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The murder of Shah AMS Kibria removes from our midst one of the most brilliant of minds in public life in Bangladesh. Having lived a life of truly admirable — and enviable — proportions, the diplomat-turned politician saw death put paid to all the principles he stood for when grenade attacks (which we seem to be growing familiar with) were launched on him and Awami League workers with precision in Habiganj on Thursday evening. Mr. Kibria was one of our finest men. A top achiever in academic life, he went on to perform brilliantly in, first, the Pakistan foreign service and then Bangladesh’s diplomacy. His suavity and profound understanding of the complex nature of regional and global diplomacy served us well during his years at the United Nations and elsewhere. At ESCAP, he did us proud with his performance. And in politics, which territory he strode into with confidence in the early 1990s, he was a powerful presence, a reality epitomised by his stewardship of the finance ministry between 1996 and 2001. Ambiguity was not part of his personality; and ambivalence was never a definition of the politics he pursued. Our respects, our prayers for the salvation of his departed soul, are therefore those which emanate from the deepest core of our collective being.
   But here comes the question of the ominous once more now that Shah AMS Kibria and four others have been so brutally killed in Habiganj. We at this newspaper, like millions of people across the country, have relentlessly and emphatically argued that the authorities need to arrest the murderous drift in which the country has found itself in the last three years. The steady rise in crime, claiming such lives as those of lawmaker Ahsanullah Master and Ivy Rahman, along with those of scores of others, has battered the nation’s image not only abroad but in our own souls as well. Worse, the inability or reluctance of the government to go into any meaningful way of handling crime and deterring it has now clearly brought the country to a truly sorry pass. The failure of the authorities to zero in on those who targeted the British High Commissioner in Sylhet last year, to make any headway in solving the mystery behind the Ahsanullah Master assassination, to convince the country that the truth behind the 21 August grenade attack on an Awami League rally in Dhaka will be unearthed has now inevitably and unsurprisingly led to this fresh act of criminality, this time in Habiganj. So much crime, with so many deaths, would have led any other government to move heaven and earth in its effort to rehabilitate its badly tarnished reputation before world opinion. Most shamefully, none of these acts of crime, all of which have undermined national security and political stability, has been debated upon or allowed to be debated upon in Parliament. Those whose responsibility it should have been to initiate an open-ended, purposeful deliberation on such violence in the House cheerfully adopted a cavalier attitude, some of them even going to the outrageous extent of accusing the opposition of staging the grisly incidents on its own. That surely did not enhance the image of the government or the state.
   The death of Kibria is emblematic of a pattern of political violence which is swiftly draining the country of energy. It is now for the government, if it means to assert control over the country under the terms of the authority vested in it by the will of the nation at the last general elections, to move into dealing with crime. It will be futile looking for scapegoats or pointing to an organised conspiracy at home or abroad or both to explain away the shameful attacks which have caused so much of bloodletting in the country in recent times. Where the opposition Awami League is concerned, its decision to go for a three-day general strike or hartal may not be palatable to many. While one can argue that such hartals disrupt life in general, the bigger truth is that a point has been reached when the general masses are desperate more about a concentrated handling of crime, political and otherwise, by the government than a resorting to agitation by its adversaries. Let us face the harsh truth: we have hit rock bottom. It should now be for the government, gargantuan as it is in size, to convince the country that it can govern, that the country is safe in its hands. Its record has been terrible so far.

Resist these criminals

The directives of the minister of state for home about Bangla Bhai are predictably not being worked upon. We say predictably because of a couple of reasons. The first is that when earlier it was a prime ministerial order to nab the notorious man that failed to work, it makes little sense to suppose that a fresh initiative by a minister of state will work. And the second is that as long as Bangla Bhai and his murderous outfit are provided protection by the police and local politicians, there will be little way of netting them and bringing them to justice.
