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by Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury
December 28, 2009
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Another new year is just at the door step! The entire world is getting set to welcome 2010 with lots of hopes and aspirations. Of seeing happiness, peace and prosperity in the world we live.
Let us have a glimpse over the round up of 2009:
The most talked about incident in 2009 was the outbreak of Swine Flu in the world. This deadly disease crossed boundaries of almost all the countries and affected large number of people. Many were even killed by this disease. My profound sympathy to the family members of those died of this disease. On June 11, 2009 the outbreak of the H1N1 influenza strain, commonly referred to as "swine flu", was deemed a global pandemic, becoming the first condition since the Hong Kong flu of 1967–1968 to receive this designation.
2009 would be remembered as the year of suicide bombings in Pakistan as 80 terrorists blew themselves up - 20 in Peshawar alone - killing thousands of innocent people and maiming many more.
Also, over 2,227 civilians and around 1,004 security personnel were killed during terrorist attacks, including bombings and rocket attacks, throughout the country. The reported number of militants killed during the year was over 8,000.
Nobel Peace Prize given to American President Barack Hussain Obama turned into the best joke of 2009 as this man received the prize for accomplishing nothing but bull shitting his people and world with bunch of empty words and promises. Possibly Obama himself was even embarrassed when Nobel Committee declared his name as the recipient of this prestigious prize.
On January 20, 2009 Barack Obama was inaugurated as the 44th and first African American, President of the United States.
On April 18, 2009 Roxana Saberi, an Iranian-American journalist, was sentenced to eight years in prison for 'espionage' by an Iranian Mullah's court. She was released the following month, after an appeals court reduces and suspends her sentence.
On May 18, 2009, something good happened in South Asia as after more than a quarter-century of fighting, the Sri Lankan Civil War ended with the total military defeat of the LTTE.
The world lost celebrated pop star Michael Jackson in 2009. He was found dead in his house in United States, while rumors are continuing to roll centering the mystery behind the death of this pop super star. Michael Jackson died on June 25, 2009 an outpouring of worldwide grief. Online, reactions to the event cripple several major websites and services, as the abundance of people accessing the web addresses pushes internet traffic to potentially unprecedented and historic levels.
On September 27, 2009 Polish-French film director Roman Polanski was arrested in Switzerland on a United States arrest warrant.
On September 30, 2009 a 7.6-magnitude earthquake stroked off the coast of Sumatra, killing around 1,000 in Indonesia.
On December 21, 2009, American centenarian mentioned in Obama's election-night speech, Ann Nixon Cooper died at the age of 107. On this day, American Nobel Prize-winning biochemist Edwin G. Krebs died at the age of 91. Greek businessman, publisher and journalist Christos Lambrakis also died on the dame day of cardiac arrest at the age of 75.
On December 23, 2009, Russian novelist Grigory Baklanov died at the age of 86. On the same day American advocate for Soviet Jews, Micah H. Naftalin died at the age of 76.
In Bangladesh, a new government was installed under the leadership of Sheikh Hasina. Her party, Bangladesh Awami League snatched landslide victory during the general election in December 2008. Sheikh Hasina is the daughter of the founding father of Bangladesh. Her party though proclaims to believe in secularist politics, it is unfortunately observed during the entire year that persecutions of religious minorities are continuing in Bangladesh. On the other hand, law and order situation reached into the worst ever situation in the country. The country is rather engulfed into blanket of total lawlessness. Ruling party cadres are openly engaged in extortion in the entire country, where members of law enforcing agencies are hesitant in taking any action, as those people enjoy blessings from various influential figures in the government.
Bangladeshi workers mostly working in the Middle East and Malaysia were sent back in huge numbers as those countries have suddenly decided not to continue Bangladeshi workers. Although Bangladeshi continues to consider these countries [Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, UAE and Malaysia] as lands of 'Muslim brethren', those nations in return did not show minimum sympathy to Bangladesh.
For the whole 2009, Bangladesh experienced severe sufferings due to shortage of power supply. Most of the cities, towns and villages in Bangladesh were under 'load-shedding' for hours, thus seriously hampering industrial production as well as business and regular lives of the civilians. The government failed to address this issue for the entire year.
