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Bangladesh

A Suffering People Under State Terrorism

by Sabria Chowdhury Balland (Volume editor)
©2020 Monographs XVI, 298 Pages

Summary

Bangladesh: A Suffering People Under State Terrorism explores the destructive political situation in Bangladesh under the one-party and one-person rule of the despotic Sheikh Hasina. The contributors to this edited collection examine the catastrophic political environment of the country in view of the Hasina regime’s relentless oppression and repression since 2009, the authoritarian rule of her father in the early 1970s as well as the topic of Indian political, cultural and economic hegemony to which this dictatorial regime is increasingly surrendering Bangladesh's national interest, integrity and sovereignty. The contributors also attempt to expose the wholesale corruption and unprecedented vote-rigging that have rendered the regime completely illegal and illegitimate. They also highlight how the regime has been clinging to power by systemically unleashing terror and tyranny through its widespread networks of state machinery.

Table Of Contents

  • Cover
  • Title
  • Copyright
  • About the author
  • About the book
  • This eBook can be cited
  • Preface
  • Table of Contents
  • Chapter 1: On Certain Aspects of My Book, A Broken Dream: Rule of Law, Human Rights and Democracy (Amazon and Amazon Kindle, 2018): A Synopsis of Some of Its Facts and Opinions: Surendra Kumar Sinha
  • Chapter 2: The Supreme Court as the Guardian of Independence, With Reflections on the State of Rule of Law, Minority Situation, Quality of Education, and Rampant Corruption: Surendra Kumar Sinha
  • Chapter 3: A Brief Outline of Indian Hegemony in Bangladesh: Zoglul Husain
  • Chapter 4: Islamophobia, neo-BAKSAL fascism, and freedom movement in Bangladesh : Mahmudur Rahman
  • Chapter 5: The Untold Truth About Sheikh Mujib’s Stance on Independence in 1971 and How He Brought Bangladesh to the Brink of Collapse to Invite August 15 About Three and a Half Years Later: R Chowdhury
  • Chapter 6: Understanding Sheikh Mujib`s Surrender on March 25, 1971 and Its Repercussions in the Post- Liberation Bangladesh: Abid Bahar
  • Chapter 7: Ziaur Rahman’s Legacy: Sheikh Hasina’s Nightmare!: R Chowdhury
  • Chapter 8: Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and His Daughter Sheikh Hasina: A Short Account of Their Dismal and Disastrous Record: Sultan Ahmad
  • Chapter 9: Sheikh Hasina’s Bangladesh: Falsification in the Name of Progress, Culture of Rape and Impunity, and Revenge Politics: Sabria Chowdhury Balland
  • Chapter 10: Sheikh Hasina Imposing Shackles on Bangladesh: Annihilating the Normal and Normalizing the Abnormal: Abid Bahar
  • Chapter 11: Begum Khaleda Zia: The Most Oppressed Political Legend in the 21st Century: Mohammad Zainal Abedin
  • Chapter 12: Sheikh Hasina’s Brutal BNP-Phobia and Her Scandalous “Midnight” Power Grab Through Vampire Vote Dacoity and Villainous “S/Election” Rigging With an All-Time High Record of Humongous White-Collar Corruption (in 6 parts with appendices): Q M Jalal Khan
  • Part I: Sheikh Hasina’s “Midnight Government” and Her Creaking and Quaking Reign of Cruelty and Corruption
  • Part II: Sheikh Hasina Continues to Go Ballistic and Beyond in Her All-Out Brutalities on the BNP-led Opposition
  • Part III: The Noble and Lofty Khaleda Zia, Phenomenally Popular, Yet Greatly Sacrificing, Subjected to Inhuman Suffering by the Acrimonious and Authoritarian Sheikh Hasina
  • Part IV: The One-Person and One-Party Fascistic Rule of Sheikh Hasina and Her Reckless Excesses That Continue to Defy a Balanced Narrative
  • Part V: Sheikh Hasina as History’s “Other” and the Other Side of History
  • Part VI: Sheikh Hasina Revising and Re-writing Bangladesh’s History at Will
  • Appendix A
  • Appendix B
  • Appendix C
  • Appendix D
  • Appendix E
  • Appendix F
  • Appendix G
  • Appendix H
  • Appendix I
  • About the Contributors