   The point, therefore, is that all the platitudes we have been forced to go through over the months and, most recently, in the last few days about locating and detaining Bangla Bhai will remain just that, platitudes. Are we then giving up? We are not, most assuredly. But when too often the authorities at both the political and administrative levels give us reason to think that they are incapable of or unwilling to crack down on criminals (the elements in the Jagrata Muslim Janata definitely fall within that category) for reasons not too hard to fathom, we somehow come round to accepting the status quo. And yet that cannot be a solution to our worries. The Habiganj killings have just proved that while the authorities may indulge in the luxury of failure, we as common citizens need desperately to locate the paths and alleys out of the bind we find ourselves in, for no fault of ours.
   We still hope Bangla Bhai will be tracked down one of these days. Additionally, we think it only proper to suggest that civil society and our simple citizens in Bagmara and elsewhere put up the kind of resistance with which they faced the JMJB last week. There is a point beyond which public fury obeys no civility. But we do not want that to happen, do we?

The shorashtro protimontri will have no business dealing with a Bangla bhai or an ingrej bhai. His job, he tells us all the time, is to nab criminals and make them pay for their oporadh. That is a fine sentiment and we understand that. But when the has failed so spectacularly in getting hold of the notorious Bangla Bhai in the nearly one year since the man began committing his murders in the north-eastern onchol of the country, we know that his words are without substance. He has asked the shangbadiks to give him news of the whereabouts of the man. Honestly, is that the dayitto of the media? If it is the shangbadik who must identify and locate places and people, then what are our poolish bhais, indeed the whole proshashon doing?
   There is a word called ‘eyewash’ in English. We used it in this newspaper a couple of days ago. Basically, everyone in the administration has been giving us much eyewash about Bangla Bhai. It is truly a lojjar bishoy that a whole shorkar has been unable to locate a criminal who has gone around defying the rashtro. Of course, as we know very well, many probhabshaali bektis linked to the shashok goshthi have been instrumental in protecting the notorious Islami biplobi. But when even the prodhan montri’s nirdesh for his arrest does not work, what can you say or do? Besides, why has the prime minister not seen any reason to ask her people why Bangla Bhai has so far eluded greptari despite her express directives? You can only sigh, and then venture the gobheer thought that it is all a sign of drift. When an administration drifts, it is a whole jaati which goes through some kotheen dush-shomoy. Chintagrosto thinks that that is what is going on around us now.
   But if you listen to the moha-porichalok of the external publicity wing, you will almost think that everything is all right with the maatribhumi. He has dismissed the recent article by a markeen mohila in the New York Times as something of no consequence. It is sad that some shangbadiks, once they join government for a nirdishto meyad, somehow adjust themselves to all the udbhot kotha-barta coming out of the shorkari mohol. Our DG-shangbadik has told us that in a land of chouddo koti people, a single man called Bangla Bhai cannot be a criterion of judgement on the condition of the country. Now, do you want to laugh or do you want to cry? In the itihash of the world, there have been the few kukkhato people who have ruined millions of lives. One Hitler was responsible for a whole lot of dhongsho-lila. In our own country, a single Yahya Khan and a single Bhutto Mia made life miserable for us. In 1953, in Lahore, Moulana Moududi caused a daanga against the Qadianis until Azam Khan brutally put him down. Will the moha-porichalok in future reflect on such lessons of history before approaching us with his mota-mot on the oporadhis his shorkar cannot or will not catch?
   The task before the government today is to find Bangla Bhai and put him on trial for murder. Along with him, every police officer and every politician who has helped him must stand trial for being an accessory to crime. There is still time for the shorkar to prove that it is a shorkar and that it is in control of the state. If it fails here, if the shorashtro protimontri and other montris go on waffling and dissembling, the jonogon will know what to do. Never underestimate the jonota. The gono-pituni they have given to three criminals of the Bangla Bhai gang is a sign that if the authorities fail to catch the big criminal, it will be the people who will do it and dispense their own justice. Where will that leave our maan-ijjot as a shadheen, law-abiding people?
