This weeks news has run the gamut of silly, inconsequential and headscratchingly troubling.
In the first instance, the BNP leader and former Prime Minister, Khaleda Zia has said that if the sitting government fails to govern with the consent and agreement of the opposition, it should step down. Apart from the vainglory of the claim, it stands completely counter to the facts.
The BNP opposition has boycotted parliament and, thus, has foresworn any stake in helping govern the country. The second claim that failing to govern in this particularly ideal way–the AL must govern, as it were, with the interests of the BNP in mind–it should step down, abdicate, in a turn away from the democratic claims of the electorate.
Finally, in more consequential news, though seemingly routed, the terrorist group Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) seems to have remained capable of running violent, militant operations.
Begum Zia is surely right to say that there country is beset by economic and political turmoil. Nevertheless, the economic downturn is well beyond the capabilities of any one government and the BNP must own up to its share of the infighting in parliament and on the streets. This is sheer demagoguery, spiteful, harmful idiocy on stilts.
In other news, Tony Blair is in Dhaka on a private visit. He will hold talks with the Prime Minister and the Finance Minister. It’ll be interesting to note whether the magnanimous welcome the former Prime Minister, now a private citizen, is receiving has been paid for by public monies.
Finally, and to more consequential effects of the country’s daily politics, it seems that the Jamaatul Mujahideem Bangladesh, though routed, seems capable to running militant operations.
The Daily Star offers a run down of the JMB’s recent history and the sheer numbers incarcerated, though its virulent violence goes on.
“The JMB stepped into the spotlight as a hardcore militant outfit through synchronised bomb attacks in 63 of 64 districts on August 17, 2005.”
“In subsequent attacks, they killed a number of people including two judges in Jhalakathi.”
“Since August 17 blasts, crime busters have so far arrested 985 JMB leaders and operatives, including 607 captured by Rab alone.”
“The arrestees include its founding ameer Shaikh Abdur Rahman who along with his second-in-command Siddiqul Islam alias Bangla Bhai and four other leaders was executed on March 30, 2007.”
Recently the widow of the executed leader has been arrested and imprisoned. Indeed, waves of allegedly self-appointed leaders of the JMB gave been arrested and questioned. The rapid change in leadership and seemingly wide-spread asset base implies that the JMB has a wider support base in country than previously thought otherwise. Alternatively, given that the outfit is thought to be reviled in many parts of the country, it could have international support from countries that have recently begun to suffer from acts of political terrorism associated with fundamentalist Islam.
