Mahfuz Anam

I remember the first time when, in utter horror, we heard the news of the assassination of Bangabandhu along with his whole family, save the two daughters.

As we approach yet another Pahela Baishakh celebration, the world around us is still reeling from the effects of a pandemic — a struggling health sector, a weakened economy,

Here we were, sailing quite smoothly after the first wave of the pandemic and congratulating ourselves for having “handled” it well. Even the WHO paid us compliments. But suddenly, within a few weeks, we seem to have gone right back where we started.

Myanmar is our only other neighbour, with India being the overwhelming first. To the credit of our policymakers, we have tried our best to maintain good relations with Myanmar notwithstanding their treatment of Rohingyas, forcing nearly 300,000 of them upon us thirty years ago, in the early nineties.

The ostensible reason for the recent protests was Indian PM Narendra Modi’s latest visit. The real reason was to signal that Hefajat-e-Islam (HI) under its new leadership was not the same party as it was under its former chief Shah Ahmad Shafi and his immediate followers and to announce that HI was ready to emerge as a new political force under the guise of protecting the majority faith.

It was extremely bold as a vision, highly ambitious as a project, without parallel in scope, crucial in terms of fulfilling a need, exemplary in its execution and unprecedented as a private project in which people’s participation was the main driving force.

My generation and others close to it formed the bulk of the Mukti Bahini in 1971. The majority of Dhaka University students of the time were an integral part of it, as it was my distinct privilege.

At 50, it’s time we acted in a manner that reflects a confident country, not one that is nervous and insecure fearing that the slightest criticism will cause us harm.

In Bangladesh, when we think, talk and seek justice, we think of the courts. And that is how it should be. Among the courts, the higher we go -- meaning the High Court, the Appellate Division -- the more important they become as symbols of justice.

Isn’t personal freedom one of the most cherished and universally celebrated principles of our civilisation? Isn’t guaranteeing this freedom the most sacred task of a modern state?

There are two realities of today’s Bangladesh – the reality of graduation to a developing country and that of the repressions of digital security act, the former we celebrate and the latter we condemn. Today, however, we only celebrate.

Mushtaq Ahmed, the writer, the commentator, the socially conscious citizen, the articulate but moderate voice of dissent and a critical observer of current events is dead.

In the recent past, our honourable members of parliament have been known more for their legal actions against journalists—first under the ICT Act, then the Digital Security Act (DSA)—than for any consequential legislation in any of the vital fields of economic, social or democratic advancement.

He was a journalist, turned writer, turned columnist, turned public intellectual -- meaning he devoted all his intellectual and physical abilities to promoting public causes.

We commend the army chief, General Aziz Ahmed, for having the moral courage and fulfilling his duty to explain to the public, through a press gathering, his own position regarding the recent media reportage on his brothers and his links with them.

Thirty years ago, the coming together of a regionally famous editor and a near-novice at journalism along with some visionary investors—Azimur Rahman, AS Mahmud, Latifur Rahman, A. Rouf Chowdhury, Shamsur Rahman—gave birth to what we called in our first editorial the “Independent Voice”.

The Al Jazeera report on Bangladesh titled “All the Prime Minister’s Men”, aired early Tuesday morning, revealed some vulnerabilities of our power structure that pivots around connections, cronyism and corruption. It has also, inadvertently, exposed the weaknesses of our media and the state of its freedom.

Every government is hungry for praise and ours is no exception. Media becomes a government’s favourite when it does nothing but praise. That, however, does not serve society or its people.

The happy ending of this story came about due to a mixture of pure chance and the laudable inquisitiveness of a Detective Branch (DB) police constable, Mahfizur Rahman.

Americans exercised their democratic right and elected Donald Trump as president in 2016. Four years later, they exercised the same right again and corrected what had turned out to be a disastrous mistake.