cover

About the author

Sabria Chowdhury Balland, born in Bangladesh, is a political analyst writing on the politics of the United States and Bangladesh in international publications. A former elected member of the US Democratic Party Abroad, she is currently a board member of The Right to Freedom, a Washington-based non-profit organization working toward peace and democracy in Bangladesh. She has a degree in international relations from Pepperdine University and Marymount College. She has a Masters Certification in International Trade Law from the American University of Paris.

About the book

Bangladesh: A Suffering People Under State Terrorism explores the destructive political situation in Bangladesh under the one-party and one-person rule of the despotic Sheikh Hasina. The contributors to this edited collection examine the catastrophic political environment of the country in view of the Hasina regime’s relentless oppression and repression since 2009, the authoritarian rule of her father in the early 1970s as well as the topic of Indian political, cultural and economic hegemony to which this dictatorial regime is increasingly surrendering Bangladesh’s national interest, integrity and sovereignty. The contributors also attempt to expose the wholesale corruption and unprecedented vote-rigging that have rendered the regime completely illegal and illegitimate. They also highlight how the regime has been clinging to power by systemically unleashing terror and tyranny through its widespread networks of state machinery.

This eBook can be cited

This edition of the eBook can be cited. To enable this we have marked the start and end of a page. In cases where a word straddles a page break, the marker is placed inside the word at exactly the same position as in the physical book. This means that occasionally a word might be bifurcated by this marker.

Preface

This book is a collection of works by a number of authors of Bangladeshi origin belonging to diverse professional backgrounds. Political analysts, observers, teachers, freedom fighters, aspiring US politician, journalists and a former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh gathered together to form a think tank for matters which concern us and link us by a common thread. This thread is Bangladesh.

Bangladesh was born out of Pakistan in 1971, but the birth pangs were much painful. Hundreds of thousands lost their lives, some fighting the enemy while others simply massacred. Thousands of women lost their honor at the hands of the enemy, and millions suffered.

People of the new country had visions of sovereignty, freedom, individual rights, rule of law, good governance and equality under the law. Tragedy was that their aspirations were ruthlessly trampled by its first leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, who unilaterally destroyed the original constitution of Parliamentary Democracy and made himself the all-powerful President. Later, through Emergency, he banned politics, suspended fundamental rights and gagged the press freedom. Yet later, he disbanded all political parties and formed a one-party dictatorship under Bangladesh Krishok Sramik Awami League, commonly known as BAKSAL. Mujib’s arbitrary actions led to a series of military actions, the first of which came on August 15, 1975 in which Mujib’s life and his BAKSAL came to an end. A popular military-people uprising followed a conspiratorial putsch in early November the same year and installed General Ziaur Rahman in the seat of power. President Zia soon restored democracy and peoples’ rights that Mujib had earlier quashed. After successfully running the country for nearly six years, Ziaur Rahman fell victim to a coup, said to be masterminded by India and executed by its Bangladeshi agents that included then army chief General H M Ershad. Another spell of dictatorship followed under Ershad.

However, when a semblance of normalcy and a democratic process could and should have been properly put in place, Sheikh Hasina and her Awami League seized power not once, but twice, first in 2014 and again in 2018. Furthermore, Sheikh Hasina had an understanding with the military-backed Moeen Uddin—Fakhruddin caretaker government, which manipulated the election of 2008 with the purpose of putting her in power. That was her first time in the ongoing three-time series. By obliterating any sign or shred of an opposition, she has demonstrated to a nation, which fought against Pakistan precisely for its freedom and independence, that it takes brute force to stay in power. Her claim to the “leadership” of Bangladesh has been just that—a stark power grab by violent might, at the cost of the democratic rights of over 163 million Bangladeshis.

