#hartals

The past few days have been hectic, due to my son’s impending wedding on April 28th. Lot of travel, involving preparations, invitations and other allied activities. Last week  my wife and I were in Bangalore. I got a message from my friend aaking me when I would be reaching Trivandrum, the city of the wedding. I told her that we would be reaching on the 26th, 2 days before the wedding. After  a…

The article nowhere mentions "hartals" in Bangladesh following our democratic transition of 1990.

A hartal is violence unleashed on innocent bystanders by the opposition to bring down the government (“strikes-cum-blockades enforced by partisan thugs” was The Economist’s tortured definition).

80% of all hartals after 1947 occurred between 1990 and 2011. Of the 721 national hartals recorded by the Banglapedia (online) since the country came into being as East Pakistan in 1947, 591 occurred after the democratic transition of 1990 – that is, 82% in a mere 21 years (1990 – 2011).

How many people were burnt alive or beaten to death? No records exist.

But consider a single episode from the night of June 4, 2004 when a double-decker public bus full of passengers in front of the Sheraton Hotel in Dhaka blew up in flames.  Six people were incinerated inside the bus, and a burnt man jumped to his death; two others, including a two-year-old child, Meem, died at Dhaka Medical College Hospital (The Daily Star, June 5 2004).

Rs 29,000 crore business: In strike against strikes, Kerala to shield tourism industry from hartals

Nu så här i början är det ju mycket fokus på att ordna med praktiska saker. Allt från att installera internet, se till att våra vattenleveranser kommer (går inte att använda kranvatten till mycket annat än att duscha och diska), handla mat etc. Mycket av det får vi ju hjälp av via Hannahs jobb, men fort det går det inte.

Vilket förstärks av dom oroligheter som pågår i hela Bangladesh för tillfället. Strejker, upplopp och en massa djävulskap som har sin utgångspunkt i förra valet som oppositionen här i Bangladesh anser som olaglig (och följdaktligen bojkottade). Och traditionen i den här delen av världen är att man använder sig av olika typer av organiserade och oorganiserade gatuprotester för att utöva tryck på matkhavarna. Problemet med det är att det ofta utmynnar i våldsamheter där tyvärr flera människor har fått sätta livet till. De flesta vanliga bengaler man pratar med är otroligt trötta på dessa s.k. Hartals som gör livet svårare än vad det behöver vara.

This morning I opened my Daily Star to skim the headlines. Sad and shocking to say the least.  Usually I don't read the articles, between the errors in the writing and the stress I get from the articles themselves on the political activities ongoing, it really isn't worth it to me. Today I made an exception and took a closer look. Ugh! Now super stressed and outraged I am writing this post.

Just to give you and overview here are a few:

Door Shut Yet Open for BNP

Outraged Business Leaders Demand Security

Blockaders Torch AL Leader's House

Rickshaw-puller Hit By Crude Bomb

Children Suffer in Silence

ATM's Empty - Banks stop refilling over insecurity

Even 5yr-old Not Spared

Even I have to wonder is this politics or psychological warfare? Why do we accept this onslaught of political based violence every 5 years? It's difficult for me to take these things lightly anymore.

Blockade programs where the leader of the Opposition allows her party supporters to kill, maim, vandalize and commit many other crimes in the name of protest, hartal, blockade while preventing the nation's children from attending school or risking their lives to get there, causing losses to businesses who can't get their supplies, and much more can't be called political campaigning or even protest politics.  I won't be polite about it. It goes far beyond that, it  is dark and sinister. Yet, we all allow it to continue without looking for a way to end it. Why?

Why do we get upset when those empowered to uphold the law arrest those breaking them? Why do we allow the opposition to hold more violent protests to protest the arrests of people who have done criminal acts? Why are we allowing this to go on and on and on with no thought of the impact on our youth? Seeing that there is no respect for the police or law enforcement and that politicians object to criminals being arrested and are allowed to protest it, what do the youth of the country learn?

