Part II: Does Hamas-Like Surprise Await Bangladesh

Is Banladesh heading to be a failed state?

Dr. Richard L. Benkin writes from USA    

This is the second of three articles by our USA Correspondent Dr. Richard L. Benkin on the potential threat of an Islamist takeover in Bangladesh. Already a number of local and international newspapers have picked up quotes from this informative article, while several pro-radical newspaper in Bangladesh are spreading false propaganda against Weekly Blitz and its editor with defamatory comments.

Bangladesh’s detractors around the world more and more frequently refer to it as a “failed state” or a nation heading in that direction.  Despite their rationale—ongoing poverty, corruption, and so forth—the conclusion seems premature.  Bangladesh is no more a failed state than the US is an imperialistic one.  And just as labeling the US as imperialist obscures the real battles that nation is fighting on behalf of the world, so too calling Bangladesh failed smartly covers up the forces that benefit from giving up on it.  It would have the world simply throw up its hands over the nation’s problems and in the process ignore both their solutions and those who are hoping for such an outcome.  Bangladeshis know their nation’s problems all too well and hardly need the likes of this foreigner to point them out.  Neither do they not need this or other foreigners wagging our fingers at your nation and determining whether or not you can overcome them.  If the international community—and particularly the United States—accepts the “failed state” premise, it will be playing into the hands of our common enemies:  Islamist radicals who have long sought to turn Bangladesh into the next terrorist state.

There are too many uncomfortable parallels between the current situation in Bangladesh and the one in Gaza.  Retired Israeli Brigadier General Shalom Harari analyzed the elements that fueled the Hamas victory in Gaza and continue to strengthen Islamists there.  He the paradigm he developed to understand the phenomenon helps identify those parallels.   Harari describes the situation with the Arabic term, fauda, or chaos, which leads to internecine violence and the ultimate triumph of the more radical faction and has three elements: fasad, corruption, fitna, hatred of brothers and civil war, and falapan, the loss of security control.  As an example, this can be applied to process that brought an Islamist government to Iran.  Fasad under the Shah led many to believe they lacked access to society’s wealth; the initial “hatred” state of fitma took the form of street violence and social unrest.  When sufficient numbers of police and military bought into the Islamist interpretation, the government experienced falapan.  Fitma morphed into the more violent civil war with the Islamists prevailing.  The PA elections complicated the matter there, but it might be even more germane for understanding Bangladesh.  Fasad more than anything else drove the Hamas victory.  Hamas’s promise to end it—and Fatah’s endemic and open corruption—won the election for the Islamists.  The state remains divided at this point with extensive violence (fitma) throughout the disputed territories.   The most intense Hamas-Fatah conflicts proceed around who will control the security services.  If Hamas prevails over Fatah, the latter’s falapan will seal a Hamas-Muslim Brotherhood-Al Queida victory.  Likely, that victory will follow a now widely predicted civil war (the more intense stage of fitma).

Many observers believe that conditions exist for Bangladesh to become (as many inside the country put it) the next “Taliban” state.  Applying Harari’s paradigm provides some insight.

Fasad:

Identifying corruption has become something of a pre-occupation in Bangladesh—although that exercise never seems to result in something being done about it.  Dhaka’s papers are rife with angry articles about one or another example of fasad.  Fasad is a background or overt topic of almost every political debate, not unlike that which has been the staple of the successful Islamist groups worldwide.  My own experience with Bangladeshi government and social institutions confirm not only the existence of fasad, but also a “culture of fasad,” that accepts it as a legitimate and stable element in all interactions.  It is almost impossible for me to think of a political foray that did not involve an open or more often subtle request for a payoff—and a wall of inaction and dissembling when the payoff was not forthcoming.  In one case, the Bangladeshi officials could not accept as possible that the other party (diplomats from another country) does not engage in payoffs.  Like the PA, Bangladesh has been tarred with the fasad brush for years, which could fuel an  “unexpected” gain for Bangladesh’s Islamist parties.

Fitma:                          

Many commentators have noted an increasingly powerful propensity for violence among Bangladeshis.  That they are ethnically homogeneous group has made for more intense divisions along faults of religion and politics.   There has been political violence by the party in power against its main opposition.  Islamists have set off bombs in courtrooms and elsewhere.  Roving gangs have been unchecked in beating—or worse—journalists,

protesters, and others.  Discourse often takes on the trappings of demonizing one’s opponents, not scrupling about accusing them of treason or alliance with outside forces.  The intensity of the accusations is a clear indication of fitma’s initial hatred stage.

