A week after inviting the government's ire, The Economist has now come up with two more articles on Bangladesh.
This time, however, there is no mention of 'bags of Indian cash and advice' in either article, appearing in the London-based magazine's August 13 edition and also uploaded on its web site on Friday.
Banyan, a regular column on Asia, focuses on Bangladesh's politics this week with the heading 'In the name of the father: An obsession with Bangladesh's past may explain its prime minister's growing intolerance'.
The other report, under the head 'The poisonous politics of Bangladesh' indicates from the outset that it is not going to be laudatory.
The Banyan starts with commending the country's state of economy. 'The economy, with annual output of around $100 billion, grows by nearly 7 per cent a year and is fuelled by the world's third-largest clothes-export industry. Aid money gushes in, and good things are done against poverty.'
This stability in economy, the write-up points out, is hardly reflected in the state of the country's politics with new corruption cases filed against opposition chief Khaleda Zia, arrest warrants against her elder son Tarique Rahman and indictment of the other son Arafat Rahman.
On the other hand, the courts in the country have quashed corruption cases against Awami League figures, the first article says.
The relationship between Hasina and Khaleda is termed one of 'legendary mutual animosity'.
With a general election in a few years, the article says that Sheikh Hasina could have tried to embed democracy to become the first person to be re-elected to the office of Bangladesh's prime minister.
'Sadly, judging by her recent behaviour, she seems to seek instead to crush the opposition and provoke an election boycott, silencing pesky critics as she goes.'
Referring to rumours, The Economist article says Nobel Peace laureate Muhammad Yunus was 'resented for his high international profile, which threatened to eclipse the sacred memory of Sheikh Hasina's father, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, who led Bangladesh to independence'.
According to the article, Yunus's other sins included his accepting the Nobel peace prize that 'Sheikh Hasina felt should have been hers, failing to commiserate after an assassination attempt on her in 2004, and being ungrateful for the help she gave Grameen'.
Mentioning a new constitutional requirement declaring Sheikh Mujib the Father of the Nation and ordering all offices in the country to display his portrait, the UK-based magazine says, 'Hasina wants her father to be revered'.
It questions the Awami League government's move to try war crime suspects, saying that the government has made a 'mess' of it.
'Even sympathetic outsiders say it has bungled forthcoming war crimes trials of seven men over their alleged role in the war and massacres of 1971,' the article reads.
The magazine also criticises the recent amendment process. 'Most troubling is the hasty rewriting of the constitution on June 30, especially the scrapping of a provision for caretaker administrations to run elections.'
The Supreme Court in a verdict on May 10 suggested keeping the provision for two more elections, to avoid provoking social strife.
'Sheikh Hasina herself had insisted on the arrangement when in opposition. In office, she heedlessly went ahead and junked it. That bodes ill for fair and peaceful polls in 2013.
'Nor do Orwellian touches inspire confidence. The constitution, or at least most of it, shall not be amended in future. Anyone who dares criticise it may be prosecuted for sedition. Mrs Zia has already been warned for having complained about it. Merely to back such a complaint is now illegal. Thought-crime may be next.'
The article says Sheikh Hasina's dream for Bangladesh 'differs profoundly from that cherished by her countrymen'.
'She hopes to emulate not Indonesia or India today, but the country imagined by her father before his murder in 1975.'
Though it fails to fulfil a promise to restore his founding constitution's commitment to 'secularism', the new version is mostly loyal to his vision, complete with dated pledges to socialism, The Economist says.
'By attacking opponents, his daughter settles scores with those who opposed Sheikh Mujib. And, as Orwell knew: who controls the present controls the past. And who controls the past controls the future,' the web site reads.
Source : New Age
