Shamim Ahmed
The price of potatoes will be One thousand taka in the future, but Awami League will not come to power immediately. Do you know why it won’t be? Because no one has constructive thoughts. Known faces, platforms, intellectuals of Awami League, many of them have been communicating, talking and expressing their interest to work together in different ways in the last 3 months. Asked them, what do you want to say?
Everyone has different want. But almost everyone wants Sheikh Hasina to be the prime minister again. I said, brother, if you leave aside the failure to stop the shootings, killings and conspiracies in the student movement, think about her age. How much more? Then he said, she was in power for so many years, she allowed someone else to rise? She didn’t allow! Everyone around her is incompetent. Putul (daughter of Sheikh Hasina) only has the competence probably. But no one talks about her. Everyone wants to return Sheikh Hasina and Joy. Even for age, it is necessary to be kind!
But no one said anything constructive. No one said – let’s write together, talk about why constitutional reform should not be done by an American journalist. Discuss why the Constitution of 1972 is the best.
No one said to make a draft of what changes need to be made in the constitution of the party in the next 20 years. Let’s create a communication strategy to convey the importance of the party to the billions of students who lost support from July 15 to August 5.
No one said, let’s prepare a ‘position paper’ to stop the rise of radical religious forces, erosion of women’s rights, economic disaster.
No one said that thousands of police and Awami League supporters were beaten to death, the interim government gave it ‘impunity’, it violated some clauses of international law and the constitution, let me prepare a research paper on that.
No one said that Awami League will take any initiative in honor of the students who were killed between July 15 and August 5.
No one said that millions of students of the country are not being allowed to take exams in schools-college-universities only because they are the supporters of the liberation war, let’s protest it!
There are not enough doctors in a country of 20 crore people, while more than hundreds of doctors have been expelled without being allowed to take their final year exams just for the crime(!) of supporting Awami League – Let’s go, make a documentary on this in English.
Some of them have said, brother, come, let’s work for our own conscience. I said, brother, my conscience is as crystal as surf excel. I protested the terrible massacre of July 15 to August 5, and after August 5, when most of the privileged intellectuals of Awami League kept their profiles closed, I also protested the nationwide massacre of August 7, 2024, and I am still doing the same.
Everyone just wants to work on the failure of the interim government. Tell them to bring back Sheikh Hasina and Joy and hand over the power. Reminding that the price of potatoes is 400 Taka, asked them to write about how good it was before. Hey brother, there are many people writing about the interim government, they will write. Hence, this government is already dead. Then BNP will come, Jamaat will come, but if they (Awami leaguers) do not work on themselves, the fate of Awami League will not change! No one came to talk about it. Have you forgotten that if Awami League does not say, no one else talks about the poor marginalized people of the country?
In whose hands your country is, do those advisers represent a single marginalized people of Bangladesh? All represent the buttered society of Gulshan-Banani-Dhanmondi. One day you will find them taking a selfie sitting at Chachi’s tea in Toronto-Sydney-New York-Brick Lane, without even realizing it. On the other hand, you will be in the dark, bitten by mosquitoes and think that a kilo of potato is 1000 taka; The stuff was good – all the curry was served!
My grief is in front of my eyes, all the progressive intellectuals-artists-literary-social activists of the country have been swept away in the last 16 years and the party has been drowned by some flatterers! They used to say to the Prime Minister in the press conference “You are like our mother!” Hey brother, I have not seen in any country in the world the main journalists of the TV channel call the Prime Minister mother and salute! No one said no, let’s gather these lost progressive intellectuals-artists-literary-social workers under the flag of liberation war in the next 5 years!
Brother, potatoes are potatoes! The country will be destroyed before the eyes; Just look at it in ten years. National Anthem, Constitution, Independence and Victory Day, Liberation War and Freedom Fighters, Dhanmondi 32, Architect of the Nation Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Non-communalism – the main pride, pride and foundation of the country are being destroyed. Religious fundamentalists are spreading red light from the pinnacle of power to remote areas. And you are with Sheikh Hasina-Joy and the price of potatoes?
Shamim Ahmed, Bangladesh Awami League