This book has attempted to shed light on and dissect many aspects of the Mujib-Hasina dictatorship. They include corruption in the administration, the judiciary, the media, and among the law enforcement agencies. The writings in the book are an attempt to expose the extra-judicial killings and state sponsored disappearances and indiscriminate imprisonment of opposition leaders and supporters in thousands. They also critique the complete impunity enjoyed by the violators of law and order. The destruction of the banking and share market sectors is also a significant point of discussion in the book.

Apart from exposing the ugly faces of Awami brutality and misrule in the country, a few articles shed light on Hasina’s heightened Zia Phobia, because Zia’s all-round success reminds her of Mujib’s abject failures. She employed all her might and crookery, including legal pretense, to remove Zia’s glorious period from the history of Bangladesh. Her anti-Zia venom also reached the aged and sick Khaleda Zia, a three-time Prime Minister, who is sent to face a slow death in a solitary cell for no fault of her own.

The economic progress which Bangladesh has been witnessing comes at a colossal price. That price is the loss of rights of Bangladeshis along with the reckless looting and plundering of their votes and their money.

We, the authors, would like to thank and honor all the freedom fighters and their families, the innocent victims of the Liberation War and also those of state sponsored terrorism under the Awami Regimes. We would also like to thank and honor the families of all those innocent victims and all those leaders, who, throughout the history of Bangladesh, have remained loyal to it and its people. Unfortunately, that patriotic bond and spirit of loyalty are being continuously violated since 2009.

Because of Sheikh Hasina’s total dependence on India, Bangladesh has now become a complete vassal state of India. She is kept in power by Indian machinations to serve her sponsor’s agenda. Her two terms, since 2014 (even if there is a concession made to the questionable previous term), tantamount to her illegal occupation of office.

Considering the ongoing Awami misrule and its wholesale corruption and widespread terror, we, the authors, would like to revive and restore the fact that Bangladesh is not a monarchy, nor should it be run by dictatorial regimes. It is, and always will be, the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, a country of the people and for the people run by a government by the people.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: On Certain Aspects of My Book, A Broken Dream: Rule of Law, Human Rights and Democracy (Amazon and Amazon Kindle, 2018): A Synopsis of Some of Its Facts and Opinions

Surendra Kumar Sinha

Chapter 2: The Supreme Court as the Guardian of Independence, With Reflections on the State of Rule of Law, Minority Situation, Quality of Education, and Rampant Corruption

Surendra Kumar Sinha

Chapter 3: A Brief Outline of Indian Hegemony in Bangladesh

Zoglul Husain

Chapter 4: Islamophobia, neo-BAKSAL fascism, and freedom movement in Bangladesh

Mahmudur Rahman

Chapter 5: The Untold Truth About Sheikh Mujib’s Stance on Independence in 1971 and How He Brought Bangladesh to the Brink of Collapse to Invite August 15 About Three and a Half Years Later

R Chowdhury

Chapter 6: Understanding Sheikh Mujib`s Surrender on March 25, 1971 and Its Repercussions in the Post- Liberation Bangladesh

Abid Bahar

Chapter 7: Ziaur Rahman’s Legacy: Sheikh Hasina’s Nightmare!

