Isn't it time we talked about Tareque?

Last week we marked International Vote Churi Day. The first anniversary of the most ridiculously rigged election in Bangladesh to date.

Opposition groups remain unable to make a dent in the power of the one party state, while the multitudes of oppressed Rohingya, Bengal Muslims in Assam wider India not to mention Uighurs China languish without security, dignity and opportunity.

It's shit being in a politically poor position however there is no need to be an absolutely useless, no negatively useful sack of shit in such circumstances.

Which is why I wonder why Tarique Rahman, the son of Ex PM of Bangladesh, resident of the UK, and the movement he represents the dregs of remains unchallenged in diaspora.

Britain's Political Rose Garden

There is a movement in the UK thats gaining new expression, confidence and capability. I have not seen anything like it in my life and am amazed at how far we are now, towards a transatlantically synergising post-neoliberal ecosocialist conjunction

 With the UK's 2019 General Election due in a few weeks, the Labour Party's Manifesto reads like a horizontal supplication of political love. Activists have literally been crying over it with joy and hope. [link to pdf] In some ways it reminds my of the currentWestern Catholic Pope's  Care for Our Common Home.

It is a well organised, ecological and thematic proposal for a a future of practical hope and transformation.  I love the proposals for the energy sector and the commitment to massive social eco home building and retrofits. Plenty to be getting along with. Imagine, wind power towns on the coast like Barrow and Lowestoft becoming desirable places for commutants to flock towards for better quality of life?

I love the British Colonial Legacy Audit, and I think we should develop resources around the Bengal famine to connect with it and our futures.

Overall its a great document to campaign with, with multiple points of entry. Like the plan to protect people from exploitative freeholders and landlords, the National Education Service and a deep, grounded commitment to Mother Earth.

On the ground,  I think that we are beginning to see the emergence of a Parliament with fewer rubbish Labour MPs and more talented ones. There are still too many hard to reach racist people who read the Daily Mail for me to be jubilant at this stage, and 4 years of media brainwashing have taken their toll on the public. However I do still have moments of pure excitement and giddyess, so I'm pinching myself with 'epistemically challenged' opinion polls. [ Epistepollogy ]

Allahumma keep the campaigners energised, well distributed, persuasive and fragrant, through time that we may grow wiser and stronger, whatever Your weather. Help us cultivate a beautiful Political Rose Garden to remember and serve you by.

[New Word] Panoramal

An alternative reality set by a BBC Documentary. To be read as political fairytale more than a truthful and enlightening account of a given situation.

Erroneous Eid Mubarak to you

The appeal for unity around a crap Eid decision,
Is a secular depoliticisation and capitulation.
To petro death capital and the conservative institutional desire loop,
To replicate all carry through errors to ...Jahannam?

No Saudi based authority ordered you to jump upon their Eid bed with the cultural dexterity of a trampolining janissary in full armour, and ravage your country.

You beloved zombie muppets.

Tasbih Assemble

There is no Instagram feed
Worthy of worship, sharing or liking
But Allah.
And
Facebook
is
not His
messenger.

We are woven together,
In ways that continue to transpire

Through cyclones and earthquakes of time
Laser beads of prayer,
A golden necklace around the world
Ziyarat untill Qiyamat.
A womb with a view.

Oh you in unmarked graves,
despairing feudal, national, capitalist slaves,
May He fortify and inspire you
To upend the situation that mires you.

And you, walnut whip in your hand,
Making things worse,
Are a boil on the bum on a missionary.
In the passport queue for Neoliberalistan.

[New word] Brexilience

Probably useful to be thinking in terms of the household or company scale, impacts and options of forthcoming change.

Let them lose their shit, just make preparations, it will be white supremacy shaytanic capitalism of a slightly different configuration, as usual anyway

[New Word] Duaspora

The creatures featured therin.

[New Word] Nirmulosterone

Did you have fun rigging your latest election tasmaha? Fancy an(other) ultranationalist high? Why not chase the green serpent with a vial of Nirmulosterone.

Destroys political pasts, presents and futures.

Credits to Jahanara Imam, Shahriar Kabir, Gita Chagol and David Bergman.

Bangladesh and the 96% Result

If an illegal government holds another rigged election to rechristen itself, does it cancel the previous rigged election out or does it just mean that the thugs and opportunists are going to leave more of us in shallow graves, destitution and traffic jams?

Three overempowered Bangladeshi females posed for the press flashing V signs and looking terribly pleased with themselves. A fourth was missing because she was too busy breastfeeding in the mother of all parliaments.

The history of rigging in Bangladesh is long and illustrious. It's playing fields and training camps are swampy, prone to erosion and 'aid' flood contamination. Civil servants spend their nights stamping vote sheets before the vote. Gundas ( thugs) are expected to put the fear of death and family destruction into their victims.

But 96% of seats takes the patishapta pittha, the coconut water and the jhaal muri.