   Oporadhi jonogon
   Now that the SAARC shirsho-shommelon is about to happen, we know for sure that the aam-jonota will lose all meaning as individuals. You can already see the signs of such a thing by observing the ga-jalano niyom-kanoon imposed around the antorjatik airport in the city. From Thursday, ZIA was put on many kinds of alert — yellow, orange, red and what not — in the interest of the nirapotta of the SAARC netas. Now, security for all those guruttopurno people is fine. But why must the shadharon people be punished for nothing? Or are they being punished because they are shadharon, common?
   You can imagine the plight of those who will be arriving at Dhaka biman bondor or departing from it between now and the end of the SAARC summit. They will see no attio-shojons to receive them or see them off. In any case, their poribars can only be on the moha-shorhok outside the airport. Even that is not assured, for our police-wallahs have a traditional way of pouncing on innocent people with their lathis and gala-gaal, something that will put off everyone. The difficulty with tritio bishwa countries is that anyone who is in uniform or occupies an amlatantrik position is close to being bhogobaan, which means you cannot argue with him. If you do, you should also be prepared to be humiliated in a variety of ways. So as things stand now, for the next many days, thousands of people in Dhaka will be in a moha-jhamela because of SAARC. That means that all the anondo and gorbo we thought we would have because of the shirsho-shommelon will become mlaan because of the oshubidha caused by the agomon of all those bideshi otithis.
   What can we do to deal with this problem? Nothing at all. We will just have to wait it out and, meanwhile, pray that those among us who need to go to the airport between now and till the last SAARC leader has gone home will be able to keep our ijjot and mejaj in one piece. Allah bhorosha. He is our maleek, our gafoorur rahim.
   Office kola-kuli
   There is still a lot of go-maangsho left to be consumed. This is something you can understand when you observe the nearly empty streets of this mohanogori. It has been a week since the qurbani Eid came and went and yet many of those who have gone to their graamer barhi have not returned. That is of course reason for happiness because the poth-ghaats of the city are clean and without chaos. But there is the negative side too, which is that it is an indication of how we take things for granted. Everyone, or almost everyone, wants to be on a long holiday. A holiday, as we know, is a most enjoyable part of life. But there is also such a thing as kortobbo-porayonota. Not many people, at least in the shorkari chakori mohol, seem to have this nishtha.
   Moving on to another holiday-related matter, do you not go through much birokti when on television and in the potrikas you see two kinds of post-Eid pictures? One shows an empty office in the shochibaloy. Another invariably is an image of two shorkari kormocharis doing kola-kuli, with their eyes focused on the camera. How much more of this old-fashioned nonsense can you take year after year? Another kind of irritation comes when the TV-wallahs take you on a tour of the city and ask everyone the plainly silly question of how they feel now that the streets are quieter and emptier. Almost everyone tells you that he or she wishes it were always like this. Do you see the sharthoporota in that statement? It is as if those who have left the shohor to be in their native towns and villages have no business being in the city. It is all a chhoto-moner porichoy.
   Bhadralok can be reached at editorial@newagebd.com

Alas! We have been made witness to another grenade attack and loss of life of Awami League (AL) leaders and workers. Former Finance Minister Shah AMS Kibria is dead today, a casualty of violence. No cry - no surprise please! Indeed many of those whose lives and ideas are at stake in Bangladesh are not surprised anymore. By now, they know better that there will be plenty of political statements, editorials in the newspapers condemning the attacks. And, also, there will be a few violent protests, a few countrywide strikes, mass arrests and then everything will get back to what the government will call a normal political order. Nothing has changed so far. Will it this time? With every word and sentence I am thinking of writing to express my shock about the death I feel deep frustration. I know that all I want to say either has already been said many times over or will be said or written again. However, have I said all I want to say? I wonder.
