ACCORDING to several past reports published by Human Rights Watch, Privacy International, and Swedish Media, there has been a rise in incidences of enforced disappearances and extra-judicial killings in Bangladesh in the last couple of years. Several reports by Ain o Salish Kendra seem to support this allegation. As a sovereign state how does Bangladesh perceive such allegations? Why even after so many disappearances is it difficult to perceive who the real culprits are ? Why cant we ensure the security of the common citizen, or those who are politically and ideologically different to those in power ?
Meanwhile black laws like Section 57 of the ICTAct which prohibit total freedom of expression force journalists to ask for its repeal.The Editors’ Council demanded that the government fully repeal Section 57 of the Information and Communication Technology Act and refrain from taking any initiative to re-introduce similar provisions in any new law.It also demanded withdrawal of all cases filed under this Section against editors and journalists and release of the detained journalists.What can we say about the future of our rights to express freely ?
We have one of the best anti-women violence laws in the world–yet only 20,000 cases are filed under this law every year.Is it fair to say that the incidence of women being oppressed and being subject to violence are much higher than the number of cases which are actually filed ? It is the rare case which brings the victims to book–like that of the maid servant who was tortured brutally and then dumped in a dustbin.
Founded in January 1948, BCL played a significant role in the country’s Liberation War and other historical events, including the Language Movement in 1952, Six-Point Movement in 1966, uprising of 1969, AL’s win in the 1970 elections and the street agitation against Ershad. But when politics of power and money replaces ideology-based politics, infighting and clash are unavoidable.When the President of the country says that student leaders are more interested in themselves, things like tender manipulation, extortion and grabbing of dormitory seats come to mind. Not to mention the over 125 deaths in the last eight years with the latest casualty being a BCL activist in Sylhet yesterday.The victims include 60 BCL leaders and activists and 54 common people. So where is the future of public education ?
Holding taxes are at an all time high in Dhaka, yet we have no one to control the chikunguniya outbreak which has many unreported cases.Why cant the two City Corporations use revenues to do proper pest control by carrying out regular mosquito control actions ? Meanwhile Chittagong seaport, which handles about 90 percent of the country’s export-import trade is tied up as vessels need to wait there for days to offload goods due to a shortage of jetties.
All of these incidents indicate various anomalies in our body politic, in the ways things are conducted in our nation, in our method and systems of governance.The remedies to these things are known–the solutions are simple .But in almost every situation there is an inaction in delivery, in making the situation better. If we continue to see the abnormal as normal, the future of our country is bleak.Acceptance of our flaws and self correction are the first steps to the realization of our potential.
Meanwhile black laws like Section 57 of the ICTAct which prohibit total freedom of expression force journalists to ask for its repeal.The Editors’ Council demanded that the government fully repeal Section 57 of the Information and Communication Technology Act and refrain from taking any initiative to re-introduce similar provisions in any new law.It also demanded withdrawal of all cases filed under this Section against editors and journalists and release of the detained journalists.What can we say about the future of our rights to express freely ?
We have one of the best anti-women violence laws in the world–yet only 20,000 cases are filed under this law every year.Is it fair to say that the incidence of women being oppressed and being subject to violence are much higher than the number of cases which are actually filed ? It is the rare case which brings the victims to book–like that of the maid servant who was tortured brutally and then dumped in a dustbin.
Founded in January 1948, BCL played a significant role in the country’s Liberation War and other historical events, including the Language Movement in 1952, Six-Point Movement in 1966, uprising of 1969, AL’s win in the 1970 elections and the street agitation against Ershad. But when politics of power and money replaces ideology-based politics, infighting and clash are unavoidable.When the President of the country says that student leaders are more interested in themselves, things like tender manipulation, extortion and grabbing of dormitory seats come to mind. Not to mention the over 125 deaths in the last eight years with the latest casualty being a BCL activist in Sylhet yesterday.The victims include 60 BCL leaders and activists and 54 common people. So where is the future of public education ?
Holding taxes are at an all time high in Dhaka, yet we have no one to control the chikunguniya outbreak which has many unreported cases.Why cant the two City Corporations use revenues to do proper pest control by carrying out regular mosquito control actions ? Meanwhile Chittagong seaport, which handles about 90 percent of the country’s export-import trade is tied up as vessels need to wait there for days to offload goods due to a shortage of jetties.
All of these incidents indicate various anomalies in our body politic, in the ways things are conducted in our nation, in our method and systems of governance.The remedies to these things are known–the solutions are simple .But in almost every situation there is an inaction in delivery, in making the situation better. If we continue to see the abnormal as normal, the future of our country is bleak.Acceptance of our flaws and self correction are the first steps to the realization of our potential.