R Chowdhury

Chapter 8: Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and His Daughter Sheikh Hasina: A Short Account of Their Dismal and Disastrous Record

Sultan Ahmad

Chapter 9: Sheikh Hasina’s Bangladesh: Falsification in the Name of Progress, Culture of Rape and Impunity, and Revenge Politics

Sabria Chowdhury Balland

Chapter 10: Sheikh Hasina Imposing Shackles on Bangladesh: Annihilating the Normal and Normalizing the Abnormal

Abid Bahar

Chapter 11: Begum Khaleda Zia: The Most Oppressed Political Legend in the 21st Century

Mohammad Zainal Abedin

Chapter 12: Sheikh Hasina’s Brutal BNP-Phobia and Her Scandalous “Midnight” Power Grab Through Vampire Vote Dacoity and Villainous “S/Election” Rigging With an All-Time High Record of Humongous White-Collar Corruption (in 6 parts with appendices)

Part I: Sheikh Hasina’s “Midnight Government” and Her Creaking and Quaking Reign of Cruelty and Corruption

Part II: Sheikh Hasina Continues to Go Ballistic and Beyond in Her All-Out Brutalities on the BNP-led Opposition

Part III: The Noble and Lofty Khaleda Zia, Phenomenally Popular, Yet Greatly Sacrificing, Subjected to Inhuman Suffering by the Acrimonious and Authoritarian Sheikh Hasina

Part IV: The One-Person and One-Party Fascistic Rule of Sheikh Hasina and Her Reckless Excesses That Continue to Defy a Balanced Narrative

Part V: Sheikh Hasina as History’s “Other” and the Other Side of History

Part VI: Sheikh Hasina Revising and Re-writing Bangladesh’s History at Will

Q M Jalal Khan

Appendix A

Appendix B

Appendix C

Appendix D

Appendix E

Appendix F

Appendix G

Appendix H

Appendix I

About the Contributors

←xiv | 1→

1. On Certain Aspects of My Book, A Broken Dream: Rule of Law, Human Rights and Democracy (Amazon and Amazon Kindle, 2018): A Synopsis of Some of Its Facts and Opinions

Surendra Kumar Sinha

To counter the government’s abominable propaganda surrounding my ouster from office followed by my exile, I had to tell my story in my book. It provides a humble delineation of the challenges I faced, my conflict with the executive branch of the government, fight for the independence of the judiciary, the election farce and fraud, and the threatening Bangabhaban drama. The book came in a haste in 2018 when I couldn’t even write an introduction to it, of which a revised version is about to be completed. Here is an attempt to tell what it is all about, albeit in parts only.

Born in a modest family, I dreamt big in emulation of the great personalities I used to idolize or idealize. I rose up to be a successful lawyer in the Bangladesh Supreme Court. While fighting for truth, justice and fair play, both as a judge, Chairman of Judicial Services Commission and Chief Justice of the country, I faced considerable hostilities from the Executive Branch of the government, as well as from colleagues. I continuously fought for the independence of the judiciary, which protected the interests of citizens. It received its first blow from Sheikh Mujibur Rahman through his Fourth Amendment in January of 1975.

Under his daughter Sheikh Hasina, the independence of the judiciary is completely crushed. The elections in 2014 were a total mockery of law and order. In the face of a complete opposition boycott, ruling party candidates were automatically declared winners without contest. The last nail on the judicial independence was hammered by the Sixteenth Amendment to the Constitution through which the legal system was brought under Hasina’s ←1 | 2→rubber stamp legislature and by the extension of her executive/administrative power. When I challenged it, I faced the axe. The president, the prime minister, the law minister and the attorney general jointly tried to coerce me to give the verdict in government’s favor. I declined. That was my end. I was kept confined at my residence for days, then sent on a forced vacation abroad, and subsequently forced to sign a prepared resignation letter with a hint I would be in trouble if I returned to Bangladesh. That is the main story line of my book, the story of how the Hasina administration and its agencies trampled the rule of law and the judiciary to serve its narrow interests.

Due to unavoidable circumstances, I couldn’t write a preface to the first edition of my book published by Amazon. The situation which prevailed at that time was beyond my control. I was compelled to publish the book as early as possible because the people of my country were disillusioned about the whole episode. The reason was my non-disclosure of facts that compelled me to abruptly leave the country just before the start of the court’s long recess, and to tender my forced resignation from the office of the Chief Justice of Bangladesh at the Changi Airport, Singapore one month after leaving the country. Even my wife, daughters and the near and dear ones were dissatisfied with my silence. They had the right to know everything about my situation and the events that occurred to me. The only thing I can say is, I was helpless. I express my apology to them as well as to the nation.