One particular aspect of the conflict over Bangladesh combines both of these elements and further strengthens the Islamists’ hand.  Last year’s first Islamist terror bombs exploded in various settings.  Subsequent bombings, however, targeted courts and other venues representing the Bangladesh legal system.  Through their public messages, the Islamists made it clear that the targets were deliberate ones.  Their principal demand is to scrap the current system in favor of Sharia, Muslim religious law.  The Islamists were uncompromising and downright proud of their principled stand against the chaotic and corrupt courts—supported by both major parties.  Bangladeshis are open in their contempt for the courts, which they uniformly find unsatisfactory.  Even supporters of the current system admit its substantial flaws, acknowledging corruption at all but the highest level (and even there, the record is not unambiguous).  With the public so badly alienated, will Sharia seem pristine and its Islamist backers an untainted alternative?  Sufficient Islamist gains could allow it to demand the Law Ministry, which will allow them to establish Sharia administratively.

Falapan:

The lack of falapan might be the one thing keeping the Islamists out of power, but that could change quickly.  There are two elements to Bangladeshi security forces.  One is the independent Forces Intelligence under Major General Sadeq Hasan Rumy. General Rumy seems rather savvy about various matters.  He makes sure his forces are loyal to the government in power but seems to realize that they do not owe their existence to them.  They maintain their personal positions and independent funds regardless of who wins the elections.  He also seems cognizant of the impact fasad is having on Bangladesh and how foreigners perceive the country.  Should an inhospitable government grab power, or attempt to do so, General Rumy and his followers might be an excellent counterforce.  The other security element is the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) under Home Minister Lutfuzzamen Babar.  Babar has been in the forefront of action against the Islamists, most recently putting down the May violence.  But he also is a creature of the political system and whether personally corrupt or saintly, he is embedded in both the corruption of culture and the BNP apparatus.  RAB has been Bangladesh’s major force fighting the Islamists, and significant Islamist gains in the January election might give Babar no choice but to abandon RAB’s anti-terrorist activities.  That would mean falapan and the threat of future violence getting out of hand.

Other factors make the situation vulnerable to Islamist efforts. A high percentage of Bangladeshis are Muslim, although not as high as countries like Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iran; and the country has a history of religious animosity, especially with regard to the largest religious minority, Hindus.  Islamists have proven adept at exploiting conditions conducive to religious strife and scapegoating.  The long history of intense animosity between the center-right BNP and the leftist Awami League (AL), exacerbated by personal and family animosity between the two parties’ leaders, also works in the Islamists’ favor.   They know that a BNP-AL coalition is almost impossible, leaving them as the country’s sole political power brokers.

Burmese human rights activist and Nobel laureate, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, has said,  "It is not power that corrupts but fear. Fear of losing power corrupts those who wield it."  Time and again the ruling BNP has declined to take decisive action “for fear of how the radicals might react.”  In doing so, they are nullifying their apparent gains against the Islamists by tolerating their ever strengthening hold on Bangladeshi society and institutions.  For several years, Islamists have been buying social control in the form of media, madrassas, and allies in the police, the courts, and the military.  Social conditions, fasad, and lack of hope on the part of many Bangladeshis all allow that general disenchantment with the BNP will open the door for an Islamist victory (or at least sizeable gains) in January, and perhaps the falapan that will move the existing  fitma to its intense, final stage.  Both major parties consistently ignore this, the greatest threat Bangladeshis face today.  The oppositon AL continues to pound away at the BNP but never attacks the Islamist parties.  BNP leaders focus all of their attention in trying to prevent AL gains.  They are so obsessed with the (weak) threat on their left, that they are ignoring the (substantial) threat on their right.

