Conspiracy against the CRP
Throwing Bangladesh’s Mother Teresa, Valerie Taylor, out of the organisation she herself built from a scratch is such a reprehensible deed that I feel ashamed to say I share even the same nationality with those four members of the trustee board – Shafi Sami, Leena Alam and company – who were responsible for this.
I would like to ask Shafi Sami, one of the famous advisers of the caretaker government who resigned due to the ‘pricking’ of their conscience, how it squares with his conscience to draw a salary of Tk 30.06 lakh from F-CRP while the real leader of CRP, Taylor, receives only Tk 7500 per month. How does it feel to demand more money from people who have already sold their lands to come for treatment while you revel in your ill-gotten (as reported in the press note of the Citizen’s Committee) salary? And how does it feel to get yourself appointed Managing Trustee and CEO of CRP, even though there is no provision in the Deed of Trust for the Rehabilitation of the Paralysed drawn up in 1984 for the appointment of a Trustee in a salaried position?
Valerie Taylor and CRP are synonymous. In fact, Valerie Taylor is synonymous to goodness. How many children have you pulled out of poverty and adopted Sami and Alam? We all know Taylor has done so. Have any of you given your life to building a welfare organisation like the CRP? If not, how can you throw out a lady who has come to a foreign land to do so?
Valerie Taylor, we don’t know each other personally, but please know my whole family supports your actions fully. On behalf of fellow not-greedy Bangladeshis, I apologise to you for this supreme injustice. Please don’t lose heart. This problem will be solved soon, inshallah.
Nabila Idris
Dhanmondi, Dhaka
* * *
The matter regarding the Centre for the Rehabilitation of the Paralysed is thoroughly infuriating. That such a service, provided free for poor people, could be turned into a fully commercial operation and thereby deprive thousands is outrageous. I wonder if there was such a pressure from the ‘friends of the CRP’ to make it a commercially viable operation.
It is a pity that the government does not have similar services or similar quality but at least at this organisation there would be some treatment for the paralysed and it was almost considered as another lease on life for many. But suddenly turning it into a commercial venture would simply strip the centre of its philosophy and turn it merely into another organisation where one has to buy treatment.
The state of health services in Bangladesh is pathetic as they are anyway. It is centres like the CRP that act very much as part of the social safety net that the government pays lip service to but never really intends to create with sincerity and commitment. Besides the CRP’s magic is not so much as a free service provider but it has more to do with the ideals of Valerie Taylor and the manner in which the organisation is run. It appears that a bunch of outsiders, led by a bureaucrat in particular, is trying its best to destroy the institution.
Shah Zaman
Dhaka
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Although individuals establish institutions, those institutions often surpass the individuals and take their own course as dictated by reality and changing times. The CRP is still the reflection of the very intent and ideals that Valerie Taylor espouses and engenders. It has been her relentless effort that has turned the centre into what it is today, a last resort for the hopeless and dejected.
But that some people would try and have her position declared void and conspire to throw her out is truly regrettable, especially when it concerns CM Shafi Sami, a former adviser of the previous caretaker government.
According to a report published in New Age on May 23, Shafi Sami said that Taylor herself had asked Shafi to join the centre. I cannot help but wonder if Taylor had also wanted him to usurp her position. Being a bureaucrat, it is probably beyond Shafi Sami that such a centre cannot be judged on the basis of its commercial merits only but must be judged in terms of its social benefits. The centre’s services must be judged by their potential to change lives and make them meaningful, which even Shafi Sami would agree had he had the misfortune of being one of the present candidates trying to get admitted there. On the other hand, the extent of social benefits derived out of the centre’s services are invaluable and thus cannot be rationalised in monetary terms because the return is infinite.
It seems Shafi Sami has also invented numerous problems at an organisation that appeared to have been running quite well without his involvement in the capacity of a consultant. Perhaps it would be better if Sami, and not Taylor, quit and let the others be.
Habibul Bashar
Banani, Dhaka
* * *
Sadly though, it seems that monetary irregularities of high magnitude run in Shafi Sami’s family. One of his brothers, Kais Sami, is already in custody for defalcation of hundred of crores of taka bank money — as was Kais’s elder brother, Tufail Sami, also an ex-banker. Some cases are still reported to be pending against Tufail Sami.
