Dr Kamal Hossain’s latest remark that ‘those who want release of (alleged) criminals are their associates’ is obviously true. But the word ‘alleged’, although not explicitly mentioned by him must surely be implied by an eminent jurist like him, because the criminality of detained leaders is not yet determined by any court of law. There is no fault or blame or shame in being associated with an ‘alleged criminal’. These only arise or should arise if the person is a ‘convicted criminal’.
   So what am I, a neutral layman, to make of this uproar from the public for freeing the leaders? Obviously, it appears to be a cry to free them on bail pending the court cases, which however is not permitted under the Emergency Power Rules. And justly so because an influential person with many blind followers can cause much intimidation of witnesses and tamper with the evidence when freed on bail.
   In this connection, the recent decision of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court to allow the appeal of the government against the HC verdict accords with common sense.
   So if the leaders are innocent they should patiently wait for the court proceedings, as life for them is made as comfortable as possible in make-shift jails away from common prisons and prisoners, and their followers and well-wishers must only move for quick trials.
   Engineer Shafi Ahmed
   London, UK

We screamed to high heavens about rabid discrimination in South Africa during the apartheid. Some of the self-proclaimed intellectuals still scream about the same in Europe and America. Yet we remain silent about one place close to us where discrimination against people of darker skin is so prevalent that it is the accepted norm even in the year 2008.
   This is a place where entire housing tracts are openly declared non-limits to Asians and Africans and no laws exist to prohibit this. Hotels and clubs openly display signs: ‘Europeans and Americans allowed free. Others pay.’ Employers proudly display two pay-scales –– one for whites and the other for non-whites, even if the white and non-white employees have identical education and experience.
   The picture I paint is not from any European or North American land; it would be grounds for severe penalties and possible jail time if such inhumane practices were openly engaged in by employers and businesses in the Western world. No, dear readers, such a state of blatant prejudice is not tolerated in the West. But it is engaged in with gusto and encouraged by the government in Dubai.
   So where is the outrage of the government, the media and the intellectuals? Ah, but then our moral outrage is reserved only for the white man, not for the Arab who sweet talks brotherly nonsense along with his petro-dollars.
   Pity.
   BT
   USA

I am not sure what makes Richard Murphy think I have spent sleepless night over his letter. I just spent 10 minutes reading his letter (in fact it was Mahmood Elahi’s letter that I read) that includes time for composing and sending my response. On a serious note, I was delighted to watch on BBC’s Hard Talk Singapore’s former ambassador to the UN Kishore Mahbubani dismantle with reason and logic the distorted and patronising views of a lot of people like Murphy about the developing world.
   The so-called strength of Western democracy has been fully exposed in the aftermath of 9/11 when the work of only a few Islamic extremists was enough to provoke the USA to violate human rights to the extent that would shame the likes of Idi Amin and past dictators who are still projected to justify the so-called superiority of Western civilisation. Without any proof of guilt and now proven beyond any doubt on pretexts that are lies and deceits, the West, led by the USA and followed by Great Britain, went to war in Afghanistan and Iraq where now more than hundreds of thousands of innocent Afghans and Iraqis have been massacred as a result of that war. Yet the West, shameless as shamelessness can be, has not had the courage to admit their guilt. They have manifested a mentality and mindset that would shame some of the worst among the dictators of the past. While not holding any brief for these dictators who have since been buried in the graveyard of history by their own people, going by the response of the US and its allies after 9/11, I have no doubt that these Western leaders, the so-called champions of democracy, would have outwitted and outshone the likes of Idi Amin, Papa Doc and the rest if they were given a situation to face as these dictators were when they ruled their countries. Just spare a moment and think seriously that on 9/11, a total of just over 3,000 people were killed. The perpetrators of those criminal events were a group of 20 people who happened to be Muslims, of whom the largest numbers were from Saudi Arabia, the USA’s staunchest ally in the Middle East. The US and Great Britain and their allies’ response was to hold the entire Muslims of the world guilty (Bush was the one who inadvertently let the cat out of the bag by his reference to the need for a new ‘crusade’ at a time when he did not know much except perhaps Al-Qaeda was involved) and then invade Afghanistan and later Iraq under the umbrella of might is right or the theory of so-called pre-emptive strike and then massacre those innocent hundreds of thousands of innocent people. It is just not that they killed these large numbers of innocent people; the extent to which they fell with human rights violations in Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay stands out ahead of such violations in Third World countries where interestingly such violations are on dramatic decline.
   The Singapore diplomat was superb in the way he dismantled the West’s pompousness and patronisation. He said that it took the US almost 200 years after the Declaration of Independence in 1776 to achieve the democratic principles of the Founding Fathers. Yet the same people are restless with China and not willing to give it even a small part of that time. About Great Britain’s march to democracy, the less said the better where blood and sweat of its colonies paved the way for the economic foundation upon which British democracy has been built. I felt sorry for Stephen Succur who interviewed Kishore for the Hard Talk for he is usually accustomed to pushing the guests against the wall instead of being the one in need of succour for the grilling he was handed for trying to manifest Western pompousness on a guy who knows well that the West is on the decline and the East, particularly Asia, is well poised to ascend to the top.
   What amazes me is that the people in the West, like the ostrich, is still living in a fool’s paradise about its democratic principles. It is time for them to wake up for the foundations of a new and better type of democracy is being laid in, call it the East, the Orient or Asia as you like, that the Western civilisation would be one day called upon to follow. The neocons of the USA, Blair and his likes in Europe and detestable human rights violations in the name of pre-emptive strike are signs as big as the biggest billboards that the West should see and give up their pompousness and join hands as equal partners with the marching East and build for posterity a better world. It is time for the West to give up saying ‘oh dear!’ and perhaps say ‘thank you’ for opening their eyes to the emerging realities.
   Shahjahan Ahmed
   Dhanmondi, Dhaka

The communication adviser has reportedly denied of knowing anything about the comment of the new American ambassador that a free, fair and credible election is almost impossible amid emergency and termed it as his personal opinion. When the journalists pointed out that election under emergency rule will not be credible and accepted by the common people the adviser reportedly said the government has nothing to do if the general people do not accept the national election amid emergency. He also evaded answers to all the questions regarding dialogue with the political parties.
   Holding a free, fair and credible election within 90 days was supposed to be the only responsibility of a caretaker government according to the constitution. Now we hear that the government has nothing to do if the common people do not accept it!
   Saif
   Dhak