An excerpt:
Since the 1990s, life expectancy has fallen back to where it was in Smuts's day. South Africa is the murder capital of the world, with around 50 homicides every day. In a 2011 survey, one in three women claimed they had been raped in the past year. South Africa's current leader, Jacob Zuma, was accused of raping an HIV-positive woman, but replied that he took a shower afterwards to "minimize the risk of contracting the disease." This is one of the more rational self-administered treatments. It is widely believed among Mr. Zuma's compatriots that sex with a virgin will cure you of AIDS, which, virgins being somewhat thin on the ground, has led to an epidemic of child rape, including victims as young as eight months old.
#2
Ah, yes, the fruits of the 60s socialist anti-colonialist dogma. It's not results that matter, it's feeling 'good' about yourself in sticking it to the man.
[Dhaka Tribune] The current MP of my constituency is behind bars, the only independent candidate was disqualified on technical grounds, and the Awami League nominee, having already been declared a winner, is all set to represent me in parliament. Just like 53% of the country's population, I can't vote to elect my representative in the parliament.
In a roundtable discussion last Saturday, bigwigs of Bangladesh's civil society called for stopping the polls that are being held today, having reached the consensus that it is going to be nothing more than a farcical or "arranged" event. Coming only 8 days before the elections, it is probably too little too late to have the desired effect, but the Awami League's unmoved stance, aggressive rhetoric, and a series of recent actions have made one thing clear: the democratic right of the people to vote in a free and fair election was not guaranteed under this government.
As the old saying goes: "Hindsight is a beautiful thing," and it is hindsight that gives us a picture of what could have happened if BNP had given up its stance, and participated in the polls.
Opinion polls published in Prothom Alo, a leading Bangla newspaper showed BNP, with 50% popular support, leading the Awami League (at 37%), by a margin of 13 percentage points in September this year. Another poll published later in the Daily Star showed BNP to be leading Awami League by an even bigger margin of 27 percentage points (BNP-55%, AL-28%).
Even though more recent polls, such as the one published by Dhaka tribune on Friday, suggest that the margin is closing, statistics like this and five city corporation election victories for BNP this year would give anyone the impression that BNP would be runaway winners in a free and fair election.
So, by deciding to boycott them, BNP had more to lose than any other party. But why would they do it? The answer, perhaps, is that unlike opinion polls, elections require an unbiased administration to conduct it, and Awami League never even got close to creating one.
At the outset, let us look at the Election Commission itself. At different points during the present government's tenure, the Election Commission scrapped the provision of the No Vote (which gave the voter the option to reject all candidates), the provision requiring membership of a party for 3 years (which was meant to prevent buying and selling of party nominations), and most shockingly, the provision giving the power to the EC to cancel a candidate's candidature for violation of election laws.
The EC somehow allowed registration for Bangladesh Nationalist Front (BNF), a party clearly formed to create confusion among voters about BNP's participation in the polls.
The EC had earlier introduced extremely stringent rules for the participation of independent candidates in the elections (e.g. requiring them to obtain signatures with personal details from 1% of the total voter number), and using technicalities, disqualified a huge number of rebellious independent candidates from the Awami League, which, in turn, led to the colossal figure of 153 uncontested seats.
A disqualified independent candidate, whom I represented as a lawyer, was disqualified by the EC on the simple ground that the list of signatures he had collected had some missing serial numbers, a technicality that could have been easily corrected by the returning officer himself. Even an RPO provision and a High Court directive that technical mistakes should be remedied by the Returning Officer could not save my client.
The changes in the rules made by the EC have, somehow or the other, benefitted the Awami League. Imagine the embarrassing situation when the uncontested Awami League candidate could have been defeated by a No Vote, or where Awami League's rebel candidates could have ridden the anti-government sentiment, and then as independent candidates could have formed a majority in parliament.
Despite facing widespread criticism, the EC's role in allowing registration to BNF, a party named similar to BNP, and it scrapping its own power in relation to dealing with violation of election laws have only empowered the government.
However, some people are alive only because it's illegal to kill them... the EC perhaps lost the last straw of its credibility when it refused to allow the withdrawal of nomination by the Jatiya Party ...aka Jatiya Front; a political party established by Bangladictator Lieutenant General Hussain Muhammad Ershad in 1986 to lend a veneer of respectability to his rule. Since nobody was amused he was forced to resign by popular demand in 1990. The party remains in existence with about a dozen seats in Bangla's parliament... Chairman HM Ershad despite his public statement that he did not want to participate in elections. Again, EC used a minor technicality that he was not present at the EC with his withdrawal application to keep him in the elections as per Awami League's wishes.