As for Shafi Sami, it is downright unethical as well as criminal of him to wear three hats at the same time in the same organisation for illegal financial benefits for himself. And the most shameful of all is for him and his partners to try to remove Valerie Taylor, the founder of CRP, to a mere advisory status. Sami, being an ex-high foreign service official, should realise what a bad name this has brought for the country in the international arena.
Ashley Cooper
New York, USA
* * *
I would be interested to know if CM Shafi Sami had declared the 22000 pounds he had received as payment as income in his income tax returns.
AA
On e-mail
* * *
How can a bureaucrat ever understand the needs of a social organisation? Such organisations can never look after the poor if run as an ‘institution’ or government offices. And so he throws out the only person who has set up the service and really knows the job. Can Sami do her job or even understand the plight of the poor? Never.
Shame on Shafi Sami for breaking the law of righteous behaviour and accepting secret fees from donors of such a huge amount. How much did he earn as a civil servant?
Imtiyaz Husain
Gulshan, Dhaka
Rights violated, but who cares?
Amnesty International annual report is a strong indictment of gross and unparalleled violations of human rights throughout the world. That is not as frightening as the facts around these happenings.
First, in an obscene twist of perversity, those who are loudest advocates of human rights, who never spare others, are also the worst violators; worse still, they have arrogated to themselves the right to dress down others while they divided the world into supporters and enemies in the ‘war on terror’, itself a pervert campaign that bred Guantamo Camp, Extraordinary Rendition, and CIA secret camps for despicable torture. This decision, pernicious itself, is fraught with endless war, the bitter harvest of which will be reaped by generations to come far beyond the times of its inventors.
As if by ‘collateral damage’ — a term equally obnoxious and perverse — there will be millions of innocent civilian victims — children and women in particular in the victim populations of the so-called ‘war on terror’ who will die of starvation, lack of drinking water, nutrition deficiency, and life threatening insecurity. For no fault of their own. The four million refugees of Iraq, the homeless Afghan refugees subjected to aerial banditry and killings are only two examples of which the world is obliged to remain mute witness.
We commend the Amnesty International for its courage and fortitude. Yet, we are distraught by the paucity of listeners, by the contempt with which its reports are treated by those who are culpable and collaborators. What more can be done not only to name and shame the offenders powerful and immune they might be.
Husain
Dhaka
Restriction on cable channels
The news that the government of Bangladesh has restricted the cable operators to downlink only a limited number of foreign channels ignoring many favourite and popular ones has taken us all by surprise. Whoever has advised the government for this restriction must be a person with limited knowledge of popular TV channels.
This is a case of a typical provincial outlook some people have even after 35 years of our independence. There are many foreigners in Bangladesh who were getting the benefit of watching TV channels of their home countries through the cable operators’ network. There are hundreds of foreigners in Bangladesh who are French, Italian, Germans, Chinese, Korean, Sri Lankans, Indians, Pakistanis working in different development agencies and industrial sectors and were happy to watch their home channels in Bangladesh.
Even sports channels like Ten Sports have been taken off. Another popular channel, Al Jazeera, has been taken off too. Are we going back to the era of disinformation? This is outrageous !
The authorities concerned should have taken advice of TV cable operators before going for such a drastic move. Moreover, technology is moving fast and you cannot stop people from watching what they want to watch.
Ziauddin Ahmed
Dhaka
* * *
The decision to suspend (I would like to think so) some cable channels is not very prudent. Some of them were quite popular such as Al-jazeera, CCTV, Travel & Leisure, PTV, NDTV, TV2 (French) and Deutsche Welle (DW). The banned news channels balanced the one-sided biased news dished out by the BBC and CNN that now have the monopoly to brainwash us. We hope that is not the purpose. Some channels like ‘S’ are downright vulgar but have been approved for viewing. The authorities should reconsider their decision.
M Choudhury
Dhaka
Political leaders in suffocation
Some of our leaders have lately begun to be feeling a kind of suffocation, politically. It seems their feelings have a unique nature. While most people now feel secure, some leaders feel insecure and tend to have a feeling of suffocation.
