Under the one-party dictatorship in Bangladesh, the 30 odd public universities serve three purposes: Credential production centers for younger party cadres so they can be absorbed into the nominally competitive civil and judicial services Training ground for the ruling party’s in-house terror squad BCL whereby BCL mid-level leaders can sharpen their skills of murder, rape, …
Category Archives: The Party and the State
Bangladesh’s Basij Militia
Iran’s dictators have their shadowy militia Basij; Bangladesh’s dictators have their “BCL”
The One party, One family dynasty ruling Bangladesh
A great tragedy of the Bangladeshi people is that their own journalists have simply disappeared into sycophantic oblivion like the Pravda journalists of yore; the very idea that any newspaper or broadcast show would even ask where does the so-called Prime Minister’s uber-nationalistic son live, or who he is married to, or how he makes …
Continue reading “The One party, One family dynasty ruling Bangladesh”
Punitive sanctions are good; preventive ones are even better
The US sanctions on a few high level leaders of the Bangladeshi dictatorship’s brutal security establishment are not only welcome news but are already having a measurable impact: since the announcement of the sanctions until last night, not a single victim has died in staged encounters with the regime security forces, and no known cases …
Continue reading “Punitive sanctions are good; preventive ones are even better”
Phony secularism of the Bangladeshi dictatorship
The horrendous attacks on Hindus across Bangladesh–under an ostensibly secular regime–lay bare the dirty secret of the unelected Bangladeshi regime that none of the pet press dares touch: in the absence of legitimacy gained from the ballot box, the dictatorship (like many others in developing countries) has leaned on religious zealots for a veneer of …
Continue reading “Phony secularism of the Bangladeshi dictatorship”
COVID19 Relief…another opportunity for Awami League loot
Those who lived through the famine of 1974 in Bangladesh know well how wholesale plunder of relief goods was carried out: tonnes of aid material–tents, blankets, ready-to-eat meals, medicine, toiletries–donated by the UN and major Western countries were whisked away in broad daylight from airports, train stations, and bus depots by leaders at every level …
Continue reading “COVID19 Relief…another opportunity for Awami League loot”
Selecting Dhaka’s mayors: some call it ‘city elections’
So the old joke is back in currency: Dhaka City’s two municipal corporations will have ‘elections’ again in January now that the supposed term of the previous city bosses is over. Sounds very normal and democratic and civic, except it’s a cruel parody that most Western journalists–never mind the local ones–simply gulp in stride. Sure …
Continue reading “Selecting Dhaka’s mayors: some call it ‘city elections’”
A little less outrage and a little more action
The outrage expressed by the chief envoys of the US, UK, and EU regarding the brutal murder of Abrar Fahad is commendable. What would be much better would be for these diplomats to exercise their reserve authority as head of consular missions, and impose temporary sanctions on nonimmigrant visa applications by members of the BCL …
Continue reading “A little less outrage and a little more action”
A vassal state like Hungary and (former) DDR
The de facto prohibition in Bangladesh of any peaceful protests against India’s unfortunate actions in Kashmir remove one more figment of doubt that Bangladesh–under the current unelected one party, one family dictatorship–is little more than a vassal state of India. Kind of like Hungary, Poland, and the former East Germany were of the USSR back …
Continue reading “A vassal state like Hungary and (former) DDR”
Rape and threats of rape: the tools of intimidation Bangladesh style
It seems not a day goes by where even the muzzled mainstream media of Bangladesh doesn’t report some girl, infant, woman being raped or threatened with such barbarity by some local leader of the BCL–the ‘student’ wing or actually the inhouse terror squad of the ruling one party Awami League junta. Two days ago the …
Continue reading “Rape and threats of rape: the tools of intimidation Bangladesh style”