bangladesh4u

TIME's April 10th cover issue on rebuilding Bangladesh should be applauded to a great extent. I praise TIME for at least putting Bangladesh in the global spectrum and showcasing various successes in terms of attracting foreign investment, developing social welfare and some economic prosperity. But the praises of such accomplishments are to be sung to the general population of Bangladesh not to Prime Minister Khaleda Zia or even to the Leader of the Opposition Sheikh Hasina.
However TIME has failed to project a much more visible image of the economic deprivation still haunting the majority of the population. Millions in both urban and rural Bangladesh face the daily dilemma of black outs (including in Gulshan, which is described by TIME as Dhaka's most posh neighbourhood), shortages of water, shortages of fertiliser for farmers, political persecution by the ruling party against any sort of opposition and of course the corruption and inefficiency of public firms and institutions. As for the rise of militancy, well then how can the prime minister state that she didn't know about it until August 17, 2005 when all the newspapers and private television channels were running interviews and images of Bangla Bhai and his accomplice Abdur Rahman months before? Abdur Rahman happened to be a member of the Jamaat-e-Islami's student wing (Jamaat is also the BNP's coalition partner). To my view the fight against militancy is simply a stage managed drama by the ruling party to get ground in the upcoming election. They helped create the militants and nurtured them (the ruling party MPs even allied publicly with Bangla Bhai as reported by TIME).

Now they are destroying them to win votes through this staged managed drama. What a wonderful play!