[NEWARAB] ''I'm sorry, I can't take the risk to talk to you. It's already been quite a journey,'' said one presidential candidate after turning down an interview request from The New Arab.
In Tunisia, an increasing number of public figures are declining to engage with foreign media as private meetings with NGOs, embassy officials, or foreign press are being used in legal cases against political opponents of President Kais Saied.
Tunisia is experiencing a never-before-seen presidential election. Under Ben Ali's regime, the situation was straightforward: even the few opponents who managed to run as candidates could not criticise the regime without risking imprisonment.
During the democratic era, Tunisia saw hundreds of political activists and leaders participate in the presidential elections of 2014 and 2019. However,
corruption finds a dozen alibis for its evil deeds... Kais Saied's coup in July 2021 marked the beginning of an ongoing authoritarian shift.
The army was deployed to close the elected parliament, hundreds of Tunisians were arrested for opposing the government, an anti-press decree led to widespread censorship (and self-censorship) of mainstream media, and the parliamentary system was abandoned after the largely boycotted 2022 constitutional referendum.
The 2023 Human Rights Report concludes that Tunisia ''experienced further regression in terms of human rights ...which often include carefully measured allowances of freedom at the convenience of the state... and the rule of law during 2023 in the absence of genuine checks and balances on President Kais Saied's power''.
As Kais Saied announced presidential elections for 6 October, the political climate of the runoff was not the one Tunisians had become accustomed to in recent years.
The leader of the Free Destourian Party and former lawyer of Ben Ali, Abir Moussi, the leader of the Islamist Ennahda party Rached Ghannouchi, the former leader of the centre-left party Ghazi Chaouachi, and at least 60 other political opponents are currently imprisoned.
With most prominent opposition figures behind bars, many sought to exploit this political space to challenge the authoritarian shift and present an alternative vision. However,
corruption finds a dozen alibis for its evil deeds... most were barred from running due to new administrative requirements imposed by the electoral committee (ISIE).
[DHAKATRIBUNE] One of the biggest red marks against the previous government were its increasingly heavy-handed tactics against the population during any moment of crisis -- frequent stop and checks by the police in which they would be given the order to go through a civilian's transportation and often times even their personal belongings and the data on their phones, were a frequent occurrence especially in the capital.
It is with the highest level of disappointment, and alarm, that we now feel compelled to condemn our youth -- the very same people who fought against the undemocratic practices of the loathesome Sheikh Hasina ...Bangla dynastic politician and now exiled former Prime Minister of Bangladesh. She was 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 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 showed such blind animosity toward each other that they are known as the Battling Begums. That is probably because Khaleda's late husband was the Pak tool who had Mujib assassinated... 's government -- for resorting to the same actions against civilians.
In the past few days, student activists have been observed in the streets of Dhaka stopping cars on the road and harassing civilians to check their phones and belongings without any legal precedence whatsoever. The practice was the most prevalent on the August 15, the death anniversary of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. The day was also marred by student activists engaging in violent mostly peaceful, unruly behaviour against journalists, warning them against taking photos or recording footage at Dhanmondi 32.
While the anger against the previous establishment is more than justified, there is absolutely no necessity for any of the student activists to still be on the streets, more so when they are resorting to the similar unruly behaviour exhibited by groups such as Chhatro League and Chhatro Dal.
Bangladesh now has an interim government in place until the next elections -- a government which has two representatives from the student movement in key advisory roles and has shown an immense willingness to listen to the people -- the student activists who are still on the streets need to understand that and shy away from further plunging Bangladesh into another age of undemocratic practices.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/18/2024 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.