With a less than credible EC in place, one would have hoped for a strong-willed law enforcement and justice system to back up the election process. However, some people are alive only because it's illegal to kill them... from the experience of the present, that is not to be seen. At the time of writing, 16 key members from the senior ranks of the BNP are behind bars on "political" grounds. The lower judiciary, has shown unprecedented subservience by refusing bail for all of them despite the lack of any specific allegations against them. A High Court directive from 2003 makes remand illegal without specific evidence of involvement in an offence, but no heed of that has been taken by the magistrates on duty.
One breaking news after another has shown nearly every person making a press-statement on behalf of BNP, either being picked up by the Detective Branch, or having a case slapped on them -- driving them underground fearing arrest. The pattern is uncannily similar -- person X briefs journalists on BNP's position, and moments later person X is picked up and taken to the DB office.
Nearly all big shots have been picked up on the basis of vague "suspicions" and then shown locked away Please don't kill me! in enough cases to put them behind bars till the elections on Januray 5.
The law enforcement authorities' subservience to Awami League's interests has been no less than naked the last few days. It started with the Dhaka Metropolitan Police refusing permission for BNP's March for Democracy, its most peaceful sounding demonstration so far. It was followed by a blockade by the law enforcers of all road, rail, and waterways to prevent party supporters from coming to Dhaka to join. Simultaneously came the arrests of big shots from Dhaka and mass arrests of grassroot-level BNP organisers. the loathesome Khaleda Zia Three-term PM of Bangla, widow of deceased dictator Ziaur Rahman, head of the Bangla Nationalist Party, an apparent magnet for corruption ... 's protocol was withdrawn in an unprecedented violation of her legal right as the leader of the opposition.
Finally, when she was prevented from leaving her house by 8 platoons of coppers and 5 sand-laden trucks requisitioned by the police to guard her gate, one point was made clear -- if the Awami League wants to suppress the BNP, the police will execute their will with mighty force.
In the hypothetical situation, where the BNP has participated in polls under the AL government, there would be no guarantee that BNP's top brass would not be somehow disqualified by the EC from participating in elections, or that they would not be picked up one-by-one by the Detective Branch ahead of the elections. As things appear now, there would be no guarantee that the grassroots of BNP, who are its election organisers, would not be pushed underground with mass arrests and false cases and no guarantee that Khaleda Zia's election campaign would not be banned by the police on "security grounds," or blocked by sand-laden trucks. AL's recent actions do not, at all, paint a happy picture of participatory democracy needed for a free and fair election.
The civil society has called for stopping the farcical elections of January 5, and, conscious citizens have outrightly condemned the undemocratic and illegal heavy-handedness of the government preventing BNP's March for Democracy, but to no avail. It only goes to show that under the loathesome Sheikh Hasina ...Bangla dynastic politician and current Prime Minister of Bangladesh. She has been the President of the Bangla Awami League since the Lower Paleolithic. She is the eldest of five children of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founding father of Bangla. Her party defeated the BNP-led Four-Party Alliance in the 2008 parliamentary elections. She has once before held the office, from 1996 to 2001, when she was defeated in a landslide. She and the head of the BNP, Khaleda Zia show such blind animosity toward each other that they are known as the Battling Begums.. 's government, there is not much space for voices against her regime.
As we stand, the BNP is in a position that no democratic political party wants to be in. All of its big shots are either behind bars or in hiding to avoid arbitrary arrest. Its Chairperson is under effective house-arrest. Most of its activists are arrested or in fear of arrest.
That being said, one thing that BNP must be proud of is of having made the right decision about the January 5 elections. It is the strongest message against an election that is flawed, and only meant to give a particular regime legitimacy that it does not deserve. If Awami League does, in the end, go ahead with the elections, not only will it be a colossal waste of public money, democracy will go from the frying pan to the fire.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/05/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
democracy will go from the frying pan to the fire.
Not sure how this dovetails in the apologia from the NT Times about the Benghazi fiasco, but the following is an excerpt from a Caroline Glick article about how Obama is losing the N Times on middle east counterterrorism strategy.
Last Saturday the Times published an 8,000-word account by David Kirkpatrick detailing the terrorist strike against the US Consulate and the CIA annex in Benghazi, Libya, on September 11, 2012. In it, Kirkpatrick tore to shreds the foundations of President Barack Obama's counterterrorism strategy and his overall policy in the Middle East.
#1
Ambassador Stevens, who had served as the administrations emissary to the rebels during the insurrection against Gaddafi, knew personally many of the terrorists who orchestrated the attack. And until the very end, he was taken in by the administrations core belief that it was possible to appease al-Qaida-sympathizing Islamic jihadists who were not directly affiliated with Zawahiri. As Kirkpatrick noted, Stevens helped shape the Obama administrations conviction that it could work with the rebels, even those previously hostile to the West, to build a friendly, democratic government.