   I think that there is really something wrong going on with and in Bangladesh and, to be specific, in the way the government/ the ruling Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) is acting/thinking. If not, then why is the ruling BNP not getting to the point that enough is enough? We have already seen enough, and no doubt, there will be a repetition of the “Blame Game.” The victim, AL and it leaders, will be blamed again by the government, the state’s agencies, and the ruling coalition parties and their intellectuals in order to save the face of the government, or undermine the gravity of the situation and consequences which now have taken the life of SAMS Kibria. They will articulate points that the attack is indeed an AL conspiracy against the BNP-Jamaat coalition rule to destabilise the country. And, for that matter, to prevent Bangladesh hosting the oncoming SAARC summit in the country. Some of the pro-government
   intellectuals/activists might go so far as to suggest that the recent flurry of grenade attacks are rather a (“pro-Western-via- pro-Indian imperialist/expansionist”) conspiracy against (“Islamic-but-secular”)
   Bangladesh. This kind of ideological analysis is surely misleading but still serves very well the political interests of the ruling BNP or the coalition in order to rationalise the inaction or inability of the ruling circles to act against the “real culprits”, for now. Nevertheless, it will not and shall not serve the government, or for that matter the BNP, in the long run. (I really do not know). How many grenade attacks, deaths, losses of lives are enough for the BNP to realise the point that, maybe, there is the “Other” in/within the government or the state, controlling/ supporting the recent flurry of grenade attacks? If the BNP does not realise it soon, the attackers will become the evil-monsters who will not only eat up the AL and other pro-liberation parties but also take the BNP in its monster-belly for good to perish. It is now crystal clear to many, whom I know, that the recent grenade attacks on opposition political leaders and intellectuals is a political campaign and part of a systematic and ideological killing machine, if not a “war” against them.  I think it is the national responsibility and duty of the government as well as the BNP to act NOW or NEVER. A bold response to the death of SAMS Kibria is crucial for the national interest of the nation. 
   I think time is running out for all (parties/patriotic citizens in the country) to think more critically and, most importantly, to take bold action against the culprit. The resignation of the government does not solve the problem, but definitely brings about more chaos and conflict. However, the resignation of the home minister will be a good starter for a political dialogue between the AL and BNP. The resignation of the home minister will further prove or make the point that the BNP is politically willing to act in the greater national interest. Though it is very hard for the party not to take account of the emotion and sentiment of its activists, I hope that this time the AL will act more reasonably. Some would argue that the AL has already missed that kind of opportunity in refusing to cooperate with the BNP in the aftermath of the August 21 grenade attacks. Rather, I hope everyone understands that the AL was hit too hard to agree on any kind of negotiation or dialogue with the government at that time. For, not only did the government fail to protect the right of the Leader of the Opposition, but some of its members also blamed the victims themselves (e.g., AL). Though, given the intensity of that event, as it was “a” much shocking terrorist event in the country after the 1975 coup d’état, people had expected more responsible statements/action from the government.
   With deep respect to all the injured and dead in the recent grenade attacks, I would argue that the emotions and interests of AL leaders will be better served if the government takes action against terrorists, instead of coming forth with political sympathy, rhetoric, and condemnation. It is the national responsibility of the AL, too, to sit with the BNP, to do the minimum in the best interest of their leaders and supporters; if it does not get successful in forming a greater political alliance beyond the existing ideological and political divide in order to create a condition that will make terrorists think twice before they engage in criminality.  
   Finally, let me say a few words to the left political parties of the country, more specifically to the Communist Party of Bangladesh (CPB) and the Socialist Party of Bangladesh (BSD) because they have already frustrated the progressive political intellectuals and activists enough. One could argue hypothetically that the recent breaking off of the CPB from the opposition movement might have cost the AL the life of SAMS Kibria. If there had been a strong political movement, it could have saved lives, including that of Mr. SAMS Kibria, now just lost to terrorists’ grenade attacks.