About a month or so before the publication of the first edition of my book, an Amazon Kindle version was published. That was rating five stars but, soon after, pirated copies flooded the country. As a result, the book was not available on the bookstalls for sale. Many readers were not happy that the book was not available in the market. I’m aware of my readers’ frustration and I can hopefully assure them that the revised edition currently under preparation will reach them through their nearby bookstalls.

Born with a Dream

The purpose of the book is to provide a lesson to our younger generation that if they have a dream to become like one of those they idolize or hold as ideal in the future, their desire is achievable if they are sincere, honest, persevering and hardworking. It is indeed achievable.

I was inspired by some of my ideal persons and other great personalities and their philosophies of life. I was dreaming of becoming a great personality like them, although, to be honest, I didn’t have a clear idea of what that meant in the beginning. I was born in a remote village under ←2 | 3→the Sylhet district with no direct road communication even to the district headquarter in town except by train once a day. I was the second son of a poor schoolteacher, Lalit Mohan Sinha, who tutored students in the mornings and evenings, in addition to his regular teaching hours at school only to meet the expenses of his six school going children. My father had big dreams for his children and believed that one day they would bring honor and dignity for their country. I can say honestly that I have been able to satisfy my father’s dream to some extent. I guessed this from the times he wanted my opinions regarding any matter concerning family affairs before taking any decision, even when I was just a rising lawyer in the Supreme Court. To tell the truth, I was more satisfied for being a successful lawyer than a judge.

Challenges Faced

In my professional career, both as a lawyer and a judge, I faced a great deal of turmoil. I often asked myself what went wrong. I was totally involved with my responsibilities at the cost of my personal and family comfort. I thought over the rumors and tried to unveil the epicenter or the root causes, but could not find any clues. If you are a remarkable achiever in your profession and try to help colleagues to rectify some of their shortcomings, you could end up making a lot of enemies around you and becoming an eyesore to them. This is our culture. But I never hesitated to continue my business even at the cost of quiet toleration of such rumors.

This book has been divided into thirty chapters containing my early life, my legal profession and my judicial life as a judge. While I was undergoing medical treatment in Singapore for cancer, I was requested to return to Bangladesh during the short break of the treatment, if possible, to take the oath as a judge of the Appellate Division. I was told that the government had decided to promote me along with four others but the gazette couldn’t have been made due to my absence. The decision was taken about the early hearing of the appeal filed by the convicts of the Bangabandhu killing case since there was a shortage of judges for the Bench to be constituted for the hearing. Though my condition was critical, I was compelled to return to the country after the completion of my chemotherapy during the treatment.

I was appointed Chairman of the Judicial Service Commission, a voluntary job, and I accepted the offer for the interest of the judiciary. After assuming office, I noticed that it was in shambles, there being no space for accommodation of staff members and no sufficient furniture and items for ←3 | 4→transacting business. The office was accommodated at the Judicial Training Institute building. Within a very short time I arranged a new office for the Commission by making a vertical extension of the building, institutionalizing the Commission and making it self-sufficient in our country’s standards. I also installed the first digitalized library with a huge collection of books. It is the only institution in the country performing its business independently without the interference of the executive branch of government.

Conflict with the Executive Branch of the Government

In a chapter I narrated the facts regarding the appointment of Justice Fazlul Karim Choudhury as the Chief Justice. Somehow or other I was involved in the process of his selection, but I mentioned the facts leading to his selection only to show that how the appointment of a high constitutional office was politicized. I didn’t want to demean or hurt anyone. We must overcome the process by creating a convention in the manner India has developed after the controversial appointment of Justice A. N. Roy as Chief Justice in April of 1973. The independence of the judiciary and the rule of law must not remain theory only without being translated into practice. I was an exception in being appointed as the 21st Chief Justice from the (Hindu) minority in a Muslim majority country. It was possibly because I was destined to be able to speak the truth and that the government had no other option under the prevailing condition of both the judiciary and the politics of the country.