Last October, the politicians and their party workers fought pitched battles in the heart of the capital city and in many other places across the country. Over 50 people died from fierce fighting.
Those who engineered street fighting those days seemed to be gloating over their ability to prevail over all the others, including the government authority. It was then only the people who passed days and nights in suffocation, not knowing what was in store for them next moment.
Now when the setting is peaceful and the political process is getting into shape — people no more in constant fear, market places open every morning, no wage loss for the wage earners, students attending schools and exams as usual — some political leaders find the nation passing through ‘a period of suffocation’.
It is an irony that years of experience in politics hardly make our leaders understand people and their aspirations. Surely people are watching their leaders. They will select this time someone who will steer the nation efficiently and make family rule an event of the bygone days.
Moni Khan
On e-mail
* * *
Sheikh Hasina has said that the nation is suffocating because people are not being allowed to vote. An individual when asked to give his response to this statement of Hasina on a private TV channel expressed surprise and said that the country is now heaving a sigh of relief as the corrupt politicians are not around to mess up with people’s lives. Another individual said that the only people suffocating and anxious to have the elections as quickly as possible are the corrupt politicians because they cannot wait any more to capture the government and carry on plundering the country.
These two individuals could not have given a more accurate reaction on people’s behalf. The stories that have come to light in the past few months since the proclamation of emergency together with the mayhem that the two mainstream political parties and their allies indulged in the period when open politics was allowed have disgusted the people thoroughly against the current leadership in these parties. Without reform in these parties, no one in his or her right mind would ask for elections now to give the country back to Hasina or Khaleda to be prime minister again. Of the two ladies, Khaleda is now devastated and is not speaking to her ‘people’. Hasina, less devastated, is sparing no opportunity to speak.
Bangladeshis’ democratic spirit makes them uncomfortable with army rule. Hence the people are in a sense not comfortable that there is a military-backed government in the country. That notwithstanding, the people are feeling comfortable that they can carry on the daily chores of their life, where political parties in the name of establishing their rights are not being able to impose hartals, shamabesh or mahasamabesh to stop them from going about their daily lives, sending their children to their classes or burying their dead. Their property are not being plundered and looted by people instigated by the political parties to do so in the name of, yes ridiculously, establishing democracy!
The government should nevertheless come out with a clear roadmap about its objectives and spell these out unambiguously. People are still in no hurry to endorse Hasina but they would also not see this government to hang around too long. It should focus on electoral reforms and clean politics of corrupt elements. In that context, the CEC is doing a good job and his statements to the press gives us confidence that electoral reforms are going to come and the politicians will again not have the country at their heels to plunder and loot. His 18-month timetable is one with which the people would have no qualms as long as within this period, this government is able to put behind bars the big fish of corruption from the main political parties. To do their job, the government should close its net on corruption and make electoral reforms, and not politics, the main agenda of its governance. In that process, it is time now to give the economy back to the private sector because it is the economy that is suffocating under this emergency rule.
Shahjahan Ahmed
Dhanmondi, Dhaka
Farooq Sobhan takes Dr
Fakhruddin on a ride!
I was intrigued when this government
decided to send Farooq Sobhan as a special envoy to the United States for a number of reasons.
The letter of 15 US senators criticising the emergency would no doubt reflect adversely on the outcome of Sobhan’s efforts there although upon his return to Dhaka the former foreign secretary said in a press conference how successful his visit there was.
In defence of Sobhan though it must be said that the letter of the 15 senators should be taken with a grain of salt. In the US Congress, each congressman has an army of staffers
who have a lot of independence to take decisions sometimes without even informing their bosses.
In fact with an electronic pen, they even sign letters that go out in the name of their bosses where the recipients, unless he or she is aware of how the system there works, would believe that the letter has indeed been seen and signed by a congressman.
Coming back to Farooq Sobhan, he has a past history of floating with the wind. In 1995, the BNP government made him foreign secretary being assured that he was sympathetic to that party.
In 1996, he changed colours and joined the AL camp and in fact during the tumultuous Janatar Mancha days, delivered the foreign ministry to the Awami League camp. Therefore his credentials to represent this caretaker government should have been scrutinised carefully before he was chosen as the special envoy.
