As discussed earlier, our military government is going to use the issue of trying war criminals in 1971 to try and whip up some emotive support for itself and any political platform it choses to create. The propaganda for that has already started. A prime piece of evidence is this column by Zafar Sobhan, Assistant Editor, The Daily Star.
Mr. Sobhan has decided that this current military government is the great white hope that our nation has been waiting for ever since our war of independence in 1971. He has also discovered the way to stamp out all our societal diseases. Earlier, the panacea was supposed to have been the removal of BNP from power, by any means necessary. Mr. Sobhan’s paper, The Daily Star, harped shrilly on this tone for five years, and in the end, went to the extent of supporting a military takeover of our country. Now that the military government has abysmally failed to take any meaningful steps against corruption, gain any convictions that will possibly survive a hearing in a free and independent higher court, and failed to check the skyrocketing rise of the price of food essentials, suddenly, their cheerleaders need a new decoy with which they will try to distract our nation while the regime continues its dirty games. Now, they are trying to use our war of liberation to distract us from the very real damage that this government is inflicting on our country.
Is there anything sadder or more ironic than expecting a government which has launched a crackdown on Dhaka University, assaulted our journalists, and tortured our honoured teachers, to bring to fair trial the activites of a force that did the same in 1971?
I also find Mr. Sobhan’s choice of words very suggestive. His choice of titles reveal that he believes that there is something tainted within all of us as a nation. Thus, an infant who was born in Bangladesh today, is also, according to Mr. Sobhan, guilty of letting the war criminals in our midst walk around unopposed. I’m puzzled as to why Mr. Sobhan feels this intrinsic need to feel loathing for every single member of the Bangladeshi state. The idea of an original sin in a common weapon with which ideological hacks tarnish their political opponents. In the aftermath of the attacks of 9/11, Ann Coulter said of Muslims “We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity.” To Ms. Coulter, Muslims have an original sin, they are Muslims, and they should either be killed or converted rather than being allowed to live their normal lives. Apparently, Mr. Sobhan feels the same way about his fellow Bangladeshis.
The optimist in me knows that this military government will give way to a democratically elected government, and hopefully our democracy, our political parties, and everyone else involved will have been stronger and wiser for this experience. However, I am saddened that so many people have chosen to be willingly duped by this military regime. It did not have to be this way.
Updated: DhakaShohor very clearly shows the depth to which The Daily Star has sunk, and why its competitor, New Age, has been doing an excellent job for the last ten months.
November 6, 2007 at 8:26 pm
The author irks me for different reasons, stunningly portrayed in his choice of the title ‘original sin’. I dream of a day when there are more interesting leading commentators in the best Bangladeshi papers. Perhaps the corporate media will become less important in the future as people increase in education and work things out for themselves, and as the politicians learn to speak in parliament with the grace and precision of their grand fathers generation to the here and now.
Original sin for me epitomises the christianisation of one chamber of the heart and some of the higher brain function of the bengali muslim qaum. The Islamic conception of the creation of man and their roles and reasons to be on earth are distinct from the Christian interpretation. Jesus (pbuh) (or the parallel being forced on the bangladesh scenario) does not die to give us salvation from our sins. We dont have ‘original sin’. does not compute. checksum error.
No Bangladeshi should be guilt tripped or guilt trapped for national ontological contradiction. The next iteration needs to be made taking into account the shortcomings of previous ones. Movement, not stasis.
To tie the absence of public morality in the society to the absense of those criminal proceedings plays well with the audience. An audience deeply wounded and smarting. But it also shows desperation as well as the trademark abdication of analytical responsibility.
Its a good issue for the DS too win itself back into people’s favour. My only qualification to aggreeing to your title is that DS doesnt need to rise. It is pretty much the only game of its kind in town.
November 7, 2007 at 3:13 am
The Daily Star never called for the BNP to be removed by any means necessary.
The rest of your comments I have no issue with save to mention that many people such as me read the Daily Star newspaper for the easy and well presented access to news stories not the columns or editorial opinion but the odd cursory glance.
November 7, 2007 at 4:25 am
Zafar Sobhan is one of two regulars in the Daily Star for whom I still subscribe to the newspaper. I’ve always been a big fan of his writing.
This piece however is highly problematic in :
1) its unquestioning attitude towards the “maximalist” approach of the CTG,
2) in its silence on whether elections that “deliver what they promise to deliver” are farcical/acceptable to the public or not
3) in drawing a direct causal line between non-prosecution of war criminals and corruption today through the agency of some nebulous concept of “national character”
So yes, I agree that this is not the kind of work I’ve come to expect from ZS.
Major quibble: However, I disagree with you in condemning so harshly their critical stance towards the last government. Yes, now it might come across as “conspiracy” thanks to their uncritical support for the CTG, but exactly how we are to distinguish between uncritical support and government coercion, I leave you to figure out. Yes, they can be slightly more critical as NA is, but even then, one does not quite know what kind of pressures are on them.
Minor quibble: I also disagree with you that ZS’s title reflected on all people born since 1971. “Original Sin” is hardly the biblical term it used to be and more a catchphrase/idiom/flashy headline in this regard.
November 7, 2007 at 11:49 am
Anon, I know what you’re saying. I used to be a fan of their Rising Star; every Thursday it’d be a race among our friends to read all the cheesy jokes in RS and broadcast them to others.
DhakaShohor, both valid points. I’m more perturbed about their attitude towards the current government. I absolutely agree that they are probably under tremendous pressure from various quarters, but I still expected more backbone from them. I mean, look at the piece in question. I personally don’t hold with those people who think that this is not a good time to try war criminals, I say any time is a good time for that. But to pretend, as Mr. Sobhan does, that this government has any moral authority left whatsoever, afer what it did in DU, is just unconscionable.
November 7, 2007 at 1:30 pm
Yes, I completely agree. But I think that the environment in Dhaka is such that everyone is pretending that DU never happened. They are forgetting the people languishing in jail: teachers, student leaders, cartoonists et al. Blind spots are being created.
Once you take that blind spots into account, the article starts to make more sense. Sad, sad situation.
November 7, 2007 at 3:23 pm
You’re right, there are blind spots. But those blind spots are also raw, festering wounds. I’m going to try to jab a few thumbs, sprinkle some salt, on those wounds. Let’s see how desensitized we’ve all become.
November 7, 2007 at 6:31 pm
And kudos to you for that! Long may you do so, unflinchingly and “without fear or favour”. The media’s bunking of its responsibility puts greater responsibility on the shoulder of bloggers.
November 7, 2007 at 9:01 pm
Thanks, AsifY. I was wondering whether you noticed the little announcement in the front page of New Age today that apologized to the readers for not printing certain pictures, and also gave a reason for their actions. In the end, that’s all I’m looking for. Some sign that these people are aware of how innately insane the current state of our country is.
November 8, 2007 at 1:13 am
How could Dinkal publish the photo of a half-naked Gen. Mahbub, which can easily remind one of Mizanur Rahman Chowdhury in torn panjabi at the Shaheed Minar in the fire-spitting days of anti-Ershad movement, in its edition of today?