Rehman Sobhan

The prospects for change are not without hope in Bangladesh.

The erosion in the credibility of the Sheikh Hasina regime did not begin in July 2024.

Anisur Rahman and I have traveled together across the troubled landscape of Bangladesh’s history over many years. We first came together in October 1957, when we were recruited as teachers by Professor M.N. Huda, then the Chairman of the Economics Department at Dhaka University (DU).

Sir Fazle Hasan Abed was a visionary leader and a social entrepreneur.

What is the process through which reforms will be enacted and who will execute the reforms?

The case of Prof Yunus is symptomatic of the erosion in the credibility of our institutions.

Nurul’s unique quality as a professional economist originated in the common sense and pragmatism which influenced his great faith in empirical work.

Zafrullah believed that incremental change was not enough and that the social order itself needed to be changed.

Ahmadul Kabir (Monu) had the stature and maturity to appreciate that politics was not a profession but a vocation.

The commemoration of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s birth centenary, and the celebrations centred around Bangladesh’s 50 years as an independent nation state, will conclude at the end of the calendar year 2021.

The commemoration of the Bangabandhu centenary year and the celebrations centred around Bangladesh’s fifty years as an independent nation state will be reaching their conclusion at the end of the calendar year, 2021.

Dhaka University was born out of a struggle by the people of eastern Bengal for asserting their regional identity. It reached its apotheosis through its vanguard role in the struggle for Bangladesh’s nationhood. It was my privilege as a teacher in Dhaka University from 1957 to 1971 to be a part of this struggle.

The passing of Anisuzzaman has taken from our midst one more close friend and comrade from the generation which participated in the struggle for national liberation and held steadfast to its values.

I had my first encounter with Sir Fazle Hasan Abed in 1971 in Oxford. Abed called to inform me on the efforts by him and his group in London in support of Bangladesh’s liberation struggle.

It is only when the poor and other excluded sections of the population are sitting in the representative institutions of the state, in local elective bodies as well as in Parliament, that they will be able to ensure that their particular concerns are mainstreamed within the policymaking process.

The future of South Asia, as a community does not look too promising in the wake of the postponement of the SAARC summit. As a person who has been engaged over 40 years in civil society initiatives to recreate a South Asian community, I have witnessed a number of such fluctuations in the fortunes of the SAARC process.

I can think of few people who have done more for the world's deprived population than Fazle Hasan Abed.

To wake up, in the best tradition of Rip Van Winkle, after all of 9 years, to a self-confessed action by Mahfuz Anam which was, at that time, practiced by most of his colleagues and continues to be practiced today, smacks of wilful amnesia or selective memory, which are common afflictions among our media, chattering classes and political community.

AS President Yahya flew out of Dacca on the night of March 25 he took with him the last hopes of a united Pakistan. For the final two days he had been holed up in the Dacca cantonment with the junta of generals who rule Pakistan, putting the finishing touches to Operation Genocide.