After assuming office I realized that the law ministry, particularly its secretary, a junior judicial officer, wanted to dominate the postings, transfers, leaves of absences, promotions and disciplinary measures of the officers in the lower judiciary. It was being done earlier, and I opposed his proposals. A tussle of domination between the lower judiciary, the Supreme Court, and the government started. I made it clear that I wouldn’t approve any recommendations for appointments of district judges, metropolitan session judges, chief metropolitan magistrates, or chief judicial magistrates, in any posts in key districts like Dhaka, Chittagong, Sylhet and Khulna unless the officers had a good record of honesty and integrity. Initially a stalemate prevailed and, in some districts, key posts remained vacant for more than six months. As a measure of creating pressure, I started visiting district courts and spoke at Bars to raise my voice against corruption in the judiciary and sought lawyers’ help in combating corruption and in the disposal of cases expeditiously. Many lawyers made representations against the disputed officers and based on their complaints I asked for inquiries. Ultimately, the law ministry succumbed to my stand and the pace of disposal of cases was remarkable.

←4 |
 5→

Fight for the Independence of the Judiciary

The independence of the judiciary implies its functional independence, which must be viewed in dual perspectives of individuals and institutions. An individual’s independence lies in career advancement, security of tenure, benefits and immunity from civil and criminal action. Institutional independence embraces administrative and financial independence, effective enforcement of judicial decisions and the protection of individual judges from being scandalized without, however, making them above the law.

Our path towards the independence of the judiciary is pathetic. We have been fighting for the independence of the lower judiciary from the executive branch of the government since January 1975 after the fourth amendment to the constitution. As we did not get a response, a public interest litigation was entertained from someone named Masder Hossain. It went to the apex court where Chief Justice Mostafa Kamal, one of the greatest legal and judicial minds in the history of Bangladesh, directed for the separation of the judiciary from the executive branch in one of the best judgments ever. The government reacted strongly and did not implement his judgment, but Justice Kamal was lucky and did not have to face a similar fate as I did under Sheikh Hasina. After waiting for about eight years and ignoring the government’s unwillingness, we started magistracy with judicial magistrates working in very poor conditions without even proper court rooms to work in. We started in verandas, open fields, and tin sheds, sharing one small space between three to four officers.

No disciplinary rules were framed. All former Chief Justices swallowed the bitter pill and did not raise the issue. A tussle started after I assumed office. I advised the government to frame rules, but received no response. I directed the law secretary to appear in court with drafted rules. When a draft was sent, it was found to be just a carbon copy of the rules that were applied to the government employees. I rejected the draft and sent an amended version of rules in conformity with Masder Hossain. That revised draft was not implemented even though it had been pending for one and a half years.

Details

Pages
XVI, 298
Year
2020
ISBN (PDF)
9781433176555
ISBN (ePUB)
9781433176562
ISBN (MOBI)
9781433176579
ISBN (Hardcover)
9781433176586
DOI
10.3726/b16532
Language
English
Publication date
2020 (April)
Published
New York, Bern, Berlin, Bruxelles, Oxford, Wien, 2020. XVI, 298 pp.

Biographical notes

Sabria Chowdhury Balland (Volume editor)

Sabria Chowdhury Balland, born in Bangladesh, is a political analyst writing on the politics of the United States and Bangladesh in international publications. A former elected member of the US Democratic Party Abroad, she is currently a board member of The Right to Freedom, a Washington-based non-profit organization working toward peace and democracy in Bangladesh. She has a degree in international relations from Pepperdine University and Marymount College. She has a Masters Certification in International Trade Law from the American University of Paris.

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