Anti Blitz campaign by drug trafficker’s daily

Blitz Exclusive

Now a vernacular daily newspaper, owned by drug trafficker Badruddoza Chowdhury Momen has started false propaganda against Weekly Blitz and its editor. In the June 5^th 2006 issue of Daily Naya Diganta published a front page item by its special correspondent. In this report, the newspaper termed Weekly Blitz as an ‘under ground newspaper’ and said, it is being published without any declaration. The reporter also said, the Blitz editor was leaving for Israel to start working for Israeli intelligence agency. The reason behind such anger of the vernacular daily is, Blitz published comprehensive reports on the drug trafficking by Badruddoza Momen, owner of the newspaper, as well last week, published a commentary by Dr. Richard L. Benkin titled ‘Hamas like surprise await Bangladesh’, where our USA correspondent gave extensive analytical information on the future of Bangladesh’s politics. It was already known to many that the mentioned vernacular daily was established by some dubious people, with the ultimately objective of according support to Islamist militants including Jamatul Mujahedin Bangladesh (JMB) and Al-Qaeda. This newspaper promotes Islamist militancy and is a mouth piece of Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh and other Islamist radical groups. One of the owners of this newspaper, Badruddoza Chowdhury Momen was already arrested in connection of smuggling of heroin to Europe, for last several years. Monen has already confessed to the interrogators about this offense and is now awaiting trial for the offense.

Legal notice has already been served on Naya Diganta for publishing these false, concocted, imaginary comments on Weekly Blitz, which has already turned into country’s largest tabloid. Authorities of Blitz will also lodge a compensation suite of TK 50 million against this vernacular daily soon. Legal advisors are already taking necessary preparations for the defamation suit.

It may be mentioned here that, Thailand based Asian Tribune published several commentaries on political situation in Bangladesh, where the writers quoted several information from the commentary by Dr. Richard L. Benkin in Weekly Blitz. Being the largest tabloid weekly newspaper in Bangladesh, this newspaper is read by thousands of readers in home and abroad. Moreover, the internet edition of Blitz is available to readers in every country in the world. Foreign writers consider Blitz articles and commentaries as prolific and informative for obvious reasons. Dr. Richard L. Benkin’s commentaries are also taken very seriously by the members of press and policy makers internationally. Our items are not only picked by Asian Tribune only but by a large number of newspapers and news wire services around the world. So, it was rather surprising to note that, the mentioned vernacular daily in Bangladesh has unnecessarily tried to link the Asian Tribune articles with Blitz, for unknown reason. It was learnt from dependable sources that, Islamist militant groups were using their palls within Naya Diganta for publishing mala fide news items on Blitz and its editor. Weekly Blitz management already spoke to the editorial members of Naya Diganta and verbally protested the publication of this defamatory news. They were also informed that, Blitz management is considering filing a defamation suit against Naya Diganta and its reporter for such nasty activities. In reply, management of this vernacular daily showed ignorance on such.

Government taking stern actions against TIU

Blitz Exclusive

Weekly Blitz published a news item few weeks back on an institution named The International University, which was later carried by other local newspapers in Bangladesh and abroad. Since the publication of the news item, we have received numerous threats from the TIU-Dhaka and just recently, other frauds in the so-called US campus of the institution is spreading mala fide and false information on us, which we are keeping in our record for future actions. Meanwhile, in a recent email a person named Robert Ray Hill, Blitz office was forwarded a letter from their Dhaka Campus’s chief M.A. Hossain. In this email, Hossain wrote: “… What ever documents we received from Ministry of education Govt. of Bangladesh are already laying with you. system of according approval to out campus university that is foreign university is not in existing in our country.
At present government is thinking to formulate some rules and regulation for running the out campus. So far we know UGC is working on this. It is not yet been finalized.
You will be glade to know that we are ready to able the opportunity of getting the   approval on first chance. I think your board of Directors has nothing to get nervous. We are working as honestly & sincerely as possible.”

It was already reported in Blitz that, all the so-called permissions issued by Ministry of Education was concocted either by TIU Dhaka or its USA people. A man named Dr. Gazi Mahabubul Alam, who proclaims to be a class friend of BNP’s senior joint secretary general Tareq Rahman, is also involved in the entire game of fraudulent activities. As a responsible newspaper, Weekly Blitz already sent several letters to the people in the government and intelligence agencies for taking necessary actions against TIU-Dhaka Campus for forging official documents of the Bangladesh government, which is a serious crime and it is anticipated that, government will soon initiate legal actions against these elements. It may be mentioned here that, any warrant of arrest for forging official documents are non-bail able.

Meanwhile, it was also learnt by Blitz that, the Dhaka campus of The International University (TIU) sent large amount of money as franchisee fees, which had also not been sent through proper channel. The entire amount was sent through illegal ways, which falls under money laundering act. When contacted, the Bangladesh representative of TIU USA, M.A. Hossain said, it was not necessary to obtain any permission for remittance of any amount below US$ 10,000. When Hossain was informed by our reporters that, it was essential for them to use proper banking channels to remit any foreign currency abroad, he remained silent. It is well apprehended that, TIU-Dhaka is also actively involved in money laundering offense.

