Hold on to your hats, boys and girls -- the metaphors are flying thick, fast, and thoroughly mixed!
[Bangla Daily Star] Our agony is not only unending, the senseless and cynical rantings of our leaders is adding to it also. With so many issues snowballing into problems with every passing day, the disdainful attitude of those, whose job it is to solve problems, is giving rise to newer ones. And the comments of the political leaders are not helping to calm matters down.
The two camps may use up all the expletives at their command and all the invectives they can master to throw at their opponents (they like to think them as enemies), but that will not be able to deliver us, the unfortunate people, caught in the ruling party's hammer and the opposition's tong, from the mire that we are trying desperately to get out of.
We are disappointed. Disappointed because of the fact that we have come to such a pass that has made us divided down the middle, quite unnecessarily too, and the enemies of the country, who benefit from the truncation of the homogeneity that we had been blessed with at birth, are doing everything to see the gaps widen. It is even more disappointing because the leaders have not been able to rise beyond partisan interest to see beyond their nose and anticipate the danger that is staring the country in the face.
The senseless manner in which the country had been virtually shut down for the greater part of the month of March shows how self-destructive the Bengalis can be. Much as the government may like to show that life had been normal during the days of hartal, it was anything but. The latest round of shutdowns was called by the BNP to protest the arrest of their party leaders after its head office was stormed by the police on March 11, and each day that the country remained shut down, it was put back by more than a billion taka. Citing AL's 173 days hartal when it was in opposition does neither ennoble its cause nor justify the means of the BNP.
Whatever the merit of their case may be, the opposition cannot hold the people to ransom for an exclusive partisan cause. What if the demand is not met; will the poor people be made to suffer for the game the two parties are playing? Those who live by the day, those who must work everyday of the week to ensure that they have something to eat every day, at least once, have been the worst sufferers. If politics is for the people, what examples are the politicians setting for their progeny when they see a rickshaw van put to fire and the poor rickshaw puller entreating the vandals to spare the only means of his livelihood?
Not that we did not see violence during hartal in the past, but what we have seen recently, deliberately targeting of people like the three doctors the afternoon before the day of hartal, are acts that go beyond definition of social or political violence. These are acts of terrorism and must be addressed as such. And journalists have not been spared either. If this is the meaning and manifestation of politics, then that politics we can do without, and the people must come together to make this kind of politics irrelevant.
The opposition is now fixed on a single demand, fall of the government. When has any democratically elected government been brought down by street agitation? The last time we saw it happen was when a pseudo-democratic government was toppled in December 1990, but that needed the coalescence of all the political parties across the ideological and political divide. It seems that the BNP has lost its focus, it having to modify the reason for its agitation programmes. Whatever happened to its call for a caretaker arrangement for the next election?
And this is where the AL must display its political farsightedness. Mixed signals have emerged form the party on the issue of AL-BNP dialogue, and on the issue of the modality of the next election. But the AL must realise that hiding behind the Supreme Court's ruling and insisting on the 15th Amendment, done in a hurry and even disregarding the views of many senior AL leaders, as the predicating factor for the next election, will not help resolve the crisis.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/21/2013 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] HAVING divided the political class and once again confused society with talk of talks, the TTP has now "suspended" its offer of negotiations with the government. Ehsanullah Ehsan, the TTP spokesperson, has claimed that the government's lack of seriousness about negotiations with the Taliban is behind the TTP's move. More realistically, the TTP has achieved much of what it set out to do by mooting the idea of talks. In the two craven multi-party conferences that took place in quick succession, the religious right and large segments of the political mainstream all but suggested that the state give up on the idea of Pakistain as a modern nation-state with a monopoly over legitimate violence and in which the citizenry enjoy freedoms and rights. Given that the TTP's offer of talks coincided with a wave of krazed killer violence, it never really appeared to be a meaningful offer.
What the focus should switch to now is how best to secure the upcoming elections from krazed killer violence. Ehsanullah Ehsan's warning to the public to stay away from electoral activities is particularly ominous because the TTP has already made it clear that it regards elections as un-Islamic and that it will target "secular" politicians during the campaign. The mere threat of violence by the TTP is enough to potentially skew elections in parts of the country because both the voter and a certain kind of candidate in areas such as Fata and parts of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa ... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central... , Balochistan ...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it... , Punjab and Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... may opt to stay at home, opening the door further to pro-Taliban political forces that will be able to campaign and vote more freely. If the TTP is to be stopped from indirectly shaping the composition of the elected assemblies, a comprehensive security plan must be drawn up -- one that will require close cooperation between the Election Commission of Pakistain, the caretaker governments and security apparatus.
Securing the election from krazed killer threats is neither beyond the realm of possibility nor something we can afford to overlook. True, elections by their very nature present a plethora of potential targets to those bent on violence and there is a trade-off between security and openness. But the stakes are too high to let a business-as-usual attitude prevail. The ECP, already burdened with a number of duties and crises, needs to put security near the top of the list of its priorities -- and win the cooperation of the necessary institutions as quickly as possible.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/21/2013 00:00 ||
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Why is US President Barack Obama coming to Israel today? In 2008, then president George W. Bush came to celebrate Israels 60th Independence Day, and to reject Israeli requests for assistance in destroying Irans nuclear installations.
In 1996, then-president Bill Clinton came to Israel to help then-prime minister Shimon Peress electoral campaign against Likud leader Binyamin Netanyahu.
It is possible that Obama is coming here in order to build up pro-Israel bonafides. But why would he bother? Obama won his reelection bid with the support of the overwhelming majority of American Jews. Their support vindicated his hostility toward Israel in his first term. He has nothing to prove.
...So since he doesnt think hes done anything wrong, and he intends to continue the same policies in his second term, why did he decide to come to Israel? And why is he addressing, and so seeking to empower the radical, unelectable Left? Obamas speech in Cairo to the Muslim world was held at the Islamist Al-Azhar Univerity. By speaking at Al-Azhar, Obama weakened Mubarak in three different ways. First, Al-Azhars faculty members regularly issue religious rulings calling for the murder of non-Muslims, prohibiting the practice of Judaism, and facilitating the victimization of women. In stating these views, Al-Azhars leadership has demonstrated that their world view and values are far less amenable to American strategic interests and moral values than Mubaraks world view was. By speaking at Al-Azhar, Obama signaled that he would reward the anti-American Islamists at the expense of the pro-American Arab nationalists.
...It is possible that in addressing the unelected radical Left in Jerusalem, Obama seeks to undermine the legitimacy of the Israeli government. But if that is the plan, then it would bespeak an extraordinary contempt and underestimation of Israeli democracy. Such a plan would not play out the same way his Egyptian speech did.
...The truth we dont know why Obama is coming to Israel. The Obama administration has not indicated where its Israel policy is going. And Obamas Republican opposition is in complete disarray on foreign policy and not in any position to push him to reveal his plans.
What we can say with certainty is that the administration that supports the democratically elected Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, and did so much to clear all obstacles to its election, is snubbing the democratically elected Israeli government, and indeed, Israels elected officials in general. Obamas transmission of this message in the lead-up to this visit, through symbols and action alike does not bode well for Israels relations with the US in the coming four years.
#1
he is going to say platitudes about Israel that will help Democratic congressmen in 2014... Or he is going to lay down the word of Obama to Israel to help other far left congressman.
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