Sheikh Hasina’s return to the country and the government: An analysis —
- He also took Punjabi…!
- Please give ‘Justice’ to the media first!
Dear Bangladesh Prime Minister’s Information Advisor Dr. Zahed Ur Rahman. He said it’s good. It also has the power of hypnosis. It’s not bad! Today, he spoke quite positively about the return of Bangabandhu’s daughter Sheikh Hasina to the country. He tried to say as much as the government can say. He repeatedly mentioned the issue of ensuring ‘justice’ or justice. The matter is quite positive. He said it in the name of July consciousness. Referring to Bangabandhu’s daughter Sheikh Hasina, he also said, ‘The person who has provided justice, he or his government also wants to provide justice to him.’
He said, ‘The next issue after Sheikh Hasina’s announcement of her return to the country after the verdict given by the International Criminal Tribunal is the jurisdiction of the court. How she (Sheikh Hasina) will surrender, what will be the sentence, whether she will be acquitted, what the next step will be is definitely under the court’s consideration. ‘ As the information advisor to the Prime Minister of the government, Dr. Zahed has said it rightly.
But, for me, the matter is like ‘taking news of ginger merchant ships’! Once upon a time, ginger merchants did not or could not take news of ships or there was no need to take news of them. Now the times have changed. News of ships has become quite relevant in the present era. Similarly, news of national leaders is certainly important in the overall sense for media representatives like me. However, discussing the delicate life situation of me or my comrades in the changed political situation is also an urgent priority. I want to see my beloved Bangladesh through the media. If the media cannot be freed from its hostage situation or if the media’s ‘justice’ cannot be ensured, I do not think that ‘justice’ will be done to Bangabandhu’s daughter or the former Prime Minister or the president of the political party ‘Bangladesh Awami League’ Sheikh Hasina, who is involved in the birth of the country. In the post-24 riots, the media, like the political administrative arena, has suffered the most in independent Bangladesh so far. Even upazila-level journalists have been accused of two/three politically motivated cases. Many people like me have lost their jobs. The accumulated dues to the institution have not yet been collected. Yunus Nana’s interim government has been replaced by an elected government of the ‘July Consciousness’ political circle. But the media has not yet been freed from captivity. By occupying press clubs in various parts of the country including Dhaka and Chittagong, and holding the offices of the Journalists’ Union hostage, the fundamentalist evil forces are in fact gathering sugarcane for their future evil activities under the umbrella of BNP. Does BNP understand this? Do the Prime Minister and BNP chief Tarique Rahman or his information advisor Dr. Zahed Ur Rahman understand? I have said before that many leaders from the BNP center to the grassroots, whom the media now considers as ‘their own people’, are actually ‘secret’. At the end of the day, in the final judgment, at a special time, they will look back and see that they are no one! The sooner the current government or the BNP’s policy makers understand this clear truth, the better their political and administrative well-being will be.
You are talking about Justice in the name of the spirit of 24, dear information advisor. As a case study, the information advisor can at least try to understand me. After 24, my job was lost due to the violence of his (information advisor’s) friends. Many people like me have lost their jobs in the same way. Even though it has been two years under their (ideological comrades of the information advisor) influence, the debt has not been paid even today. In the midst of the urgency of being implicated in successive cases and conspiracies, despite overcoming multi-dimensional conspiracies during Yunus Nana’s era and being elected president for the second time with a record vote, my Chittagong Journalists Union chair also went away! Because, they have locked the office and occupied it. 65 years ago, they occupied the press club formed by the members of this union with sharp weapons and sticks and inaugurated the office of another type of party leisure organization there. The office of a new organization was inaugurated at the Press Club occupied during Yunus’s time by none other than the Information Minister and State Minister of the new government of ‘democratic’ July spirit! During Yunus Nana’s tenure, the advisors opened fire with justice and honesty against the Chittagong industrial group ‘S Alam Group’. However, during the previous Awami League government’s tenure, Yunus Nana’s Press Secretary Shafiqul inaugurated the ‘July Revolution Memorial Hall’ by changing the name of the ‘Bangabandhu Hall’ established with the funding of ‘S Alam Industrial Group’! In other words, they legitimized the funding of S Alam. The Bersik people said, ‘The one who is the gourd is the one who is the kadhu’! To stop this game of changing colors, the helpless, unarmed and innocent journalist leaders of Chittagong went door to door to the BNP leaders to free the Press Club – the second home of professionals – the Journalists Union office – to free the media from hostages. We also submitted a memorandum to the government through the District Administrator. Some of them also rushed to the controlling leaders of Jamaat-NCP who are behind all this. Hundreds of appeals and longings did not reach their ears! But are we to assume that no matter how loud the arguments, arguments, counter-arguments, opinions, differences of opinion, justice and injustice are in the parliament, the ‘brother-brother’ game of Inus Zaman is going on in the field politics!? Dear information advisor, let me tell you. How many journalists have lost their jobs in the last 24 hours? How many have been accused in false cases without any crime, arrested, who are in detention? How many are practically living a fugitive life today? Are you doing? How many jobs are there today, helpless as poor people who have lost their jobs and are now helpless? Who is now doing the ‘Bangladesh Journalists Welfare Trust’ fund formed by the previous government’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina for political reasons? Are these welfare trusts, press councils or journalist support organizations able to play any practical role for the distressed and helpless journalists? What political force was behind the subsequent media takeovers? Why was there? What do they really want to do in Bangladesh?