Earlier the institution’s USA office claimed that the Education minister’s wife was the honorary vice chancellor of TIU Dhaka. Later it was revealed that, this fake institution was using the good names of the education minister, Tareq Rahman and many other important people in Bangladesh for justifying their crime.

From several inquiries, it is understood that, The International University (TIU) is cheating local students by offering various degrees, which was actually false and TIU-USA already was caught in forging several false educational certificates by one of its staffs named Dr. Satya.

A highly placed source in the education ministry told Blitz that, they are already investigating the case of The International University (TIU), and soon legal actions will be taken against them for series of forgeries. Several foreign students in Dhaka, including the children of some diplomats also studied in TIU Dhaka campus, and paid them substantial amount of money as tuition fees. Subsequently, fate of these students will be uncertain, when it is already revealed that TIU itself is a dubious institution.

Talking to Blitz, a source in one of the intelligence agencies said, they were already monitoring the activities of TIU Dhaka Campus. Legal actions will be taken against them for forging of official documents as well for illegally trafficking foreign currency to abroad.

A Simple Fracture Turns Into A Nightmare !

Pandurang Sonawane writes from India

For eleven-year old Nikhil Sukhlal Shinde, of Talegaon Dhabade, thirty kms from Pune, en route to Mumbai, Indian, of late, life has been a continuous, sordid and painful gauntlet of undergoing one operation after another – with no relief whatsoever to his limb destroyed by doctors who had attended to him for a simple fracture of his left hand.

Almost three years ago, Nikhil, then nine years old, fell down on his way to attend a school function on September 2, 2003. The nightmare began.  Dr. Shirish Tumbal, the attending physician at the Talegaon General Hospital (Hospital) diagnosed it as a simple fracture. A plaster cast was put on it – without attending to the external bruises and wounds.  Infection set in. Then began a horrendous fiasco, to rectify the damage done, by doing even greater harm by not only subjecting young Nikhil to excruciating physical pains, but in the course of this parody of many errors, a nerve was removed from his left leg to implant on the dead limb with the slender hope that a miracle would happen and the gross negligence committed would be remedied. This has now caused complications in Nikhil’s left leg also, which hurts terribly when he walks even a few meters!

After his injury was diagnosed as a simple fracture, Nikhil was hospitalized. On September 4, 2003, he had severe pains in his afflicted hand.  When his father, a plumber, brought this to the notice of Dr. Tumbal, on the advise of Dr. Yashwant Mundkar, who is head of the Orthopedic department of the hospital, a small slit was made on the upper side of the plaster cast. But the pain did not subside. It increased tremendously.  According to Nikhil, he was left to his plight with none of the doctors bothering to attend to him and ease the pain.  The condition of his left hand deteriorated. He was administered several bottles of blood which had to be purchased by his father.  On September 23, 2003, Dr. Mundkur and Dr. Niraj Adkar, under whose management Nikhil was, admitted to his father that his son’s hand was in a serious condition and plastic surgery would be required.  Dr. Chandrashekhar Waigaonkar, then attached to the D.Y Patil Hospital and presently with the Niramaya Hospital, along with Dr. Mundkur, Dr. Shirish Tumbal, Dr. Amit Bhosale, and Dr. Dinesh Kabere, as a team, performed surgery on Nikhil.  The skin from his stomach area was grafted to his left hand.  Nikhil, according to his father, who is a plumber with very limited means, was used as a guinea pig.   He was nine years old then.  Dr. Pankaj Jindal, a noted hand surgeon at the Jehangir Hospital then took over and a series of further operations were performed.  

When yet another surgery was  lined up, in which the nerves from his right leg would now be removed and grafted to his totally useless left hand,, Nikhil’s father opted for a second opinion from an internationally renown orthopedic surgeon in Pune, who opined that it would  be  brutal  to put this little boy through this thirteenth surgery which would, just cause him a great deal of suffering, needlessly, when there was absolutely  no chance of the afflicted limb of ever regaining even basic movements.  It was dead, as well as six inches shorter in length than his right hand.

A complaint (No. 597 of2005) was lodged in  the . Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum,  in which Nikhil has claimed about INR 1.2 million  as damages ,as well as  for  compensation, for the  physical and mental agony   undergone by him  and his family at the hands of the doctors, who had rendered his hand permanently , a hundred percent ,disabled.

