming political dialogue yvith the government. But I understand that general people will feel safe if the state of emergency continues for the following reasons until the next general election is over and an elected government takes over the state power.
Now there is state of emergency in tlie country but there is really no problem in leading a normal and peaceful life except the sufferings of the general people due to sky-high prices of essentials for which EPR is not responsible. Even in this situation we have observed that some violent incidents took place in Dhaka University & the Polytechnic Institute , in the garment sectors and in two universities at Khulna. So what will happen in the absence of EPR is not difficult to realize.
The bigger two political parties are already demanding unconditional release of their party chiefs and threatening to start move-ment/street violence if the government does not accept their demand. They were even unreasonably expecting some formal declaration from the Chief Adviser during his recent address to the nation about their bosses' release. They are openly expressing doubt about the highest court's performance and deliberations. If the state of emergency is lifted under this condition then there is every possibility that things will go out of control ;md we may go back to the pre 1/11 situation.
The political parties are demanding lifting of the state of emergency to restart hartal, street violence, fighting with the rival parties or factions and so on The government has recently lifted the ban on indoor politics and a little further relaxation of the tagged conditions will be sufficient for holding the next general election. On the other hand, the politicians should not go for such actions that may create a situation where the existing CI G will find some reason to prolong their stay in state power. Engr. Md. Aminul I loque Khallshpur, Khulna
"The flip side”
1 congratulate Mr Andaz for his excellent thought provoking letter 'The flip side' (Letters, 18/05/08). I could not resist the temptation to add further.
I consider myself a Bengali' by 'ethnicity or ethnic origin' which refers to a shared genealogy. Similarly, a person from either Bangladesh or India could be cither Bengali', 'Bihari', 'Chakma', 'Khashia' etc. by ethnicity and 'Bangladeshi' or Indian' also respectively. Ninety-eight per cent of the population of Bangladesh are of'Bengali' origin which can be traced back to the Eastern IndoAryans.
We need to ask ourselves, why and how Bangladesh was created? I believe, our present identity crisis is mainly due to our mentality where the British played their cards too well. Yes, we were oppressed by the Pakistanis. But didn’t the British oppress us too for 200 years? India was the richest country in the world before the British arrived sniffing spices. In 1905 Lord Curzon found Bengal, the crown jewel of India, too big and complex to govern and divided it, which is known as 'The first partition of Bengal (1905)'. The British successfully implanted the seeds of 'Hindus Vs Muslims' amongst us which helped them rule us. Although Bengal was reunited in 1911 due to mass political protest, the crack remained.
MM Rahman London, UK
Honesty not rewarded It would be nicer to write about something else than writing about my brother. But I could not keep myself silent when I see a miscarriage of justice is being carried out against a very decent man. This man would not confess any wrongdoing nor pay any ransom money. My brother has been the chief accountant for BRTC for nearly thirty years and has survived much political turmoil just by being an apolitical and honest man. He was threatened many times in the past but in the end people had realized that the man was strong and they could not replace him. He complained to me many times that he had enough of it and would like to move on rather than carrying marching orders from political bosses.
Let me tell you categorically that my brother had zero monetary gains from all these years under all Bangladeshi governments. The only thing he got is his solid integrity, which he cherishes after all these years' services at BRTC. But, not any more! My brother's name is now being mentioned as a corrupt
We have new people in the government, who are basically our new masters with their own agenda. As expected, it will make some noise about corruption but at the end of the day things will remain the same and some new people will enrich themselves by being loyal to the new government. I do not mind the new government's anti-corruption drive against the bad guys but they should be careful and be held responsible for going after people who did not commit any crime. That is pure harassment!
I sincerely hope that the new government does not repeat the mistakes of the past governments. Shamol Saha, Ph.D
Boston University. Boston, US
Manpower export to South Korea
This is good news that recently tlie Bangladesh government and its South Korean counterpart signed the agreement to export manpower to South Korea under the employment permit system (EPS). First of all. wc would like to thank the Bangladesh government, the South Korean government. Bangladesh Overseas Employment and Services Limited (BOESL) & HRD Korea. So far 6600 candidates appeared in the Korean language test (KLT) and 2915 passed the test. After the medical test, so far 2500 candidates submitted their job applications.
It has indeed opened a new job market for us.
MH Ahamed
North Goran. Dhaka Rickshaws
We fully support a rickshaw free capital. But why blind our eyes to other parts of the country where too we do not need rickshaws as a means of transport. We urge that rickshaws be withdrawn as a means of transport from the whole country as it involves immense rigor to the pullers and makes them physically and financially incapable. Let's have alternative means of livelihood than pulling rickshaws. Needless to mention that all rickshaw pullers live in slums and all these slum dwellers are used by our political parties as means for all illegal activities like drug peddling, observing hartals, and name what have you. We should certainly put an end to all these.
Public/private mechanized transport systems are much more time efficient and less expensive. Hence roads should only be used by mechanized vehicles. Besides, metros, elevated express ways, mono rails, underground and on-the-ground shuttle railways are more efficient means of transporting commuters to save millions of productive working man-hours and stop road jams. Comfortable foot-paths are also equally important to cover short distances by walking; thus making it a healthy life style besides eliminating harmful emissions.
Qamruddin Chowdhury
Kuwait
Clashes in KU
I am writing this in response to the news regarding the clashes among workers, police and students in Khulna. I am a student of Khulna University, which is tire only university that is session jam and politics free. Our varsity was closed on Thursday for a 4-week long summer vacation. We already had our vacation plan. We were leaving our campus one by one by buses and trains. But as it happens regularly, the workers of bus terminals behave roughly with us(not only students but all other people). But I saw it for the first time that students were beaten severely by the transport workers.
We tlie students just wanted to rescue our friends and asked for support from the law enforcers to arrest the offenders. Was that an illegal stance? Time has come to reconsider our position in society. This was really a pathetic experience for us.
Shuvo, Khulna University
FCC story
I should like to make a few comments about Dr. Ashraf Z. Khan's letter (DS, May 16) in response to Dr. Fakhruddin Ahmed article on Faujdarhat Cadet College (DS, April 28).
Dr. Khan takes issue with the role of Ayub Khan in FCC's history and the mentioning of Col. Brown several times in the article. I take the counter view.
While it is not politically correct to give any credit to any former Pakistani these days, I am glad that Dr. Ahmed went for historical accuracy. If Ayub Khan personally selected the site of Faujdarhat Cadet College, selected the principal and was the primary force behind the college, I fail to see how the acknowledgement of these basic facts constitutes “the glorification of Ayub Khan."
Bangladeshis are a generous people. They are especially appreciative of foreigners who help Bangladesh. I am happy that Dr. Ahmed heaped profuse praise on FCC's founding principal, the late New Zealander Lt. CoL William Maurice Brown, who apparently did wonderful things for the students of FCC. I am a little disappointed that Dr. Khan categorizes Dr. Ahmed's praise for CoL Brown as “a bit stretched" without giving his reasons.
Dr. Khan is right on one point Col. Brown's students were patriots, 45 of whom fought in Bangladesh's liberation war and eight of whom became martyrs. Dr. Ahmed could have included the names of all the FCC freedom fighters and martyrs in his article to dispel the widely held notion that cadet colleges are for the "wealthy’
Musa Salaam
New York. USA