Bangladeshi parliament has turned meaningless as the main opposition party continues to boycott parliament sessions due to undemocratic attitude of the ruling party MPs as well the Speaker.
Rise of Islamist militancy group Hizbut Towhid [HuT] was very prominent during 2009. This group is continuing to distribute Jihadist books and pamphlets amongst the people giving provocation of killing Jews and Christians. Notorious kingpin of HuT, Bayejid Khan Panni wrote a book titled 'Dazzal' and published a DVD with the same title. In this book and DVD, Panni termed Jews and Christians as 'enemies of Islam'. He also termed women in politics as 'prostitutes'.
On December 27, 2009, a large number of HuT men were arrested at Noakhali district in Bangladesh with huge number of local-made weapons and Jihadist materials. Though it is already proved that Hizbut Towhid is actively involved in militant activities, the government is yet to arrest Bayejid Khan Panni or ban this notorious group, for reason unknown. It is learnt that, Hizbut Towhid has close connection with a number of influential ministers in the present government.
State machinery and several influential leaders of the present government are actively involved in suffocating voice of a local vernacular daily newspaper named Dainik Amar Desh. Series of defamation cases are being lodged against the acting editor of this newspaper and its journalists throughout the country as it carried a front page report on corruption allegation against the energy affairs advisor to the Prime Minister and PM's son. Amar Desh, quoting an official letter availed from state-owned Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation, said that, Prime Minister's son and her advisor received few million dollars from Chevron in awarding them a contract without tender.
Bangladeshi Awami League's general secretary and minister for local government affairs, Syed Ashraful Islam held a press conference on December 27, 2009 against Dainik Amar Desh and its acting editor Mahmudur Rahman.
Bangladesh Awami League claimed to be defender of human rights and freedom of expression. But, the latest scenario of naked attack on Amar Desh and its reporters are not showing any encouraging sign.
The Bangladeshi government also suddenly stopped the transmission of a private owned television channel named Jamuna TV for reason unknown. Members of law enforcing agencies crashed into the office and studios of the channel and ransacked those places thus virtually looting valuable equipment and instruments.
On February 22, 2009, office of Weekly Blitz [the newspaper edited and published by me], came under attack by thugs belonging to the ruling party. This has been the fourth attack on the only anti-Jihadist newspaper in Bangladesh since 2005. In December 2009, armed men intruded into my residence, while police did not take minimum initiatives either in investigating the matter or nabbing the culprits. Local police station refused to even lodge a formal complaint on this serious incident. And of course, this will be the seventh year of my sufferings since I was arrested on November 29, 2003 on my route to Israel for attending a peace conference. Bangladeshi authorities brought sedition, treason and blasphemy charges against me for condemning militant Islam and for advocating inter-faith understanding as well relations between Israel and Bangladesh.
Unfortunately, we have mostly bad news from Bangladesh and the world during the entire year of 2009. The world is experiencing a severe economic recession, which causes large number of employments in various sectors. Many consider this recession as result of poor governance. Such recession is no good news for any nation in the world.
But, certainly there is particular good news for Bangladesh, which happened during the last part of the year. This news made almost everyone happy. And, this was the final verdict into the brutal murder of August 15, 1975, when the founding father of the nation along with his family members were killed by some derailed members of Bangladesh Army during a coup. Now it is expectation of the nation to see final execution of this historic order.
The entire Bangladesh is totally indebted to Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. Without him, there would have been no Bangladesh. Without him, there would have been no real pride for the Bangladeshis.
Everyone is trying to at least expect of a better 2010. They are even hoping of seeing something good during the New Year. Hopefully, it will be true. But, it is important for leaders, who are ruling countries in the world to understand the priorities in addressing issues of public interest. Political rivalry should be minimized for the sake of national interest. We really aspire to see a prosperous, happy and militancy free 2010. We really want to see complete elimination of all Jihadist forces in the world, including Al Qaeda, Hamas, Hizbut Towhid and similar groups and fractions for the sake of global peace. We want to see dynamic diplomacy, which can only ensure better cooperation amongst nations. We want to see end of religious hatred. If we really can attain these minimal goals, we truly are going to enter the passage of peace and prosperity from the first day of 2010.
Warmest greetings of the New Year to everyone! Happy New Year !
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