It was argued before the President of the Forum, on Nikhil’s behalf, that the medical profession was indeed a noble one. That is, if the doctors concerned truly follow the Hypocrites Oath, to which they swore before going forward to heal and bring solace to their patients.  However, in this modern age with Capitation fees unabashedly ruling the day, the traditional doctor appeared to be losing out to the modern trend of trying to recover the huge sums spent on getting this coveted degree!  In a country like India  with a huge section of the population existing well below the poverty line, and unable to afford quality service – which came at  an exorbitant cost – they have no option but to rely upon and place their trust with the person treating them at the Hospital or clinic,  be they  trainees, teachers or even ward-boys with some basic practical experience and little else. Experimentation, therefore, was easy.

“The situation is today somewhat like that over which the infamous Dr. Josef Mengale who presided at the Auschwitz’s camp during the Nazi regime. Dr. Mengale, a soft-spoken and extremely well mannered man with love for music, poetry and other social graces, was also known for his experiments conducted on the inmates. Dr. Mengale prided in being socially conscience and claimed that his experiments were for the betterment of mankind and science.  He considered himself to be a man of “charity” and a humanitarian. Dr. Mengale was fascinated, in particular, with twins.  If one twin was tortured, did the other react?  He systematically, in pursuance of such a cause, which he considered as “charitable”  towards all humanity and mankind, who would certainly stand to benefit from the results, therefore, experimented with over a thousand sets of twins, before abandoning this exercise. He would also implant, without much success, the retinas of one twin to the other – rendering them both blind. Then, killing them One of his better known operations, in order that this knowledge be used for rehabilitation of German soldiers made physically handicapped in the war, was to deliberately render a limb of the person experimented upon 100% disabled and then, to trying to get it working again by grafting nerves from the feet, legs and other parts of the body of the victim. Dr. Joseph Megale was also known as “the Angel of Death”.  These gruesome tests have a disturbingly terrifying similarity with the experiments carried out on with on little Nikhil!”

The Complaint has been admitted and fixed for final arguments for August 10 .

In sheer desperation, Nikhil also appealed to “Uncle Kalam”, the bachelor President of India, known the world-over for his fondness of children and a genuine concern for their well-being, giving details of his sufferings.  True to his image as the Peoples’ President, .Dr. A .P. J. Kalam acted at once. He directed the Public Health Department in the Government of Maharashtra to send him a report. Dr. Y.H. Doiphode, Dep. Secy. of Social Health, Pune, wrote to Nikhil on October 25th, 2005, to meet him at once, as directed by the President of India, which he did. Nikhil was examined by Dr. Doiphode’s assistant.  “But, the bureaucrats have successfully succeeded in aborting Dr. Kalam’s efforts. There has been not even a whisper from the powers-that-be after Nikhil was examined by Dr. Doiphode more than seven months ago.  The report may, possibly, have got lost in translation – or the post!”, guffawed  Amit Bhowmik,  who is representing Nikhil pro bono, when contacted  when contacted.  

A criminal complaint  has also been filed by Sukhlal (Nikhil’s father), against the hospital and the doctors for causing  grievous hurt , which is a cognizable offence ; the punishment for which is imprisonment which may extend to seven years , with Mr.Vishwas Nangre-Patil, Superintendent of Police(Rural),Pune,. So far there has been no response, although, following President Kalam’s directives, Nangre-Patil personally visited Talegaon and took down Sukhlal and Nikhil’s statements ----almost six months ago!              

“Uncle Kalam’s” antics – and directions - do not seem to be taken seriously   by the bureaucrats, who de facto rule the country! Whatever be the outcome, Nikhil’s fate is sealed.  He has been made a cripple.  His dreams of becoming an engineer have been shattered. He cannot even follow his father’s profession as a plumber. Infact, Nikhil is unable to even play cricket, his favorite game in school. He is trying to resign himself to be content to watch his classmates enjoy themselves during playtime. 

“The doctors who were recently, until they were rapped severely on their knuckles by the Supreme Court,   on a Nation-wide strike, protesting against the Central Government’s proposal to increase the reservation quota of medical college seats for the backward castes to 27 per cent, as well as the politicians with whom they are fencing, are holding us all to ransom.  Our plight is made worse because we are from the Scheduled Caste. So, surely  neither the politicians or the doctors  care a hoot of my son’s plight and future prospects !”, moans  Sukhlal, who is barely able to pay the school fees for his nine year old daughter, because of the loans he has taken towards Nikhil’s treatment and other expenses.