Insiders in the foreign ministry who know him well also know him as one who can turn and twist events and facts to his advantage and thereby give others who depend on him quite a ride. In fact, as special envoy he has done precisely this.
He has taken this government for a ride. Going by the list of people he met in the USA, it would be a misnomer to describe that he went there as a special envoy of the head of the caretaker government for the officials he met there were mid to junior level ones.
The government could have, instead, sent the messages it did through Farooq Sobhan by calling the US ambassador in Dhaka to the office of Dr Fakhruddin and giving her a paper highlighting the issues that it needed to be heard in relevant circles in Washington. By sending Sobhan, the government has achieved nothing while Farooq Sobhan enjoyed a free ride to and back from Washington travelling first class with relevant perks!
Rashed Ahmed
Gulahsan, Dhaka
Hidden wonders of Bangladesh
I was recently visiting Chittagong city and had a great surprise while I found myself with nothing to do for a week. Though I was not expecting much, still I thought that I would catch some touristy things in that region
Then I went to a place called Foy’s Lake and was pleasantly surprised to see such a wonder hidden away in Bangladesh. My eyes and those of my friends widened as soon as we walked in. The place is so beautiful and impressive, I felt as if I were abroad, if you’ll excuse me for saying so! Foy’s Lake had both natural beauty and something to do for tourists, which is a rarity in this country.
The quality of the rides and service were exemplary, and not just because I am the ‘white visitor’. They told me that a water park will be opening soon; I might catch that the next time I go there for work. I would like to thank the Foy’s Lake staff for their hospitality and will recommend this beautiful place to all my colleagues.
This is the kind of set-up that can make Bangladesh a tourist destination, along with some much needed world class hotels. What a shame that there was nothing to do in Cox’s Bazaar but stare at the sea! After Foy’s Lake I was really let down when I got there.
Jeff
USA
RAJUK and Rangs
I read in your paper about RAJUK ‘investigating’ Rangs Waterfront and other buildings. RAJUK is already aware about the illegal structures in the city and those built on dubious grounds; many of their employees benefited from approving these violations.
Can a reporter from New Age ask some simple questions to the RAJUK authorities — if the Rupayan’s Golden Age was approved for 6-stories and they built 8, then why haven’t the authorities knocked down the top two floors? They have knocked down even one step outside of the boundary from other people’s buildings, why then spare Rupayan and Rangs buildings?
Are some people above the law? If Asset Development’s corporate office doesn’t have commercial permission, why is it still operating commercially? Pink City’s basement is still a PQS supermarket even though it was originally approved as a car park. And what about Wonderland?
A new mobile phone centre has just opened a customer centre on Gulshan Avenue creating yet more traffic jam there in a place without commercial permission or parking. What is the point of getting commercial permission and paying so much money, when so many buildings are operating without it? This drive just doesn’t make any sense. Some are being severely punished over something petty while some with gross violations are being overlooked.
Even if these people are evicted from non-commercial buildings, there is nowhere for them to go as RAJUK is sitting on all the current proposals for constructing commercial buildings.
Ryaan
Gulshan, Dhaka
* * *
Why is the government dilly-dallying on the demolition of the illegal Rangs Bhaban? Are they intimidated? The owners have ensured that it is so big and imposing that the authorities are thinking twice about knocking it down. If it had been two- storeys or a shanty, it would have been long gone. It is sending a clear message that if you are going to construct an illegal building, make sure it is HUGE!
Tenants and buyers don’t always check that a building has been constructed in full compliance with RAJUK rules, regulations and designs; they rely on law enforcers to check these things. Because of the current drive of the RAJUK, the buyers of properties are quite confused about the bona fides of the various real estate companies.
Rangs had also grabbed land in Gulshan that was recovered. So it looks like they will not stop unless punished. What punishment are they to receive? What incentive is there not to grab land in the future?
I find it very strange to read in your report that Rupayan’s Golden Age has 8 floors though the permission is only for 6 floors. Yet nothing has been done.
Other developers have had a tiny flower bed destroyed with a lot of clamour. Do Rupayan, Rangs and their like still have some friends in RAJUK? The joint forces need to look into this inconsistency.
H Sarkar
Dhaka
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