Bangladesh "Election" 2018 Resource Page

In a few days on the 30th December, Bangladeshis will try and vote in a General Election. Just like in 2014 the government is rigging the contest in many ways, but unlike 2014 some influential internal and external enablers, who helped to create this murderous ultranationalist monster, photographed and curated its dehumanisation, seem to have changed tack and now oppose it publicly.

Maybe there is a bit of love in the air, I certainly get that sense from the BNP head Mirza Fakhrudin Islam Alamgir's trembling outreach video below. But more likely, we are just tired, desperate and need to work across circles of pain, privilege, stupidity and difference - or our people will be doomed to eat each other up and/or run away as things get swampier and saltier and Bracottabad, Climantanomo and Santa's Lapland become our three main endpoints.

Full text of the BNP's Vision 2030 can be found on the cached site, as the Government seem to have taken it down, the BNP are digitally challenged and obviously very battered by 10 years of full throttled repression. Its been a while since I have heard anything thats policy orientated and not "ouch" or " My father.." from them.

• Buckets of inevitable international governese, developmentia and preventitude notwithstanding, I like the socioecological landscape architects of our future vibe of paras 187-199 but wince at the Chairman Rao-ness of "National Water Grid". 
• Allah has 97 other exclusive names which are worth connecting with, but can we be enveloped with Rahman and Rahim before we make efforts to establish it between us? not just on our official documentation.
• Climate Change gets a lot of mentions, coloniality - directly - none.  typical.
• Nice move to reclaim the rainbow whoever that was.
• It is a relief to see political demands/programmes that don't involve a hangman's noose.
• National Health Service?
• Quota System Reform
• Moral Rearmament!
• Vintage Ziaurahman Inclusivity-speak.
• Social Safety Network sounds like someone doesn't want to say welfare state
• Expatriotism

The BNP are the largest opposition party in the National Unity Front, which is fronted by the internationally respectable Kamal Hossain, whose symbolic capital is what the BNP have really lacked for so long. This alliance converges around the demands and goals pasted below which reads better to the international audience. Give-us-a-bloody-free-election-get-your-boots-off-our-throats is the main theme ,with good governance and national speak following closely. Not sure how foreign observers help (except as voluntary human shields for voters and activists under fire) because they have historically been bloody clueless and easy to mislead.

Seven demands: 1.    To ensure a fair election, a non-partisan government must be formed through discussion with all political parties, after the resignation of the incumbent government and dissolution of the parliament. Release of political prisoners, including of Khaleda Zia must be ensured, and false cases filed against opposition activists must be withdrawn 2.    Election Commission must be formed with qualified personnel, and electronic voting machines (EVMs) must not be used in the next election 3.    Level playing field during election time must be ensured 4.    False cases field against students and journalists must be withdrawn, and laws such as Digital Security Act must be scrapped 5.    Army Personnel, with magistracy powers must be deployed ten days before the next general election 6.    Foreign and domestic observers must be present during election time, and media professionals must be allowed to perform their duties without any restrictions 7.     Trial of all ongoing cases filed against political personalities must be postponed from the announcement of the polls schedule, till the declaration of the election results. New cases must not be filed against those political personalities during this time

11 goals: 1.    Establishing good governance by bringing balance of power in parliament, government, president and prime minister with an aim to build a Bangladesh with the spirit of Liberation War to end the authoritarian regime, and decentralizing the administration 2.    Amending the constitution, including Article 70, and forming a constitutional commission to appoint impartial and honest officials to the important positions in constitutional bodies 3.    Ensuring freedom and power of the judiciary 4.    Ensuring necessary initiative for modernizing the Anti-Corruption Commission and bringing the corrupts to book 5.    Ensuring an investment-friendly environment, creating jobs and establishing merit as the only baseline for recruitment in government jobs 6.    Ensuring security of the people, their property and fundamental rights and women empowerment 7.     Implement infrastructural reform for freeing the public administration, police and local government from corruption and grouping 8.    Establishing discipline in the financial institutions, including Bangladesh Bank, and ensuring financial growth focused on proper use of national resources, fair distribution and public welfare 9.    Building a national consensus against militancy, terrorism and communalism, and establishing positive, creative and balanced political environment by ending politics of vengeance and negativity 10.    Adopting a “friendship with all, enmity with none” foreign policy 11.    Ensuring advance training, modern technology and equipment for the armed forces to strengthen and modernize them

Decolonial duas for courage, wisdom, safety and justice.

[Will update this page periodically]

Interview with BNP's Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir

Articles beating the Awami League's drum

Obligatory War on Terror Rentier Advert in New York Times, from Dhaka Tribunista. K. Anis Ahmed whose brother is an Awami League MP and who as a Gencom director,  is a direct beneficiary of the government's power sector policies.

Hasina, you are too kind to your opponents rant from Mad Dog Abdul Ghaffar Choudhury.

False and Tricksey poke at the US interference from exBBC and widely believed RAW asset Soubir Bhoumik


Decent, informative blogs.

Mukti Blog

Bangladesh Politico Blog