Five-year-old Sumaiya Akhter Sadia was going to school yesterday morning when she was struck by splinter from a cocktail hurled from a procession of the BNP-led 18-party opposition alliance activists, brought out to enforce its blockade, in Chittagong city's Akbar Shah Mazar area. The photo was taken at Chittagong Medical College Hospital. Photo: Anurup Kanti Das

Imagine only a week or so before mid-year exams and nearly no days of school. Children sitting in their homes worried whether their parents made it to their places of employment or if they will make it home. Children missing weeks of school due to protests. Children and parents worried if they will make it to school and return home unharmed. Homemade bombs being thrown at vehicles, passersby and homes with the blessings of the opposition leader. She may disagree, but she has not told them not to do these things so her silence has been taken as approval. She may disagree, but she is calling for more of these programs as intensified agitation programs

People of Bangladesh and friends of Bangladesh, it is time to put and end to mindless acceptance of criminal acts done in the name of protest, elections or political campaigning. It is time to put into place regulations on all protests that will prohibit, or control them at the minimum. Restrict protests to a specific venue and restrict the acts and numbers of protesters.  Tell your leaders you won't accept this violence and insecurity anymore. Tell them today. Tell them for Sumaiya and for all the children of Bangladesh - security is a priority that can't be taken lightly anymore. Crime in the name of politcal elections is unacceptable.

Technorati Tags: Bangladesh 2021,Bangladesh,Lori Imdad,Asia,Shahbagh Protest,1952 Language Movement,Shaheed Minar,Southeast Asia,East Pakistan,Vision 2021,Digital Bangladesh,Dhaka,Political Parties

Today, we sit on the precipice of the 21st Anniversary of the Bengali Language Movement while thousands of citizens have thronged to Shahbagh in a mass protest for the death of the convicted war criminals. Citizens joined together for no other reason other than that they believe this is the right path. This protest began on February 5th and until yesterday, February 15th, 2013, had planned to culminate today. However, the killing of one of the activists and renown blogger (Amar Blog), Ahmed Rajib Haider, has served to renew the fervor of the protestors who now have vowed to continue the protest until justice is achieved for Rajib and a death sentence meted out for the convicted war criminals. Known as Rajib by his associates and the pen name of Raba Thaba (the “Claw”) on Amar Blog, he was mercilessly and brutally murdered assumedly due to his involvement with the Protest and possibly related to some of his outspoken blog posts. Bangladesh is a secular country where protests by Political and Industrial organizations are commonplace. Hartals (Strikes) are the usual form of these protests. I am not a supporter of Hartals as I feel the detriment of the economy and the interruption of education to the country’s students far outweighs the objectives sought from the protests. However, a political leader has told me it is the right of the people to protest and that they can’t take this right from them.

The biggest change in this mass protest from those of the past is the involvement of social media. Social media sites like Facebook have had both positive and negative effects on the protest. Positive as people around the world are involved and seeing regular updates, and negative as opposition party members have been found to have posted incorrect information to circumvent the protest.

U.S. Ambassador Dan Mozena when asked about his opinion on the Shahbagh Protest simply stated that it is Democracy in Action. We can ascertain that while the International community is watching, for the present time they are mute spectators observing the turns of democracy in Bangladesh.

Due to the activities of one of the political parties (Jamaat) there is a call for the party to be banned. There is international precedent for banning of a political party - Thailand banned its former ruling party in 2007, Haiti banned its largest political party from prior to elections in 2010 and most recently Libya banned all religious or ethnically based prior to their election. While some say banning a political party, regardless of the motivation behind the act, means stifling of opinions though others agree that in some instances there is no other option in order to insure the safety of the public.

Today, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has said Jamaat-e-Islami and its student organization Islami Chhatra Shibir do not have any right to do politics in Bangladesh. So, this may mean an official decision is forth coming.