Addafication

Via Matthew Yglesias, pure genius:

Finally! Third week of December.

And with it a guarantee of an interesting next few months.

Two questions/thoughts that are foremost in my mind:

1. What are they going to do about the two netris?

2. How are they going to protect themselves so that the long knives are not out for them as soon as they give up power? The credibility of the protection they create over the next few months will be directly proportional to the credibility of the election process.

OK, my blogging juices are flowing again.

This, from the Daily Star today caught my eye:

Polls by Dec, president tells Prince Richard

I am all for people being able to call for the return of democracy in Bangladesh. Foreign governments and government officials, even. Even the Queen of England, as the official head of the British government. But what standing does Prince Richard, or Duke of Gloucester Richard Alexander Walter George, have for calling for the return of democracy in Bangladesh while visiting Dhaka? I think the appropriate response to the Duke of Gloucester saying anything about anything is “How about we talk about this, you twit, after you’ve turned in your royal title which you didn’t earn, and your emoluments and wealth, which you also didn’t earn, and you’ve earned an honest day’s living?” Seriously.

I could do with a “disaster” or two in my life too of this sort. Full story here.

The increased media interest in her has meant that writing a full novel was next to impossible, she told Radio 4’s Front Row.

Lessing, 88, also said she would probably now be giving up writing novels altogether.

Her latest book is the partly fictional memoir entitled Alfred and Emily.

Since her Nobel win she has been constantly in demand, she said.

“All I do is give interviews and spend time being photographed.”

Ms. Lessing - it’s called a press agent.

As my brother says, in not so many words, when I complain about the many distractions of coming to see him, “Stop bitching, shut yourself up in the room, and just write. It’s not my fault you have the attention span of a three year old.” He’s a little bit more eloquent, but this is a family-friendly blog.

The paper I’m currently writing (about contract law and Islamic finance, if you are interested…) will be a fine work of fiction.

I would like to note that Sajid Huq is no longer affiliated with Addafication.com, and has not been since September. His posts will, as soon as possible, be removed from this site.

It’s end of semester crunch time right now so I’ll be off for the next two weeks bar dramatic events. Just wanted to draw attention to the same-old-same-old strategy of EC. Without mainstream BNP participation elections in Bangladesh cannot be credible (same goes for AL), but this EC seems to be bent on engineering an impasse (not hard to do with our crop of politicians). Politicians and people of Bangladesh beware, an impasse will not help you in any way. There is a dire need for unity among political parties. AL and BNP need to focus on the fact that the EC is not a good-faith entity. The EC has been making fairly transparent attempts to foment intra and interparty discord, even violence, so that democracy is discredited once again and the status quo can continue. The EC will only ratchet up these efforts in the coming months. It is imperative that petty differences are put aside in the interest of a transition to democratic government. The parties should fully prepare to engage in elections without Khaleda and Hasina. That will definitely put a damper on this government’s plans.

See New Age’s spot-on editorial pasted below:

EC seems intent on delivering an impasse

The Election Commission�s ill-advised decision to invite the splinter faction of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party for talks on electoral reforms has expectedly prompted a strong backlash from the mainstream of the party. On Wednesday, BNP secretary general, Khandaker Delwar Hossain, demanded the resignation of the chief election commissioner, ATM Shamsul Huda, and his fellow commissioners for acting �beyond their constitutional jurisdiction� and has said that the BNP will not participate in parliamentary elections conducted by this commission. �Free and fair elections will not be possible under this Election Commission. It must go�,� Delwar stated while speaking to journalists.
We have on several occasions in the past warned the Election Commission that its seeming complicity in the military-controlled interim government�s perceived political agenda was not only eroding its credibility among the people but would also make its primary responsibility of holding participatory and credible general elections impossible. Unfortunately, not only did our warnings fall on deaf ears, it now appears as though our worst fears have come true � just like the commission led by Justice MA Aziz that preceded it, the current Election Commission is fast making its position entirely untenable.
The re-constituted Election Commission under Shamsul Huda has done little right in the last fourteen months of its existence. While it was not responsible for defaulting on the commission�s constitutional responsibility of holding general elections within 90 days of the dissolution of parliament, the expectation was that it would work overtime to hold parliamentary elections as expeditiously as possible and facilitate the return of power to a democratically elected government. Instead, the Election Commission, in our view, has done everything in its powers to delay elections in order to give the current regime as much time as possible to carry on with its perceived attempts at political engineering.
Moreover, it has increasingly appeared as if the commission has been directly aiding the regime with its perceived political agenda, becoming directly involved in the controversies surrounding the break-up of the BNP into two distinct factions. Having first overtly favoured the splinter faction over the mainstream faction, the commission then unashamedly urged the different factions of the BNP to unite when the High Court put a spanner in its works, as if the break-up or unification of political parties is any business at all of an Election Commission. Now, having had its obstacles removed by the Appellate Division, the commission is once again overtly doing the current regime�s bidding by trying to legitimise the splinter faction on the one hand and isolate the mainstream on the other.
Khandaker Delwar�s contention that his party will not contest national elections under the current Election Commission could well be an early indication of the political climate moving in the direction of an impasse, much like it had when the Awami League had refused to contest polls under the stewardship of the MA Aziz-led commission. In fact, the need to deliver the nation from that stalemate is what supporters of the current unelected regime point to repeatedly to justify the apparent necessity of its irregular nature and undemocratic interventions. It seems more and more likely now that the self-serving attempts at political engineering by the government and its military masters coupled with the Election Commission�s impotent acquiescence are conspiring to serve up exactly what they were ostensibly supposed to rescue the nation from: an impasse.

There’s an article in last week’s New Yorker about the West Bengal part of the Sunderbans. Note the the dire threat rising sea levels poses to the survival of the mangrove forests in Bangladesh and West Bengal.

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/04/21/080421fa_fact_alexander