Do you know about these news?
If you know, have you taken any steps to resolve this unprecedented crisis? I am a true professional who rose from the grassroots. In my nearly three-decade career, I have been fortunate to work in almost all media outlets: from weekly newspapers to regional and national dailies, online and the country’s top television media. I have been fortunate to see many things, including the political ups and downs of this period, the rhetoric of the Minister of Information and State Ministers, partisanship or helplessness. I can say with complacency that despite many adversities, I have never deviated from my unwavering stance on professional integrity, ethics and protesting injustice. Even my worst enemies cannot deny this. During the Awami League era, I had a clear stance against many ministers, MPs, whips and mayors in my writings, speeches and activities. I am still carrying the case from that time. Is it the crime of journalists like me to have attraction, reliance or trust only in Bangabandhu’s great leadership in the Liberation War or his daughter’s visionary leadership in various sectors including the media? Do you want justice? Is it not for justice that you have become 24? Then why do you stand against real professionals instead of taking action against the looters of the media? Today, when I or countless media workers like me are facing such adversity, when the impression of professional – organizational negativity like a bird that has lost its nest is also affecting our socio-personal lives, when the ground of our mind is in extreme anxiety, then I see our information advisor Zahed Saheb, like his government, talking about the announcement of the return of former Prime Minister Bangabandhu’s daughter to the country. He said the words clearly. He said in a loud voice about giving ‘justice’! In a country where the media does not get ‘justice’, in a country where the media does not get ‘justice’, in a country where the media does not get ‘justice’, in a country where the media is not getting being cheated by political and administrative fraud, in a country where the media is being saved from the clutches of the mega mob, with the help of well-wishing foreign countries, the worried, anxious, almost helpless woman who left her motherland and was saved from her life with the help of well-wishing foreign countries, standing on the edge of life, will get justice, how can we think that Sheikh Hasina, who is worried and almost helpless, will get justice?! Of course, I know that any such question or concern from me or an elected representative of the media who takes the essence of the field like me will not have any logic in the mind of anyone who is awakened and worried by the new aggression of imperialism. Still, I would have been assured if there was no revenge in politics-administration-mass media as declared by your idealistic Prime Minister Tarique Rahman. Or you could have ensured the implementation of the Prime Minister’s words or promises. So that word of mouth does not remain just word of mouth. However, as soon as I opened my eyes to the press conference of my dear Information Advisor, I saw another incident, which caught my attention for a good reason! I can say it humorously, you took everything one by one, dear Information Advisor, in the end you took my Punjabi too!!! Not bad. It has adapted quite well. Still, best wishes to us in spite of our hundreds of adversities, for a professional. In the words of the poet, I want to say – ‘My house has been broken, if I build its house…’ (The rest is unnecessary to say. Because, we have come to such a society and state system, even if we wish someone well from the heart, a class feels that we are going to become the tail of these powerful people! They are anxious as if they are being kicked in the stomach because of our professionalism and organizational social acceptance! What else can happen if the backbone of the mind or consciousness is not right!Of course, the language, taste, and thinking speed of the media occupiers will be like this! I am no longer disturbed by them. I only laugh.) Dear Bangladesh, I am a insignificant media worker who is humble towards justice or the rule of law. I want the freedom of the media. I want the real freedom of the masses. Only when the media is free will the real freedom of the masses come.
Riaz Haider Chowdhury