Do check out my new blog.
http://secretdhaka.wordpress.com/

I got it up a few days ago. Still warming up, or something like that

And btw, I love the fonts–they are quite readable. But they do say black as a background is make or break.

I’m sure it was in part fuelled by the AL administration. But it was probably fuelled in larger part due to the demographic shift. The youngest eligible voter at the moment has parents who grew up in united Pakistan. That generation has a very different perception of nationalism than that of Generation 71’s. (this applies for both pro-Bangladeshi, lukewarm-Bangladeshi and anti-Bangladeshi positions).

People like myself grew up in Bangladesh. It was all we ever had. As a result, our sense of nationalism is somewhat different. Mujib to us is hardly a villain. Even if he was an ambiguous figure (“India’r dalal”-type rhetoric) to our (grand) parents’ generation, he remains less ambiguous for us. The most we can validly say against him is “bad administrator” and “autocratic”. BNP of course does not have much of a moral leg to stand with that last one, given its own autocratic tendencies (and I mean post-91).

These demograpic changes have been accompanied by changes in the media environment which have facilitated them, as mentioned above. I confess that I speculated a bit about the mindset towards Mujib in the 80s, having retained very few political memories from that era.

I have no idea to what extent the stronger/darker fringes exist. Enough to fill up a seminar I’d say. All of Jamaat’s old guard. Muslim League remnants. Look towards the right-ist elements within BNP (SaQA and Chowdhury Irad Ahmed Siddiky who recently said the Pakistani government had favoured the AL in 1970 elections!). I’d say these people are likely to not express too much regret over August 15th. Just a guess.

I apologise if anything in this piece came across as “American elections won’t affect us” kind of rhetoric. Of course it will, much more so than elections in most other countries of the world. My point was simply that Mr. Sobhan’s op-ed left a lot to be desired in terms of making that connection. He has the brains and the platform to tell people the many different ways in which changes in Washington will affect our lives in Munshiganj for instance. He did not take that opportunity, making him sound a bit like Bhupati from “Charulata”. Thus my complaint.

To give credit where credit’s due: he has written once again on the American elections: http://www.thedailystar.net/story.php?nid=61099

This time he has devoted 3 paragraphs on how those elections will affect our lives here. A definite improvement, and I expect a more in-depth treatment will be forthcoming. Not everyone has time or ability to draw the complex contours of power that emanate from D.C. to Dhaka.

I must humbly disagree with your assertion that DS has been “forced to compromise”. From my vantage point here, I made the same excuse numerous times until it became crystal clear that DS was not “forced” to do anything. They have chosen this path of their own volition and has made it abundantly clear that they were always anti-BNP more than they were pro-press freedom. Tragic really. But hey, this is Bangladesh. Did you expect anything else?

Would appreciate the Motiur Rahman link.

State of press freedom has been made a point in many newspapers, and although DS has been forced to compromise with the incumbent govt. to an extent larger than some others, that is probably because it has a much larger de facto following. Moreover, Motiur Rahman has nevertheless talked about Press Freedom vehemently in one of his articles.

I myself would subscribe to New Age rather than Daily Star, but that will be a relative decision, not an absolute one.