"Taken in"..... I doubt it. Stevens was no amateur and these people are certainly not that complex. He was more likely on a bold mission for the administration.
#2
I can believe Stevens was 'taken in' (although probably not to the 'last moment')
Many smart people brainwash themselves (usually with help from friends) into believing what they want to believe (examples = obama, obamacare, Jihad is benign, women are protected in Sharia).
Posted by: lord garth ||
01/05/2014 8:15 Comments ||
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#3
I couldn't say if Steven's was taken in. As Garth said probably not in the last moments. A couple of impressions from the article. The NYTs seems to be schizophrenic in its reporting. It is hard to rip a foreign policy that appears to be non-existent. Os interpretation of AQ ignores reality. Appeasement of Iran is and has been doubtful for nearly four decades. Things will not get better in this regard until we have a new President.
Alternate title: "Pie fight in Sindh"
[Pak Daily Times] MQM chief Altaf Hussain is in the habit of staging 'dramas' and provocations at the drop of a hat if he or his party's wishes are not conceded by all and sundry. Of late, the MQM supremo is suffering from a great deal of heartburn over the overturning of the gerrymandered delimitations in Sindh that helped the MQM dominate the province during Musharraf's tenure. No wonder Altaf has felt compelled to rise to Musharraf's defence in his treason trial, accusing the powers that be of persecuting him and him alone because he is a Mohajir (Urdu-speaking immigrant when Pakistain came into being). The PPP Sindh government carried out fresh delimitations for the purpose of holding local bodies elections, which did not sit well with MQM for the reason stated above. Although the local bodies act and delimitations have been struck down by the Sindh High Court, the provincial government has announced its intention to go in appeal against the decision to the Supreme Court. Altaf's latest pronouncement of his followers 'announcing' a separate province carved out of Sindh or even a separate country must be seen as the latest provocation in this context. The tone and tenor of Altaf's remarks amount to a thinly veiled threat to the province and indeed to the country. Such 'threats' from Altaf are neither new nor unexpected. Again, as expected, they have aroused a firestorm of protest from Sindhis, the PPP, nationalists and even the PTI. Maulana Fazlur Rehman Deobandi holy man, known as Mullah Diesel during the war against the Soviets, his sympathies for the Taliban have never been tempered by honesty ... in a presser in Beautiful Downtown Peshawar ...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province), administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire. on Saturday underlined what he said was the real agenda of the MQM as reflected in Altaf's latest diatribe. As seems to have become the pattern after Altaf Hussain's pronouncements from the safety of London, it is left to the local MQM leadership, i.e. Dr Farooq Sattar, to 'explain' what the supremo 'actually' meant. Damage limitation may be the MQM's need after every such speech of Altaf Hussain, but the damage has been done once again and cannot be denied. Awami Tehrik's Ayaz Latif Palijo demanded an apology from Altaf Hussain otherwise the nationalist party will call for a shutter down strike and come out in the streets of Sindh on Monday, January 6.
Unfortunately, stripped of its niceties, the MQM's politics revolves around intimidation, threats, even violence if its whims and wishes to dominate urban Sindh and thereby the levers of power in the province are not met without demur. Had Altaf Hussain been on Pak soil, there would have been a case for trying him for a statement that could at the very least stoke the fires of ethnic conflict in the province and at worst amounts to a violation of the constitution by advocating separation. *
Posted by: Fred ||
01/05/2014 00:00 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
...Bangla dynastic politician and current Prime Minister of Bangladesh. She has been the President of the Bangla Awami League since the Lower Paleolithic. She is the eldest of five children of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founding father of Bangla. Her party defeated the BNP-led Four-Party Alliance in the 2008 parliamentary elections. She has once before held the office, from 1996 to 2001, when she was defeated in a landslide. She and the head of the BNP, Khaleda Zia show such blind animosity toward each other that they are known as 
Maulana Fazlur Rehman
...the creepy-looking former dictator of Pakistain. Zia was an Islamic nutball who imposed his nutballery on the rest of the country with the enthusiastic assistance of the nation's religious parties, which are populated by other nutballs. He was appointed Chief of Army Staff in 1976 by Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, whom he hanged when he seized power. His time in office was a period of repression, with hundreds of thousands of political rivals, minorities, and journalists executed or tortured, including senior general officers convicted in coup-d'état plots, who would normally be above the law. As part of his alliance with the religious parties, his government helped run the war against the Soviets in Afghanistan, providing safe havens, American equipiment, Saudi money, and Pak handlers to selected mujaheddin. Zia died along with several of his top generals and admirals and the then United States Ambassador to Pakistain Arnold Lewis Raphel when he was assassinated in a suspicious air crash near Bahawalpur in 1988...
